What Noel Gallagher called “the greatest moment in live music”
Noel Gallagher has never made any apologies for his taste in music. From day one in Oasis, Noel was known to either prop up artists like they were the most incredible artists on the planet or air his grievances on acts that were mocking what rock and roll stood for. Even though Noel has had the opportunity of seeing many of his heroes play live, he still thinks one performance is something that no one can touch.
When working in and out of the studio, Noel was always more concerned with capturing the correct performance of a song than any massive light shows. From the early days of Oasis, the band’s setup wasn’t exactly flashy, featuring only a handful of television screens behind them and a massive banner with the band’s name on the front when playing their first huge gigs.
While the band came to prominence at a time when less was more in terms of presentation, one of the biggest bands in the world was coming from the opposite direction. Compared to the massive stadiums they filled in the 1980s, U2 were piling on layers of irony by making the most extravagant stage shows with Bono dressed up as his alter ego, ‘The Fly’.
Even though most bands would be considered pretentious for making this stage show in the age of grunge, Achtung Baby offered a different story. Across its runtime, Bono was deconstructing the kind of pretentious rock star he was inhabiting, implying that the loneliness of the lavish lifestyle isn’t what it’s cracked up to be on tracks like ‘One’ and ‘Love is Blindness’.
Although U2 was known for a few slipups here and there, like the electronic travesty Pop, Noel was always proud to stand in their corner. After becoming one of the most significant legacy acts in the world at the turn of the century, Noel started to see the power behind their massive stage show work its magic when he went on tour with them.
As opposed to artists who wanted to stroke their massive egos with different light shows, Noel thought that hearing songs from The Joshua Tree live was unlike any other music on Earth, telling Lars Ulrich, “The first night I did with them, the night before was the soundcheck, and they played ‘Where the Streets Have No Name’. Even at soundcheck, in an empty stadium without any people, it’s still one of the greatest moments in live music”.
The spiritual power of the song isn’t lost on Bono every time he sings the song, either. When talking about the tune these days, the frontman thought there is some spiritual connection between the band and the audience whenever they play that song, equating it to God entering the room whenever the first opening notes start.
While Noel may respect them as a live act, he’s just as enamoured with how they approach their craft when they walk into the studio, explaining, “They’ve evolved many times. They’ve gone back and forwards, sideways and upside down, and still, there’ll be something on a record where I just go ‘FUCK’. That new song, ‘The Showman’, it just keeps getting better”. Even after years in the business, Noel is still picking up cues from the Irish legends about how to take music one step further.
