Gig review: Liam Gallagher, Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow


Barrowland, Glasgow
The younger Gallagher has floundered without his brother’s songwriting skills, habitually bolstering the inferior sounds of his post-Oasis outfit Beady Eye with selections from the Oasis back catalogue. He launched his own solo show in typically defiant mode, cranking out Britpop standards Rock’n’Roll Star and Morning Glory on a war footing before instructing the fans to make like they cared about the unfamiliar material from his forthcoming solo debut, As You Were.
What followed was a charmless offensive of forceful bruisers such as new single Wall of Glass and Greedy Soul, with its Gallagher rhyming dictionary couplet “kiss and tell/go to hell”, interspersed with the lumbering likes of D’You Know What I Mean?
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Hide AdSubtlety be damned - the soaring melody of Slide Away didn’t stand a chance in this ritual bludgeoning, with Gallagher happy to surrender to the football terrace singalong – as well as offering his own post-match analysis of the previous day’s Scotland/England fixture.
He was joined by “brother Bonehead” for a partial Oasis reunion on Be Here Now but by then it was all over bar the ringing ears. He encored briefly with an a capella rendition of Live Forever, grabbing the song by the throat but leaving the high hookline to the crowd.