Oasis / The Charlatans / Black Rebel Motorcycle Club / Cornershop - London Finsbury Park - 6/7/02
4/5
By: Toby L
Oasis Set-List: 'F**king In The Bushes', 'Hello', 'The Hindu Times', 'Hung In A Bad Place', 'Go Let It Out', 'Columbia', 'Morning Glory', 'Stop Crying Your Heart Out', 'Little By Little', 'D'you Know What I Mean', 'Cigarettes And Alcohol', 'Live Forever', 'Better Man', 'She's Electric', 'Born On A Different Cloud', 'Acquiesce', ENCORE,'Force Of Nature', 'Don't Look Back In Anger', 'Some Might Say', 'My Generation'.
Following a Friday night performance the evening prior - deemed by many already to be Oasis' defining-moment beyond their legendary Knebworth shows back in '96 - Saturday, the second day of the band's very sold-out stint at the mammoth Finsbury Park, was bound to be a tough one.
Fortunately, early indications during the day pointed towards the fact that at least the weather was behaving itself. The site, still a partial mud-bath following the previous day's tear-jerkingly depressing downfall of rain, possessed beaming sunshine on all its four corners - not to mention a distressing fleet of southern Liam-a-likes and the obligatory presence of intoxicated louts, most rolling on the waterlogged ground and throwing bottles of urine at each other... The tranquil and uplifting ambiance of a festival nudity-field this certainly is not.
Reassuringly, the musical-accompaniment throughout made the anticipation for tonight's event that ever more bearable. With the emergence of Cornershop on to the gigantic stage ahead, frontman Tjinder Singh appeared even more scared than his usual lost-child-in-a-shopping-centre trademark facial-depiction; he had good cause to as well - for the missiles being launched from the spectators were getting deadly. Rectifying the position in perhaps the best way, the band lurched upon the prospect of playing songs everyone knew first so as to tame the wild crowd, slipping out of a dazzling instrumental into upcoming single, the riffs-for-all pop of 'Staging...' and an Eastern-flavoured cover of The Beatles' 'Norwegian Wood'. Yet, with a subsequent slowed-down and relaxed 'Brimful Of Asha', the band lays back and let their watchers do the work, many content to mutter the words gently along to its jangly pace... Phew - they made it home safe.
Even more enthralling a proposition are this year's US-sensation, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, eerily making a mark at the start of their set with the throbbing sleaze of 'Red Eyes & Tears' and merging through upbeat, chipper new tracks and on to early assaults of former hits, the bass-driven 'Spread Your Love' and the dreamy 'Love Burns'. For some, though, it's all too shoegazery, and their set marks an opportunity to rocket further bottles into the skies above. Badly-timed, frontman and guitarist Peter Hayes looks at the heaving mass of eager punters, declaring comedically, 'I heard Oasis cancelled.' The reaction? Booing. Hayes, wanting to clear up matters, soon adds reservedly, 'It's a joke.'
The next time we hear from him, he's singing, alongside bassist Robert Turner, the lyrics to the growling, yet orderly furore, of 'Whatever Happened To My Rock 'N' Roll', and a soaring 'Salvation', whose climactic finish comes within the shape of a polished musical-battle, its once gospel-orientated sentiment exchanged for chopping feedback and a drastic noise-explosion, arising predominantly from Nick Jago's drumkit at the back of the stage. The three-piece walk off to, surprisingly, yet justifiably, a strong reception... Relief - looks like they're set to survive for another night, too.
Yet, things were always going to be safer with The Charlatans, weren't they? Also Mancunian like tonight's headliners and also having existed for what seems an age, only their greatest-hits folly of tunes eases the crowd into the early evening quite so triumphantly, right from the opening 'Love Is The Key' to the thunderous close of 'Sproston Green'. In between, it's pretty good, too; singer Tim Burgess is livelier than normal, making use of the stage by actually moving away from his mic-stand and smiling with all the sparkle and charm of a naοve child.
Best are the monster-anthems: 'Just Lookin', for one, still shining with its uplifting Britpop buoyancy, let alone the piano-shudder of 'One To Another', masterfully oozing into mega-hit, 'The Only One I Know'. It certainly makes for a good contrast to the harmonica-tinged acoustic frolics of 'Impossible', or the '97-era singles, such as 'How High' and a sky-gracing rendition of 'North Country Boy'. Really, it's a wonder this lot aren't headlining their own night at today's location.
Though, testament to Oasis' sheer - and fair - self-belief to follow such an assembled supporting-cast, what comes next is nothing short of epic. So few bands exist within Britain these days that are able to trot on to such a huge cavern as today's stage and shrink it down to a small venue's own equivalent - yet this Manc quintet manage to do just this.
Setting the tone with the pre-recorded groove and visuals of 'F**king in the Bushes', the northern-stars soon walk on to a deafening reception, kicking straight into 'What's The Story...' LP-opener, 'Hello', going forth to play a broad spectrum of their wealthy back-catalogue, simultaneously staring into the face of such former glories as 'Wonderwall', 'Supersonic' and legions more, shouting fervently, 'We don't need you anymore.' The result is, predictably, quite awesome.
Although, less likely was the fact that the new material from recent-album 'Heathen Chemistry' would upstage prior successes, with tracks such as the mighty Noel-sung 'Force Of Nature' reducing the sky-arching hugeness of 'D'you Know What I Mean' to a feeble chug, and the gorgeous balladry of 'Stop Crying Your Heart Out' - as dedicated by Liam to 'the makers of Kleenex' tissues - allowing 'Don't Look Back In Anger' to almost seem tired in comparison.
Elsewhere, the higher-paced numbers still prove to exert that original, passionate freshness that they gleamed during the mid-90s, with 'Morning Glory' - the tambourine-hollering frontman announcing before its airing, 'This song's off a good album,' as if we didn't already know - sounding positively electric... As does a song possessing such a description in its title, the irrepressible, if laughable, cuteness of 'She's Electric', whose transcendence into legendary b-side, 'Acquiesce', quite amply closes the first set to the still-hungry forty-thousand onlookers.
The five minute encore-break proves useful, if only for regaining life to our tattered vocal-chords, which have been severely battered by our efforts to sing-a-long to every track, with the ensuing towering astuteness of 'Some Might Say' and its grinding guitar serving as an appetising intro to a fleshy rendition of The Who's 'My Generation', providing late bassist John Entwhistle of the seminal 60's rock-act with more justice than he'd have been afforded should any pretenders have taken on the duty of whipping through such a steely piece.
The group soon clear the stage-area and one of the final sights, somewhat appropriately, is of Liam glancing cockily into the crowd, displaying all the charisma and youthful energy as last seen in 1994... You know, not too much has changed since then; sure, hovering levels of quality and consistency in some of their music has existed, but they're still the biggest thing we've got - and it's distinctly hard to imagine in the near-future where or when this will ever stop being the case.
Photo-Credit - Andrew Future
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