Little by Little | Noel Gallagher

Chapter 3

25 June 2022

"Thank you very much Glastonbury. We've been The Rising Sun, you've been amazing, have a good rest of your evening!!"

Amy took a bow with a flourish. Her heart was pumping so fast she could hear it in her ears. The crowd was screaming. They'd just finished the encore to their set and she felt like every part of her body was vibrating. There was nothing like performing. It was better than any drug she'd ever taken, that's for sure.

She gave the crowd one last final wave and walked off stage, straight into the arms of her fellow band members.

"That was fucking amazing!!" shouted James "It's so good to be back!"

Amy grinned. It was great to be back. They'd absolutely crushed their set too.

Letting their roadies back up their gear, they made their way offstage and back to the campsite, talking loudly over the top of each other about how great their first live gig back had been. They were all on a high. James cheekily led them through the crowd and not the VIP interstage area too, so multiple festival goers were coming up to them to say hello, take selfies and ask for signatures. It made getting back to camp slow, but none of them minded. They were enjoying the attention after four years.

They had finally made it through most of the crowd when Amy yelled out at them.

"I just want to check out some of other stages and see what's on," she said.

Sam's frowned. "Don't you want to freshen up before seeing Paul tonight?"

Paul McCartney was going to the main event on the Pyramid Stage tonight. It was not an act to miss.

"It's not like we need to get there early for a spot, we have the VIP tent. I will be quick."

"OK, but we aren't waiting for you if you're not ready later on," he said walking off.

Amy rolled her eyes and made her way to the VIP area near the Pyramid stage. She knew exactly who she wanted to see. She'd looked his name up on the set list a few days after she'd met him at BBC. Noel Gallagher.

She had no idea why, but he'd stuck in her mind in the three weeks since she'd met him. He had an energy or aura about him, that made you want to pay attention to him.

Smiling at a few others in the VIP area, she looked over to Noel on stage. There were no special effects, no pomp and ceremony, just a man and his guitar, with his band behind him. Again, despite his small stature, he seemed larger than life. He had the audience in the palm of his hand as they belted every word of his songs.

"What's gonna happen now is I'm gonna play a few more tunes that you don't give as fuck about," she heard Noel say. "Those ones are for me. But if you stick around for a bit, after that there's gonna be a lot of happy people in bucket hats."

She laughed – he was self-aware and self-deprecating enough to know that a lot of people came to see him for Oasis songs. She wondered if it bothered him, his new stuff was quite interesting. Slower and softer than Oasis, but full of depth and meaning. She liked it.

Amy knew she had to get back to her camp, but she couldn't tear herself away from Noel's set, particularly when Oasis songs started. He was a natural born performer – excellent songs coupled with a great rapport with the crowd. He took the piss out of them, and expected it right back. His energy was electrifying.

He finished the set with Don't Look Back inAnger, bathed in the golden light of the sunset, and she sang along with therest of crowd, totally getting lost in the moment. There was one short momentwhere she could have sworn Noel looked over at her in the VIP area. Her stomachflipped. No, Amy thought. Trick of the light. Or maybe a friend in the VIParea. Not her anyway. And why did she care?