Oasis - London Astoria - 10/5/05
5/5
By: Andy Willson
It's OK, you're not caught up in some kind of deranged 'Dr Who' style timewarp... it really is 2005, not 1994, and it does say Oasis on at the Astoria tonight.
Having sold out a string of July Stadium dates in record time, and helping the V Festival to prompt its quickest ever sell out, the brothers Gallagher felt it wise to play some very intimate warm-up shows, tonight being the first of such dates. And the Astoria is absolutely heaving at the seams, whilst scattered around us riff-raff are heavyweights in their own right, the likes of Johnny 'the Light' Borrell, Fran 'Trav' Healy, Bobby 'The Scream' Gillespie, and Rhys 'The Pants' Ifans, all here to catch a glimpse of the mid-nineties saviours. How it transcends into the 00s is still to be evaluated.
With support provided by John Hassell's Yeti, Oasis arrive onstage to their own intro loop, 'F**king In The Bushes' before descending into a newie from sixth Album 'Don't Believe The Truth'. It's alright, y'know. And then the crowd goes mad as the quintet crash into 'Lyla', the song that'll put the final nail into Tony bloody Christie. We would say that the new material marks a progression, but hey, this is Oasis. And with a back-catalogue spanning more than a decade, anticipation kicks in as to what the first familiar track is gonna be and it's not long until the chaos of 'Morning Glory' begins, Liam, dressed in shorts and a white jacket, growling louder and more fervently than he ever has.
There are several new songs scattered about the set, the likes of 'Mucky Fingers' and 'The Meaning Of Soul' tried out live for the first time, and on the strength of them 'Don't Believe The Truth' is potentially set to put Oasis firmly back on the map. Distractions, such as children, divorces, arguments, whatever, seem to have had no effect on these boys and when 'Cigarettes & Alcohol' blasts out, everyone is of course in unison to bellow along. As if to prove there is some fragility to them, ballad 'Stop Crying Your Heart Out' evokes memories of quieter times, the crowd a sea of lighters and illuminated camera phones. Even during such moments, Liam exudes so much charisma/arrogance onstage; it's frightful; he struts around the stage like a peacock in full display, wallowing in the adoration of the fans.
A gushing 'Champagne Supernova' closes the first part but they return with something even grander. The encore is simple: three songs and that's it, but when those three songs are 'Wonderwall', 'Don't Look Back In Anger' and a staple cover of The Who's 'My Generation' to close, it becomes a different matter... Euphoric, it is.
A blinder, then. There's been various line ups for latter-day Oasis, and varying results, but with Zak Starkey taking over drumming duties and Andy Bell and Gem Archer fitting in neatly, it looks like the puzzle is finally solved, or 'Is it my imaginassssssshon!!!'? Ooooops.
Artists in this article: Oasis
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