On the 29th of October, at the Samhain Festival in Weston Airport, I was fortunate enough to have tickets to see Liam Gallagher. The former frontman of Oasis and Beady Eye, had not released any material for four years, until early that month when he put out his number one, debut-solo album, ‘As You Were’. The record was met with both critical and commercial acclaim, shipping over one-hundred thousand units beating the rest of the top ten UK albums sales combined.

Not knowing what to except from the Mancunian, backed by his new band that features former ‘Babyshambles’ bassist, Drew McDonnell, I was eager to find out exactly how they would sound. As I got the 67 bus from Maynooth to Weston, each stop was accompanied by roars of Oasis tunes and lads getting on geared up in their finest parkas, Fred Perry polo shirts and a pairs of Addidas Originals. Getting into the gig was easy with a shuttle bus taking me straight to the gate. The Strypes provided support and their 45 minute set was blistering, playing songs from their old and new album.

Liam Gallagher at Weston Airport

After they had finished anticipation set in for Liam Gallagher. The DJ played some music from Manchester’s best bands, ironically playing ‘Panic’ by The Smiths which features the lines ‘Hang the DJ’. Once that stopped a minute of silence fell before ‘Fuckin’ in the Bushes’ blared out of the speakers and Gallagher with the same swagger he had from 20 years ago, strolled out on stage, arms swinging to the cheers of everyone in attendance.

Liam opened his set with two Oasis songs, ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Star’ and ‘Morning Glory’. Clearly having rescued his voice from past days, he sounded as good as he was in the early 2000’s. After the two tracks which blew the crowd away, he started into his new songs which included the singles ‘Wall of Glass’, ‘Greedy Soul’ and ‘For What It’s Worth’. Gallagher’s punk like presence enthralled the crowd, not needing to say anything instead participating in his philosophy of stillism. We were also treated to some firsts with Liam singing ‘Some Might Say’ for the first time since 2002 and ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’ for the first time since becoming a solo artist.

The concert ended with an encore of ‘Wonderwall’ and closed out the most biblical live experience of music I have ever witnessed. I was left awe-struck at what I had just seen and I intend on going to see him again in the summer at Malahide Castle.