Wigan’s large scale gig drought finally comes to an end – with a fantastic series of big names performing at the sports arena. We are in attendance for Noel Gallagher.

THE WIGAN SCENE

It’s been a strange decade of contrasts for the Wigan music scene, on the one hand you have The Lathums and The Lottery Winners both performing to huge crowds and topping the album charts, with strong support from Stanleys, Fletchettes, The Facades, Casino Club and The Lilacs to name just a few. But whilst the borough’s creative output has never been stronger, it’s venues have struggled and closed. The structural issues at The Old Courts have hit the local night time economy particularly hard and following the demise of the Haigh Hall events it has been a relatively barren time for your Wiganese live music punter seeking big events.

So it was with much excitement, that on a cold February matchday at the DW Stadium (tbh they’re always cold) – the big screen advertised that a series of arena shows would be held at the athletics arena next door. Five nights of music with such big draws as The Lathums, Richard Ashcroft (two nights), James Arthur and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds (NGHFB).

Roll on to a very warm and humid July evening and the arena was completely transformed – the full length of the athletics track was converted into a massive 11,500 standing capacity outdoor music arena, complete with accessible seating, bars, merch stall, food outlets and VIP area, and at the top end was an absolute beast of a stage.

Support for NGHFB comes in the form of The Slow Readers Club – who brought along a dedicated and passionate crowd of followers from Manchester, followed by The Lottery Winners – who clearly felt that they had indeed won the big prize.

The Lottery Winners

The Lottery Winners always put on a great show, but Thom Rylance made the most of having this huge, local crowd at his fingertips and went full-on Freddie – engaging the crowd with lively series of Ay-Ohs! before finally getting the music started. Thom; clearly having the time of his life, spoke with great passion about the inspiration that he took from the Oasis album Definitely Maybe – he even brought along his own CD copy, that was triumphantly held aloft at various points during their set – I do hope he managed to get it signed!

Following a reasonably short intermission, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds took to the now psychedelically colourful and florally decorated stage, the huge live band was also accompanied by a life-sized, bescarfed cardboard cut-out of Pep Guardiola who watched over proceedings with an eagle eye.

NOEL GALLAGHER’S HIGH FLYING BIRDS

Performing for a solid hour and a half – the first 50 minutes is devoted to the High Flying Birds catalogue. A personal highlight is the superb AKA What a Life, which is dedicated to the many Manchester City supporters in attendance.

Noel appears much more engaged with the audience than he has been at other shows on the tour, sadly you couldn’t always hear the banter due to the loud and incessant chatting amongst the crowd – if this gripe makes me seem old, then so be it – but I will never understand why someone would pay up to £120 to go to a show and then just loudly and disrespectfully natter with their mates.

With the High Flying Birds catalogue section of the show complete, the set then moves into territory that much of the crowd eagerly anticipated – the Oasis hits.

THE HITS

A final section includes nine Oasis behemoths including Whatever, Half the World Away and Little by Little. Add in a sublime encore of Stand by Me, Live Forever and the only possible way to close the show – Don’t Look Back in Anger – and you have a brief history of 90’s indie rock.

The crowd sing along as if their lives depend on it. Noise generated is apparently sufficient enough to be heard as far away as Shevington and Orrell – although happily, no one seems to complain!

As Noel leaves the stage, it is clear that the evening is a huge, joyous success and it seems that other evenings are equally well received. I; like many others, will hope that this sets a precedent and we hope that we can look forward to this being an annual series of arena gigs, what do you say SJM Concerts? Definitely, maybe?

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds: Website / Facebook

The Lottery Winners: Website / Facebook

The Slow Readers Club: Website / Facebook

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