Oasis’ first night back in Cardiff floored Noel Gallagher, say the film-makers who caught it

What the Oasis cameras caught in Cardiff

The film-makers' portrayal of the band's 2025 world tour, Don't Look Back In Anger, captured long awaiting moments that fans could only wish for. At least that's how it felt for years.

They captured every bit, even the moment the brothers reunited in the rehearsal studio after a 15-year hiatus.

The brothers were also seen attending the film's UK premiere in London, on Monday, while sharing grins with each other and even holding hands for the cameras.

Speaking to Behnaz Akhgar on BBC Radio Wales, Southern described an opening night that got away from everyone involved.

"You saw grown men who probably rarely express their emotions crying and hugging each other," said the director.

"Noel says in the film that he completely underestimated what it would be like, and it really did kind of hit him hard."

Lovelace agreed that the Cardiff show was the hinge of the whole thing, bringing a much more personal aspect of the musician's lives into perspective.

"Those opening few moments, just as they're about to go on stage in Cardiff, and then the first song, was definitely a turning point on the tour but certainly in the film," he said.

Southern remembered the build-up as much as the music itself: "The sense of anticipation was huge." 

Cardiff was the first night of a tour that would take the band around the world through 2025.

However, the directors had no way of knowing, when they set up in the Principality Stadium, whether they were filming a reconciliation or a very expensive one-off.

No big entrance in the rehearsal room

Before Liam arrived at rehearsals, the band had been assembling the setlist under Noel's instruction.

The first song they played came as the 5th track on their debut album Definitely Maybe, Columbia.

Anyone expecting a scene from the reunion of the century will be disappointed, which is rather the point.

"There was no kind of big entrance," Lovelace said.

"He walked in and said 'should we do this then?' and then the band went straight into a two-hour set."

The detail that says the most

The line likely to stick with people is not about a stage at all.

The brothers, Southern said, "were that estranged that Noel's youngest sons and Liam's sons hadn't met", which really puts a grasp on their entire relationship.

But touring changed that, for the better.

"They were on tour for the whole time and they became like friends and more importantly family," he said.

"I think that was another huge thing in those barriers coming down between Liam and Noel was that suddenly there's this togetherness and harmony."

It is a reminder that a reunion sold as a cultural event was also, for two families, a very ordinary sort of repair job carried out in front of several hundred thousand people.

The directors' account is worth hearing in their own words in the directors' full BBC Radio Wales interview.

Britain's 90s superstars have had a decent run of it lately, with Paul Heaton's first solo number one arriving in the same stretch.

Oasis on the other hand have managed something rarer than a hit record, and it doesn't come in form of a film, but in the start of the repair from a decades long feud.