Is it just us or is there a bit of you that feels forever stuck in a tug-of-war between the egos of the Gallagher brothers? Indeed, the latest eye-roller – the ridiculous fracas over Liam and his little project Beady Eye playing at the Olympics closing ceremony, and Noel claiming to have turned down the honour due to the organiser’s request that he mime – has just been the most recent encounter in their endless feud, complete with the usual, now tiresome, war of words we’ve heard for almost two decades now. However, perhaps the central point of comparison over the past few years has been the brothers’ respective new (both absurdly named) ensembles.

The thing is, we’re not sure how many people care about either of the bands – or their new output. As we saw at the closing ceremony, Liam’s (sorry, Beady Eye’s) greatest crowd-pleaser is still an anthemic, Paul McCartney-esque singalong of Wonderwall, while a brief glance at the setlist that Noel’s been clutching on his near-year-long, near-non-stop world tour confirms that his main drawcard remains Oasis classics (expect half the set to be covers).

We imagine this must be quite disheartening for Noel, who, under the High Flying Birds moniker, has been churning out some rather
nifty guitar pop. Last year’s HFB self-titled solo debut showed he’s got plenty of strings beyond the clichéd Britpop bow but when he swings by our old-school-Oasis-mad town, will those high-flying tracks be considered ‘new-stuff’ filler or the reason why the hordes will show?

Mark Tjhung 

Noel Gallgher's High Flying Birds plays KITEC on Tue Sep 25. Tickets: 3128 8288; hkticketing.com.