Buying tickets to concerts isn’t fun anymore. As soon as that timer on Ticketmaster starts counting down, trying to find my credit card, to not drop my credit card, correctly type in the numbers because inevitably the saved card has expired, it is very not fun; stressful is more the word. Maybe it’s the nostalgia talking but walking to Grafton Street at two in the morning with my friend to queue outside HMV with thousands of others, waiting in line in anticipation when the shop opened its doors a few hours later was so much more fun. Between the sing songs, meeting new friends to hold my place while we checked if McDonald’s was open yet, and finally moving slowly but surely through the doors to the checkout, there’s surely no better feeling than grasping a paper ticket for the biggest concert of your youth.
Unfortunately for me, in 1994, I had not discovered the joy of live music, (with the embarrassing exception of going to Jason Donovan in 1990 with my sister and parents,) and I didn’t queue for Oasis tickets for the Definitely Maybe tour in the Tivoli Theatre in Dublin. I’m not sure there was a queue. A year later, after seeing Pulp in the SFX, I was addicted. For the rest of my teens, I went to as many gigs as I could afford, and I did get my chance to see Oasis, twice, in 1996 for their What’s the Story Morning Glory shows in the Point Depot and Pairc Uí Chaoimh gigs. I can’t remember which of the two necessitated queuing outside HMV.
Thankfully, I’m not the only person to suffer from the affliction of nostalgia and in the last decade, I’ve been lucky, as an adult, to see some of my favourite bands reunite for shows. While the Pulp gigs have been euphoric, there’s been the unexpected surprise of a gig that might not have gone so well. The Stone Roses in 2016 was one such event. However, given that Oasis split up in 2009 and given that both Liam and Noel have carved out reasonably successful solo careers, the chance to go back in time and possibly right the wrong of missing the Definitely Maybe tour was something I didn’t give a fleeting thought towards. I also admit that I didn’t know that Liam has littered his solo gigs with Oasis tracks for a number of years. I don’t know if Noel does that too.
I knew Liam was gigging in Ireland this year but I didn’t pay any heed to it until I was listening to the radio and an ad came on. The DM30 tour was coming to Limerick and I realised that this Liam Gallagher gig was the closest to an Oasis reunion I was going to get. I had to go.
Because we had no babysitter to call on and after giving up on landing a hotel; (unlike buying tickets, I am very grateful that booking hotels is an Internet activity), we decided that we’d drive there and drive home. I also saw it as an opportunity to give Emrys a helping hand in life. I will never ever live down the fact that my first ever gig was Jason Donovan. When Emrys is an adult, he will have no shame in telling people about his first concert.
After getting over the mild disappointment of buying the tickets so easily online, I decided to order an Oasis t-shirt.
I decided I wasn’t going to buy the light blue t-shirt that everybody else had but I also knew, nobody would have a clue what the image was – it’s the cover of the Whatever single. Anyway, we made a day of it and headed off to Limerick in the morning and had a great day.
One downside of bringing a child to a concert is that you have to get seated tickets. I looked down from Row X at the pitch longingly. I guess having an uncrushed child at the end of a night is some consolation.
The Mary Wallopers were the support act. Put it this way, they were no Manic Street Preachers, Bootleg Beatles or The Prodigy who warmed up the Oasis shows I went to in the 1990s. Cast had supported Liam in Dublin. I never saw them in the 1990s either. More the pity.
The big screens counted down from 2024 to 1994 as we waited. The atmosphere from the stands wasn’t exactly great. I watched the crowd in the mosh pit (now called the Golden Circle these days) bopping along to Teenage Kicks and I am the Resurrection as the crowd around us seemed to be more like the audience at Wimbledon (the tennis, not the soccer.) And then the electric noise started as Rock ‘n’ Roll Star started and both Rozz and I jumped up… on our own. Nobody else seemed to be moving apart from one other couple a couple of rows ahead of us. Man, the Golden Circle never appeared more attractive and I was nearly cursing Emrys for subjecting us to the seats. I didn’t even have the veil of alcohol to make me forget I was surrounded by dry shites.
I plunged back into my seat until I copped on to myself. I’m no longer the insecure teenager that went to Oasis back in the 90’s. Rozz and I turned to each other and had the same thought. We had our own little mosh pit through Columbia, Shakermaker, Up in the Sky, Digsy’s Dinner, Bring It On Down and I Will Believe. Those songs never sounded better. In particular, Bring It On Down, was unreal.
The crowd eventually woke up when Liam played Half the World Away. They must have been more Noel people than Liam people. It was glorious. However, half of them went back to their phones after that as Liam did a brilliant version of D’yer Wanna be a Spaceman. It seemed that the Euro 2024 final was distracting half the crowd and Spain scored somewhere in the middle of those two songs. Emrys had been a little quiet, taking his first concert in, and it was the next song that finally got him on his feet. Fade Away was brilliant. He didn’t sit down for the rest of the concert. Once Spain had consigned England to defeat, the crowd cheered “Olé Olé Olé” at Liam to which he responded with one of the highlights of the night – Whatever. I love that song and so did Emrys.
It was followed by a brilliant Cigarettes & Alcohol, a slightly abrupt Married With Children (the Olés were getting tiresome) and then Supersonic. Almost everyone was now on their feet.
Another thing about the Internet era is that you know what song is coming next and the set list was fairly similar to his other gigs so we knew things were coming to an end soon. We also knew what songs were coming.
And so, Slide Away followed before Live Forever and Liam said good night and nobody moved because everyone knew that there was one more song and they knew it was I Am the Walrus, the song they ended their 1994 and 1996 shows on back in the day. It was as good as it was then, possibly better. I still knew every word and the crowd duly “wooed” through the chorus.
The fact that there was no Noel made no difference. Liam was always the frontman for Oasis and I can’t imagine Noel getting away with a Definitely Maybe tour. Having said that, if Noel was to do a solo What’s the Story tour, I’d happily go along. And if the unthinkable does happen, I would definitely queue all night for tickets, even if queuing now consists of hitting the refresh button on a browser.
