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Oasis made a glorious return to Manchester, dedicating songs to two other stars associated with the city: Caroline Aherne and Pep Guardiola.
The homecoming gig took place on Friday night (12 July) at Heaten Park, one week after their highly praised first performance of the reunion tour in Cardiff. It was the first of five sell-out shows they will play in Manchester.
Around 80,000 people flocked to see the band’s first hometown show in 16 years, which featured more than one nod to other notable figures from Manchester’s recent history.
During the set, Noel dedicated a rendition of “Half the World Away” to the late comedian and actor Caroline Aherne.
The 1998 track, from Oasis’s compilation album The Masterplan, was used as the themesong for the hit TV sitcom The Royle Family, which Aherne wrote and starred in.
Noel Gallagher during Oasis's reunion concert at Manchester's Heaton Park
open image in gallery
Noel Gallagher during Oasis's reunion concert at Manchester's Heaton Park (Big Brother Recordings)
“This one is for Caroline,” said Gallagher before starting the song. Aherne died in 2016, just two years after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
Elsewhere during the concert, Liam Gallagher dedicated “D’You Know What I Mean?” to “the greatest manager of all time, the one and only Pep Guardiola”. The Spanish coach has been in charge of Manchester City, the team the Gallagher brothers support, since 2016, winning 18 trophies in that time.
Guardiola, 54, was in attendance at the show, where the dedication was met with some boos, likely from fans of rival football teams. Noel amusingly responded to the jeers, asking the crowd: “Who you f***ing booing?”
The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich manager was pictured with Liam’s two sons Lennon, 25, and Gene, 24, and Noel’s three children Anais, 25, Donovan, 17 and Sonny, 14, before the show began.
Gene, whose mother is Liam’s ex-wife Nicole Appleton, shared a photograph to Instagram, with the caption: “Pic of the century alright now everyone else f*** off.”
Guardiola’s daughter, Maria, later posted a video of her and her father passionately singing along to Oasis’s 1996 hit song “Don’t Look Back in Anger”.
Oasis’s triumphant homecoming gig follows on from their shows at Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, where they kicked off their reunion tour on 4 July.
During that first performance, the band dedicated “Live Forever” to Liverpool player Diogo Jota, who died in a car crash with his brother Andre Silva on 3 July.
After Manchester, Oasis will visit London’s Wembley Stadium, Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium, and Dublin’s Croke Park throughout July, August and September.
Liam Gallagher during Oasis's reunion concert at Manchester's Heaton Park
open image in gallery
Liam Gallagher during Oasis's reunion concert at Manchester's Heaton Park (Big Brother Recordings)
The Oasis reunion tour was announced in August last year, decades after Noel quit the band after a backstage brawl at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris in 2009.
While fans were thrilled at the news, some were left outraged after a number of standard tickets in the UK and Ireland jumped from £148 to £355.
The controversy prompted the Government and the UK’s competition watchdog to pledge to look at the use of dynamic pricing.
Liam Gallagher made a controversial joke over the ticket pricing scandal on the first night of their tour, asking the crowd: “You having a good time, yeah? Is it worth the £40,000 you paid for the ticket?”