Liam Gallagher has, on more than a few occasions, been painted as the villain of the piece but last week it was a definite case of hats off to the man for being the first celebrity to offer to do his bit in the wake of the terrorist atrocity at the Manchester Arena.

'His bit' was a hastily arranged homecoming concert, his first solo show, at the intimate 1500 capacity Manchester Ritz venue last Tuesday evening with all profits from the gig going to the fund set up to help the victims and their families.

Now you could be cynical, and some no doubt will be, and say that his offer to help might well have been motivated, in part, by the fact he has a new album upcoming to promote on the back of a stuttering career since Oasis imploded but, on this occasion I think we should cut Liam a bit of slack and admire his fine gesture as having been conceived for all the right reasons.

Tickets for the concert, unsurprisingly, sold out online in a matter of seconds and with the venue well and truly rammed on the night, it was a defiant crowd hell-bent on having a great time, despite, or perhaps that should rather be in spite of the significance of the occasion. And so it was that to rapturous applause and chants of 'Manchester la la la' and 'Liam, Liam', one of the city's favourite sons took to the stage with his four piece band and declared "normal service has resumed" before ripping straight into two defining Oasis classics, 'Rock 'N' Roll Star' and '(What's The Story) Morning Glory'.

Right from those opening moments it was immediately apparent that the passage of time has not seen Liam's trademark swagger and snarling, ferocious vocals diminish in anyway but he was also quick to try to place himself secondary to what the night was all about by telling the audience "It's not about me, it's about you" and, the poignancy of the event was symbolised and further reinforced by the twenty-two lit candles lined up for all to see on the drum riser, each individual one representing a lost life and Liam applauded the crowd's raucous chant of 'Stand Up For The Twenty-Two'.

The gig, music wise, was the expected mixture of familiar Oasis anthems, six of them in total, and the preview of seven new solo songs , including Greedy Soul, new single Wall Of Glass , Bold and You Better Run, all of which were enthusiastically received and will presumably feature on Liam's album entitled 'As You Were', which is slated for release in October.

Rumours had been circulating for about forty-eight hours prior to the concert that the night might see the big reunion onstage of the Gallagher brothers, rumours which continued to gather momentum right up until show-time as Liam had hinted at a few surprises and had also very publicly softened his attitude towards his big brother with an extremely cordial Tweet sending him birthday wishes, even though he hadn't received an invite to Noel's big 50th birthday bash.

Noel didn't show up in the end and, in truth, I'm not sure many present ever really believed he would, that big kiss and make up between the two of them still seems a fair way off but undoubtedly will happen one day when the huge amounts of filthy lucre no doubt being dangled before the two of them becomes too difficult to resist and we get the Oasis comeback tour. There was though an Oasis reunion of sorts on the night as Liam was joined on stage for 'Be Here Now' by the band's former rhythm guitarist, Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs.

This wasn't a long show with Liam playing a set that lasted just an hour and that included a rousing and emotionally charged encore of an acappella rendition of the Oasis masterpiece Live Forever, performed by Liam on his own although he was helped out, and almost drowned out, by a 1500 backing singers in the house.

And then, will his parting shot of "Manchester, I love you, look after yourselves" Liam was gone and didn't return, which was certainly a disappointment to most present who probably thought they would get a little more from him. The crowd were very reluctant to leave and did try their collective best to tease Liam back out with their own vociferous rendition of Don't Look Back In Anger and further chants of 'Stand Up For The Twenty -Two' but it was all to no avail.

But Liam had said he wanted to "try and help people pick up" and he definitely, maybe, no, absolutely did achieve that with his powerful performance on the night. And yes, he left folk wanting more but isn't that what it's all about.