Noel Gallagher was astonished when Liam Gallagher reached over and raised his hand in the air at the brothers' first reunion show in Cardiff, according to Oasis documentary director Steven Knight.
Knight, creator of Peaky Blinders, helmed the new documentary Oasis: Don't Look Back in Anger. He told Metro: 'Oh, it was astonishing! Because you can see Noel wasn't expecting it!' Noel's recollection afterward was less sentimental, with Knight recalling the elder Gallagher brother wondered in the moment: 'What the f**k's going on?'
A defining moment of the reunion
For Knight, that small gesture of bewildered brotherly affection was significant. 'The stepping stones towards the destination are beautiful,' he said. The destination was two brothers who spent 15 years seemingly more likely to share custody of a live grenade than a stage, finally finding their way back to one another.
Oasis imploded in 2009, with Noel quitting the band following a backstage row with Liam shortly before they were due to perform in Paris. Years of inventive insults followed before the band announced their reunion.
Commitment from day one
Co-director Dylan Southern recalled wondering when the project began: 'Are they going to fight again? Will they make it as far as the first show? What will the rehearsals be like?' But he said it quickly became clear 'from day one of the rehearsals' how committed the brothers were. 'It wasn't just about going out and doing the songs. It was about making the Oasis that turned up on these stages around the world the best version of Oasis that fans could see.'
Southern revealed Liam 'didn't drink or smoke for months before the shows' and went to bed early throughout the tour. 'He kind of trained for it like an athlete, a boxer,' he said, adding that both brothers were 'really committed to putting on good shows'.
No grand emotional display
Knight had gone into the project hoping the film could become about something much bigger than a lucrative rock reunion. Against what he described as an era of 'spite and silent screaming on social media', he wanted to make something about 'love and reconciliation and forgiveness and redemption'.
When Liam first arrived to rehearse with Noel after years apart, Knight recalled: 'There was no high five, no hug, no words, no tears.' Instead, Liam loped into the room and, without even glancing at his brother, spotted something on a drum, wanted it removed, and then they got down to work. 'Okay, you ready? Should we go? Should we go?' 'Yeah. Okay, let's go.' 'Bang! And they just start playing.'
For Knight, the lack of a huge emotional display was part of what made the reunion work. 'What I didn't expect was huge expressions of emotion, and that was great that it didn't happen,' he said. The production placed 10 fixed cameras around rehearsals, capturing what Knight described as the 'moment by moment thawing' between the brothers.
An iconic moment from the tour
Southern said opening night will 'forever be the most special one' because nobody really knew what was about to happen. 'Nobody knew the setlist. Nobody knew, you know, if they would turn up. Nobody knew if they were actually getting on. You could feel it pent up before they walked on stage, and then you could feel that moment of release.'
Co-director Will Lovelace said the hand-raising became 'this iconic moment' precisely because it was not planned between the brothers. 'Noel didn't know anything about [it] when it first happened,' he said. Liam continued doing it across the tour, as if it was a silent, nightly apology to his older brother.
The gradual change is also apparent when the brothers finally sit down together in the documentary. The filmmakers deliberately held off on conducting a joint interview until the tour was well underway. By the time they put them in the same room, Lovelace said it was 'like seeing them back in the day'. Southern added: 'I think people are going to see a different side of them. They're older. They're still, like, natural comedians, but it's just so nice to see them laughing together and reminiscing.'
Knight has a phrase for the peculiarly Gallagher way of displaying affection without appearing particularly interested in displaying it: 'emotionless emotion'. His favourite example comes from Liam himself, dismissing the scale of the brothers' feud with: 'You'd think I'd stabbed his cat or something.'
Perhaps the strangest bit of symbolism was one even Knight insists he could not have manufactured. He had decided to include a local priest in the documentary, eventually returning to film a sermon in a church the Gallaghers used to attend. Knight was then told the priest had already been given the subject — by the Vatican — he was supposed to preach about that week. It was brotherly reconciliation. 'I mean, can this be true?' Knight said, laughing. 'But that's what I'm told.'
Instead, the film begins with two brothers reunited after 15 years who cannot quite bring themselves to hug, cry or even really acknowledge the other. Weeks later, in front of a stadium full of people in Cardiff, Liam reaches across and grabs Noel's hand without warning. Noel looks astonished. Liam lifts it into the air. And then, at the next shows, they do it again. One night Liam leans over and kisses his brother on the cheek. Another night, they embrace.
