Oasis's Wembley gig is a walk in the parka

Instead, aside from the giant video screens, they treated the first of their three Wembley Stadium nights as if it were their local pub. They shuffled on stage, they played some music and they shuffled off stage.

Surely no act with their pulling power has got away with so little on-stage action. The three drones, plus touring keyboardist Jay Darlington (late of Kula Shaker), were invisible.

Gallery: Oasis at Wembley

Noel Gallagher put his head down and played, while younger brother Liam put his hands behind his back and sang. For Oasis, it’s all music and no frippery. It’s also a way of ensuring their survival.

So, just as The Rolling Stones have spent the last 40 years unsuccessfully attempting to emulate their golden period, Oasis have spent the last 14 unsuccessfully trying to eclipse their masterpiece (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? The Stones filled the void by re-inventing themselves as a reliable stadium act and these days Oasis play Wembley Stadium more often than the Gallaghers’ beloved Manchester City.

Unusually, Liam was in a lighter mood than Noel last night. The sweary singer dressed as if preparing for a new Ice Age, but he dedicated Cigarettes And Alcohol to customers of his new designer clothing range Pretty Green (and how ironic that someone who seems not to have changed his clothes for a decade should emerge as the Mancunian Bruno), chiding the crowd as "soft southerners" before deciding that "you’re the bollocks", which was sweet of him.

Although Noel sang the wondrous The Masterplan as if he knew it was the great, lost Oasis song and dedicated Songbird to "the missus", Sara MacDonald, he was clearly frustrated by the sound failing — as it had at Manchester’s Heaton Park last month — during Wonderwall.

Initially, the crowd assumed it was merely an opportunity for them to sing a cappella but afterwards — unlike in Manchester — Noel was quick to note that "nobody is getting their money back, not one f***ing one of you" to a not entirely rapturous response. Later, he introduced a heartstrings-tugging mass singalong run through Don’t Look Back In Anger as "another joke you won’t get".

He was right there. It must be the way Britain’s grumpiest national treasure tells ‘em.

Oasis, Kasabian, The Enemy
Wembley Stadium
Empire Way, HA9 0RJ