Noel Gallagher delivers flawless performance at Sunday Sessions Norwich

Sunday Sessions might never be able to top this, I'm going to say that from the off. Well let me tell you why, Noel Gallagher really did deliver an absolutely flawless performance with his High Flying Birds. This was the first time I've been to Sunday Sessions in Norwich and with the event being held in the UEA grounds it was all very easy to get to from outside of the city with plenty of parking, food stalls and toilets (yes this is important!), with some of the support bands bringing their own energy to the stage such as October Drift (with a full review up soon) and Razorlight providing us with plenty of tunes.

(C) Rhona Murphy

We all know Noel from his time in Oasis and in recent years his ongoing feud with his brother, but there is no love lost here as Noel takes the Liam lead songs from the Oasis back catalogue and proceeds to blow fans away with his take on classics such as "Wonderwall" and "Stop Crying Your Heart Out".

With the stage set Noel broke out to a massive round of applause and headed straight into a solid batch of his own solo work, with "Fort Knox" bringing a splash of psychedelica to the partially gloomy skies over Norwich, but with the backdrop blasting out colourful shapes and visuals the atmosphere was set for a brilliant hour and a half.

After the opener came a string of his solo efforts all coming from his latest LP, "Who Built The Moon?" - with lots of fans lapping it up as after all, it is an excellent album. It's great to see Noel going in a new direction with his music and really laid down the tracks perfectly in the live setting. But next up was a dash of songs he wrote under his time in Oasis. "Talk Tonight", "The Importance of Being Idle" and "Little By Little" all were well received with the former of the trio of tracks providing one of the biggest sing-a-longs in the set... so far. The banter on the stage after those three suddenly gave the event a bit more than just Noel singing song Oasis tunes, it became much more with the crowd even joking and heckling the legendary singer-songwriter.

(C) Rhona Murphy

After those songs Noel took it down a notch by performing the bonus track off his latest album, "Dead In The Water", which was by far the best song he performed on the night, it was so tender and relaxing with the crowd dead silent as he performed it with such soul with his piano player.

Obviously it won't be a former Oasis band member gig without the obligatory rendition of "Wonderwall", which was a pleasant surprise to all as he put his own spin on the track he wrote back in the early 90's. Something tells me this track will never age and will always resonate with anyone who loves Oasis and Noel. But before the show was to end he smashed out two more Oasis tracks, with him dedicating "Stop Crying Your Heart Out" to the Norwich City fans as he said "You'll be singing this when you get relegated next year" - and as the crowd laughed he went right into the classic.

"Don't Look Back In Anger" and a cover of The Beatles "All You Need Is Love" rounded up the set, which was perfect in every way. If I'm being picky he could've played "Stop The Clocks" but that's just me being a fan of his work. The event was a resounding success with TV legend Dave Benson-Phillips hosting the stage in-between the bands giving someone who is a proper 90's kid a real throwback.

Cheers Sunday Sessions Norwich, was a great day out - see you next year!

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds Setlist Sunday Sessions Norwich 2019, Wait &  Return Tour 2019