Noel Gallagher - Royal Albert Hall - Tuesday 27th March

It's Tuesday, it's the Teenage Cancer Trust and the Royal Albert Hall - that means Noel Gallagher. Warm up beers in the excellent "Hereford Arms" (some nice outifts on display!), the Gloucester Arms and the hard-to-find Queen's Arms (via the mews) and we were in the venue (with the normal lack of ticket checking) to see the support who were the Coral. They were OK - nothing more, nothing less. Then followed a small bout of accidental "blagging" whereby what we thought was a bar, turned out to be corporate hospitality. Still, they offered us free beer without any questions and we thought it rude to ask if we should actually be there!

Anyway, the show... well, if was good. Noel choose a selection of Oasis songs to play acoustically and a selection of cover versions. Paul Weller joined him for a few too. From our view in the Choir seats, we suspected that the strings section had been chosen for looks as well as playing ability! Richard pointed out he would do the same in Noel's position. Anyway, here's the setlist:-

'(It's Good) To Be Free'
'Talk Tonight'
'Fade Away'
'Cast No Shadow'
'Half The World Away'
'The Importance Of Being Idle'
'The Butterfly Collector' (with Paul Weller)
'All You Need Is Love ' (with Paul Weller)
'Don't Go Away'
'Listen Up'
'Sad Song'
'Wonderwall'
'Slide Away'
'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out'
'Don't Look Back in Anger'
'Married With Children'

Unfortunately, we didn't get 'Strawberry Fields Forever' which had been played the night before, which actually meant there was "booing" at the end. A bit harsh, as it was a good show. Sound for the music was good, but the pre-song intros were very muffled.