Setlist: Oasis, Slane Castle, 20 June 2009

Slane returned to fine form with Oasis's first headline slot at the castle (they supported R.E.M. a few years back).

Check out IndieLimerick's review:
http://indielimerick.blogspot.com/2009/06/oasis-slane-2009-concert-review.html

Also, read Anthony McGuinness's review here:
http://www.anthonymcg.com/archives/2009/06/21/slane-2009-the-good-and-the-bad/


Setlist:
Fucking In The Bushes
Rock N Roll Star
Lyla
Shock Of The Lightning
Roll With It
Cigarettes And Alcohol
To Be Where There’s Life
Waiting For The Rapture
The Masterplan
Songbird
Slide Away
Morning Glory
My Big Mouth
The Importance Of Being Idle
Half The World Away
Wonderwall
Live Forever
---
Supersonic
Don't Look Back In Anger
Falling Down
Champagne Supernova
I Am The Walrus

Watch 'Wonderwall' live at Slane:

Live: Oasis at Slane stage times

If you're driving to Slane, you'll probably need to set off early as I'd say the traffic will be quite heavy. Car parks open at 12, so you can queue up before the gates open at 2. If you're there early, be sure to get a wristband for the pit up the front before they're all taken.

Dublin bus is also running shuttles from Parnell Square West every 20 minutes from 9. Tickets are €20 for the return trip.

12:00 CAR PARKS OPEN
14.00 CONCERT GATES OPEN
15:00 THE BLIZZARDS
16.00 GLASVEGAS
17.30 KASABIAN
19.00 THE PRODIGY
20.30 OASIS

And here's some directions if you're heading from Dublin:

View Larger Map

Watch: Peter Doherty queues for Oasis album

Old school, but still priceless:

Live: Oasis at Slane Castle 2009

Well, according to the Mirror or some rag. But On the Record blog has it, so I definitely think it's true then.

No dates, ticket prices, anything. But it's exactly what you'd expect for the return of Slane. A band past their best playing to fans who lap up everything they do. No new ground broken so.

Album News: Oasis - Another album on the way?

They're number 1 in the UK album charts this week, but allegedly they've already begun work on the follow-up to Dig Out Your Soul.

Have no idea where this is from, if someone can tell me I'll add a link:

Noel Gallagher has already written and demoed Oasis's follow up to Dig Out Your Soul. And, of course, it's "sickeningly good".
In an interview with London radio station XFM, Gallagher claims the band's next album has been written on a miniature kids drumkit in a cupboard-sized studio.
Talking about Dig Out Your Soul track Get Off Your High Horse Lady, he said: "There are another two songs that are really, really brilliant. One called I Want To Live In A Dream In My Record Machine which is a big Champagne Supernova, Stairway To Heaven-thing, which is amazing. And another one called Come On It's Alright which has a 50-piece choir signing the chorus on it."
I Want To Live In A Dream In My Record Machine found its way onto YouTube a few months back and many fans expected the song to be on Dig Out Your Soul.
"I wrote and demoed a full album while we were in the studio," Gallagher continued. "While we were mixing the album in the studio we had another studio that consisted of a cupboard and this little GarageBand thing in the corner. We bought a miniature kids' drum kit and wrote another record."
Gallagher added, typically, modestly, that the new songs he's written are sounding "sickeningly good".
"The new stuff is a proper concept. Have you heard Neil Young's Greendale? I say it with a smile on my face because as I'm saying it, I'm thinking: 'you pretentious c*nt'. It's all songs about characters and all the songs will have titles and in brackets it'll be 'AKA The Shopkeeper'.
"I've got to say, they're sickeningly good. Dave Sardy (producer) was freaking out saying: We should record these now."
Stop The Clocks - not to be confused with the compilation album of the same name - is another Oasis song that has never been released.
Despite the leaks of tracks from Dig Out Your Soul, the album sold 89,434 copies on its first day on sale in the UK (6 October), making it one of 2008's fastest first-day sellers. It's almost certain to be Number 1 in the UK chart on 12 October, the band's seventh Number 1 studio album in a row.

Album Review: Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul

Oasis – Dig Out Your Soul

Don’t Believe the Truth was the return everyone was hoping for. But returns aren’t always a good thing. Think of Kevin Keegan at Newcastle or Nasty Nick in Eastenders. The return may originally seem good, but then ends up reverting to averageness or even worse. This is what has just happened with Oasis. Their seventh album (released in Ireland last Friday), Dig Out Your Soul is not a continuation of their return to form. Instead it’s their return to being average.

There are elements of the good ol’ Oasis here. But sadly not enough. A few of the tracks in the first half could have made Don’t Believe the Truth (of course there’s no ‘Masterplan’, ‘Live Forever’, ‘Wonderwall’, etc.). Opener ‘Bag It Up’ will make a great single, with its excellent chorus – this is what Oasis does splendidly – big choruses. Remember ‘Lyla’? Well, you’ve probably heard ‘The Shock of the Lightning’ on the radio. Same sort of feel right? Nothing wrong with that. It’s just a pity it doesn’t happen more often on the record.

At first I thought ‘The Shock of the Lightning’ wasn’t a great song, it was just alright. But in the context of the album, it’s one of the standouts. That should probably tell you how good the album is as a whole. Don’t expect anything better.

Oasis can still pull off the good slow track (kind of what Feeder have been doing since the death of Jon Lee). ‘I’m Outta Time’ is the best song on the album, gentle but never boring. It also is probably the point where the album should have ended as an EP. The remainder of it is all a bit samey. It’s Oasis by the numbers.

Imagine how cool that would be a Paint By Numbers album? 1 = Vocals, 2= Lead Guitar, 3 = Rhythm Guitar, 4 = Bass, 5 = Drums, and then there’s 6-10 for small little flourishes here and there. But if you were to look at the Paint By Numbers chart for Dig Out Your Soul, there’d be a lot of 3 and not much 6 to 10. ‘Get Off Your High Horse Lady’ is an awful tune. It tries to be ‘The Importance of Being idle’, but ends up more ‘The Importance of Being Trite’.

There is half a good Oasis album in here though. There will never be another great Oasis album, just like the way Kevin Keegan will never win any sort of league title, but there may be something left to produce a consistently good effort. Maybe an FA Cup final run or somthing.

[At the time of writing I couldn’t think of any recent Man City comebacks. That probably would have been more accurate. But they’re all about the billions and Brazilians these days.]

News: Noel Gallagher's Top 10 bands

Seems some of these musicians are getting into this blogging malarky. Some may say it's just a way to get advertising for the new Oasis album. But if it is, it's working. Because I for one am writing about it.

Noel Gallagher has posted his top 10 bands of all time on
http://www.oasisinet.com/Index.aspx
for the reading pleasure of members. Luckily, I know what they are, so to save you some time (i.e. don't bother registering - you'll get loads of email!), here they are:

1. The Beatles
2. The Rolling Stones
3. The Who
4. Sex Pistols
5. The Kinks
6. The La's
7. Pink Floyd
8. The Bee Gees
9. The Specials
10 (Peter Green's) Fleetwood Mac

Wonder would Liam's be similar. And is the Who at #3 because of a certain drummer?

Here's Noel talking about The Smiths, who amazingly didn't make the cut:

Watch: Oasis - 'Shock of the Lightning'

Unfortunately I can't embed this, so you're going to have to follow the link, but I doubt you mind, when it's the exclusive new video for upcoming Oasis single 'Shock of the Lightning':
http://front.xstream.dk/eb/customers/eb/mediamaker_player.php?id=15405

Album News: Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul album cover

Oasis have released some quite strange album art for the cover of their upcoming album Dig Out Your Soul, due out in early October.

I'm not quite sure if I actually like it or not. It might grow on me!

Album News: Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul tracklisting revealed

A user of French forum http://www.nrj.fr has released the tracklisting of the brand new Oasis album Dig Out Your Soul:

To save you from translating it yourself, they say "it's an excellent album, the best from Oasis.

After an absence of three years, the band from Manchester presents its seventh album. The English press did not lie when they proclaimed it an excellent album.

Dig Out Your Soul is a treasure trove of music and is undoubtedly the best studio album of their career. Liam Gallagher said he would compose songs out of the usual construction and move towards a new sound. It's done!

The progression of songs is very consistent. From the raw energy of the first titles to the more sophisticated pieces at the end, the listener discovers new sounds, as if the group wanted to guide him throughout the hearing. The Gallagher brothers put aside their usual Britpop sound to focus on a sound much more rock, sometimes folk. And it's very heavy, especially the track '(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady'.

Never in excess, the rockers introduce arrangements of all kinds with the precision of a goldsmith. In addition, the guitar holds a prominent place in songs and provides real effectiveness on the record."

1. Bag It Up
2. The Turning
3. Waiting for the Rapture
4. The Shock of the Lightning
5. I'm Outta Time
6. (Get Off Your) High Horse Lady
7. Falling Down
8. To be Where There's Life
9. Ain't Got Nothin'
10. The Nature of Reality
11. Soldier On

Album News: Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul

Anyone who has bought a copy of this month's Mojo Magazine (that includes yours truly), will have seen the lovely write-up on the Gallagher brothers' latest release. In this modern age when people don't even bother paying for stuff - did you know that the Irish Times is now free to read online? - why would anyone buy music magazines? Something to read on a commute maybe? That's probably the only reason, because any news in them has been on the internet for weeks before publication. Well, there is another reason - to read exclusive interviews with the artists.

But what if someone (say Tom from stoptheclocks.org) scanned in the particular interview? Yeah, you would probably just read that online too. So as I'm all for free speech...
http://i31.tinypic.com/1196plv.jpg
http://i28.tinypic.com/34fk850.jpg
http://i26.tinypic.com/2usd5w3.jpg

Enjoy. And thanks Tom!

Album News: Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul

The new Oasis album has a "mega" title (because everything about Oasis is "mega"), Dig Out Your Soul. It's just the kind of album title you'd expect from Manchester City's most famous supporters. I'm an Aston Villa fan, the best we have is Nigel Kennedy, Ozzy Osbourne, and Prince William. My God.

The band's seventh album will be released in good ol' Blighty on October 6th, so expect an Irish release, as usual three days beforehand. Single 'The Shock of The Lightning' will raise anticipation levels when it's released on September 29th. The song is written by Noel with Liam on vocals.

Noel commented on the track:"If 'The Shock Of The Lightning' sounds instant and compelling to you, it's because it was written dead fast. And recorded dead fast. 'The Shock of The Lightning' basically is the demo. And it has retained its energy. And there’s a lot to be said for that, I think. The first time you record something is always the best."

He also had this to say about the album itself: "I wanted to write music that had a groove; not songs that followed that traditional pattern of verse, chorus and middle eight. I wanted a sound that was more hypnotic; more driving. Songs that would draw you in, in a different way. Songs that you would maybe have to connect to – to feel."

Something different from the Gallaghers so? Probably not, I'd say it'll just sound like another Oasis album (not necessarily a bad thing). After hearing Chris Martin chime on about a "latin feel", it's hard to take anything artists say seriously. Have they heard their own music? And, it's always hard to take anything Noel Gallagher says seriously. MEGA!