A MERE two months after Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds played both Newcastle and Leeds he returned to the area last Friday delivering a career encompassing set at Scarborough’s Open Air Theatre, writes DAVE LAWRENCE.

The Stranded On The Earth world tour may be entering its final stages but Gallagher steadfastly refused to go through the motions as he tore through tracks from his solo career and delivered sufficient Oasis nostalgia to keep everyone happy.

Now three long-players deep into his post Oasis career, Gallagher opened with four tracks -‘Fort Knox’, ‘Holy Mountain’, ‘Keep On Reaching’ and ‘It’s a Beautiful World’ - from last year’s ‘Who Built The Moon?’ album,

In between songs, Gallagher cheerily exchanged words with the audience, or indulged their chants of ‘Football’s Coming Home’ before, at one point, responding, “Seriously though, it so f***’** isn’t”.

A powerful take on ’In The Heat Of The Moment’ was excellent, and ‘Little By Little’ and ‘The Importance of Being Idle’ temporarily sated the Oasis fans, who were further delighted with ‘Half The World Away’ and ‘Wonderwall’.

Perhaps not so well judged was ‘Supersonic’, delivered acoustically and thus stripping it of its energy and drive, and proving the only occasion where Liam’s sneering vocals were missed. That said, it was ‘Supersonic’ so there’s little to complain about, and ‘Go Let It Out’ then redeemed him fully.

The evening ended with a couple of mass singalongs in the form of ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ and a cover of ‘All You Need Is Love’.