Stereoboard Tour of the Week – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds - Tickets Onsale Friday 9am
Thursday, 04 August 2011
Written by Rob Sleigh
Well, it’s been six months since the release of Beady Eye’s debut album ‘Different Gear, Still Speeding’ and it’s fair to say that, somewhat unsurprisingly, they haven’t exactly taken over the world. While many people held high expectations for the three ex-Oasis boys – most notably, younger Gallagher brother Liam – many others had little hope for what this latest incarnation of the band could offer without Noel. After all, he was of course the guy that wrote ‘Definitely Maybe’ and ‘Morning Glory’ in their entirety – who else in Oasis could claim such a feat?
Although it is undeniable that Liam was the one that helped to define the band with his enviable swagger, attitude and bad boy charm, it’s equally undoubted that big brother was the creative genius behind their laddish image. So, when ‘Different Gear, Still Speeding’ peaked at Number Three in the UK Albums Chart – already failing to compete with the seven consecutive Number Ones that Oasis managed during their 14 years in the limelight – it didn’t come as a complete shock that this was the best they could do without Noel. They may have been speeding, but the new vehicle that is Beady Eye seemed to be lacking a considerable amount of power. So much so that it’s probably best not to dwell on the album’s three singles, all of which failed to make a dent in the Top 10… Or the Top 20… Or the Top 30… Sorry.
So, the question is… if Noel was such an essential ingredient in Oasis’s success – what will people make of his forthcoming solo effort? Last month, Gallagher the Elder announced that he would be releasing his own debut album later this year under the name Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and, this week, he has confirmed the details of his first live dates with the new project.
This month, it will be exactly two years since the rock and roll freight train that was Oasis officially came to an end. It was in August 2009, after yet another disagreement between the two well-known Mancunian brothers, that Noel finally announced that he would be leaving the band. The initial response was that it couldn’t possibly be true. After all, we’d heard it all before. Their famous falling-outs were one of the things we loved about the Gallaghers and it was also one of the things that had kept them in the public eye for so long. Previously, of course, the two siblings had always bounced back from their brotherly spats – as the rest of Oasis had frequently changed around them, the two most famous members of the band had continued to keep the group together. But not this time…
So that was the end of that. Liam and the rest of the band initially decided to keep the band together - although they eventually opted to continue under the name Beady Eye – and Noel went his own way. The new dates in October will be Noel’s first live performances since the solo shows he did in 2010 and will be almost certainly as popular. But the real question, of course, is whether his new material will be up to scratch. After the lack of amazement that followed Beady Eye’s debut, can Noel live up to expectations with his solo album? Here’s hoping.
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