Gallagher plays Croke Park

Noel Gallagher will play in Croke Park tonight as support to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but it will not be the first time he …

Noel Gallagher will play in Croke Park tonight as support to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but it will not be the first time he has played the venue.

Earlier today Gallagher recalled the time as a 16-year-old schoolboy he played a match in Croke Park in 1983 against Kilmacud Crokes.

The Gallagher boys were involved in the Oisín GAA club in Manchester as youngsters and took the field as under-age Lancashire champions.

Gallagher's memories of the match are vague except that he scored a point and his team got "leathered". It was his first visit to Dublin.

"I enjoyed it at the time I've got to say," he said, "I was still at school then. Quite quickly after school I went smoking and drinking. Birds and drugs take over. Playing football goes out the window."

"I got as far as I could take it," he said of his short career in Gaelic football. "I'm not an athlete. Too much hard graft goes into that."

While in Dublin, members of the Oisín club stayed in the homes of players from the club. By coincidence Gallagher met the person who put him up in Dublin while playing a concert in Melbourne last January.

"He was about my age and he said to me 'were you in Dublin at a certain date and I said yes'. His mum and dad had a picture of me and often wondered was it the same guy. Apparently I used to eat a lot of Weetabix."

He was back in Croke Park this afternoon to announce details of a joint-headlining show that he and his band The High Flying Birds will be playing with Kasabian in Marlay Park on August 23rd.

Kasabian lead guitarist Sergio Pizzorno said he and Gallagher have been friends for eight years. The band supported Oasis in Slane in 2009.

Kasabian, who have been one of the biggest acts to come of the UK in recent years, have credited Oasis with inspiring much of their success especially bringing guitar music back to the fore.

However, Pizzorno said comparisons between his band and Oasis as "laziness".

"Oasis made you believe that you actually be in a band. It was very much a punk attitude. We play guitar too, but that's where it ends," he said.

"Writers they have got things to do. They might read something you said and then they say 'I don't really like these cats so I won't give them a chance and I'll say what everyone else says about them'.

"We've kind of used it in our favour. For a lot of people we have been underestimated. When they come and see us live and listen to the CDs, there's so much different that you can't put us in the same category as Oasis."

Tickets priced at €49.50 go on sale on Friday.

Ronan McGreevy

Ronan McGreevy

Ronan McGreevy is a news reporter with The Irish Times