That Noel Gallagher and his High Flying Birds arrived on a flower-festooned OVO stage watched over by a cardboard cut-out of Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, propped behind the speakers, spoke volumes about what we should expect from their first show in the capital since headlining the summer’s South Facing festival. Like Pep, these guys have years of solid if unexciting performances to contend with, but when the moments of glory do come, they're unbeatable.
On the tour to promote his much-lauded fourth solo album Council Skies, you see, the elder ex-Oasis sibling has taken the same no-nonsense approach to constructing his setlist as he usually does towards voicing opinion on Glastonbury headliners. Discarding the standard tease-out-the-hits gig formula, he configured the show as a kind of drip-feed reward system showcasing his entire career in reverse. Sit through five new album tracks and he’d treat us to a batch of better-known solo material. Clear that, and it’s basically Oasis ‘til the bar runs dry.
