Noel Gallagher performed Half The World away in touching tribute to Caroline Aherne

Noel Gallagher was half the world away from Manchester on Saturday night when he paid a stirring farewell to the late Caroline Aherne.

Just hours after news the writer and actress had passed away following her lengthy battle with cancer, the High Flying Birds frontman dedicated his song Half The World Away - that of course being the theme to The Royle Family - to his good friend while on tour in the US.

Earlier in the day, Gallagher had posted a photograph of Aherne on his Instagram account. Speaking to a sell-out 2,400 crowd packed inside Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, the Mancunian star said: "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 brilliant sitcom in England called The RoyleFamily."

Pointing to the heavens, Gallagher then said: "So wherever you are."

Touching, poignant and bursting with warmth, it's totally befitting a woman whose comedy gave us all so much joy.