"Wearing the tour shirt, I snuck into the venue in the later afternoon (just casually - it was downtown Winnipeg and the venue door was open) to catch the soundcheck, or at least hear it. I knew the band were doing My Big Mouth on soundchecks after dropping it from the first gig, and MBM is one of my top favourites. So I thought I'd give it a try and see if I could catch the soundcheck.
Maybe MTS Centre staff thought I was with the crew, but I wandered in and found a spot by a stadium seating door (which was locked) and waited around until I could hear the fizzing and crackling of amps. Then some jamming. After a bit, Noel started to do Digsy's Dinner slowly on his electric. I could not believe it. I knew Digsy's Dinner hadn't been played since Sheffield Arena 1995 so this felt like such a moment for me. I could hear it all loud and clear. I was too taken to even think to record it.
Then Noel followed it up with Half the World Away, which was another terrific surprise. From there it was the usual soundcheck set, which opened with My Big Mouth. The key had indeed changed but there's no mistaking that gutsy shredding intro. I had a hell of a time on my own listening in to this. I've posted the rest of the soundcheck set above. but this was such a moment for me. A lifetime highlight.
Oasis have been my favourite band since I first heard them in October 1995 and have been a major part of my life. I'd travelled to see them in other cities for other tours and now they were finally playing in my hometown - I felt so proud!
I had seats up in the front few rows. This was the day that Noel announced in his tour blog that Man City had just received a substantial boost in funding from the middle east ("Rock the Casbah!") was his comment. I imagine that would have been very much on their mind during the gig, but it was a great performance.
There are some bits of songs uploaded to YouTube but no full gig recording. Would have been terrific to get "I'm Outta Time" and "Waiting for the Rapture" in there (along with "My Big Mouth" of course) but apparently the set had been shortened a bit to give Ryan Adams and the Cardinals a few more songs in their opening set.
- Haneef Abdulrehman
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Image: Haneef Abdulrehman Image: Haneef Abdulrehman Comment: Gig review and advertisement from Winnipeg Free Press