Manchester Vigil Spontaneously Breaks Into A Rousing Version Of ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’

On Wednesday, all of England held a moment of silence for the 22 people killed in Monday’s terrorist attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester. At a vigil in St. Ann’s Square in Manchester, 32-year-old Lydia Bernsmeier-Rullow began to sing the refrain from Oasis’s 1995 hit, “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” after the moment of silence. Slowly, the crowd of 400 joined in on the redemptive ballad which has quickly become a symbol of the city’s reliance in the face of tragedy.

“That moment was something special. That’s what you need to know about Manchester,” said Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester. “Don’t Look Back in Anger—that’s what this is about. We can’t be looking backwards to what happened, we have to look forwards to the future,” Bernsmeier-Rullow told The Guardian.

The song also holds significant meaning to Mancunians because Oasis was formed in the city and launched the band’s dueling Gallagher brothers, songwriter-guitarist, Noel, and singer, Liam, into superstardom. The brothers are sons of a Manchester bricklayer and the band’s image and music closely mirrors the city’s working-class ethic.

Noel Gallagher, who wrote the song and provided the lead vocals, had a heartwarming response to the sing-along: