Music review: Liam Gallagher, Hampden Park, Glasgow

With his solo material now standing up well alongside old Oasis favourites, Liam Gallagher has genuinely recaptured a sense of his glory days, writes David Pollock

Liam Gallagher at Hampden Park by Calum Buchan

Liam Gallagher, Hampden Park, Glasgow ****

In recent times Oasis’s estranged Gallagher brothers have been famous for their ongoing social media beef. Liam, the younger, was at it again here, with a line he’d clearly been building up since Noel joked about Scotland being a “Third World country” in 2019.

“It’s good to be back in the beautiful country of Scotland,” he said, bowling around in a camouflage parka and thoroughly unnecessary sunglasses. “I was thinking about that famous Hampden roar and wondering if you do boos? See if our kid can hear it when he gets his head out his arse.”

Alongside this soap opera, what’s less remarked upon is how Liam has genuinely recaptured a sense of his glory days, playing gigs at Oasis’s previous conquering ground Knebworth House earlier this month, and inspiring a new generation of fans with solo material which sounds increasingly true to the (mostly Noel-written) Oasis sound.

A nostalgia trip is an essential part of his show, but his band made the Oasis material sound authentic here with the raucous opening trio of Hello, Rock ‘n’ Roll Star and Morning Glory, and then a more reflective mid-set trip into his old group’s Stand By Me, Roll It Over and Slide Away.

What impresses is that an almost equal amount of new material became part of the main event itself, and in places inspired just as uproarious a response; the strutting Wall of Glass, for example, or the firework-assisted set-closing anthem Once. Better Days featured Gallagher’s sheepish-looking son Gene on drums, World’s in Need was soulful and harmonica-led, and More Power and Diamond in the Dark have choruses reminiscent of Oasis’s catchiest.

Of course, the full Oasis effect wouldn’t be complete without a disagreement, and Gallagher looked furious that the curfew meant an encore of Oasis hits – Some Might Say, Cigarettes & Alcohol, Wonderwall and Champagne Supernova – had to have Supersonic and Live Forever cut for timing reasons. To his credit, everyone seemed to feel they’d already had their money’s worth.