It was the reunion that many thought would never happen: Oasis re-forming for a series of sold-out live shows, their first since Noel and Liam Gallagher split acrimoniously in 2009. For those who managed to get tickets last year, the performances were a celebration of one of Britpop’s finest bands and a chance to live through a night of 90s nostalgia. For the millions who missed out, be it due to demand or budgetary restraints, the tour represented a generational Fomo moment.
Luckily, the directors Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern were embedded within team Oasis throughout the whole thing, alongside the Peaky Blinders creator, Steven Knight: the result is Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger, a two-hour concert film that hits cinemas around the world this week. Whether you were on the front row at Manchester’s Heaton Park, doing the Poznan in Seoul or stuck at home watching it all online, Don’t Look Back in Anger captures the Oasis Live ’25 Tour for posterity. Recorded by cameras hidden around the band’s practice room, Don’t Look Back in Anger opens with footage of Oasis rehearsing together before their first show in Cardiff.
Initially it is just Noel and the rest of the band running through the music, with Liam due to join them after a couple of weeks. The younger brother breaks the ice immediately upon arrival, telling Joey Waronker that part of his drum kit is “giving me the hump” before stepping behind the mic and letting rip. The second he finishes his work for the day Liam walks straight out the door and heads home.
His bandmates keep playing while laughing. With that, Oasis are back in business. It’s notable how at ease Noel appears in Don’t Look Back in Anger.
Perhaps it’s age – he turns 60 next year – or just the achievement of reuniting a band whose absence shadowed him for more than a decade, but he is positively soppy at points. He admits to being nervous before opening night and in tears before a show in Ireland. The death of Stone Roses bassist, Mani, has him questioning his own mortality.
Seeing fathers and sons embracing in the crowd gets him, too. Despite the nonchalant confidence, Liam seemingly went into the tour with a point to prove. Avoiding both cigarettes and alcohol, he is in athletic form while remaining quick-witted (a joke about Mick Jagger providing one of many laugh-out-loud moments) and vocally stronger than he has been in years.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
