Fans of Oasis, music documentaries, and most especially music documentaries about Oasis should grab the chance to see Oasis: Supersonic, director Matt Whitecross’s highly-acclaimed film about the Manchester band, while they can. The documentary is among a list of titles that Netflix have revealed will be taken off the streaming platform in the U.K. next month.
Oasis: Supersonic, first released in 2016, documents three years in the early life of Oasis – from their 1993 beginnings, when Noel Gallagher would write (the song) “Supersonic” in the time, he says “it takes [the rest of the band] to eat a Chinese meal,” to their Britpop era-defining Knebworth shows of just three years later.
Reviewing Oasis: Supersonic, Variety described the documentary as “a riotously enjoyable, appropriately deafening flashback to one of the last moments in music history when a bunch of knuckleheads with guitars could conquer the world on chutzpah alone.”
And critic Roger Ebert noted: “Oasis wasn’t just a musical phenomenon; they were the biggest news in the country. Headlines in major newspapers centered on the band and their charismatic but contentious brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher. At its best, Oasis: Supersonic… captures this sense of instant superstardom, such as in moments in which the band is stunned at how many people know the words to even their new songs at concerts.”
The film has been available to watch on Netflix in the UK since March 2020 and will be removed on March 1, 2024. It is not currently available to watch on Netflix U.S.A.
Much of Oasis: Supersonic is centered on the tempestuous relationship between Noel and Liam Gallagher, but speaking about the documentary shortly after its release, director Whitecross told the NME that the public perception of the warring brothers is not necessarily accurate.
“The caricature that persists is that Noel is the cold, calculating talented one and Liam is the chaotic one but I think there’s so much more to them than that,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of introspection in Liam. He’s incredibly perceptive about his own character and his weaknesses. He’s got an amazing psychedelic mind and I think if you get in there some of the stuff he says is like poetry. You have to write everything down. It’s f**ing brilliant.”
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Liam Gallagher: 'He’s got an amazing psychedelic mind and I think if you get in there some of the stuff he says is like poetry.'
This week it was announced that Oasis are among the nominees to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame – something that Liam Gallagher at least did not seem very impressed by.
As if to reinforce Whitecross’s point about his uniquely “poetic” phrasing, he posted on X (formerly known as Twitter): “F**k the Rock n Roll hall of fame its full of BUMBACLARTS,” adding, “I don’t need some w**k award by some geriatric in a cowboy hat," and that “as much as it’s appreciated it’s all a load of bollox.”
Since the breakup of Oasis in 2009, both Liam and Noel Gallagher have enjoyed huge success separately. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds have scored three No. 1 albums, with latest, Council Skies, peaking at No. 2; and Liam has released three solo No. 1 LPs, as well as two Top 5 albums with Beady Eye. On March 1 he and former Stone Roses guitarist John Squire will release their hotly-anticapted debut LP together.
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