Noel Gallagher and his High Flying Birds - Flying high at The Downs!!!

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A tale of two halves

Noel Gallagher's High flying Birds **** Now in its third year, the Bristol Downs Festival was back with a bang, having been headlined by local heroes Massive Attack in its first year and Elbow last year it was the turn of Noel Gallgher and his High Flying Birds to headline the event. Since his departure from Oasis back in 2009 this has been his musical set up since 2011.

He opened the set with numbers from the High Flying Birds firstly ‘Fort Knox’ and including ‘In the heat of the Moment’ and ‘Dream On’. It was all set to a wonderful stage show with the stage bathed in lights and some quite theatrical moments such as band mates using a telephone as a musical instrument / prop.

At times it almost had the feel of a show rather than a concert. But at times it felt like style over substance, the songs did not seem to be well known so not many sing along opportunities which add to the atmosphere at big gigs and one after the other you realise the songs are a bit samey. I was waiting for it to pick up to the next level all of the time.

Now I am not one looking for a nostalgia trip and nothing else, I see a lot of new bands and totally get that what I am going to write sounds biased, yes I was an Oasis fan but being honest have not listened to it much since. However, when he played the more well know tunes of yester year the atmosphere seemed to peak more with ‘Little by Little’ and ‘Whatever’ getting rousing reactions from the crowd.

You get the idea that Noel probably knows this too though as the last part of the set was stacked with Oasis songs with ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ having thousands joining it, it was probably audible miles away. Though to be fair, if I was waiting for it to get going it certainly had a memorable ending with Paul Weller joining him for ‘Town called Malice’ and perhaps unsurprisingly for an ex Oasis member, a Beatles cover of ‘All You Need Is Love‘ which had there been a roof would have bought it down.

Now it was an amazing event and a complete success yet again and I hope it continues for many more years. But came away slightly conflicted from Noel's set, yes a grandstand finish but it’s a shame that people do not seem to have taken to his solo stuff more such as they have with Paul Weller before who has as many, if not more standalone songs than with The Jam or Style Council. Or perhaps it’s best not to over think these things and enjoy it for what it was and it was obviously  enjoyed by all those attending the Downs  this year.

Review by Jon Cooper and Photo's by Chris Cooper

Check Out! The Video to 'Holy Mountain' below...