Gig review: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Edinburgh Castle

By FIONA SHEPHERD
Published on 19/07/2012 00:00

POST-OASIS, it appears that older brother knows best. Noel Gallagher’s superior songwriting chops, coupled with his safe but ultimately sensible decision to dust his live shows with a selection of guaranteed Oasis crowd-pleasers, has given him the popular advantage over Our Kid. And so it is that Noel rather than Liam is facing a damp but spirited crowd on Edinburgh Castle Esplanade.

Not that we should expect any special treats for the occasion. If Oasis were always a fairly predictable live band –Liam’s strops notwithstanding –the High Flying Birds are 
doubly so, with a lack of personality on top. Can we call (It’s Good) To Be Free a traditional set opener though the band has been playing live for less than a year? Then this gig started, continued and finished entirely as expected.

However, now that Liam’s Beady Eye have lifted their moratorium on Oasis songs, Noel’s is not the only lighter-waving show in town. Has he raised his game accordingly? Not a bit of it. He hasn’t even brought along the choir which gave the debut tour such an epic lift. And no-one cares.

This show, like all his other shows, simply required that he show up and play some beloved numbers without embellishment. The gratifying thing for Gallagher Sr is that he can now add HFB’s material, such as the reliably but uninspiringly tuneful Dream On and the irresistible groove of AKA...What A Life, to the list 
of jubilantly received singalongs.

By the time he had reached the mandatory solo acoustic interlude, his vocal presence on Supersonic was surplus to requirements as the crowd took over on this and all subsequent Oasis numbers.

Rating: ***