‘RIP Kaz… I shall sing for you tonight’: Noel Gallagher dedicates a song to his “very very very funny” friend Caroline Aherne
The High Flying Birds frontman played the theme tune from the her sitcom The Royle Family
NOEL Gallagher has paid an emotional tribute to his friend Caroline Aherne, who died yesterday aged 52 after a battle with cancer.
The High Flying Birds frontman was performing in Nashville, Tennessee last night and was informed that Caroline had passed away just hours before he went on stage.
He took to his Instagram page and posted a photo of his old friend and wrote: “RIP Kaz… I shall sing for you tonight. (My god you made us laugh!)."
And he lived up to his word as he took to the stage at the Ryman Auditorium and decided to dedicate to her the Oasis song Half The World Away – which is also the theme tune of her sitcom The Royle Family.
He told the crowd: “I want to dedicate the next song to a friend of mine who died this afternoon. Her name was Caroline and she was a very very very funny woman.
“She used this next song on a very very very very brilliant sitcom in England called The Royle Family.”
He then pointed to the sky and said: “So wherever you are.”
One concert-goer told the Mirror: ““It was just so moving. We all knew how emotional the concert was going to be and there were a few in tears when he sung.
“A lot of Brits had travelled from across the States to see Noel and they all knew what Caroline meant to him.”
Noel and Caroline were friends for years and were often pictured out partying together, especially in their home city of Manchester.
When Gallagher was originally approached about using the song, he was believed to be on tour at the time and because of a bad phone line, thought the actual Royal family were asking permission to use it for a documentary.
Aherne and her writing partner Craig Cash approached Noel about making a guest appearance in the show, which first aired in 1998, but had to turn it down because of work commitments.
He told the Mirror: “They were gonna get married and wanted me to come in as a gatecrasher – not myself.”
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