The directors behind Oasis‘ new documentary Don’t Look Back In Anger have spoken to NME about capturing the Gallagher brothers burying the hatchet, as well as touching moments in the film in honour of Mani and Bonehead. Watch our full interview above or read below.
Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern already have a celebrated canon of music documentaries under their belts, including LCD Soundsystem’s Shut Up And Play The Hits, a love letter to ’00s New York indie Meet Me In The Bathroom and Blur’s 2010 comeback doc No Distance Left To Run.
Now, they’ve helmed the celebrated new film capturing Liam and Noel Gallagher coming together for the Live ’25 reunion tour – their first live shows in 16 years after a long and bitter feud. NME hailed the doc as “masterfully done, with moments of irreverence and intense passion burning throughout”, before it went on to receive an eight-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival.
We met Lovelace and Southern the morning after their “wild” night in Venice with Oasis, and just ahead of the London premiere. “It was pretty mad out there on the red carpet when they suddenly appeared,” said Lovelace. “It took on a life of its own, really.”
Southern continued: “There were Oasis fans camping there on the red carpet, waiting for their arrival, which I don’t think happens very often at Venice Film Festival.”
Don’t Look Back In Anger gives unprecedented access to the Gallaghers, from their first rehearsals to backstage on their huge international stadium tour, intimate interviews and bone-shaking live footage from the shows. The filmmakers encouraged Oasis fans to catch the film at an IMAX cinema while they can.
“It’s shot for spectacle and to put you right in the middle of the crowd,” said Southern. “If people can watch it on the biggest screen possible, as loud as the cinema is prepared to play it, then they’re going to have a good time!”
Check out our full interview with the directing duo below, where they told us about the love between Liam and Noel, their connection to the fans, the importance of paying tribute to late Stone Roses icon Mani, why Bonehead is Oasis’ secret weapon, and revealed if we’ll ever get a live album or unseen footage from the project.
NME: Hello Will and Dylan. Before we get into it, take us right back to the start – what did Oasis mean to you in the ‘90s?
Will Southern: “We were both teenagers in ‘94 when ‘Definitely Maybe’ came out. I remember first seeing them in NME. Pre-internet, just seeing a picture of them and thinking, ‘They look cool’. Then NME gave away a Creation Records tape that had the demo of ‘Cigarettes & Alcohol’, so I got to hear them and thought, ‘They sound cool, now I need to see them’. I saw them at Hull Adelphi, before ‘Definitely Maybe’ came out and just as they released ‘Supersonic’. It was such an amazing gig.
“You couldn’t not get swept up by that back then. There weren’t that many bands that looked like they came from the same background as me and had that kind of attitude. It’s easy to forget what a huge phenomenon they were when they first came out. They were a big part of my teenage years.”
And then, the day most people thought would never come: 15 years after the band split, the reunion was announced. How did you come to hear about it and be involved in this project?
Dylan Lovelace: “When the announcement for the tour came, the film hadn’t been discussed, so I was on the phone like everyone else trying to get a ticket.”
Southern: “When we finally found out what it was, it was a no-brainer and an immediate yes. Then you start thinking. As Noel says in the film, it’s very easy to announce the tour and put out the photo, but now we’ve got to do it. With the documentary, we felt exactly the same way.”
Shut Up And Play The Hits was about LCD Soundsystem’s emotional goodbye, while Meet Me In The Bathroom was a visceral and loving snapshot of ‘00s NYC indie. How did you approach this project differently to set it apart?
Lovelace: “We wanted to tell their story. Everyone knows the background and that long time apart, and that’s what was unique about this. We knew the tickets had sold out instantly and it was going to be this huge moment. I don’t think we quite knew what it was going to feel like to be in the room in Cardiff and those stadiums around the world. We certainly wanted to capture the experience of being there – how it felt to be there in Wembley or wherever.”
Southern: “Everything was created with an authentic feeling in mind. The rehearsals had a very different approach to the shows. Other than the taking of the photograph that launched the tour, this genuinely was the first time they’d been in a room together for over 15 years. We needed to be invisible. We needed to set our cameras in places and disappear. They didn’t see a single member of our crew for six weeks. We wanted it to feel as close to what it would be like if there weren’t cameras in the room as possible. When we got out on the road on the tour, we knew that millions of people had tried to get tickets but had been unable [to]. We wanted to capture the tour and the shows in a way that felt as close to being there as you possibly could.
“Then in terms of the other elements, which were the conversations that we and Steven [Knight, writer and creator] had with the band, we did interviews before the shows, before the rehearsals even started, during the tour, and towards the end of the tour. The Gallaghers are always going to be honest and authentic, but we hoped to capture their emotional experience of the tour and that took building trust with them.”
There’s no big ‘Hollywood’ moment when the brothers first meet at rehearsal in the film. They just get straight to work…
Lovelace: “That’s just them. It’s very honest, and that’s what happened when Liam walked in the room. They kind of got on with it.”
Southern: “We asked ourselves the same questions like, ‘Are they gonna fight? What would that be like for the film? Will they make it through to the tour?’ The answer was really obvious. They really cared about putting on the best show possible for the fans. Liam walked in on the first day, dropped his bag and said, ‘Right, are we getting on with it?’ Then they blasted through the two-hour set. During the outro to ‘Champagne Supernova’, he picked up his bag and walked out while the band was still playing.
“That’s Oasis! That British, unemotional thing of, ‘Let’s just get on with this’. The emotion comes later when the reaction of the audience was at a level they weren’t expecting, and it really hits them. Suddenly it revealed another side to two people we know very well.”
It was interesting how when they walked out on stage at Cardiff, Noel had no idea that Liam was going to reach for his hand as they walked out arm-in-arm…
Lovelace: “It was spontaneous. Noel kind of has the same experience as the people in the crowd do. It’s taken everyone by surprise. The Cardiff show was a great one to be at!”
Southern: “He actually says in the film that he wishes he was able to call a time-out and go back to the dressing room because he completely underestimated what this would be. I think we did as well. Standing in the crowd and filming, I felt something beyond anything I’ve ever felt at a live show. It felt like the crowd needed it as much as they wanted it.”
When did it start to feel like the love and the warmth was returning to Liam and Noel’s relationship?
Lovelace: “That happened across the tour. Obviously at Cardiff there was a huge nervousness from everyone. ‘How is this going to work? Is it going to work?’ Then across the tour you see them on stage as they play those songs and the crowd get to experience those songs in different places. Their relationship just gets closer and closer.”
Southern: “I don’t think you can have an experience with your brother or your friends where you receive so much love and excitement from the crowd where it wouldn’t pull you closer together. As cheesy as it sounds, it was the music that brought them closer together, and the crowd’s reaction to that music. You see it happen across the tour.”
There’s a point in the film where the band present themselves as an antidote to the general right-wing division sweeping the world. There was a feeling of unity at the gigs where the hellscape of the world didn’t matter outside of the stadium…
Lovelace: “That’s what it felt like inside the stadium. For those two or three hours, it was pure joy and escapism. It was like going to a football match where everyone supports the same team, and everyone wins. It had that feeling. It’s absolutely that idea of experiencing something together as a whole.”
Southern: “We asked, ‘What is it about this moment now?’ I feel like Oasis have a habit of coming along at the right time. When they turned up in ‘94, they were such a breath of fresh air. Coming back at this point, it felt like those shows allowed people to release something. I don’t know what it is, but it created something special.”
The tribute to Mani in the film is moving and a really classy move. What do you remember about the brothers learning of Mani’s passing while on the road? How important was it to them to have this part in the movie for him?
Southern: “It wasn’t just them; it was the whole crew. The day it happened, you could feel the grief and shock amongst everyone.”
Lovelace: “There was an energy in the crowd and in the stadium that night that made it pretty amazing to be there. You can see it in the film how much he meant to them. It always felt like it had to be part of the film.”
Another highlight is when Bonehead finally gets his due as Oasis’ secret weapon! He’s such an essential ingredient to the power of the band…
Southern: “Yes, and he’s such a character as well. During the early days of rehearsals, your eye just went to Bonehead. ‘What’s Bonehead doing now?’ It’s true: his guitar playing is such a core component of the dynamic of that sound and of the band. Like Liam and Noel, he’s a natural comedian. I think it’s great that they doffed their hat to him.”
Lovelace: “He’s right there in between them in rehearsals and on stage.”
We would watch a whole documentary about Bonehead…
Southern: “We’ll make one for you!”
And the interview you’ve got of Liam and Noel together is just magic. What was that like to film?
Lovelace: “They hadn’t sat down and done an interview together in quite a long time before the split, maybe 21 years. So getting the two of them together on camera was a brilliant thing to be able to get for the film, but it was also great just to see them being themselves together. You can feel in the film that it’s genuine and that relationship has come back together. It’s how you imagine they were on camera back in the day.”
There’s a real affection there, and now they say that they’re WhatsApping each other every day and texting each other daft videos?
Southern: “It’s amazing, and you could see that at Venice. We’ve just come back from Venice Film Festival, and they were having a great laugh together. The film is about reconciliation and forgiveness, and it’s great to see.”
Another surprise star of the film is the priest who delivers an Oasis-themed sermon. Where did you find him?
Southern: “No one will ever believe this! I read a review where it said that the thing with the priest was so obviously set up for the film, but we went to [the suburb where the Gallaghers grew up] Burnage, where our second unit director is from, and he had ins to everywhere there. There’s a lot of stuff that didn’t make it into the film, like us going to their primary school, but we went to St Bernard’s Church where their mum still goes sometimes. We just popped in and met Father Luke. We said, ‘Can we come back and shoot a mass one morning?’ So we did, and the only date we could do was a Thursday morning. I’m not Catholic, so I don’t know the proper terminology, but the sermons from the Bible that they read out are selected long before we were going to turn up and film.
“So the one they were doing on the day was, ‘And Peter said to Jesus, How many times must I forgive my brother who has sinned against me?’ Then he built a sermon around the Gallaghers’ relationship. It was a brilliant sermon, and it spoke to so many themes of the film that we had to include it. Liam’s endlessly using religious vocabulary like ‘biblical’, ‘celestial’, and the gigs were religious experiences too. We had to include it.”
Did he get on the guest list for that?
Southern: “He’s coming to the premiere tonight, yes. He’s actually a Slayer fan, so he’ll either be in a dog collar or a Slayer T-shirt, or both!”
Will you be going on the road with the band next year?
Southern: “I’ve no idea if it’s happening…”
Lovelace: “Yeah, you’re asking the wrong people.”
How much of the footage have we not seen? Was there much left on the cutting room floor?
Lovelace: “There’s a huge volume of material that we shot. We shot rehearsals for weeks and weeks and concerts all around the world. That was a great part of the experience, in terms of editing it and deciding which songs to use, and from which concerts.”
Do you think we can expect the release of a live album or a full concert movie to go with the doc?
Southern: “I love physical media so I hope so, but we haven’t had that conversation yet. There’s an embarrassment of riches in terms of what didn’t make it into this film, so hopefully people get to see it at some point.”
The first era of Oasis inspired a whole generation of guitar bands. Do you sense that happening again with a new wave?
Lovelace: “I hope so. It would be hard to go to those concerts and not think, ‘I want to pick up a guitar and start a band’.”
Southern: “Weirdly, that’s what our last film Meet Me In The Bathroom was about. Can bands and scenes emerge in the same way they did pre-internet? I hope this encourages kids to pick up guitars and make music. We’ll just have to see.”
‘Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger’ hits cinemas today (Wednesday September 9) before later arriving on Disney+
