Noel Gallagher / Graham Coxon

North and South Korea may still be at war 60-plus years on, but the news is brighter over here, where a truce has formally been called – yes, the Brit-Pop War of 1995 is finally over, signalled by Graham Coxon’s support set on Noel Gallagher’s brief UK Autumn 2012 tour, which called in at the Cardiff Motorpoint Arena. Obviously it was a sell-out despite the hefty ticket price – never having seen either Oasis or Blur in the flesh, I figured it was a worthwhile investment.

Coxon and his five young musicians went for the lo-fi wall of noise approach, with, on occasion, a four-guitar assault going on; starting out with some more obscure material which seemingly failed to energise the crowd, by the time he got into the singles from “A+E” and the classic “Freaking Out”,  everyone seemed to have warmed up. Then, after 40 minutes, he was gone.

The reliably affable Gallagher’s approach was somewhat less low-key, his four-piece backing band (“The drummer’s a [expletive deleted] Welsh!”), augmented by a horn section and the Crouch End Festival Chorus, not to mention the artfully managed big screens and spectacular light show. The set leant heavily on the triumphant debut solo album, bringing some of the less-heralded songs to life, to the extent that one felt he might have performed extended versions without losing the sing-along element. And there were Oasis classics, though not as many as might have been expected – “Whatever”, “Half A World Away”, an acoustic “Supersonic”. Nothing by Beady Eye, though. And, predictably perhaps, it was “Don’t Look Back In Anger” which sent the boisterous crowd out into the night, still singing.

http://youtu.be/EyifieoBUeY

A thoroughly enjoyable evening.