Bright eyed and just turned 16, I had begged my mum for tickets to see my favourite band, Oasis at the Odyssey in Belfast in October 2008.
I’d never been to a concert before and my musical tastebuds had never really been fired until I delved into the back catalogue of the warring Manchester brothers.
While admittedly too young to remember the band’s emergence on the scene and the Battle of Britpop between themselves and Blur, my Gallagher addiction took hold after they released a greatest hits album, Stop the Clocks.
I was hooked to the swagger and the chaos that surrounded Liam and Noel - the former’s on-stage strut and the latter’s songwriting genius.
After my mother had eventually given in to the relentless gurns for tickets to the big gig, I made my way down to the big smoke of Belfast where my older sister had been living for university.
My dad had driven me down from Tyrone, with the Masterplan and Rock n Roll star blasting down the M1.
My sister may have regretted her decision to go with me to the gig after I swiftly abandoned her to make it as close to the swaggering Liam as possible.
While the setlist may have included a few duds from their previously released and underwhelming Dig Out Your Soul album, a quick glance back at the songs they played (and the ones they didn’t have room for) has got me giddy at the prospect of their return to Ireland in Croke Park next August.
Roll with it, Live Forever and Some Might Say didn’t even make the cut that day.
While the Gallaghers’ relationship may well have been deteriorating to beyond repair at that stage, for me as a spotty teenager it was a night never to be forgotten and the buzz I got off it at that time is hard to measure.
Little did I know, despite the regular bust-ups between the brothers over the years, that that night in the Odyssey would be one of their last gigs before the eventual punch-up in Paris that led to their demise less than a year later.
I had always held out hope that their mutual love of money would eventually see a set of reconciliation gigs for the ages.
Despite the regular rumours in recent years that the Gallagher brothers would bury the hatchet, I was getting to the point where we would never see them on stage together again.
That time has now come - with two dates in Dublin and a number across the Irish Sea seemingly among the most hyped musical reunions of all time.
I get the thought of standing in Croke Park as Liam belts out Champagne Supernova in front of tens of thousands of parkas and mod haircuts may not be appealing for many, but for me there’s nowhere else in the world I’d rather be on that day.
If I’m able to get a ticket, that is!
