High Flying Birds Tour

Background

The tour kicked off on October 23 with a sold out show at The Olympia Theatre in Dublin before moving onto Great Britain for a short theatre leg. The band then moved onto North America in November for a short run of shows in the United States and Canada before returning to mainland Europe for another show leg. The band will then make their way to Asia for two shows in Japan before heading to Oceania for some festival shows and two headlining shows in Sydney and Melbourne. In February 2012, he kicked off his biggest ever headlining solo shows with a full arena tour in venues across Ireland and Great Britain accompanied by the Crouch End Festival Chorus, Hertfordshire Chorus and a three piece brass section. The band returned once again to North America in March and April which also included appearances in Mexico, and in May a run of gigs in South America was followed by a return to Asia. Summer 2012 will see Noel Gallagher enter the eastern European bloc of Russia, Ukraine and Poland for the first time in his performing career, the Maxidrom Festival in Moscow will see him kick off a run of playing twenty two different festival dates across Europe. There will also be a support to Red Hot Chili Peppers in front of 80,000 people at Croke Park in Dublin during the festival run.

Support Acts

Set list

The band's typical setlist is:

1. "(It's Good) To Be Free"
2. "Mucky Fingers" replaced by D'Yer Wanna Be A Spaceman from September 4, 2012
3. "Everybody's on the Run"
4. "Dream On"
5. "If I Had a Gun..."
6. "The Good Rebel"
7. "The Death of You and Me"
8. "Freaky Teeth"
9. "Wonderwall" replaced by Whatever from February 2012
10. "Supersonic"
11. "D'Yer Wanna Be A Spaceman" replaced Mucky Fingers from September 4, 2012
12. "(I Wanna Live in a Dream in My) Record Machine"
13. "AKA... What a Life!"
14. "Talk Tonight"
15. "Soldier Boys and Jesus Freaks"
16. "AKA… Broken Arrow"
17. "Half the World Away"
18. "A Simple Game of Genius" 29 May 2012
19. "(Stranded On) The Wrong Beach"

Encore:

1. "Whatever" replaced Wonderwall from February 2012
2. "Little By Little"
3. "The Importance of Being Idle" replaced by Let the Lord Shine a Light on Me from May 2012 and moved to song #1 in the encore
4. "Don't Look Back in Anger"

Credits:

The setlist comprises around half and half of songs from the High Flying Birds album and from Noel Gallagher's Oasis back catalogue with new track Freaky Teeth being played without having an official release. At the beginning of the tour Little By Little and Don’t Look Back in Anger swapped positions in the encore with Don't Look Back in Anger being changed from an acoustic version to the last song with a full band version.

For the two Tokyo gigs in January 2012 an acoustic version of Whatever was added to the encore due to the popularity of the song in Japan and the song was also played in Melbourne. Whatever was added permanently to the setlist in place of Wonderwall when the band returned to Europe in March 2012 although Whatever was instead played as the first song of a four song encore, this version of Whatever was played with the full band.

In May 2012 the band played the B-Side "Let the Lord Shine a Light on Me" for the first time.

On 29 May 2012, the same day of Noel's birthday, the band played the digital download edition and Japanese bonus track "A Simple Game of Genius" for the first time.

On 4 September 2012, Noel played "D'Yer Wanna Be A Spaceman" for the first time, he has continued to play the song since including it in the setlist for the iTunes Festival gig and has subsequently replaced the song "Mucky Fingers" with it. He plays the song in his acoustic set with a majority of his band.

On November 9 "Idler's Dream" was performed for the first time.

Tour dates

Band