3 Thoughtful Things - My Takeaways from "Oasis: Don't Look Back In Anger"

This week, I’m crossing an item off my personal bucket list: attending a live Premier League soccer game before. And I’m starting right at the top with the Manchester Derby — one of the biggest and oldest rivalries in soccer (dating back to 1881). It features Manchester United, who are among the most historic franchises in sports history, and Manchester City, who've won 4 championships in a row and are contenders again this season (Since Norwegian superstar Erling Haaland plays for City I wonder if we will get to experience a Viking Row… RO!) Shout out to G Adventures and their Away Games experience, as well Sarah Marcucci and Grace Smyth for organizing, can’t wait to experience it all!

But, as of this afternoon, I have another big reason to visit Manchester. That’s because it is home to Oasis, one of the biggest bands of the 90s whose fans passed on their love through generations and their reunion tour wasn’t just stops around the world but a cultural moment.

The band, led by lifelong passionate Manchester City fans Liam and Noel Gallagher, brothers who famously became estranged in 2009 and didn’t speak until reconciling 15 years later and bringing the band back together. The roller-coaster ride, including the brothers’ first tandem long form interview since reuniting are in the Hulu original documentary Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger, which will be released on September 11 in theatres and IMAX before heading to Disney+ later this year.

Here are my Three Thoughtful Things after watching the two-hour ROCKumentary

1) Noel needed a timeout during the first concert back

The doc has no shortage of rehearsal footage, which is always fun to see for a fan of any size. One of the most interesting parts of the film for me was hearing Noel talk about the first hour of the first concert of the reunion tour in Cardiff, Wales - the brothers have reconciled, they have practiced at length and are ready to go, but Noel wasn’t ready for the overwhelming waves of emotion the whole scenes would cause. With 75,000 eager fans anticipating the first note of the first live Oasis song in over 15 years, Liam grabbed Noel’s hand and raised it in the air as they walked on stage. Noel says in the doc that it caught him off guard and that “the first 40 minutes were a blur” and that he wishes he would have been able to press pause and take a breather to process it all. You can tell he gets more comfortable as the tour progresses, especially when you compare it to that first show in Wales.

Another interesting moment from that first concert came from footage of the security meeting for the show earlier that day, where officers were describing the anticipated crowd as “highly excitable, adrenaline-filled… a herd mentality, similar to a football crowd.”

2) Each song has a story to tell

The doc is almost structured as many of the stops on the tour correlated to an Oasis song - I won’t spoil what is what, but the filmmakers went into great detail to paint a picture by song, by city. Manchester was poignant because of the ties to home, as well as the brothers’ Irish roots. There was a clever scene from a director's standpoint where each band member is spinning while either taking their guitars off or putting them on, and the cut makes it feel like one continuous spin, almost like a whirling dervish.

3) The doc hammers home the band’s generational impact

“The Oasis generation of the 90s took the music to their hearts and gave it to their children.” There are plenty of scenes of fans at their concerts in all corners of the world sobbing with joy, holding each other as if they just won a world championship. Oasis clearly means everything to them and they waited a long time for this moment they thought would never come. It’s noted in the doc that much of the audience were younger fans who were likely seeing Oasis for the first time and had only known the band from screen and songs, having only known a fractured and destroyed band they assumed would never play again. The concoction of nostalgia, anticipation and sheer admiration for the music creates a religious experience for these fans captured deftly by these documentary cameras

Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger opens in theatres and IMAX on September 11 and will arrive on Disney+ later this year.