Oasis Live 25

This time last year there was hullabalu in the @blanchy household when we did not get a code for the Oasis presale. My wife is a big Oasis fan who has gone to all their Irish gigs. She has never really moved on from the 90s music scene where I am trying to stay trendy and get her listening to new bands which turned me into a bit of a music snob so I wasn't that pushed on paying 500 quid for a ticket when we finally go into the dynamic ticketing system. I put my foot down by refusing to fork out 1000 quid for two tickets. My wife wouldn't have anyway but maybe for this. It was the little guys birthday on the Sunday of the concert anyway but they were playing 2 nights. Saturday the 16th and Sunday 17th. A year had passed and we had forgotten about the disappointment and tried to put it out of the system. Hearing some 21 year old rant on about getting tickets who never been to a concert before and didn't know who Richard Ashcroft was so the inner rage was felt there alright but we came to peace with the idea that we didn't get tickets, Also many many friends said that we are Oasis and that if anybody should be going then it should be us pissed us off even more.
Also my youngest is called Liam for reasons unknown. My oldest is not called Noel thankfully because she is a female and Noelette was too 70s to pass. Anyway we weren't going so that was it.
Fast forward to a week before the concert and my sister came down to play with the kids. Midway through the madness she said to us she had two Oasis tickets for us for €120 each for the Saturday. The reaction was hilarious because my wife who is socially awkward at the best of times did not know what to say so it came across like a death in the family. We had accepted the death. The body had fallen off a cliff and drown. We went to the funeral only for that deaded person to be back shaking hands with her. Her mind was in overdrive thinking about potential babysitters but we took the tickets and thanked my sister who could get Premium World Cup final tickets if you asked her.
Anyway the babysitters were got (grandmothers) and the deal was I was driving. There was not a hotel to be found so I would be driving home. I was fine for me because it was the little mans birthday the day after so it was good to be back for him waking up so the plan was put into place.

So up we went to Dublin. Met a couple of friends who were lucky enough to get presale tickets. We love our food so we went to a place called Bunsen for a meal. It has a business card as the menu. It's basically a burger restaurant. You can get a burger , a cheeseburger , or a double cheesburger. You can get fries , handcut chips or sweet potato chips. I love restaurants that have 6 things on the menu and 3 of them are chips. That means what they do is good stuff. So I was happy with reading the menu off a business card.

Then outside and a quick pint in McDaids pub in Duke Street just off Grafton Street. Atmosphere was amazing and for the rugby fans on Hive , thinking @cryptoandcoffee , I was standing next to an Irish rugby player called Jamie Heaslip who was swapping pints with his friends as well. It was 2pm in the day and I wasn't driving back until 11pm at the earliest so I enjoyed that pint of Guinness immensely. The rumour that Guinness in nicer in Dublin where it is made is true by the way. And I am a con -noz -er at this stage. I'm the Guinness equivalent of a sommelier in wine circles.

Anyway, I had a hankering to get in for Ashcroft to relive my 20's so off we set at around 4.30pm and left the day drinking Dublin public in our path with a hint of regret. The amount of people day drinking off Grafton Street gave me the shivers. Tourists or foreign students must love Dublin and its social atmosphere. It is just the perfect city for young people who want to enjoy themselves. No wonder so many people love Ireland. No country or city in the world has a social atmosphere like it here. London at a push but it's not the same.

So got the Daniel Day Luas up from Dawson Steet to O Connell Street and decided to walk to Croke Park. On a normal day its a bit dodgy walking through the flats of inner city Dublin from Parnell Street to Croke Park but on concert days or match days it is always fine. So in we went. A quick stop at the merch tent to get a couple of items and then to the Hogan Stand upper in 735

The tickets themselves were at the side of the stage. There was concern that it would be behind the stage but thankfully we were right on line with them. We saw the end of the band Cast. A Liverpudlian band who had a few decent songs back in the 90's that now feature at the end of a Premiership match closing credits.
Richard Ashcroft came on next and got the place really going with Sonnet, Space and Time , Lucky Man , Drugs Don't Work and of course Bitter Sweet Symphony to finish it off. Downing a pint on stage which was funny. If you ever tried to down a Guinness , it is hard enough. I was looking forward to Ashcroft and he was very good.

A quick pee pee before Oasis came on. The queues for the drinks were mental so I was glad I wasn't drinking. The queues for the loos were nearly worse. Actually Croke Park as a service venue had much to be desired and it looked like things were out of control in the corridors. Anyway in I got before Oasis and the The Auld Triangle belted out all over the stadium which was a nice touch.
Then on came Oasis.
I have been to Oasis on every occasion they came to Ireland and this was the best I have seen them. Mainly because they were 20 years older and not off their heads. Liams voice was clear . Noel was hitting the notes. Bonehead could not believe his luck that he was back at the elite table earning millions to play his guitar again. Himself Gem and Andy Bell were staying in the city in the Merrian hotel and they could come and go as they pleased. Nobody knew them. Meanwhile Liam was staying in Powerscourt away from trouble in the suburbs and Noel was staying in Carlton house again away from any trouble. He stopped by to Bradys for a pint on Saturday but was soon mobbed by the locals.

Anyway Oasis really went for it playing all of their hits , non hits. They never really talked much which is why they can fit in so much into their gigs. Liam was his usual funny self and even got us to do the poznan which was funny. It was funny until the jumping up of 80,000 people started rocking the stand which was fairly off putting so we all didn't make that mistake again. We are old now. We take heed to structural beams and their expected weight limits. Liam disappeared off stage after having another rant. This left Noel to sing a few of his solo numbers such as Little by Little , Half the World Away and Talk Tonight which were excellent. On came Liam again and another 13 songs. They finIshed up with Don't Look Back in Anger and Champagne Supernova and of course wonderwall in which Liam quipped

*"If it wasn't for Wonderwall we would all be selling corpses" :-D *

They finished by 10.15pm like it was advertised as the Croke park residents association needed their sleep but it was excellent. Well worth seeing them. We made our way out of the stadium, towards O Connell Street. Onto Grafton Street for another quick bite. Into the car and it was surprisingly easy to drive out of the city. One you hit the motorway we were home in an hour and a half. Until next time lads if there ever is one.