Liam Gallagher: Knebworth 22 – It will do nicely until Oasis bow to the inevitabe

With a voice that was once described as resting somewhere between those of John Lennon and John Lydon and, to put it mildly, an unpredictable personality, Liam Gallagher isn’t the most subtle of rock stars. But he has confounded expectations with his solo career.

He and Oasis headlined Knebworth in summer 1996, playing to 250,000 people. Then, last year, Gallagher repeated the feat, performing two nights to 170,000 people relishing the first monster concert of the post-Covid era.

Knebworth 22 is aimed both at fans who witnessed the return of the monobrowed icon in the flesh and at those who want to feel as if they did. It comes in various formats that include a poster, replica ticket and wristband. How effective this is hinges on how much you value live albums. In my pre-gig youth I devoured Concert: The Cure Live, U2’s Under a Blood Red Sky and just about any bootleg I could get my hands on. Now I find such releases quite interesting but hardly essential, as I’d rather experience live music first hand.

Knebworth 22 is no exception. There are some rousing and highly entertaining moments in a collection that is evenly balanced between Liam’s solo songs and Oasis anthems, but it isn’t exactly Live and Dangerous by Thin Lizzy, or The Who Live at Leeds. That said, it should keep diehards ticking over until Liam and his brother Noel finally bite the bullet and acquiesce to the spiralling offers to reunite.