The Who - Thursday 30th March - Royal Albert Hall

What a treat - Thunder and the Who in the same week. And as a bonus, TCT stalwart Noel Gallagher was added as a late support.

His acoustic set was a mixed bag. A few non-descript solo (HFB) songs and four Oasis classics including the dodgiest version of Wonderwall I've heard. If you are going to write one of pop's all time classic sing-a-long songs, why change it so that it has different emphasis and is much worse than it was? Leave that to Bob Dylan! The set was saved by a back-on-track version of "Don't Look Back In Anger" to finish.

Anyway, the premise for the headliners would be that this would be the World premier of "Tommy" - played acoustically. It turns out that the band felt that they couldn't make this work, so we got "Tommy" - electric!

Now I don't like to be critical of one of my favourite bands and one of the greatest of all time, but his was one of the weakest shows I've seen them do. Pete Townshend seemed pretty grumpy (I suspect he was finding it harder than normal playing a challenging set that hadn't been done for years [1989]), the sound volume was wildly inadequate (the mere thought of being able to be 20 yards from the stage for the Who and be able to talk at normal volume to your neighbour seems unthinkable) and the audience pretty static.

Still, at least we got the often dropped "Sally Simpson" and a few greatest hits afterwards, but this seemed cut short. Apparently the intro to "Welcome" was played for the first time since 1969 by those in the know! But there was definitely something lacking. I'm at Birmingham in a few weeks with a different set promised - let's see how that goes!

[ Edit - I gather the Saturday TCT Who show at the RAH was a huge improvement ]

Setlist - Noel Gallagher
Everybody's on the Run
Supersonic
If I Had a Gun... 
Half the World Away 
Wonderwall 
AKA... What a Life! 
Don't Look Back in Anger 

Setlist - The Who
I Can't Explain
Substitute
+
[Tommy]
Overture 
It's a Boy 
1921 
Amazing Journey
Sparks
Eyesight to the Blind 
Christmas 
Cousin Kevin 
The Acid Queen
Do You Think It's Alright? 
Fiddle About 
Pinball Wizard
Go to the Mirror! 
There's a Doctor 
Tommy Can You Hear Me? 
Smash the Mirror 
I'm Free 
Miracle Cure 
Sensation 
Sally Simpson 
Welcome 
Tommy's Holiday Camp 
We're Not Gonna Take It 
+
Won't Get Fooled Again
Join Together
Baba O'Riley
Who Are You

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.