Live Review: Noel Gallagher, Johnny Marr and The Waeve at Warwick Castle

Luckily Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds are tonight playing in the lush surrounds of cedars, oaks and pines in the grounds of historic Warwick Castle.

You cannot help but be lifted by this environment on such a lovely mid-summer’s day.

The former Oasis songwriter has brought some friends along to entertain us first.

The Waeve are Graham Coxon and Rose Elinor Dougall, life partners and musical collaborators primarily known for their work in Blur and The Pipettes respectively.

A brave opening choice some might say - for a night more associated with era-defining music that now sits in firm ‘Dad Rock’ territory this is a idosyncratic art-rock act that risks falling on deaf ears.

But the early arrivers greet their performance warmly. Any notion of Britpop rivalries clearly dead and buried.

The Waeve mix glacial synth-led, Broadcast-like laments (Rose sung) with more driving Roxy Music-indebted indie and new wave (Graham sung).

What’s started as a time-at-home-with-baby project is performed with confidence and joy in abundance.

The band, about to release their sophomore album, definitely has legs, if not chart-bothering singalong choruses.

The king of the jangle Johnny Marr swiftly follows.

All boundless energy and rock star poses from the off, the former Smiths and Electronic guitarist’s opening track Armatopia delivers the sort of ‘na na na’ disco-rock to produce mass audience limb movements, just as the day begins to cool.

Marr follows up with Panic and we have our first mass singalong of the day.

His solo greatest hits are a treat for any fan of pop-rock, demonstrated in the punch of Generate Generate, Easy Money or Spirit Power and Soul (the best song New Order never wrote).

A man of few words, why bother to speak when you can drop classics like This Charming Man, Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want, How Soon Is Now?, and Getting Away With It to such a warm reception.

He closes with There Is A Light That Never Goes Out - perhaps the ultimate hymn for the lovestruck and the broken hearted. He is the knight of this castle tonight and we gladly bend the knee to his genius.

During some warm-up music of 60s psychedelia and more modern heavy sounds (Regular Fries, remember them?), the stage is painstakingly set-up by a large crew ready for NGHFB.

Among the many instruments is colourful flora, plus his beloved Pep Guardiola cardboard cut-out next to a Manchester City lightbox.

14,000 people all scream for joy as the large ensemble sashay onto stage. 12 strong in number, it includes former Oasis members Chris Sharrock on drums and Gem Archer on guitar.

Noel informs us, “We are going to go back in time, ending in the 90s so you can see what all the fuss was about”.

Pretty Boy kicks off a run of four songs from Council Skies, politely rocking us with his decadently strong melodic touch that has never deserted Gallagher over these past three decades.

Engagement levels rise as the older and thus more familiar High Flying Birds material appears, beginning with the full-bloodied You Know We Can’t Go Back.

Still his best solo song, 2011s big beat-indebted AKA…What a Life! seems to take the crowd into a higher elevation as we close part one of the show.

The Oasis section is understandably 90s-focused (bar Little By Little).

The song choices feel personal. He wrote all Oasis songs of this era, but he prefers to stick to the songs he originally sung.

He’s justified in resurrecting the wonderful 1997 B-side Going Nowhere from obscurity and The Masterplan - back in the setlist after many years away - is greeted like an unofficial national anthem that it truly is.

Ditto the huge-sounding, dedicated “to the Irish”, Whatever.

Talk Tonight’s allure is in its late-night melancholic vibe, almost all of which is lost when you put a six-piece band behind it.

No matter, the similarly gentle Half The World Away comes off splendidly with all the added band accoutrements that were not afforded to him back in the studio in 1994.

The band make us wait a while before coming back on for an encore.

Stand By Me reflects a moment - 1997 - when the whole nation was gaga for Noel and Liam and that Stone Roses-like bridge and chorus is indeed ten stories high and bellowed back by all.

Live Forever is then transformed from its familiar recorded state - slowed down, the romantic elements worn even more clearly on its sleeve.

Is the song the very essence of Noel? The mixture of rock solid confidence hiding an undercurrent of sorrow, all mixed together to glorious sonic outcome.

There’s of course only one place to finish, and that is Don’t Look Back In Anger - the perfect finish to a great day out.

Noel’s been ribbing the audience with jokes for a lot of the set and his, “I’ve been asked to convey a message from the organisers, ‘no dogging on the way home please’,” was easily his best.

Leave them with a smile and all that. And there were plenty of reasons to indulge in many of them throughout this evening.

** You can see more photos from Sunday’s gig here **

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds played:

Pretty Boy

Council Skies

We're Gonna Get There in the End

Open the Door, See What You Find

You Know We Can't Go Back

We're On Our Way Now

In the Heat of the Moment

If I Had a Gun...

AKA... What a Life!

Dead in the Water

Going Nowhere

Talk Tonight

Whatever

Half the World Away

The Masterplan

Little by Little

Encore:

Stand By Me

Live Forever

Don't Look Back in Anger