That’s just about as good as it gets for a Manc; not to go over the top right from the off but Liam Gallagher’s first night at the Co-op Live arena is comfortably up there with one of the best gigs we’ve ever been to.
We could end the review right there and we’re sure you’d understand (we don’t think it needs explaining why seeing Definitely Maybe played live in full to a home crowd all these years later is so special) but we’re going to carry on anyway.
We also could spend time bigging up the supports and how great they were, which is entirely true – there’s also a lot of understandable excitement about Liam’s son Gene Gallagher and the opening warm-up act, Villanelle – but, honestly, we just want to relive last night.
First things first, it’s probably fair to start off by saying that regardless of the palava when it first opened or rather struggled to, Co-op Live is quite a sight to behold.
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There are plenty of people who have taken aim at the ‘big black box’ now sitting right next to Manchester City’s stadium and the wider Etihad Campus, but once you see it in the evening, lit up with its digital hoardings and especially in the bowl itself, it’s pretty impressive, it has to be said.
Obviously, the location felt fitting for such a massive Blue and LG made sure to have his beloved football club represented on stage, however, it more just highlighted how this man could fill a room of pretty much any size.
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As we waited for his arrival whilst the roadies rolled back the years (quite literally) and recreated the Definitely Maybe album cover for the set, you couldn’t help but be blown away by the scale of everything as roughly 23,5000 people poured in to celebrate Oasis‘ timeless debut album 30 years on.
And that’s what it was: a pure celebration. From the moment he kicked the arena into gear with ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Star’, the place barely stopped bouncing except for the likes of ‘Whatever’ and ‘Half The World Away’, as they were too busy being a choir in those moments.
He even dedicated the latter to its original singer and his big brother Noel, as well as tackling the likes of ‘D’Yer Wanna Be a Spaceman?’ and ‘Lock All The Doors’, which the older Gallagher already dug out of the archives with High Flying Birds – though it was interesting to see how the two versions differed.
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We will always be envious of those who were there at the very start; for the likes of the Knebworth and Maine Road gigs, as we can only imagine how nuts the atmosphere must have been at the very height of Britpop, but if this is the closest we ever come to recreating that we will absolutely take it.
Getting to hear those “cheeky” B-sides from that seminal record was a treat too, mainly because as was often the case with Oasis, they were just as popular as the official tracklist and not a single lyric was missed. Manchester hasn’t even come to moving past its best-ever band and probably never will.
Liam Gallagher celebrated everything we know and love about rock and roll on his first night at Co-op Live. (Credit: The MancGroup)
What made this gig even more staggering is that we’d just seen Foo Fighters light up the Emirates Old Trafford on Thursday and knew they were playing again at the same time we were all doing our best ‘sunshyiiiiiine’, but there wasn’t a single part of us wondering which was the better gig. Sorry, Dave.
Is the local bias taking a good chunk of the wheel here? Absolutely. Do we care one bit? Not even a little.
We’ve seen Liam play his own stuff and some old favourites before; we’ve seen Noel fill Wythenshawe Park and play as many Oasis tracks as he likes, but nothing comes close to seeing the album that started it all being played in Manchester at its newest and biggest venue.
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Liam said that he wanted to “put this arena on the map” before he kicked into ‘Cigarettes & Alcohol’ and he didn’t just do that, he blew the roof off the place. And that’s an expensive bloody roof…
Not exaggerating when we say Liam Gallagher at Co-op Live Night One felt like a cultural moment for Manchester. (Credit: The Manc)
What’s more, the 51-year-old proved two things: this is exactly why he’s one of the greatest frontmen of all time, even if his voice isn’t quite as crisp as it once was (it’s still one of the most distinct on the planet), and that Oasis are still the best thing since sliced bread. The bee’s knees. The absolute b*****ks.
We’re not going to start arguing over where they fit among the greatest of all time – we know even Liam Gallagher himself would say, ‘Don’t talk daft, it’s The Beatles’ and so on – but we’re not sure we’ll ever be able to describe just how much Oasis are intrinsically part of what makes Manchester what it is.
Banging on about a reunion year after year feels pretty useless as we know it would take some extraordinary circumstances for it to happen, but all we’ll say is that at this point Noel is just missing out on playing some of the best shows you could ever hope for.
That being said, watching Liam Gallagher give Co-op Live its biggest gig yet was a privilege and until they both kiss and makeup to give the fans what they want, we’re here for these nostalgic nights and you best believe we’ll be going to the (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? anniversary tour if it happens too.
Posters around Manchester city centre spark serious rumours Charli XCX is set to headline Parklife 2025
Danny Jones
Some pretty big, green posters are popping up around town and, not to get ahead of ourselves, but it looks like they’re hinting at Charli XCX headlining Parklife 2025…
Feel free to lose your bratting minds.
A number of tall, let’s call it ‘apple’ green posters have been sighted in various places across Manchester city centre this Friday, 22 November and the last time we saw this slightly low-resolution, plain black Arial font and colour combo we got a reworked version of Charli XCX’s brat album.
Listen, all we can tell you is that this is almost exactly the same marketing and the letters on the poster simply read, “PL25”. Come on… you do the math(s).
Spotting at least two of the posters for ourselves around both Newton and Thomas Street in and around the Northern Quarter, plenty of people have been double-taking at the simple but bold and undeniably eye-catching portrait posters.
Trust us, we weren’t the only ones stopping to take a picture and frantically send them to half of our phonebook either.
Charli herself hasn’t given us any other clues on social media thus far – to be fair, this one feels fairly obvious to us – but it’s well worth keeping your eyes peeled on her stories as she did plenty of teasing before dropping Brat and it’s completely different but also still brat.
Still can’t get over that actually being the title, by the way.
It’s also worth noting that Parklife themselves recently confirmed that festival fans can expect to find out their headliners and the full 2025 lineup very soon. Check out that colour…
Oh, who are we kidding? That’s not apple green it’s straight-up BRAT green, b*tch. We’re fully getting carried away and you’ll just have to deal with it.
Even if it somehow turns out she’s not headlining it’s certainly looking like she’s going to be there and it wouldn’t be the first time.
Better yet, fans of the pop sensation won’t have to wait too long to see her right here in Greater Manchester because Charli is bringing her already smash-hit tour to Co-op Live next Wednesday, 27 November and in case you couldn’t tell by all the shouting in capitals, we’re very excited.
Roll on ‘PL25’. Other than Charli XCX, who else would you like to see as your Parklife headliners next summer?
Bez and Shaun Ryder are starring in a new gangster movie – nope, not kidding
Danny Jones
No, you didn’t misread the headline and you’re not on acid: Manchester music legends Bez and Shaun Ryder are set to feature in a brand-new gangster film.
Yes, the ones from the Happy Mondays – why are you having such trouble processing this?
Seriously though, we did a little double-take ourselves when we came across this news, but the familiar Manc faces look to be among the ensemble of a brand-new gangster movie by Irish writer, actor, producer and filmmaker, Ciaron Davies.
And this is just a little leak or rumour that may have been blown out of proportion: you can take it from the horse’s mouth as Happy Mondays frontman, Ryder, recently shared the news on social media.
As you can see, the new film is called Geezers and is billed as a “British crime caper” written and directed by Davies, featuring Shaun as hard-man Robbie and Bez as ‘Monk’. If you saw Ryder shaking off that snake biting his hand like it was nothing then you already know he’s hard as nails.
Although it’s not strictly listed as a comedy per se, ‘caper’ would suggest plenty of humour and light-heartedness, so we’re thinking more like The Gentleman, Italian Job, or maybe even Four Lions, rather than a serious crime thriller.
Now, while we’ve seen both of the Salfordians on screen before not only in the likes of music videos, interviews, panel shows and even as two of the funniest guests to ever go on Celebrity Gogglebox, this latest venture will serve as their respective acting debuts.
According to the IMDb page, the synopsis of the film is as follows: “Crime caper about a stolen bag of money. Caught in the crossfire are ‘The Geezers’ a bunch of wannabe criminals who have bitten off more than they can chew. With 24 hours to grab the cash, London may just go up in smoke tonight.”
Shame it’s not set on the mean streets of Manchester, or better yet Salford, but you’ve still very much caught our interest.
You can see the first promotional poster for the film down below.
As for Davies, he has been involved with a number of small-budget TV film projects, as well as appearing in shorts and even video games, so it’s fair to say that getting 62-year-old Ryder and his ever-energetic hype man, 60, involved is quite the coup for his movie-making career.
Although the film has no release date just yet, we know that filming locations having included parts of Warrington and Pinewood Studios, will be produced by Loose Gripp Films and distributed by publishers High Fliers.
Given the high-octane nature of Geezers and its genre, the feature will involve lots of action, stunts, violence and even martial arts – though how much kung-fu these two will have learned for the project remains to be seen…
All we know is that the film is supposedly “coming soon” and if you don’t want to see Bez and Shaun Ryder doing their best impression of a Guy Ritchie gangster movie then you’re lying to yourself. Praying for a Rowetta cameo to put the cherry on top.