Sign up for our What's On newsletter to keep your finger on the pulse of an ever-changing Manchester Invalid Email Something went wrong, please try again later. Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice He is preparing for his huge homecoming and a first ever performance at Manchester’s Parklife Festival tonight. But rock ‘n’ roll star Liam Gallagher just couldn’t resist coming up with a better name for the festival - in his own honour, of course. For Liam reckons it should be called PARKALIFE - a nod to his signature jacket, we presume. And he’s hailed his new name for the festival “genius”. Ex-Oasis frontman Liam took to Twitter last night to joke about not being that into the name of Parklife. Perhaps given it shares its name with one of Blur’s biggest hits, the band who were Oasis’s arch-rivals in the 90s. He said: “Rite up for this festival in oh Manchester is wonderful oh Manchester is wonderful it’s full of not too sure bout the name though I guess you should never judge a book by its cover or a festival by its name for that mattter.” He followed up that tweet by making his correction the name to ensure it is much more Liam-ready. He tweeted: “Stick an A in the middle of the K and the L and we’re there PARKALIFE sounds better already as you were LG the genius.” By Sunday morning festival bosses appeared to have taken up the suggestion, changing the name on their Twitter profile to this... Liam will be heading to Heaton Park today to play to a crowd of some 80,000 people at the climax of the weekend’s events. It is expected to remain sunny for the Sunday revels, which will include sets from Skepta, Chvrches and Everything Everything. (Image: Manchester Evening News) Liam is due on stage at around 8.20pm, and head back here later for our full review of his performance.<doc-sep>At the suggestion of Liam Gallagher via Twitter, the second day of Manchester’s Parklife became Parkalife – there’ll be no Blur references on his watch! – on Sunday. Although he wasn’t headlining, the cloakroom-averse homecoming hero’s presence was felt throughout the weekend, whether it was from Manchester collective Levelz (essentially the grime Happy Mondays) covering ‘Wonderwall’ the day before, or de facto bill-topper Skepta beginning his set singing ‘Live Forever’ a cappella. That’s even before you count the spontaneous Oasis sing-a-longs that erupt throughout the day by teens ready to tick seeing him off their bucket (hat) list. “There are spontaneous Oasis sing-a-longs erupting throughout the day as teens prepare to tick him off their bucket (hat) list” With a justified self-belief that comparatively makes Kanye resemble a wilting wallflower, he revels in an image as the last of the pantheon of rock idols. Striding on to his traditional walk-on music of ‘Fuckin’ In The Bushes’, he introduces a shudderingly powerful ‘Rock N Roll Star’ by noting: “Not many of them left.” “Let the mind games begin!” he commands, before unleashing ‘Morning Glory’, after which he presumably references Parklife – sorry, Parkalife’s impressively grime-heavy line-up by asking: “Anyone seen any bands around?” Advertisement But rather than feel like a heritage act, tracks from last year’s ‘As You Were’ effortlessly update his legacy. The fact that it outsold the combined sales of the rest of the Top Ten albums in the chart the week of its release – coupled with the writer’s remit of “Big tunes” – means there’s no longueurs. Fans in RKID T-shirts vault onto each others’ shoulders during the glam country stomp of ‘Greedy Soul’ and the gospel-tinged ‘Wall Of Glass’. Tambourines in the crowd are shook to the unifying ‘Bold’ and ‘For What It’s Worth’. Augmented by trumpets and a section brassier than his neck, ‘For What It’s Worth’ and ‘You Better Run’ see him basking in lairy love. Naturally, it’s the ironclad Oasis anthems that incite the most bedlam. ““Alright do we have any Manchester City fans on the field of play?”, he asks (famously he supports the team) to a panto mixture of cheers and boos, before launching into ‘Some Might Say’, his siren snarl undiminished. As ever, he has the up-for-it look of a man practically daring someone to spill his pint. “What have you got to say?” he singles out an audience member, shaking his maracas with intent. “You there with the Eddie the Eagle nose!”, then hurtles into an incendiary ‘Slide Away’. Bonehead joins him onstage to add extra heft to ‘Cigarettes & Alcohol’, and the sublime swagger of ‘Supersonic’ elicits so much dancing, he observes: “It’s like a bar mitzvah innit?” “Short of someone giving him a Noel-shaped piñata – the city’s prodigal son couldn’t be happier” He poignantly dedicates an acoustic ‘Live Forever’ to the 22 victims of the Manchester Arena attack last year – the aftermath of which saw Oasis’s ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ adopted as a uniting symbol of resilience in the face of an atrocity intent on division. “Obviously I’ve done a lot of talking over the years and a lot of drinking and a lot of singing and all that so if I can’t get the girly notes, help us,” he says, rallying the communal crowd, before quipping: “I know there’s a lot of [Manchester] United fans in. They’ve got high voices.”. Climaxing with ‘Wonderwall’, as the crowd bellow the chorus and pints spilled while mates are hugged, you sense that – short of someone giving him a Noel-shaped piñata – the city’s prodigal son couldn’t be happier.<doc-sep>Liam Gallagher's Huge Manchester Support Acts Announced Liam Gallagher 2017. Picture: Press Find out who's joining the former Oasis frontman at his homecoming show this August at Manchester's Lancashire County Cricket Club. Richard Ashcroft is among the acts set to support Liam Gallagher in Manchester this Summer. The Verve legend will join the former Oasis frontman at his homecoming show on 18 August, alongside grime star Bugzy Malone and Twisted Wheel. See the line-up poster, which was shared by the See Tickets Twitter page: Supports announced for @liamgallagher's huge show at Manchester's Lancashire County Cricket Club this August including @richardashcroft! Extra tickets have just been released, don't miss out and buy yours now: https://t.co/SjFYgJGk6U pic.twitter.com/EQqdPyPAtQ — See (@seetickets) June 11, 2018 Meanwhile, Mick Jagger joked about why Liam Gallagher wasnt supporting them in his home city last month, but we think he may have had a point, considering Man United are bitter rivals with his beloved Man City. The Rolling Stones pose with Liam Gallagher. Picture: Dave Hogan/Press The Rolling Stones frontman thanked the Oasis legend after his support slot at the London Stadium, saying: "He wouldn't step foot in Old Trafford Stadium, so here we are in West Ham". Watch our footage of the moment below: On the night, Gallagher also took the opportunity to pay tribute to the victims of the Manchester Arena attack on the one year anniversary of the atrocity, which saw 22 people killed by a suicide bomber at an Ariana Grande concer. See him perform Live Forever at the stadium here:<doc-sep>
Huge support acts have been announced for Liam Gallagher‘s upcoming homecoming show at Manchester’s Lancashire County Cricket Club. The former Oasis-turned solo star will be heading back to Manchester in August, playing to 50,000 fans at the legendary venue. Now, it’s been confirmed that he’ll be joined by The Verve‘s Richard Ashcroft, as well as hometown grime star Bugzy Malone and Manc guitar band Twisted Wheel. The show follows his appearance at this summer’s Rize Festival, and will take place on Saturday August 18. Tickets are available here. Supports announced for @liamgallagher's huge show at Manchester's Lancashire County Cricket Club this August including @richardashcroft! Extra tickets have just been released, don't miss out and buy yours now: https://t.co/SjFYgJGk6U pic.twitter.com/EQqdPyPAtQ — See Tickets (@seetickets) June 11, 2018 Speaking last year about who he wanted to support him at the upcoming summer dates, Gallagher said: “It can’t all be 90s stuff, man. We’ve got to mix it up a bit. I’d like to get Skepta playing, have something a bit different.” Aschcroft has recently been supporting Gallagher on a string of US tour dates. The former Verve frontman recently hit out at brother Noel after he called out artists who don’t write their own songs. Speaking on the Sodajerker podcast , Noel said: “I’m offended by singer/songwriters who when you scratch the surface don’t do any fucking songwriting. As far as I’m aware if you scratch the surface of any solo artist in Britain and they’ve all got a team of songwriters behind them apart from me, Paul Weller and Johnny Marr, I’m struggling to think of anybody else.” Noel then named several artists he believes to benefit from songwriting teams, listing: “Richard Ashcroft, our kid (Liam Gallagher), all the way to fucking Ed Sheeran and the little fella from One Direction, they’ve all got an army of songwriters behind them.” Responding to Noel’s comments on Twitter, Ashcroft fired back: “I don’t write my own songs? You want to qualify that NG”.