Photo Credit: Cuffe and Taylor/The Piece Hall
Just two years after making his previous appearance at the iconic Halifax venue, The Piece Hall, NOEL GALLAGHER’S HIGH FLYING BIRDS returned to the West Yorkshire town as part of his busy summer schedule. Once again, in front of a sell-out crowd and brought along a young support act that has been inspired by The Chief’s music since his own remarkable journey began.
After his biggest hometown headliner just weeks before, Newcastle-born ANDREW CUSHIN has gone into 2024 with a major tour of the States already under his belt and various festival appearances to keep the ball rolling. The Geordie youngster delivered a set with a selection of songs from his debut album ‘Waiting for the Rain‘, with highlights such as the title track, and the crowd entertainer ‘Wor Flags’ as he received a huge reception across the venue, as well as making time to perform the yet to be release track ‘Broken Love’ to keep fans of CUSHIN new and old on their toes, ready for new material to come.
Despite it being labelled ‘Yorkshire Day’, the mancunian’s presence was certainly welcomed, whatever the occasion. A blank screen soon turned into a blurry text, slowly emerged the headliners name as the whole place roared the moment ‘Pretty Boy’ kicked in. NOEL GALLAGHER’S HIGH FLYING BIRDS made their grand entrance and got right down to business. Playing a host of songs from the spectacular ‘Council Skies’, NG didn’t seem fazed one bit from his trip to South Korea only days before, jetlag clearly doesn’t affect his performances. The Halifax audience were by far the loudest to sing the newer tracks in the last 12 months, with ‘Open the Door, See What You Find’ seeing out the ‘Council Skies’ material.
There was still a plenty of material from NOEL‘s solo career to get through, as the set descended into the past with GALLAGHER Saying that “we’ll end up in the 90s.” Then came ‘You Know We Can’t Go Back‘, which is without a doubt one of the most adored tracks from ‘Chasing Yesterday’. Soon followed a duo of singles from his first album ‘AKA…What A Life‘ and ‘If I Had A Gun‘, with ‘Dead in the Water’ capping off the first portion of the set, and just in time for a dose of Oasis classics. ‘Talk Tonight‘ and ‘Going Nowhere‘ were used to ease fans into the second part of the act, while ‘Half the World Away‘ really got the place to sing along. ‘Little By Little’ continued the stadium like atmosphere, whilst a surprise cover of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ rounded off GALLAGHER’s emphatic show in style.
But, the fans weren’t left hanging for long as he and the band returned from the wings to bring the evening to a spectacular close. Perfectly set up by ‘Stand By Me‘ and ‘Live Forever‘, the finale was none other than the timeless classic ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger‘, in which NOEL handed the Halifax audience the reins to carry the chorus into the night before returning for one last time and bringing the blissful ending to a roaring conclusion as The Piece Hall cheered to yet another outstanding performance from The Chief.
Photo Credit: Cuffe and Taylor/The Piece Hall
Taped Magazine 