CHECK out the Olive Press exclusive pictures from Gibraltar Calling, with reviews of Saturday and Sunday below.

SATURDAY

HE’S been ridiculed, sidelined and generally parodied over recent years.

So it was great to see Liam Gallagher, the veritable Rock n Roll star, come out fighting in his headline role at the Gibraltar Calling music festival.

Despite stalking onto stage in his usual snarling fashion, he quickly warmed to the crowd and venue, in its debut at Europa Point.

While he was playing second fiddle to global superstar Enrique Iglesias on Saturday night, there was no doubt who won the battle.

For all extents and purposes this was an Oasis set, with a few of his own songs peppered in.

Having first seen them at their prime at Earl’s Court in London in 1994, promoting their seminal first album, and then at the legendary Knebworth shows two years later, I didn’t know what to expect.

But what we got was classic Oasis right from the off. Who needs brother Noel?

Kicking off with a storming Rock N Roll Star, he then waded right in with crowd favourite Morning Glory, before returning with Columbia, Slide away, Cigs N Alcohol and the obligatory rendition of Wonderwall, which had the biggest singalong of the weekend by far.

“Cocksure and full tilt, with a banging light and laser show, this was one for the Latin lovers and the large’ish Spanish contingent in the crowd”

A couple of his own tunes hit the chord, including Wall of Glass and Greedy Soul, while the second encore of Supersonic and the amazing Champagne Supernova really hit the spot.

Earlier in the evening, we had stood stage left watching a soulful, heart-felt performance from Pete Docherty, who should probably have been on later.

The former bad boy of Rock N Roll has mellowed somewhat in recent years and he was not only happy to chat, filling us in on his recently opened nine-bedroom hotel in Margate, but even took and waved a Union Jack for waiting fans below.

It was a nervy start though, perhaps still being light, but when he got into a few of his excellent Libertines back catalogue the crowd perked up, in particular to Don’t Look Back into the Sun and Can’t Stand me Now.

How different to the performance of Enrique Iglesias later in the evening.

Cocksure and full tilt, with a banging light and laser show, this was one for the Latin lovers and the large’ish Spanish contingent in the crowd.

It was slick and impressive and the fans went appropriately wild.

A wiggle of those famous hips, a melting smile, it was hard not to be won over.

SUNDAY

AFTER Liam Gallagher reminded the Rock why the 90s was Britain’s most exciting musical decade, it seemed like Gibraltar Calling had hit its peak.

That was until Take That hit the main stage on Sunday, with their raucously-cheered-on back catalogue of feel-good hits.

Celebrating 30 years as a band, Gary, Mark and Howard served up a masterclass in pop, complete with surprisingly-well choreographed dance routines.

The British boy band hardly seemed to have aged a day since 1990, with Gary looking sharp in a dog tooth suit and Mark channelling his inner cowboy in some green and white denim.

All the way back to the VIP section, songs like Shine, Rule the World and Greatest Day were absolute crowd-pleasers.

“She even threw in current hits like Stormzy’s Vossi Bop, before continuing the 90s theme by dancing down the runway to rival the shapes thrown by Take That”

But the biggest cheers of the entire festival were for the older stuff – even Chief Minister Fabian Picardo couldn’t resist tapping his foot to It Only Takes A Minute.

With revellers baying for more, the trio duly dispatched a superb Relight My Fire, before giving way to what Gary described as their ‘good friend, Mel C’ who was on DJ duty.

And make no mistake, the former Spice Girl was here to party.

She didn’t mess around, spinning tunes like Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit and the Prodigy’s Out of Space as she jumped about behind the decks.

She even threw in current hits like Stormzy’s Vossi Bop, before continuing the 90s theme by dancing down the runway to rival the shapes thrown by Take That.

After whipping the crowd into a frenzy, Gibraltar was merry and still singing Spice Up Your Life.

So with ‘the world’s best Queen tribute band’ up next, it should have been a night to remember for Gibraltarians.

And you have to hand it to Killer Queen, they were good, but didn’t hit all the right notes in the way their support acts had.

After being moved from the smaller classic stage the group, featuring an uncanny Brian May and a chunky Freddie Mercury, did their best to hold the huge crowd.

A well-rehearsed rendition of the Queen frontman’s famous Ay-Oh routine from Live Aid 1985 went down a treat, before the band played out the rest of the classics.

It was a Rhapsody for many.