Steven Knight tells us about the healing of the Gallaghers for new Oasis doc: “Suddenly it’s a family again”
Steven Knight has spoken to NME about his work on the new Oasis documentary Don’t Look Back In Anger, and how it traces a path to “forgiveness and redemption” for the once-warring Gallagher brothers. Watch our full interview above or read it below.
The Peaky Blinders creator and man penning the next James Bond movie sat down with us shortly before the London premiere of the acclaimed new rock doc, just after it received an eight-minute standing ovation when it debuted at the Venice Film Festival over the weekend. Knight worked as creator, writer and producer on the film, which explores Oasis’ huge Live ’25 reunion tour. NME has hailed the movie as “masterfully done, with moments of irreverence and intense passion burning throughout” in our four-and-a-half-star review.
Knight first found himself in the orbit of Oasis back in 2019 when he directed Liam Gallagher‘s video for solo single ‘One Of Us’, before the frontman returned him a favour.
“It was a cashless deal where in return I asked him to appear at the Peaky Blinders Festival, which he did and he tore the place apart,” Knight told NME. “It was brilliant; it was such a great day. That’s when I met him, and that’s when we first had a dialogue.”
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Then some years later, Knight was let in on the secret of the long-awaited reunion.
“I didn’t really speak much to him subsequently until Christmas 2024 when I got a message saying, ‘I know you’re busy, but would you be interested…’ I texted back immediately saying, ‘I’m very busy but I’m really interested’,” shared Knight. “We got talking about this, and I understood that both Liam and Noel wanted me to do the documentary and not someone who knew what they were doing! That was quite daunting.”
Rather than be weighed down by the weight of expectation around telling such an historic story, Knight set about figuring out what the true core narrative of his first-ever documentary would be.
“Here we have a well-publicised rift between two people, and here they are coming together,” said Knight of the brothers getting back on stage together after their 16-year feud. “That leads to forgiveness that leads to redemption and all these wonderful things. You’re on the tightrope with religion and all of that stuff. I thought it should be about that. You can’t choose to have a happy ending; you just have to hope there is one, and there was.”
Check out our full interview with Knight below, where he also told us about the tension of the brothers being back in rehearsals, their journey to healing, the magic of the shows, Oasis’ universal appeal to new generations, and if Noel really has a Bond theme in him.
NME: Hello Steven. People might go into this film expecting a big ‘Hollywood’ reunion moment between Liam and Noel with either a hug or a fight, but instead they’re straight down to business…
Steven Knight: “Yes, and that’s the thing I find so appealing. My decision was just to observe what was actually happening, and then in the edit you can tell the story that you know is happening. We put 10 cameras fixed in the rehearsal room, so you couldn’t even follow someone around. It’s purely observational about what’s happening; no one was doing anything towards the camera.
“I feel like I’m in a similar place to Liam and Noel in terms of background. They are English, working-class blokes. In that huge moment where Liam turns up for his first day, for the first time when the brothers are going to perform together for [16] years, there isn’t a high-five or a hug or a word between them. It’s like, ‘Are you ready? Shall we go?’ Then the relationship builds as they’re doing the actual work. That’s what I love about it and why I think people get it and feel the emotion. You’re feeling the emotion that they’re not expressing.”
The film ends with Noel and Liam closer than ever, but when was the moment when you really started to notice their relationship starting to thaw?
“There are a lot of those stepping stones. The first one, which I loved, was day one when he was telling Liam how to sing: ‘Take me there, take me there…’ [on ‘Slide Away’]. He does it, he sings it, Liam sort of takes the mickey out of him, they look at each other, and they’re laughing. You just think, ‘OK, that was two brothers talking to each other’. With decades of experience of doing this sort of stuff, they’re back on the bike.
“The second one was when Liam grabbed Noel’s hand [at the opening Cardiff show], and Noel had no idea he was going to do that. From then on, the second stepping stone was when their kids are introduced to each other and they become best mates. Suddenly, it’s a family again. Just having that happen without anyone narrating it or pointing that out, that’s the way life is.”
What was that opening night in Cardiff like for you, knowing how much was riding on it and how much had gone into it?
“Having seen the rehearsals, I knew that they were not just in good shape but better than they’d ever been. I didn’t think they were the sort of people to go on stage and freeze, but Noel said afterwards that he had no idea what was going on and that for the first 45 minutes it was just muscle memory. Obviously, they were better than they’d ever been and everybody knew it, but the emotion of the crowd was the story that night.
“The question I wanted to answer with this film was: why, after 16 years with no promotion and no marketing, is this music bigger than it’s ever been? The first meeting I had with Noel, he said he had no idea that [the tour] was going to get this response. He thought it would be arenas, not stadiums. Suddenly, there’s this tidal wave. It becomes apparent that it can’t just be the fans that were there the first time – it’s got to be the next generation, and even the next. Why was this happening? That’s why we picked certain fans from that generation to talk to.”
Why do you think Oasis still have that hold over young people?
“I’ve got various theories. The music and the melodies are obviously great, but that’s too mysterious to explain. Music just goes straight to somewhere in your heart. I believe that when Noel sat down to write a song, he didn’t think, ‘I’m going to write a song about this’. You’re just like a radio picking up a signal and reading it back. Therefore, these songs have this mystical universality.
“That generation saw a meaning in it that was about themselves, then the next generation saw a meaning in the world that was about themselves equally, but it’s different. Then it becomes a possession of your own. At Cardiff and every gig subsequently, you get two generations owning the same thing with their own interpretations, and there’s like a bridge between them. There probably has been for all those years, but suddenly they’re in the same place at the same time, and the bridge is there in front of them.
“They all cross and meet in the middle, they’re all hugging each other and crying. Noel had to turn his back because it was so emotional. The film had to be about the emotion, not least because [the Gallaghers] aren’t going to show [it] or burst into tears – you’ve got to do it.”
One moment where they did let their guard down was the magic interview scene they did together. There’s affection there. That must have been a highlight of the shoot?
“I’m not an interviewer, so that was just a conversation. I’m not a journalist, and I think they’re quite wary of journalists (sorry!) because they think there’s an agenda. We met in a pub, they were very relaxed, and we just talked about stuff. Fortunately, virtually everything they said you could put on a T-shirt because it’s so smart and funny. They were both like that.”
Noel has long been talking about how he could write a James Bond theme song. Did you guys discuss that?
“Has he? No, I can’t talk about Bond at all.”
Are you going to be on the road with Oasis next year – filming or otherwise?
“I’ll go, definitely, but I won’t be on the road making a film, but I’ll be there.”
With your bucket hat on and pint in the air?
“Not in the air! I’ll be drinking my pint, not throwing it away.”
‘Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger’ hits cinemas today (Wednesday September 9) before later arriving on Disney+
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