Tom Dunne: Five talking points from the fab new Oasis film
Liam Gallagher and Noel Gallagher arriving for the UK premiere of Oasis: Don't Look Back In Anger in London earlier this week. Picture: Doug Peters/PA Wire
is in cinemas as we speak and available on Disney+ later in the year. It’s a limited cinema release. What can I say? Grab your beany hat, ring your mates. Go, Move, Shift. You must see this. You deserve it.
The reunion of Oasis — cast your mind back — was the best news event of the last 20 years. It had no downside. It was one big euphoric, uplifting blast. The gigs matched the hype. All metrics were exceeded. This is all of that, only on screen. And world news is even worse now so the happiness, if anything, is only heightened.
I both cried and laughed out loud during it. I was on my own, so I talked at length to the stranger next to me. “Brilliant!” I said to her, several times, in between lightly punching her in the arm at the funny bits. If we get a solicitor’s letter, we get a solicitor's letter.
So, without ruining it for you, here are five takeaways you can ruminate over as you watch it. See if you agree with me. I think you will. Lightly punch me in the arm next time you see me. Lightly.
Watch Liam’s body language as he arrives for rehearsal on the first day. You’ll already have picked up how in control Noel is of everything that happens onstage. There isn’t a note played that doesn’t go through Noel. Until Liam arrives.
This is genuine tension. This could go either way. Liam is volcanic, unpredictable, not one to be told anything. Liam can’t be controlled. Noel needs control. Even writing this I’m expecting it to end badly.
Time and time again they start to play songs that you immediately think was the best one they ever wrote. This happens a lot until you eventually start counting the best ones on your fingers and toes. Then you ask to borrow the fingers of person next to you.
These songs sound like timeless euphoric anthems from a halcyon time now long past. They are uplifting and wonderful. When arrives, you think this must be the last one, they can’t top that. But they do. The takeaway: Noel was mining one incredible songwriting vein.
Nothing is going to prepare you for the sheer enormity of the gigs, audience size, depth of emotion and scale of this tour. You may have been there, but it takes a camera soaring up and above it all to reveal the breathtaking size, repeated all over the world.
That and seeing what Oasis means to fans in Cardiff, Manchester, Dublin, Brazil and Singapore. And mostly young fans. The songs seem to have connected to a younger audience even more than they did with contemporary Oasis diehards.
The extended return might be in the balance before the first gig. It isn’t after it. The scale and depth of the appreciation and love for Oasis clearly blows both Liam and Noel away. They realise, just as we do, that Oasis means more to more people than anyone, even they, ever suspected.
You can see this realisation wash over them as the gigs unfold. They may have both loved Oasis in their own way prior to the gigs, but in doing these shows the realisation that they are now a tiny part in something that is far bigger and more wonderful than they ever could have dreamed is tangible.
Liam and Noel are essentially humbled by the enormity of the reaction to the songs Noel wrote and Liam brought to life when they were young. Humble is not a word you’d normally associate with these two, but in the face of this maelstrom of love, they are big enough to lean in.
Noel has said a lot of words about Liam down the years, and Liam has said even worse about him. Yet as Noel tries to come to terms with their new reality, he picks one word to describe Liam you’d never have suspected. I won’t give it away but it’s perfect. Absolutely perfect.
I’ll let you discover the teary bits yourself. But hint: Gary 'Mani' Mounfield, we still miss you.
