What’s the story?
Bags of cans and bucket hats early on Saturday morning. McCurtain Street in Cork City was genial and warm, another beautiful day ahead of us. A few bucket hats, an inordinate amount of Adidas. A young fella who could not, would not, find his pre-booked ticket for the coach, and the row between him and no fewer than three bus drivers was a lovely preamble to the Manchester feud, and passed a pleasant half an hour.
The day, which at one time seemed like half a world away, was now upon us and 80,000 sang and strolled with bags of cans on the Royal Canal for the first of two Dublin concerts for the Gallagher brothers et al.
Richard Ashcroft was missed (bags of cans took precedence), but he sounded suitably morose and hearty from the queue outside, where tickets were checked speedily. Things went rapidly downhill here from a security and access point of view, and a safety one; Croke Park might do games very well but they dropped the ball badly yesterday evening. The wristband saga last night was, as one tired security man put it, ‘a shitshow’. Putting that aside for a moment, we were on the pitch in no time at all for a singsong of 'The Auld Triangle'.
It wasn’t long before the real show began and lads, when it did, it was joyous. Arms in the air for two solid hours of tunes, it was unadulterated fun from a cohort of passionate and dedicated fans. The bucket hats and lairy attitude from the crowd was, just like the fellas on stage, all for show and our little gang only witnessed one fella being unceremoniously evicted. It was a greatest hits setlist and that was perfect, for it never pretended to be anything else. They played to our emotions, holding on to the stadium anthem 'Champagne Supernova' for the finale, but there wasn’t a lull from start to finish. That said, interaction with the crowd was sparse, and it was hard not to feel letdown a little when this is likely the only time many fans might see Oasis.
There were secret, unspoken hopes that we might have an Irish song; does Liam know any Sinead O’Connor? But there was no deviation. He scowled and looked like a man you wouldn’t cross in a bar, true to form, while Noel stayed quiet, mostly, and did his thing.
This writer paid the standard price for tickets and yes, it was worth it. It’s hard to say which is a standout, we all have our favourites, but 'Little By Little' was sublime, while 'The Masterplan', 'Whatever' and 'Live Forever', all glorious.
Songs full of hope and victory and anarchy, and they had it all. Yes, to the naysayers, yes. It was worth it.
