(I Wanna Live In A Dream In My) Record Machine [4:25]
AKA... What A Life! [4:35]
[band introduction] [1:31]
Talk Tonight [4:43]
Soldier Boys And Jesus Freaks [3:39]
AKA... Broken Arrow [4:12]
Half The World Away [3:47]
(Stranded On) The Wrong Beach [4:56]
[encore break] [1:35]
Little By Little [5:45]
The Importance Of Being Idle [3:52]
Don't Look Back In Anger [5:28]
Release Notes
Type: Audience (master), recorded front of house, 5 metres back from the left PA stack.
Source: 2 x matched DPA 4060 mics ->
DPA MMA6000 amplifier (100 Hz low-cut filter) ->
Edirol R-09HR recorder (44.1 kHz/16 bit WAV)
Lineage: Audacity 1.3.13-beta (tracks split, fades added) ->
FLAC (compression level 8) [libFLAC 1.2.1 20070917]
15 minutes before I entered the Melkweg, I still didn't know whether I was
going to get into this tonight.
I hadn't known about the pre-sale, you see. Although I'm on the Melkweg's
mailing list, the e-mail about the pre-sale for Noel Gallagher's gig didn't go
out until the day after the tickets went on sale. Genius.
Needless to say, they were all gone in well under 24 hours. In fact, I hear
that the gig sold out within just a few minutes. I can believe it.
When it comes to getting into gigs, where there's a will, there's almost
always a way. In 30 years of gig attendance, sometimes at a sold out show and
without a ticket, I've managed to get into all but one gig.
Trawling Marktplaats.nl for the last three months had failed to result in a
REASONABLY priced ticket. I don't deal with tout agencies, so if I couldn't
get a ticket for a fair price from a real person, I had made my peace with the
idea of missing the show.
As an Oasis fan of some 17 years, however, I wasn't about to give up without
making a concerted effort. Although Noel's debut album had failed to elicit
more than a lukewarm response from me, I definitely wanted to see him perform
it live.
As I arrived, the queue to get into the venue stretched all the way back to
the Leidseplein. I quickly realised I stood little to no chance of obtaining a
ticket if I stood near the venue with the other hopefuls, so I started to walk
back towards the Leidseplein, having determined that it would be better to
catch people as they came around the corner on their bike or got off at the
tram stop.
Before I even reached the corner, a bloke appeared in front of me, waving a
ticket and announcing that it was for sale. Well, he didn't have to shout
twice.
A reasonable fellow, he sought to recoup only the ticket's face value, which I
gratefully handed over before joining the queue to get inside.
Support was from Electric Soft Parade, whose first song I missed, because I
was in the lavs, hooking up my microphones. When I entered the Max, the crowd
was already starting to get dense, so I headed straight down to the front to
take up my usual position in front of the left PA.
Unusually, a crowd barrier had been erected a metre back from the stage.
Melkweg audiences can usually stand at the foot of the stage and look up their
heroes' nostrils, but not tonight. I wondered whether the trench might have
been created to allow a camera crew to move around freely, because the gig was
due to be streamed live via the Web.
Shortly before Noel was due to come on, a member of the security staff engaged
a photographer in conversation on the stairs to the balcony. I'm not sure what
the problem was -- perhaps the photographer wasn't carrying a press pass --
but after a short chat, the security guard put his hand on the photographer's
shoulder and attempted to escort him to the back of the hall. When the
photographer resisted, several other burly bouncers quickly descended upon him
and, after a brief scuffle, he was yanked off his feet and hastily carried
away through a doorway like a wounded soldier.
Anyway, when Noel and his band came on at 20:35, the trench in front of the
stage filled with security guards, who immediately started to hassle people
about taking photos. They didn't pick on everyone, though, so perhaps they
were only going after people using a flash or a (semi-)professional camera.
I was close to the front and there were too many guards to track the
whereabouts of, so maximum discretion was going to be the order of the day. I
was as circumspect as I could be whilst adjusting the levels and, as soon as I
was happy, consigned the recorder to my pocket for the rest of the evening.
In any case, the fairly narrow dynamic range of the concert made it clear that
this wouldn't be an issue.
What followed was a balanced mix of Noel's debut solo album, interspersed with
selected Oasis hits. Extra songs played tonight are the B-side to 'The Death
Of You And Me', 'The Good Rebel', and a new song called 'Freaky Teeth', which,
Noel informs us, will be out in 2012 as part of his collaboration with The
Amorphous Androgynous.
With the exception of the closing song, 'Stop The Clocks', the High Flying
Birds play their debut album in its entirety; in the same running order, too.
The audience are enthusiastic, but well behaved. There's plenty of shouting,
but no beer throwing. The occasional whiff of hash drifts into my nostrils,
but the smoking is isolated and not bothersome. No-one comes crashing down on
my head or gouges my ankles with their heels. These are prerequisites for a
good night out, as far as I'm concerned.
The audience know every word to every song. They also all seem to know which
song is coming next and shout for it right on cue. The place is full of
English fans, many of whom are, no doubt, following Noel around Europe. A good
share of them seem to be Mancunians, too, which adds to the banter throughout
the evening, much of which is, hardly surprisingly, Man City based.
And it does feel as if we're on the football terraces. It's a sing-along
tonight, with Noel occasionally drowned out by the sheer volume of his fans
singing in unison.
During the third and final song of the encore, a rousing rendition of 'Don't
Look Back in Anger', Noel chuckles at the massive swell of volume coming from
the floor. He doesn't even try to sing the chorus until its final run-through.
He wouldn't be heard, anyway.
Every arm in the Melkweg is in the air; except mine, that is. I must be the
only person not singing along; and for me, too, it's hard not to.
Noel thanks us and then the High Flying Birds retire to their nest for the
evening, having clearly enjoyed the gig as much as we all have.
The sound of the recording is very good, but perhaps not quite up to my usual
standard. Noel's vocals were a bit low in the mix, I felt, but were, in any
case, sometimes barely audible over the crowd, 99% of whom were behind me, so
there was little I could have done to remedy this. My location for recording
the gig was optimal.
So, a soundboard recording this isn't, but with the proviso that you don't
mind the ambience that the audience bring to the show, it's nevertheless a
very good recording. It's certainly a faithful representation of what was a
great gig, with a band in top form and an audience who would rather be nowhere
else on Earth for these 93 minutes.
As I said, this gig was also streamed via the Web (www.eurovisionculture.tv)
and broadcast live on the radio in 13 European countries, so we can expect
some alternative sources to emerge in the near future.
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"futchduck" 3FM Broadcast [flac]
"lord" Webcast Source [dvd]