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Noel Gallagher at the Royal Albert Hall

So last night we popped over to the Royal Albert Hall for the first of this year’s Teenage Cancer Trust charity gigs. And yeah, as I’ve said many times before, I know it’s neither big nor clever to like Oasis, but I’m a simple chap, with simple needs, and I therefore I jump at the chance to sit down in a room with very good acoustics, a few thousand people, and Noel Gallagher playing all those old B-Sides (they were always my favourite Oasis tracks anyway…)

Shack, Teenage Cancer Trust, Royal Albert Hall

We arrived half way through Shack’s short opening set. And gosh, isn’t Mick Head looking old these days (well, what we could see of him underneath that big hat)? The voice is still the same distinctive rasp, though. Predictably they didn’t play anything off the only one of their albums that I own (HMS Fable) but they still sounded great.

The View, Teenage Cancer Trust, Royal Albert Hall

On the other hand, how young do The View look? Are they actually old enough to be up this late, I wondered as they took to the stage all fresh faced and innocent-looking? (Although given that they managed to get themselves banned from every Travelodge in the country–wow! trashing a Travelodge; that’s some rock n’ roll behaviour right there lads–they clearly aren’t that innocent after all).

Despite the first few songs being marred by some nasty howling (and surely unintentional) feedback, they sound alright (especially when they get to “the hits” at the end). Neither of us have a clue what they’re saying, though (although apparently we’re not the only ones: “I like them but I can’t understand a word they are saying,” [Gallagher] joked. “I’ll bring my missus down later so she can do some interpreting for us because she is Scottish. I love their singles.”

Noel Gallagher, Teenage Cancer Trust, Royal Albert Hall

And then it was time for the Noel to take to the stage, but before that, while the house lights were up and people were milling about pushing through to the bar or their seats, we noticed that some young kids (although probably not as young as The View) were being introduced to someone in the private box just behind us to the right, and now that someone appeared to be signing autographs and posing for a photo.

Must be someone famous. I thought…

Oh hang on, isn’t that Mischa Barton off-of TV’s The OC? Yes. Apparently it is…

Mischa Barton, Sitting Behind Us at the Teenage Cancer Trust, Royal Albert HallSinging autographs
For the kids: Mischa Barton
At Noel’s solo gig

Anyway, the gig was predictably great:

He played things like Talk Tonight, Listen Up, Fade Away and (It’s Good) To Be Free.

He said things like “Did any of you have a record player in 1994?”.
I didn’t have a record player in 1994, but I knew this could only mean that he was about to play Sad Song (or perhaps Bonehead’s Bank Holiday if he’d got his years mixed up…).
“He’s going to play Sad Song!” I said to Sal.
He played Sad Song.
It was great!

He produced a Paul Weller to play Butterfly Collector and All You Need Is Love.
He produced a string section to play Wonderwall and even Don’t Go Away.
He even played There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
And then Don’t Look Back In Anger, and we all (even Ms Barton) got up and sang along.

So, yeah, as I said: it’s lowest common denominator crowd pleasing, but I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with that once in a while.

UPDATE: Now with added Ewe Choobie-style goodness (and see also here):