Album Review: Liam Gallagher, MTV Unplugged Live at Hull City Hall (Warner Records)

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Liam Gallagher’s live show, recorded in August 2019, enters the UK charts at number one, three in a row for him. It is also the biggest selling of the Unplugged series since Nirvana in 1994.

Wall of Glass sets the tone for the whole set. Strummed acoustic guitar followed by a skirling organ. Liam comes in with that distinctive great voice, honed out of his obsession with and reverence of John Lennon. Raw, emotional, and inspirational. Northern English soul music with an Irish heart.

The football chants of Liam Liam start, and continue between each song.

Some Might Say follows, the first of the Oasis classics covered tonight. This one has a lovely piano break. An uplifting performance and the audience sing as they do for most of the songs.

By this time, I feel like joining the football chants and leaping about the room (and the car).

Now That I’ve Found You is from his last studio album Why Me? Why Not. Dedicated to his daughter Molly. There is a female chorus to support. Echoes of Sixties. Kinks, Rod Stewart and the Faces.

One of Us has strings backing. Uplifting and anthemic, and with the chorus coming in, it sounds gospel in the fashion of Madonna’s Like a Prayer.

Stand by Me might be the pick of the Oasis covers tonight, from Be Here Now. A little softer and consequently more vulnerable and emotional than the original.

Sad Song is from the Oasis debut Definitely Maybe, and guitarist Bonehead comes up to play. There are massed strings providing a comforting blanket, but Liams voice stands out.

Once sounds sparse and confessional, and calls up the spirit of The Plastic Ono Band.

That’s the fooking bollocks, aye says Liam.

That and Gone are both picked off Why Me? Why Not

Closes with a rousing Chamagne Supernova. Audience help to bring it all back home.

A genuinely warm and emotionally rousing show, and Liam shows his appreciation to the Hull fans for the night.

And what is a champagne supernova? Well, that’s what Lucy sees when she’s flying in the sky with diamonds.

~Rev Orange Peel                 

Rev Orange Peel
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