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Sound check: Do you want some?
Evening Standard 24.07.09
Along with fox hunting and cock fighting, perhaps we should be lobbying to have Gallagher-baiting banned as cruelty to dumb animals.
Oasis singer Liam got his dander up yet again during a gig at the Roundhouse this week, raging throughout his band's set after a pint was thrown at him early on. “Is that some fucking shitbag who's throwing fucking lager… a soft arse from fucking Camden town? Well get on this, fucking student,” was part of his rant.
Noel Gallagher sounded bemused when he blogged about the show afterwards: “What'siz'name exploded with pretend rage the minute he walked on. Strange cat. Probably on his man period.”
Big brother gets his share of trouble too, however. Last September Noel suffered three broken ribs when a fan attacked him onstage in Toronto.
After the group's gigs at Wembley Stadium a fortnight ago, the review on the Standard's webpage quickly filled with attendees complaining about fan behaviour. “My hair and clothes were covered in beer when I got home. Plus people were smoking and people were fighting. I have seen less trouble at a Millwall game,” wrote Tony, from Orpington. “Shame that Oasis are now the property of a primarily white feral male underclass,” added Jenny, from Croydon.
That big-match atmosphere is the reason Oasis work well in stadiums but there's no denying it can be intimidating.
It doesn't help that stadiums and festivals open their doors early enough to offer many hours of drinking time before the main attraction finally appears.
Yet even when Oasis aren't touring, similar-sounding bands find that the same type of audience gravitates towards them as well.
At a Kasabian concert at the Albert Hall in March, my row was drenched in red wine — admittedly a better class of hooliganism.
The soon-to-return Arctic Monkeys have a similar problem.
Even at last year's Hammersmith Apollo show by The Last Shadow Puppets, their side-project of florid Sixties-style pop, a man near me was so drunk he collapsed.
In contrast, from personal experience I have never noticed fear or tension around the sound that on paper is the most aggressive — metal.
The last Metallica gig I attended felt like an extremely noisy Physics lecture theatre, full of geeky men headbanging with politeness. However, the suspended sentence handed to Andrew Miller this week for attacking someone who asked him to stop waving his prosthetic leg around at an Alice Cooper concert in Southampton suggests I may have been lucky.
Although Mark Harding, who runs Showsec, the crowd management company providing security at the Oasis Roundhouse gig, knows better. He told me that no one band or type of music causes more trouble than another, and alcohol isn't the only issue.
“There are so many factors which affect good or bad behaviour,” he says. “Venue location, ticket-allocation procedures, venue organisation and security, alcohol sales, date and time of event are all significant. But the vast majority of music fans are impeccably behaved.”
Whether pop hooliganism is on the rise or not, at least we've left the dark days of punk behind. Better to be coated in lager than spit.
And when Oasis stay static as always, the best you can hope for as a spectacle is to prod Liam and see if he bites. These rougher shows aren't terrifying enough to be avoided altogether. Just bring a towel.
New on the net
* David Bowie has marked the 40th anniversary of the moon landing in the obvious way, by re-releasing Space Oddity.
He'll also give you the track divided into eight separate parts for remixing yourself if you buy it through www.iklaxmusic.com/davidbowie
* Prog-rockers Muse are turning the September release of their next album into an event by hiding four USB sticks containing new music somewhere on the planet.
Clues for the worldwide treasure hunt can be found at the intimidatingly complex-looking Ununitedeurasia.muse.mu.
* Just as the Beastie Boys announce the postponement of their new album due to Adam Yauch's cancer, a fine new track appears online to show us what we're missing.
Type “Beastie Boys Too Many Rappers” into YouTube to hear the trio battling with guest-star Nas over clattering drums and distorted bass.
An early listen to
Richard Hawley
Truelove's Gutter (Mute)
Come September, Sheffield troubadour Richard Hawley's sixth album will be a fitting accompaniment as the autumn nights draw in. Known as much for his comic between-song concert banter as his vintage crooning, you'd be forgiven for thinking he'd suffered some deep tragedy since his last release two years ago. Despite only eight tracks, this is his longest album, with two songs brooding away for 10 minutes each.
“I wanted it to be a listening experience, where you couldn't just pause it and go watch Coronation Street,” he says. A useful comparison is with Frank Sinatra's classic collection for the broken hearted, In the Wee Small Hours. For those in such a mood, Don't You Cry will devastate, a twinkling epic. There's less of the Fifties dancehall charm of his older records, but after years of grafting away before fame struck, he's earned the right to please himself. See him live on 8 October at Shepherd's Bush Empire, W12 (0844 477 2000, www.o2shepherds bushempire.co.uk).
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Reader views (4)
Like him or loathe him Liam,s voice is the strongest feature of the band.Without him as the frontman Noel and the others would struggle on the pub circuit
- Peter Bossendorfer, twickenham england.
Oasis gigs do tend to attract the most half witted fans. And to be honest, if its only beer you get on yourself you are lucky, often its a far warmer liquid.
- Daniel, Watford
It is because Oasis gigs tend to attract scroatbags that I decided not to go to the Wembley gig recently.
- Pa, London
Um, doesn't Liam himself live in Camden? Well, Primrose Hill, so not even as "hard" by his standards. Ironic that this should come from a man who used to spend his weekend driving up and down Camden High Street in his TVR just so he could be seen by a "soft arse from f****** Camden town".
For most bands, like attracts like, so it's not suprising that someone with the mental dexterity of a gerbil would attend an Oasis gig.
- Bob, Cheam
