Oasis in action: An excellent photo if I may say so myself!!

Oasis - Saturday 26th November 2005 - Brisbane

That evening we were going to see Oasis play at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre! After checking with the hotel receptionist where our venue was, we set off walking from the hotel aiming to get something to eat and drink first at South Bank on the river – a short walk from the venue. Our first problem was that our chosen eating location was extremely busy and popular and people were queuing out of the dorrs to get tables. We found a pub that served food, but although we are nearly 11 years over the legal drinking age we weren’t allowed in without ID cards!! To our dismay, our first meal in Brisbane was a sausage roll and a bottle of water from a bakers!! We decided that we might as well go and watch the support band and forget about having a drink before the concert. We arrived at the Brisbane Exhibition Centre (anyone spot the mistake yet??!) which was strangely quiet, although with it being so huge we thought the concert must be at the other end. We checked with a taxi driver nearby who confirmed that this was the location and the concert was probably right at the other side of the building. As we passed couples in formal attire – tuxedos and ballgowns, we were beginning to feel a little worried. I asked the lady at the reception where we should be heading for the Oasis concert and she just gave me one of those horrified sympathetic looks and explained that this was the exhibition centre, the entertainment centre is on the outskirts of Brisbane about 45 minutes away in a taxi!! Luckily for us, a taxi had stopped just outside to drop some more dressed up people off so we explained our situation to him and jumped in. He was very understanding and sped all the way there in record time so it was about 8.30pm when we arrived. After handing our life savings to the taxi driver, we were confronted with huge queues of people, every single person was frisked and all bags were checked before anyone was allowed into the building, so no water or any kind of drink allowed! We finally got into the venue and got a good space on the floor (we were at the front of the back section of the floor area so good view). It felt like we were back in the UK, we have never seen so many English and Scottish people in one place since arriving here!! In fact we struggled to find any Australians!! All the travellers, backpackers, holidaymakers, and ex-pats were here en force to support Oasis!!
The band was really good and played all their classics as well as new songs from their last album. However, Liam only said about 3 things and Noel didn’t speak at all apart from to dedicate ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ to “Australia’s sh*t cricket team”! So, the music was fantastic, but I felt a bit let down by the concert as a whole due to their unsmiling arrogance on stage – even though I know that is the way they are, it just felt as though they were going through the motions and not personalising the show or doing anything extra to really make me think, ‘wow’. Plus the set was as though they had bought some strings of lights at the last minute and draped them over their speakers and drums!
The set list for those interested was: F.in in the Bushes, Turn Up the Sun, Lyla, Bring it on Down, Morning Glory, Cigarettes and Alcohol (I’m so glad I’ve heard this live, it is one of my all time favourites! Liam aptly dedicated this to George Best), Importance of being Idle, The Masterplan, Songbird, A Bell will Ring, Acquiesce, Live Forever, Mucky Fingers, Wonderwall, Champagne Supernova, Rock n roll Star, Encore: Guess God Thinks I'm Abel, The Meaning of Soul, Don't Look Back in Anger, My Generation