Oasis film directors on surprise song choices and what really brought Liam and Noel Gallagher back together

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And the film shares plenty of nuggets that Oasis fans will lap up. Not least the very first song performed in the film seeing Noel, Bonehead and the band rehearsing fan favourite track Columbia.

As fans who headed to Oasis Live ’25 will know, Columbia didn’t actually make the setlist for the shows. So was it supposed to be on the setlist, we ask?

Dylan said: “We felt so privileged to hear that, because for about the first week that was in the set of songs that they were rehearsing, what didn’t make it into the film was there were conversations about whether that should or should not go in [the setlist].

Dylan added: “Our opinion was it should go in because it’s a banger! It’s one of my favourite songs off the first album. I’m not sure why they made the decision to cut it but it just somehow didn’t gel in the whole set and so when they had to cut things down to fit into the time that was one of the first to get cut out.”

But Dylan and Will soon understood how the band felt with having to cut songs off their setlist – as they found they were having to do the same with deciding which moments to include in the film.

For example, here in Manchester, the team decided to film the final weekend of shows in Heaton Park. Which meant you get to see a rather gloomier Manchester than the blazing heat of those epic opening shows at Heaton Park last July.

Will said: “We filmed on the last weekend, and it was always going to rain when we were there! And it had been so beautiful on the first shows.” But it also coincided with the building hype around “Gallagher Hill” where fans without tickets decided to head up to the top of the park to get their own free concert.

Will said: “It felt like a huge part of those Manchester gigs. It said something about the spirit of Manchester people as well.” Dylan added: “I loved the fact Liam spoke to the fans up on the hill that was brilliant.”

Steven added: “Gallagher Hill – the fact that someone had sprayed Don’t Look Back in Anger on it, it was just too perfect – we didn’t do that by the way!”

The full setlist from those historic gigs is not in the film, so how did they choose which moments to feature? Dylan: “We can imagine what it felt like for Noel and Liam putting the setlist together, because it was really hard to choose which ones. The opening of Cardiff was so kind of electric, that we knew that had to be where we started in terms of music on the tour.

“Sometimes it was like that performance of that particular song that’s the best we’ve seen it on the tour and that’s why, and sometimes it was narrative.

“For example Live Forever in Sao Paolo was so special because of the Mani tribute, it was the perfect song for that moment.

“It was like putting a puzzle together and some songs unfortunately didn’t find a place, we were sad to lose some of them. But you hear snippets of songs at rehearsals and hear Oasis tunes at sound check but that was the challenge.”

Will adds: “There was a heck of a lot of material, there was amazing stuff that didn’t make it.” Dylan adds: “We had a cut that was about four and a half hours long at one point, it had so much stuff in it.”

While the film features that much-trumpeted first joint interview with Liam and Noel, fans may ponder after seeing the movie how Liam and Noel first decided to bury the hatchet. We asked directors Will and Dylan why that is not addressed in the film.

Dylan said: “I don’t think there was a specific catalytic moment, Liam had been the most eager he wanted the band to happen, Noel had been much more hesitant. Time had passed, circumstances had changed, I think an offer came from somewhere and that’s the thing that kind of made them consider it.

“But the real story is they agreed to get back together, and the real story is that it was a genuine reconciliation, even at the end of rehearsals we were unsure if that was going to happen because they were so focussed and workmanlinke that at the end of rehearsals we still weren’t quite sure where they stood with each other.”

In the film the audience will see how frosty the two brothers were with each other in those early rehearsals – including the first time that Liam walks in to work with his brother in 15 years. It was all captured by cameras hidden away to make the scenes as unforced and real as possible.

Steven says: “Here’s two working class blokes, Liam walks into this room there’s no handshake, no hug, no high five, no tears, no words, it’s straight into the work. It’s via the work, via the process of them both wanting this to be really good that that relationship starts to thaw, we start to see the first smiles, then in Cardiff Liam raised Noel’s hand and they weren’t expecting that the stepping stones of a relationship that I think people will really identify with.”

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By the end of the movie, the joint interview shows just how much their relationship has changed. And by the end, they reveal they’re actually friendlier than they’ve ever been.

Dylan adds: “The magic happened when you added the crowds and I really think how unexpected that level of emotion was really affected them both and as corny as it sounds it was the music, the love of the crowd that kind of pushed them back together. You can see it across the shows through the film.”

As for their personal favourite songs from the tour? Dylan said: “I like Bring it on Down because i like the louder, punkier sounds.”

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Will said: “Aquiesce in Seoul was pretty amazing, it was a brilliant performance with a really great crowd.”

Meanwhile Steven said: “The first song in Cardiff [Hello]. That was the moment when instantly, Liam and Noel as well, saw what happened.

“As soon as that first chord started playing, people were spontaneously sobbing, people across the generations hugging each other. It didn’t build to that, that wasn’t the climax, that was the first song.”

Dylan agreed on Cardiff. He said: “It really shaped what the documentary went on to become, because Cardiff that was the first chance to see how big it was. We knew it would be big, we knew it would be emotional, but not quite how emotional for Liam and Noel and it was a pivotal point for everyone.”

Dylan adds: “You see a vulnerability in them that you don’t see in the Oasis of old. Older and wiser, these gigs really meant something to them on this tour. The emotional stakes were high.”

Just this week, fans once again saw how special the relationship now appears to be between Liam and Noel – and with their children all now being close friends too. Together they walked the red carpet at the London premiere.

Steven ends by saying: “I really wanted this to be a film about people coming together, about family. To be as corny as possible to make it a peace, love and understanding message. And the music tells that story.”

Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger opens in IMAX® and Cinemas from 9th September