Noel Gallagher at the Royal Albert Hall for Teenage Cancer Trust

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds return to London after a brief stint away and this time to a packed Royal Albert Hall in support of Teenage Cancer Trust – an event that has always been close to Noel’s heart.

A giant LED screen stands above the stage and the High Flying Birds logo fades in just as the gig is about to start. Pretty Boy kicks everything off with strobe lights and psychedelic animations floating on the huge display and is followed by Council Skies as the screen fills with Mancunian images from the singer’s memories.

Noel wears his signature leather jacket while his long-standing guitarist Gem Archer sports red see-through sunglasses. The Oasis legend swaps his electric Gibson for the acoustic guitar and launches into We’re Gonna Get There in the End. This is where Noel’s voice really warms up. It’s a melody inspired by one of his lesser-known influences – Burt Bacharach – and the crowd really digs it and joins in for the chorus.

The lights dim and the first of many power ballads kicks in – Easy Now. Noel addresses the audience for the first time and promises to begin a journey into the 90s… before breaking that promise and playing You Know We Can’t Go Back.

Psychedelic imagery fills the giant screen again: a girl falls into the void of the universe surrounded by a cascade of pills for the heartbreaking We’re on Our Way Now. For me this marks the first moment of the night that really hits home.

The High Flying Birds switch gears and play a back-to-back In the Heat of the Moment and Lock All the Doors. They both pack a real punch and are followed by an uptempo version of If I Had a Gun. Again, everyone very happily joins in before rising to their feet and dancing to AKA… What a Life!

A huge moon floats above the water at night on the LED display as Noel sings Dead in the Water and gives a spellbinding end to the first section of the concert.

And now we are going back to the 90s. We start with Going Nowhere – one of Noel’s many famed b-sides of the Oasis era. The song ends with a spectacular face-melter by Gem Archer that stays very true to Noel’s original recording before Talk Tonight fills the arena with magic and sounds the best it ever did.

This is a night where the audience get on their feet a lot, and they do it again for an upbeat version of Whatever. Everybody is singing and dancing. The horn section chips in. Noel often brings a string section to the Albert Hall. He doesn’t this time, and the finale of Whatever is the first time I really missed them. The upbeat magic continues with Half the World Away – for this one fans look really happy and have a lot of fun singing all the words to the entire song in support of Noel’s warm and perfect vocals.

When the High Flying Birds launch into The Masterplan the precision with which they perform it makes it sound ripped straight off the record from 30 years ago. Every guitar solo, every piano riff. The horn section. Gem’s incredible solos. The performance is sonic perfection.

The band now play the most aggressive Little by Little to date: the song starts with a crunchy guitar riff and Gem and drummer Chris Sharrock are on fire as Noel’s voice soars. The crowd get spectacularly wild as the set wraps up with a cover of Bob Dylan’s Quinn the Eskimo. Noel is really getting good at playing Dylan. As he grows older his less obvious influences – Dylan, Bacharach – which were always there in his songs if you wanted to find them, really come to light.

Of course tonight’s audience haven’t had enough and beckon the band back onstage. The encore starts with a double semi-acoustic session. Stand by Me – a very welcome surprise and a late addition to their tour – and Live Forever. They really perfected Live Forever – Gem’s guitar licks fill the Royal Albert Hall with sonic magic

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds bring the concert to an end with – you guessed it – Don’t Look Back in Anger. It’s a fantastic performance that carries a lot of weight; and while for the entire night all solo duties have been off-loaded to the virtuosity of Gem, Noel takes this one himself and delivers a pitch-perfect, spectacular face-melter. The crowd goes manic for this perfect close to a perfect night.

Noel’s status has long been solidified as the grandfather of the last 30 years of British rock music. When he took the stage of tonight’s Teenage Cancer Trust show he confirmed that label is more than deserved. His songwriting, his voice, his ability to put a band together that really understands and delivers the songs is second to none

It is always a privilege to hear Noel Gallagher perform: not much to see, as always, but a lot to hear, and a beautiful reminder of a now bygone era when British music stood as the shining beacon that inspired the world.

Edoardo L’Astorina
Photos: John Stead

For further information and future events visit Noel Gallagher’s website here.