Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.This time 30 years ago, Oasis were on the verge of their first Glastonbury appearance. At the festival, they had a brief Sunday afternoon slot. Their debut album, Definitely Maybe, hadn’t yet come out, although the Mancunians already carried themselves with the disdainful arrogance of headliners. I recall a big sound rolling out from the stage as they played while the audience — or crowd, to put it less politely — surged forward in response. It was as though two massive energies had been unleashed.Since then, much water has flowed under the bridge. Oasis are no more, having split up in 2009. The brotherly rancour for which Liam and Noel Gallagher were becoming renowned in 1994 — in one interview, Liam looked forward to the day when he could smash Noel’s Rickenbacker guitar into his brother’s nose — had curdled into loathing. The end came after Liam allegedly smashed one of Noel’s guitars for real. A Gibson, not a Rickenbacker, and against the ground — but still. The wreckage of their relationship has never been repaired.And so Liam is celebrating Definitely Maybe’s 30th anniversary with a solo tour. Rumours of a reunion with Noel wax and wane, but the actual event remains elusive. For Oasis fans, it is like being trapped in a Britpop remix of Waiting for Godot. The younger Gallagher is frustrated, too. At his Cardiff date, he dedicated “Half the World Away”, a Noel-sung song, to “my little brother, who is still playing hard to get”. Noel, of course, is his big brother: the jibe was like an itch that can’t be scratched.A packed O2 Arena awaited the chippy younger sibling in London for the first of four nights at the 20,000-capacity venue. A cheer went up as the numerals 94 appeared on the background screen. The setlist was drawn from Definitely Maybe and other songs from the era. No fewer than three guitarists accompanied the singer, alongside a bassist, drummer and keyboardist. There were occasional appearances from a string trio, mostly inaudible. Three backing singers did the falsetto parts in “Live Forever”, from which Gallagher absented himself.He is 51 now. High notes aside (of which there are hardly any in the Oasis canon), the voice of “Cigarettes and Alcohol” is in surprisingly good shape. His posture at the microphone stand was the same as 30 years ago, head angled up, hands behind his back or curtly shaking maracas, top lip curled in a belligerent sneer. The football-terrace outfit of parka and white trainers was the same too. A vape was the only sign of modernisation, puffed during sit-downs in songs when the instrumentalists took over.Definitely Maybe’s first track, “Rock ’n’ Roll Star”, was the opener, announced by a guitar whine that swelled into a jumbo-jet roar. The album’s chin-up swagger has aged well, partly for the antique reason that no one makes ’em like this any more. A masculine rumble accompanied Gallagher as thousands of finger-jabbing fans sang along. His stillness at the mic belied the effort that he put into it his vocals, an intense, needling tone for let’s-have-it songs about sunshine and white lines. But the energy levels proceeded to sag.Rather than play the album straight through, Gallagher chose to scatter B-sides and other odds and sods among its tracks. “Half the World Away” was a highlight, an acoustic-rock shift in pace with a tender vocal turn. (Gallagher’s introduction to the song, crediting it to Burt Bacharach, “one of the greatest songwriters ever”, was less tender: Noel has admitted copying Bacharach when he wrote it.) Meanwhile, B-sides such as “Cloudburst” and “I Will Believe” showed why they weren’t picked as A-sides.Gallagher threw himself into these lumbering things, and grew testy at the lack of response (“Is this London or fucking Antarctica?”). It took “Cigarettes and Alcohol” to flick the switch, deep into the set. The song was markedly more lively than the others, with guitars piling in on each other rather than forming an undifferentiated blare. The arena was transformed into a mass of roiling bodies, a brief throwback to that Glastonbury set all those years ago.“Thanks for turning up halfway through, means a lot,” the singer snarled sarcastically. But the flatter moments in the setlist were the real culprit. The concept was also flawed. Nostalgia for Oasis is huge, but it needs Noel by Liam’s side to be properly tapped. In that respect, the younger Gallagher’s solo tribute to a classic album about seizing the moment was really an exercise in filling time.★★★☆☆liamgallagher.com
