During an acoustic version of Live Forever, the shaven-headed, bare-chested, hard-as-nails-looking stranger turns around to face me. Raising his clenched hand, in a tender and wordless display of unity he gently fist-bumps me, acknowledging, I suppose, the stirring power of music. Then again, Noel Gallagher has always had a gift for helping bring people together in fleeting, musical moments of oceanic oneness – and tonight’s gig in southeastern Wales’ Caldicot Castle is no exception.
Warming the crowd up beforehand, support acts including Newport’s Goldie Lookin Chain and Feeder brought comedy and energy respectively, laying the ground for a sonorous evening of pathos and nostalgia provided by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. The setting, too, is nothing short of enchanting. Amidst the beautiful grounds of Caldicot Castle, the crowd are encircled by a leafy wall of indigenous trees with the crumbling ruins of a former civilisation in plain view: the event marks the encroaching end of summer in memorable fashion.
“So is this a weekend festival then? No! Really? I would have played better. I thought there were hundreds of bands on!” quips Noel drily. In fact, tonight he’s on a roll, his comedic crowd-baiting proving an interesting counterweight to his heartfelt performance. Keeping it all running along in perfect balance, he manages to exploit football team rivalries, subtly chasten fans for streaming his latest album Council Skies, and effortlessly lead the crowd in communal singalongs.
And whilst his latest offerings merely lay the evening’s foundations, things get turned up a notch as the more bedded-in songs from previous albums including If I Had A Gun and AKA… What A Life! enliven the crowd. And naturally, not one to neglect his bread and butter, classic Oasis songs – Little By Little, The Masterplan, Half The World Away – make an appearance later on, setting the evening alight like never before. He even dedicates some of the evening’s songs to members of the audience: publicly shaming one punter caught yawning and asking, “How am I supposed to sign that from up here? We don’t offer that service,” to another who’s holding a Mexican flag in the front row, begging for an autograph.
Icing the evening’s cake with perhaps Noel Gallagher’s most famous song of all, he and his High Flying Birds suggest that an Oasis reunion – desired as it might be – is unnecessary when it comes to the guitarist’s essential magic. Pure rock brilliance is alive and well, with no need to live in the past – or, as the crowd sang joyously at the gig’s finale, to look back in anger.
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Caldicot Castle, Sat 19 Aug
words OLIVER R. MOORE-HOWELLS photos NADINE BALLANTYNE