Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds: Piece Hall Halifax – Live Review

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds | Andrew Cushin
Piece Hall, Halifax
1st August 2024

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds made a welcome return to Halifax’s Piece Hall after last playing here 2 years ago. The sun blazed down on the stunning historic venue, providing a picturesque backdrop for the concert, which coincided with Yorkshire Day, adding to the festive atmosphere. The setlist included a mix of Gallagher’s solo work and Oasis classics, set to a series of stunning videos that delighted the sold-out crowd.

Geordie rising star Andrew Cushin was in charge of warming up the crowd and delivered an impressive set full of energy, showcasing both his songwriting talents and strong vocals. Playing songs such as Catch Me If You Can, Where’s My Family Gone and latest single It’s Coming Round Again, he delivered a set full of energy with a really strong stage presence which ensured the whole crowd was bouncing and ready for the main event.

Noel Gallagher entered the stage which, as usual, was brightly decorated with an abundance of flowers and also the now infamous cardboard cut out of Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola complete with football scarf, and began his set with Pretty Boy from the High Flying Bird’s most recent album Council Skies. This then shifted seamlessly into the album’s title track. Two more tracks from the same album followed – We’re Gonna Get There In The End and Open The Door, See What You Find. Noel then explained to the crowd how we were going to “go on a journey and end up back in the 90s” – the news was well received.

We then moved on to the 2015 album Chasing Yesterday, with an amazing performance of You Know We Can’t Go Back. Noel acknowledged the fact that it was Yorkshire Day – in a way that only Noel and his dry wit can. He asked the crowd what it was all about, stating that there aren’t any good Yorkshire pubs anywhere in the world, not even in Yorkshire – and then referred to the fact that maybe it was created to allow people to have their wicked way with sheep without getting into trouble. This signature banter was met with chants of “Yorkshire! Yorkshire! Yorkshire!” from the crowd.

We’re On Our Way Now and In The Heat Of The Moment followed. Noel then dedicated his next song If I Had A Gun to “the greatest football manager of all time” Pep, stating that he is the only God Noel will ever need – referencing lyrics from the song, and what an amazing performance it was. Dead In The Water was the last High Flying Birds track of the night, with Noel stating “due to the amount of bucket hats out there I’m guessing there’s a few Oasis fans in here” and judging by the cheer that followed – he was right.

Going Nowhere from 1998 album The Masterplan was first up, followed by Talk Tonight and crowd favourite Whatever. Noel then carried on his interaction with the audience when a fan shouted asking him about Liam touring next year. Noel’s razor-sharp reply was that Liam “should be thankful that he benefits from my genius” – he then went on to ask the fan if he would be going to watch Liam and when he replied that he was, said “don’t forget who wrote the fucking songs” – which was met with huge applause from the crowd.

Half The World Away was next followed by The Masterplan, two songs which Noel acknowledged should never have just been B sides, telling the audience “I did a lot of cocaine in the nineties – you can tell”. This was followed by Little By Little, then a cover of Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart ended the night’s main set – a performance which I personally really enjoyed but it maybe fell a bit flat with the majority of the crowd.

However, the encore trio of Stand By Me, Live Forever and Don’t Look Back in Anger meant they were soon back in fine voice, singing along to every word and going home on a high. Noel ended the show with one last bit of humour – telling the crowd he loved them and not to go dogging on the way home, “just because it’s Yorkshire Day it doesn’t give you the right”.

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Noel Gallagher can be found at X| Facebook and their website

Andrew Cushin can be found at his website

All words by Natalie Royle, you can find her author’s archive here.

Photos by Joseph Cleary, AKA Anteup Photography Instagram and you can find him here