{"id":764758,"date":"2026-09-09T06:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T06:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/764758\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T06:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T06:32:09","slug":"would-they-fight-or-hug-the-oasis-comeback-films-makers-on-shooting-fans-vicars-police-and-the-gallaghers-music-documentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/764758\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Would they fight or hug?\u2019 The Oasis comeback film\u2019s makers on shooting fans, vicars, police \u2013 and the Gallaghers | Music documentary"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 4 July last year, Oasis<\/a> were all set to start the first gig of their hugely anticipated comeback, 16 years since the band imploded after Liam Gallagher swung a guitar in the direction of brother Noel\u2019s head backstage in Paris. However, just 20 minutes before showtime, there was no sign of the singer. Some 74,500 fans in Cardiff\u2019s Principality Stadium were going crazy, while Noel was left impatiently pacing around the venue\u2019s loading bay, presumably wondering if everything was about to fall apart again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the monitor I was watching all this on suddenly cut out,\u201d says Will Lovelace, the director who was filming the comeback. \u201cWhen it came back to life, suddenly Liam and Noel were there chatting. Then they walked out to this eruption.\u201d Later, Noel is filmed expressing incredulity that his long-estranged younger sibling could \u201cskip the final rehearsal, then just rock up, grab my hand, and I\u2019m like, \u2018What the fuck?\u2019 And off he goes, sounding like he\u2019s 30 years younger. And I\u2019m like, \u2018You absolute mad cunt.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

double quotation markThey hadn\u2019t been in a room together for 16 years. Then Liam walks in, drops his bag and goes: \u2018Are we ready then?\u2019 <\/p>\n

The Cardiff entrance is one of the more dramatic scenes in Lovelace and co-director Dylan Southern\u2019s film Oasis: Don\u2019t Look Back In Anger, which briefly dwells on how the fractious working-class Manchester tearaways became the biggest rock band in the world in the 1990s before concentrating on how, 30 years later, they did it all again.<\/p>\n

The Oasis Live 25 tour consisted of 41 concerts across 14 countries and five continents, playing to more than two million people. Don\u2019t Look Back In Anger captures the supersized raw power of those gigs but also packs an unexpectedly emotional wallop, showing how a bitter, long-fractured relationship between two feuding brothers was healed by the power of their own music \u2013 not just over themselves but over those millions of fans.<\/p>\n

\u2018It seemed bigger than Oasis, something a lot of people needed\u2019 \u2026 rapturous fans at one gig. Photograph: Courtesy of Oasis: Don\u2019t Look Back in Anger<\/p>\n

The cameras capture Noel\u2019s stunned admission that he \u201cwasn\u2019t prepared for the intense outpouring, a sense of what it meant to people\u201d. Lovelace insists it was the same for the directors. \u201cWe arrived in Cardiff unprepared for this tidal wave of emotion. It seemed bigger than Oasis, something a lot of people needed. I don\u2019t think we understood the magnitude of it. I was overwhelmed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Southern and Lovelace\u2019s previous music films include the New York indie scene rockumentary Meet Me in the Bathroom<\/a> (2022) and LCD Soundsystem\u2019s live farewell, Shut Up and Play the Hits<\/a> (2012). Southern says it \u201cnever came up\u201d that the pair also made No Distance Left to Run<\/a>, the 2010 documentary about Oasis\u2019s avowed rivals, Blur.<\/p>\n

The directors have their own history with the Manchester band \u2013 as fans. Lovelace remembers, as a teenager growing up in the Fens, East Anglia, listening to Definitely Maybe on a Walkman and thinking: \u201cThis is the first music that feels like my own.\u201d Southern saw them in 1994 at the 200-capacity Hull Adelphi, when the working-class northerners \u201cfelt like our band\u201d. When tickets went on sale for Oasis Live 25, Lovelace was \u201cin a car on my phone failing to get a ticket\u201d while Southern \u201ceventually gave up\u201d.<\/p>\n

double quotation markA guy sits cross-legged on the floor and prays while singing along to\u00a0Slide Away<\/p>\n

They were later approached about \u201ca big project\u201d, but weren\u2019t told what it was and were sworn to secrecy. Then they were put together with Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, as scriptwriter, and the project got under way. \u201cFilming rehearsals in London took a lot of negotiating because they\u2019ve never allowed that,\u201d says Lovelace. \u201cIt was never going to work if we just went in there with our cameras,\u201d adds Southern. \u201cWe had to come up with a way to be invisible.\u201d<\/p>\n

So they hid cameras in all the sound kit. \u201cWe had a grotty Portakabin outside in a heatwave so we could monitor everything,\u201d says Southern. \u201cIt was completely unglamorous,\u201d grins Lovelace. \u201cBut for six weeks, Oasis didn\u2019t see us or our crew.\u201d<\/p>\n

The band reacquainted themselves with songs they hadn\u2019t played for years, at this point with Noel singing, while the directors trained a camera on the door to catch Liam\u2019s grand arrival. They waited and waited.<\/p>\n

\u2018I wanted to be in there among the crowd\u2019 \u2026 Dylan Southern, right, with Will Lovelace and at the UK premiere. Photograph: Jeff Spicer\/Getty Images for The Walt Disney Company Limited<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody knew exactly when he was coming,\u201d says Southern. \u201cThere was a palpable tension. We knew we had these historically volatile characters, so you ask yourself, \u2018Are they going to fight \u2013 or hug each other? And of course they do neither. They have a job to do. Apart from a very brief photoshoot, they hadn\u2019t been in a room together for 16 years. Then Liam walks in, drops his bag and goes, \u2018Are we ready then?\u2019 Two hours later, while they\u2019re playing the outro to Champagne Supernova, he picks up his bag and leaves. He did that every single day. And then suddenly they were playing the gigs \u2013 and the tension started melting. You could see Noel and Liam getting closer every night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thirteen gigs were filmed, but the directors wanted more than a concert film so they recruited people with what Southern calls \u201ca unique eye. We employed cinematographers to hold every camera, rather than someone who filmed Stereophonics last week.\u201d<\/p>\n

This meant the likes of Haris Zambarloukos (Belfast, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice), Lol Crawley (who won an Oscar for The Brutalist) and Moonlight Oscar-nominee James Laxton. Southern had observed that classic rockumentary films such as Monterey Pop and Gimme Shelter were made by \u201cthe greats of the period\u201d. He even held a camera himself. \u201cI wanted to be in there among the crowd,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019d forgotten how funny Liam was\u2019 \u2026 the brothers backstage in Don\u2019t Look Back in Anger. Photograph: Simon Emmett<\/p>\n

The film includes unusually personal footage of fans of all ages. A South Korean free diver explains how the band\u2019s lyrics helped her through depression; a teenager in floods of tears is comforted by a stranger; a guy sitting cross-legged on the floor prays while singing along to Slide Away; a young woman who survived the 2017 Manchester Arena bomb but was left with \u201csurvivor\u2019s guilt\u201d realises the meaning of it all is \u201cto not look back in anger\u201d. Southern sums it up: \u201cThe effect the music has on people is like magic. In the film, Liam says, \u2018It\u2019s like it comes from somewhere else.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The narrative was further helped by a series of \u201cunexpected gifts\u201d, as Southern calls them. \u201cBefore we filmed, we went to Burnage [where the Gallaghers grew up] and took everything in. We went in St Bernard\u2019s Church, opposite their old primary school, and asked Father Luke if we could film. We had no idea that, on the only day we could shoot, he would read the passage from the Bible where St Peter asks Jesus, \u2018How many times must I forgive my brother who sinned against me?\u2019 And he is told, \u2018Not seven times but 77 times.\u2019 Then he built his whole sermon that morning around Noel and Liam.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another gift was unearthing archive footage of Noel revealing he has a \u201ccharacter flaw that means I can never forgive \u2026 anyone, ever\u201d. This is then gradually demolished over the film. There\u2019s also a comical police sergeant at one gig whose team briefing is formed from Oasis song titles. \u201cWe\u2019re just going to have to Roll With It,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s The Masterplan.\u201d<\/p>\n

A sadder moment arrives in Sao Paulo, as the band hear that Stone Roses bassist Gary \u201cMani\u201d Mounfield<\/a> has died aged 63. We see the musicians in shock, Liam dedicating Live Forever to \u201cour dear friend, our hero\u201d, and a visibly shaken Noel playing the guitar solo while staring up at Mounfield\u2019s face on a screen above the stage. \u201cThere are probably versions of Live Forever that were technically better,\u201d says Southern, \u201cbut that had to be in.\u201d<\/p>\n

With as many as 20 cameras on the go at once, the directors ended up with \u201chundreds and hundreds of hours\u201d of footage. Among the more painful editing decisions was having to omit a three-minute close-up of a teenage girl in tears to Talk Tonight, because it just didn\u2019t fit anywhere. And, while the film is low on gossip and revelations, there is power in what remains unsaid.<\/p>\n

\u2018Caught beneath the landslide\u2019 \u2026Noel on stage. Photograph: Courtesy of Oasis: Don\u2019t Look Back in Anger<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reconciliation didn\u2019t happen in rehearsals,\u201d says Southern. \u201cIt started happening on stage and continued happening.\u201d Lovelace adds: \u201cThey\u2019re healing this enormous chasm not in private, but in public. And things were forgiven without saying a word. Maybe that\u2019s part of what people are responding to.\u201d Mostly, the Gallaghers are interviewed separately, but by the end they\u2019re giving their first joint interview two decades \u2013 as reflective older men, praising each other\u2019s contributions, laughing at each other\u2019s humour and the \u201cmadhouse\u201d of Oasis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in contact way more than we ever were before,\u201d says Noel. \u201cI\u2019d forgotten how funny Liam was. All the little things that used to annoy us about each other have gone away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oasis: Don\u2019t Look Back in Anger is in Imax and cinemas on 9 September in the UK, 10 September in Australia and 11 September in the US<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On 4 July last year, Oasis were all set to start the first gig of their hugely anticipated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":764759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-764758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=764758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/764758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/764759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=764758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=764758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=764758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}