Liam Gallagher performed with his former Oasis bandmate Paul ‘Bonehead’ Arthurs at his hometown show at the Manchester Arena on Saturday night (16.12.17).
The Britpop group’s former frontman wrapped up his UK headline solo tour, in support of his debut LP ‘As You Were’, by bringing out the 52-year-old guitarist at Manchester Arena for the encore of ‘Cigarettes & Alcohol’, ‘Wonderwall’ and an acoustic rendition of ‘Live Forever’.
Bonehead’s appearance was no doubt a surprise as the night before the concert, Liam tweeted a fan to say the 52-year-old musician is "too old" for rock ‘n’ roll and has bad hearing.
In response to a follower who posted, "Get Arthurs onstage with you again (sic)", Liam replied: "He’s too old for all this RnR he’s deaf as well (sic)"
Having Bonehead on stage brings the tour full circle as the original Oasis member played ‘Be Here Now’ with Liam, 45, at his debut solo gig at Manchester’s O2 Ritz venue, a benefit gig held to raise money for the victims of the terror attack at Ariana Grande’s concert back in May.
The pair were reunited back in October 2013 when Bonehead joined Liam and his former band Beady Eye to perform at the ‘A Night For Jon Brookes’ tribute concert at The Royal Albert Hall, organised by The Charlatans to pay tribute to their late drummer.
Whilst Liam has occasionally brought out original strummer Bonehead, his estranged brother and former bandmate Noel has had Bonehead’s replacement Gem Archer performing in his High Flying Birds group.
Gem, 51, joined the ‘Supersonic’ rockers in 1999 after Bonehead quit and had been a member of Beady Eye, which Liam formed formed with other members of Oasis, including Andy Bell and Chris Sharrock, after Noel, 50, quit the band in August 2009 following a backstage row with his younger sibling.
Beady Eye eventually disbanded in October 2014 after releasing two albums, ‘Different Gear, Still Speeding’ and ‘BE’.
As well as playing guitar in Oasis, Gem also contributed several songs, including ‘Hung in a Bad Place’ from 2002 album ‘Heathen Chemistry’, which was the first track not penned by a Gallagher brother to feature on one of the group’s LPs.
Liam Gallagher’s Manchester Arena setlist was as follows:
‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Star’
‘Morning Glory’
‘Greedy Soul’
‘Wall of Glass’
‘Paper Crown’
‘Bold’
‘For What It’s Worth’
‘Rockin’ Chair’
‘Some Might Say’
‘Slide Away’
‘D’You Know What I Mean?’
‘I’m Outta Time’
‘Come Back to Me’
‘You Better Run’
‘Universal Gleam’
‘Supersonic’
‘Be Here Now’
Encore:
‘Cigarettes & Alcohol’
‘Wonderwall’
‘Live Forever’