{"id":1952,"date":"2016-11-02T11:45:40","date_gmt":"2016-11-02T11:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oasis-recordinginfo.co.uk\/?page_id=1952"},"modified":"2017-10-18T07:11:25","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T07:11:25","slug":"mat-whitecross-part-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.oasis-recordinginfo.co.uk\/?page_id=1952","title":{"rendered":"Chasing Yesterday: raiding the archives for lost footage"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Part 2 of Tom Stroud\u2019s in-depth interview with Supersonic director Mat Whitecross<\/strong><\/em><\/h1>\n

\u201cA lot of my favourite scenes didn\u2019t make the cut, which is kinda bizarre but it happens on a lot of films. The scene that maybe even made you want to make the film in the first place doesn\u2019t survive the final cut. Which is crazy but kinda makes sense when you\u2019re in the middle of the storm.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tom: What\u2019s the band\u2019s archive like? Because obviously you started there and had complete co-operation. Is it in good shape?<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: It\u2019s utterly chaotic, as you\u2019d imagine. It\u2019s er\u2026 well, having said that it\u2019s in better shape now, because there\u2019s one of our researchers – a guy called Martyn James. He\u2019d been brought in by Ignition a couple of years ago to update everything while they were doing the Chasing the Sun<\/em> reissues. So he was starting to piece it together, and then we inherited him from there. Oasis\u2019s management company Ignition recommended him and he was brilliant. He\u2019s an absolute obsessive and loves the band.<\/p>\n

So that was good, but it was still a complete mess. But you know what it was like – back then MTV\u2026 I don\u2019t think they really knew what they had. And the same was true of most television production companies. It was thought that this stuff was ephemeral; it\u2019s over and you don\u2019t know who\u2019s going to survive. Half the stuff\u2019s been wiped, it\u2019s been lost.[1]<\/sup><\/a> Every company kept saying: \u201cOh yeah I think there was a fire a few years back.\u201d And I was like, \u201cWhat, and it\u2019s destroyed every single thing you had?\u201d<\/p>\n

Half the time we\u2019d have to go look on YouTube, or look on fan sites, or look on [Oasis Recording Info] and say, \u201cLook, we know something<\/em> exists.\u201d We\u2019d end up contacting MTV or whoever – who were very lovely and helpful – but they\u2019d [generally] say, \u201cLook, we just don\u2019t have the footage.\u201d We ended up having to track someone down to say, \u201cBy the way, we\u2019re going to give you a lot of money for footage that you don\u2019t have.\u201d [Laughs<\/em>] \u201cAnd then we\u2019re going to try and see if we can source it from somewhere else.\u201d So, yeah, that was frustrating.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s just – Liam said (and I don\u2019t know if this is true or not), but he said, \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone had faith in us in the early days, so why would you film us?\u201d And the other thing was that they were quite suspicious of outsiders. There was a lot of dodgy-ness going on behind the scenes, a lot of drugs being enjoyed. So I think you don\u2019t like people coming in and waving cameras around unless they\u2019re part of your team. Which is why it\u2019s only people like their press officer Johnny Hopkins, the photographer Jill Furmanovsky, and [Creation Records\u2019] Tim Abbot who were allowed in. I mean if you turned up and it was, like, Granada TV, they\u2019d throw you out on your ear.<\/p>\n

\n

Tom: We\u2019d seen little clips of Oasis rehearsing in the Boardwalk before, so it was great to see more of that footage in Supersonic. Where did that video come from? Who shot it, and is there much more left?<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: It was shot by a guy called Bobby Langley – I think he was a film student at the time but he\u2019s now quite a big guy in the music industry. He does a lot of different merchandising for various artists. And he basically turned up at the Boardwalk and filmed them for a little bit, [possibly] for a student project. I believe he filmed three songs. One where there\u2019s no sound, so that wasn\u2019t particularly useful to us. And he filmed All Around the World<\/a>, which was amazing and bizarre because obviously it\u2019s a song off the third album [1997\u2019s Be Here Now<\/em>] so you just go, \u201cHang on, so this is before they were signed. How is that even possible?!\u201d And then they did I am the Walrus. Then there\u2019s a bit of banter and stuff.<\/p>\n

But my initial instinct was that this was great. We could use I am the Walrus and explain the Beatles influence, and you\u2019ve got the Beatles poster on the wall of the rehearsal room. And we did something similar in the King Tuts sequence, because they played [I am the Walrus] as their last song, as they normally did. So that was all set up and it was great. And I remember the music supervisor coming in at one point and going, \u201cAre you thinking of using Beatles music in this then?\u201d And I was like, \u201cYeah that\u2019d be great. I don\u2019t know how expensive it is, but it\u2019s really important for us and I\u2019d like to push for it.\u201d And he said, \u201cTo put it into context, you could have either that one [Beatles] song, or you can have the entire Oasis back-catalogue. Whichever\u2019s more important to you.\u201d [Laughs<\/em>]. But yeah, it\u2019s gonna be quite repetitive. So I was like, \u201cOh fuck, let\u2019s take that out.\u201d So that was a no go.<\/p>\n

And then for All Around the World we had a little section with [live sound engineer] Mark Coyle and Bonehead talking about how bizarre and incredible Noel\u2019s self-belief was; he could come into this tiny, dingy little basement and be rehearsing a track that he had no intention of revealing to the world for another three or four years! I mean it\u2019s just ridiculous<\/em>, you know. The level of ambition\u2026 Mark Coyle was saying it\u2019s like on the level of Mussolini or something [Laughs<\/em>]. Like, you have this game plan and it\u2019s into the decades. Because Bonehead was winding him up and saying, \u201cHang on. You’re kidding me – you\u2019re saving this for the third<\/em> album because you want strings on it?! But we don\u2019t have a manager, we don\u2019t have a label, we don\u2019t even have a demo, and you\u2019re saving this for the third album. You\u2019re fucking crazy!\u201d [Laughs<\/em>]. But he was right, he was right.<\/p>\n

Tom: One of the great things about the film is that all of the talking heads are relevant; they all add something to it, and they were all there at the time. There\u2019s no celebrities shoe-horned in or anything like that.<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: Oh right, thank you. Yeah I think that was important to us. We talked about who we could interview and we didn\u2019t want it to be like \u201cI Love the 1990s\u201d or something like that, with a bunch of randoms thrown in for good measure. We kept on saying it has to be from the point-of-view of the tour bus, from the band\u2019s POV. On the other hand they obviously bumped into a lot of famous people along the way.<\/p>\n

\n

Tom: Let\u2019s talk about some of the people who aren\u2019t in the film – I know with Guigsy you got close. Alan White\u2019s not there, and temporary bassist Scott McLeod is featured but not interviewed\u00a0[2]<\/sup><\/a>; were there people you wanted but couldn\u2019t get?<\/strong><\/em>
\nMat: Well all three of them, definitely. Guigs was really important to me, obviously. Because it was his band, it was his idea to start a band – he\u2019s very funny about that, and Bonehead\u2019s very funny about that. This was another sequence we did have in the film very briefly, but we didn\u2019t have any footage to try and relate that part of the story.<\/p>\n

So Guigs was suffering from some kind of injuries (he\u2019d always seen himself as some kind of sportsman, as I\u2019m sure a lot of fans know) and he was in the pub one night, commiserating with someone over a beer. And he saw this nutter trying to order beers in German, while doing Nazi salutes at the barmaid; he was like, \u201cThis guy\u2019s interesting\u201d and [his friend] said \u201cOh that\u2019s Bonehead. He\u2019s just this amazing musician – he can get a musical note out of anything; give him a radiator and he\u2019ll play you a symphony.\u201d So they collared him and Guigs had this moment, like, \u201cI wanna be in a band – I want you to be in my band.\u201d And Bonehead said: \u201cGreat! What can you play?\u201d Guigs was like: \u201cNothing. You\u2019re gonna teach me!\u201d Haha. All this kind of stuff. There were some really lovely things that he told me but it just\u2026 I thought we got pretty close, but in the end he said he didn\u2019t really want to be part of it. Which is fair enough.<\/p>\n

And with the other two\u2026 we couldn\u2019t track Scott [McLeod] down. We really tried hard but maybe he doesn\u2019t want us to know where he is. But we all really wanted him to be part of the film. Same thing with Alan White. We talked to him for a while and really wanted him to come in, watch the film, and be part of it. But he didn\u2019t want to. And that\u2019s fair enough – people have got their lives, y\u2019know? You can\u2019t force someone to be part of something they don\u2019t wanna be part of.<\/p>\n

Tom: You interviewed Johnny Marr\u2026<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: Johnny Marr was amazing because he gave us three hours of his time and he was fantastic; one of the best interviews that we did. And he\u2019s not in it! [Laughs<\/em>]. And it\u2019s kinda nuts, but he was so generous in terms of turning up. Noel had asked him as a favour, so he came in. It really was about those early days when he took Noel under his wing to an extent, showing him the ropes as much as he needed, and he lent him his guitar and all this equipment. And it was really lovely, and it kinda worked, and he introduced him to Marcus [Russell] the manager. So all those things seemed to make a lot of sense. But [that sequence] took up a lot of screen time, and you don\u2019t see anyone because there\u2019s no footage that exists of it. So that was tricky.<\/p>\n

And it all comes to a head with the Newcastle gig, which is amazing. We turned it into a set-piece, because it was one of the first things we cut, and I was like: \u201cWell if nothing else survives, this<\/em> is gonna be in the final film.\u201d Because it\u2019s great, and the fans had sent in some great photos – so we started to try and animate it. And Jo Whiley was there for the Evening Session<\/em> –<\/p>\n

Tom: Yes, you\u2019ve got the audio\u2026<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: Yes, so it was really looking great and it felt immediate. But it comes straight after Amsterdam, so in some ways we\u2019ve [already] seen something similar.[3]<\/sup><\/a> And it felt like we just didn\u2019t have enough time. That was heartbreaking to pull out, and there were a few moments like that which we cut quite near to the end, when we were trying to get this beast down from eight hours, to five hours, to three hours, down to two hours. And it came out – it was one of the few bits you could take out without massively affecting the rest of the film. And we did feel that we\u2019d covered that area recently.<\/p>\n

Tom: Yeah, I wonder how much of this was influenced by other things? Because there\u2019s Dick Carruthers\u2019 (2004) film<\/a> from the tenth anniversary of Definitely Maybe, there\u2019s Live Forever<\/a> (dir. John Dower, 2003) as well, which had been over some of the same ground. Did you want to do it differently? Obviously there are some things you can\u2019t leave out, but were you aware of all of that?<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: Yeah, definitely. I\u2019d seen all those films before I even knew we were making Supersonic<\/em>. And they were always in the back of my mind. So when it came to, for example, the Newcastle gig, I don\u2019t really think that had been covered in [Dick Carruthers\u2019 film]. This guy attacked Noel whilst he was on stage, and Noel retaliated by cracking him round the head with his guitar. That guitar (a priceless Les Paul) had been given to him by Johnny Marr, and it\u2019d been given to Johnny by [the Who\u2019s] Pete Townsend. That was a symbolic moment, this whole \u201cpassing the baton of this guitar down the generations.\u201d[4]<\/sup><\/a> So that was a great scene. Similarly, with [Dick Carruthers\u2019] Definitely Maybe<\/em> film there was a lot of recording information that\u2019s fascinating in there, but I felt that Oasis fans already know all this, so why are we repeating it when every single frame in this two hours is precious?<\/p>\n

Tom: Yeah.<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: And similarly with Live Forever<\/em> I think the obvious thing that we missed is the Oasis\/Blur rivalry, which was a great 15-minute section of the film. And my instinct was that every time we had an anecdote, a moment, or story, it couldn\u2019t just be in the film because it\u2019s a good sequence; it had to tell the story of how they rose so quickly. And it\u2019s the same with the songs. At one point we didn\u2019t even have Wonderwall or Don\u2019t Look Back in Anger there. Which is nuts! [Laughs<\/em>] Kinda like suicidal, but at that point it was like they didn\u2019t seem to fit anywhere, as great as those songs are. The producers were pulling their hair out saying, \u201cYou can\u2019t leave out two of Oasis\u2019s most famous songs.\u201d But it was like, they didn\u2019t seem to \u2018live\u2019 in this particular film. And, with the Oasis\/Blur thing\u2026 my first concern was that it had already been covered very well in Live Forever<\/em> and Upside Down<\/em><\/a> (dir. Danny O\u2019Connor, 2010), the documentary about Creation Records.<\/p>\n

Tom: Yes.<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: And so I was saying, \u201cWhat can we bring to it that seems to be unique to our film?\u201d And when [Creation Records founder] Alan McGee came in and did interviews with us, he was great because I hadn\u2019t heard him talk quite this way about that episode before. He went into a lot of detail about some of the things it\u2019d been partly about, including this girl that Liam and Damon had been squabbling over. But, aside from that, in terms of our story it was more to do with how it contributed to the rise of Oasis. And the metaphor Alan used was, \u201cLook, if you\u2019re the heavyweight champion of the world, you never invite the newcomer in.\u201d Because even if he loses he\u2019s won, because he\u2019s now at your level and people know him.<\/p>\n

\n

And that\u2019s what Alan was equating the two bands with. He was saying, look, Blur were a much more experienced and better-known band. If you invite Oasis into the ring, put them on News at Ten<\/em>, and then put them on the front cover of all these magazines, even if you wipe the floor with them, they\u2019re now at your level. And people mention them in the same breath. That kind of thing was explained when the two albums came out [The Great Escape<\/em> and Morning Glory<\/em>]. One wasn\u2019t the greatest Blur album in the world and the other was the greatest Oasis album, arguably. And so it was like suddenly Oasis swept the floor with everyone else. It was really good. It was a lovely sequence and obviously the banter\u2019s really great, and Liam\u2019s slagging off Blur and talking about \u201cchimney sweep music\u201d, Chas \u2019n\u2019 Dave; it was very, very funny. But it\u2019s pretty familiar to a lot of people, even people who aren\u2019t super fans. At the end we just took it out and you kinda felt like you didn\u2019t miss it.<\/p>\n

Tom: There\u2019s a really awkward bit in Live Forever where Damon just won\u2019t talk about it, that the real reason they fell out so publicly is because there are other people involved. And there\u2019s a long awkward silence.<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: I remember.<\/p>\n

Tom: Is that story still to be told? That still hasn\u2019t been gone into has it?<\/strong><\/em>
\nMat: I suppose so, I suppose so. Well, the way that Alan described it to us (and I think it might be in one of the books, I think Noel mentioned it as well)\u2026 was that when Some Might Say went to No. 1, Alan was friends with Damon and they had a party upstairs at a place called The Mars Bar, in Covent Garden.<\/p>\n

Alan was friends with Damon and said, \u201cOh you should come up.\u201d So Alan asked Noel, \u201cIs this alright?\u201d and he said \u201cYeah, it\u2019s fine.\u201d So him and Alex James came up, and I think Liam was in their face immediately [saying] \u201cWe\u2019re number one and you\u2019re not.\u201d And so Damon was kinda put out about that. And there was some girl who was there, and I think they both cracked onto and Damon took her home or something and\u2026 I dunno what it was! [Laughs<\/em>] Whatever it was, it became like a public spat and Liam was saying stuff about Damon\u2019s girlfriend. I don\u2019t know what else was going on, but it was quite convoluted.<\/p>\n

Tom: There\u2019s a lot of psycho-drama going on at the time, wasn\u2019t there?<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: Yeah! It was interesting, but it would\u2019ve taken up a lot of screen time for something that was not that unique to us. I just felt\u2026 I mean, I still regret it.<\/p>\n

Tom: It was nice to see [original drummer] Tony McCarroll in it, and I thought he came out of it really well actually.<\/strong><\/em>
\nMat: Oh good.<\/p>\n

Tom: Considering the bad blood, he came out of it with some honour and some dignity.<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: He\u2019s a very sweet man. We invited him along to the Manchester premiere and he spent a bit of time talking to Liam and Bonehead\u2026 I think it was nice [because] they hadn\u2019t seen each other for a very long time.<\/p>\n

Tom: Not since the courtroom!<\/strong><\/em>
\nMat: Not since the courtroom! [Laughs<\/em>] I think they might\u2019ve bumped into each other in an awkward moment in the pub once or twice. But it\u2019s a fascinating thing with him because he came in and basically just trusted us. I mean, he had no reason to; he came in, told his side of the story, and allowed us to do what we wanted. I mean if we\u2019d wanted to stitch him up obviously we could.<\/p>\n

But I wish we had a longer version of the film, because other people\u2019s attitude towards him and the way he played is much more nuanced in the longer cut. Alan McGee, [record producer] Owen Morris, Mark Coyle all said, \u201cLook, maybe Noel\u2019s right and maybe Tony didn\u2019t have it in him to play the second album.\u201d But there was more to it than that. There was also his character, and all of them to a man said, \u201cLook, he was the perfect drummer for Definitely Maybe<\/em>.\u201d He made that album in a lot of ways.<\/p>\n

Because that garage band, punk aesthetic – the sheer power from him; you can see him in those early gigs, he\u2019s sweating, really going for it. Playing like his life depended on it. And he\u2019s a very sweet guy, but I think there was clearly also a clash of character. And, at the end of the day, you can\u2019t survive in it; a band\u2019s a very tight-knit thing, a pressure-cooker environment and Noel didn\u2019t want him there. But it\u2019s interesting when you talk to them about it – Mark Coyle [said] they should never have got rid of him. At the end of the day, no matter what anyone says, that was a turning point and it was never the same after that. It wasn\u2019t the same. But, again, that was another whole sequence in the film!<\/p>\n

Tom: Did you speak to the Real People?<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: No we didn\u2019t. We\u2019d booked in a session with them, and I\u2019d cut together a sequence that was about fifteen minutes long. Because the importance of them can\u2019t be overstressed – [both] Noel and Liam said that the Real People were a big part of it.[5]<\/sup><\/a> So we booked the session and it was the same as the Johnny Depp thing. It was like – \u201cD\u2019you know what? I just don\u2019t wanna waste their time.\u201d Because we got a point where\u2026<\/p>\n

Tom: The story was too long.<\/strong><\/em>
\nMat: Well yeah. We were running at eight hours and I was just like\u2026 I feel terrible. We\u2019re gonna go all the way up [to Liverpool] to interview them for the afternoon, and I already know it\u2019s not going to be in the film. And I felt, quite keenly, that we\u2019d really done them a disservice. On the other hand it\u2019s just impossible to squeeze everything in. And it was a really important part [of the story] – what they did in terms of forming the sound of that band, and influencing them. It was obviously a huge thing. It has been dealt with a bit in [Dick Carruthers\u2019] Definitely Maybe<\/em> film. But I loved it. And also the other thing is that I kept on saying, \u201cCome on, you guys must have some video footage. You had some crazy times\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom: Yeah.<\/strong><\/em>
\nMat: And they\u2019ve got nothing<\/em>. They didn\u2019t even have a single photo of any of those guys together. And the first photo that the Real People seem to have of themselves is from about eight years ago. So I was just like, \u201cWe\u2019re gonna have a completely out-of-date still holding over a fifteen-minute sequence. It\u2019s not really gonna work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Tom: There are some great outtakes from the Live Forever and Wonderwall videos \u2013 were they from 16mm film?<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: (Laughs<\/em>) They should have been!<\/p>\n

Tom: From Sony America\u2026?<\/strong><\/em>
\nMat: Oh mate\u2026 Sony\u2026 I don\u2019t know what happened in the \u201990s with Sony but I think it might have been run by crack addicts because basically\u2026 it\u2019s like: \u201cThe computer says no.\u201d They were very lovely, the bosses that we spoke to were great, then you\u2019d speak to the guy in the archive and he was like: \u201cOasis who?\u201d It got to the point where it was like \u2013 \u201cI\u2019ve got all these canisters; what do you want me to do?\u201d And I said, \u201cWe\u2019ll fly someone over there and he can just go through it.\u201d And he was like, \u201cNo, you can\u2019t do that\u201d and I was like, \u201cWell look, could you open one of the canisters and just hold the film up to the light and then you can tell us?\u201d and he was like \u201cNo. I\u2019m not doing that\u201d. So there were all these canisters just lying there. They seem to have lost all the rushes and even the print of Wonderwall for example, which is just mind-boggling. But some stuff seems to remain. We had the Cigarettes and Alcohol rushes. The director Mark Szaszy had kept a lot of stuff on U-matic<\/a> (a semi-professional video cassette format) so, bless him, he shared that with us. There were a few things like that.<\/p>\n

Tom: There\u2019s quite a bit of the rooftop promo for Supersonic – someone obviously had outtakes from that.<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: Yes, that was Mark. So Mark shared that with us and that was great. As a rehearsal for that, as a kind of research thing, he\u2019d also filmed the Water Rats gig and interviewed the band.[6]<\/sup><\/a> So we used some of that. But, yeah, the footage that exists seems to have survived just by chance for the most part. It wasn\u2019t like we found some really great stuff that didn\u2019t find a place in the film. The stuff that\u2019s in there, rushes wise, I mean\u2026 I\u2019d happily sit through the Cigarettes and Alcohol rushes all day because they\u2019re beautiful. But there was only so much you could put in there without over-balancing the film.<\/p>\n

\n

Tom: So when you saw Tim Abbot\u2019s videotapes, that must\u2019ve been a moment. Because, as a friend of the band, he\u2019d shot so much footage that hadn\u2019t been used before. I guess the band\u2019s involvement in Supersonic gave you a bit of authority – and if not now, then when were these tapes gonna turn up? You must have had hours of material to sift through.<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: Yeah, Tim shot a lot of good stuff and he was always in the right place at the right time. And it\u2019s difficult because that wasn\u2019t actually his job. So he\u2019d come in and you\u2019d get the classic thing where everyone\u2019s just saying, \u201cAh come on, leave it out. Turn it off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom: Yeah.<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: And often there\u2019s the classic thing of someone who\u2019s still discovering the equipment filming six hours of their feet and then switching off as soon as someone\u2019s about to say something interesting. That has happened to a lot of us, I guess, through the years. But he was great. He\u2019d given Noel a kind of \u201cGreatest Hits\u201d selection of all his favourite bits, and so Noel gave that to us and said, \u201cHave a chat with Tim and see what he says.\u201d<\/p>\n

And I think, understandably, he\u2019s sat on that footage for a very long time.[7]<\/sup><\/a> So it had to be the right kind of project, and the right deal. But it was good – he never said that we couldn\u2019t have it [but] there were a couple of moments where we were like, \u201cAh, I hope he doesn\u2019t change his mind or we\u2019re really stuck!\u201d [Laughs<\/em>]. There was stuff in there that was absolutely invaluable, which we couldn\u2019t make the film without for sure.<\/p>\n

Tom: And you had sound engineer Mark Coyle\u2019s archive as well, which included that Liam vocal of Sad Song that everyone was amazed to hear.[8]<\/sup><\/a> And again you must have heard so much stuff\u2026 is there scope for another box set? Is there loads of exciting stuff?<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: Yeah I hope so, I hope so. I mean it\u2019s not that\u2026 because Noel has kind of teased us with this idea that I remember reading in an interview about a year ago where he said: \u201cOh god, there\u2019s a whole bunch of other songs that no-one\u2019s ever heard.\u201d And when I started asking him about them in one of the interviews he was quite dismissive, and said \u201cOh, they\u2019re rubbish.\u201d I was like, \u201cWell, can we listen to them at least?\u201d And Mark [Coyle] gave us a few in dribs and drabs. From my point of view, again, because of screen time I felt that we can\u2019t spend too much time on old undiscovered songs because then we have to take out Champagne Supernova or something; it just doesn\u2019t really work. But we could at least have a sense of them. And particularly what I wanted to try and get was any recordings of their conversations in the recording studio where you get a sense of the presence, the clutter, and people speaking through the mics and stuff. A lot of which Mark has got. He\u2019s got some very funny stuff. On Definitely Maybe<\/em>, I dunno what they were taking at the time but it\u2019s basically everyone speaking in Rasta accents for an unbelievably long time! Hah.<\/p>\n

Mark Coyle is amazing because not only is he a superhumanly intelligent, very funny, very psychedelic dude\u2026 he is [also] an interviewer\u2019s dream. Because he\u2019s like the band historian effectively, because he\u2019d read every single rock biography before Oasis even existed. Then he was there for the Inspirals with Noel, so he\u2019d seen it from before the beginning. And they both have that ability to step outside themselves, and understand the significance of each moment.<\/p>\n

So I\u2019d talk about things and the great thing about Mark is that – whatever you ask him – he so in-tune to what that story was that he\u2019ll just go, \u201cThat<\/em> was the turning point! After that, everything<\/em> changed.\u201d It was brilliant because we could pretty much apply it to anything. [Laughs<\/em>]. You\u2019d just say to him, \u201cRight, tell me about that time Noel got left behind at a service station because someone was drunk or something\u2026\u201d and he\u2019d go: \u201cAh, that<\/em> was it!\u201d, and all of a sudden talk about it for half an hour. \u201cAfter that day, everything changed.\u201d Ah, I love you Mark – you\u2019re a dream! Haha.<\/p>\n

Tom: There\u2019s the edit point!<\/strong><\/em>
\nMat: Exactly! Done. This edits itself.<\/p>\n

Tom: Right!<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: He\u2019s also got loads of tapes from his side-project with Noel, which is this kind of dance music.[9]<\/sup><\/a> He\u2019s got a lot of that stuff which is really cool. There\u2019s a lot of this weird feedback-y stuff that they used to play around with, which is very like a film score. We used some of that. There\u2019s tons of stuff, and he would just go looking\u2026 saying, \u201cLook, I don\u2019t know if this is of any interest to you, but here\u2019s a version of the first time Noel ever played Don\u2019t Look Back in Anger.\u201d Whatever these kind of things were, they would just suddenly come out. So there\u2019s tons of stuff that would be fascinating to fans, for sure.[10]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Tom: What were the dance music tapes like? Because acid house was such a big thing, wasn\u2019t it?<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: Yeah, it was kind of bizarre. Some of it is like weird jamming, maybe a bit like Fuckin\u2019 in the Bushes and things like that. And there\u2019s other stuff which is more house music-y, but it\u2019s bizarre; it\u2019s filtered through Mark Coyle\u2019s psychedelic consciousness\u2026 I\u2019d listen to it all day. There\u2019s some stuff which is quite menacing and odd – we used that at points in the background at Knebworth, so you get this kind of rumble in the sub-bass. But yeah. I think fans would listen to this for the rest of their lives, those crazy fans would happily sit through a ten-hour cut of the film as well.<\/p>\n

Tom: And of course there\u2019s that fantastic 35mm footage from the D\u2019you Know What I Mean? video, which was all scanned in high-definition and re-edited.[11]<\/sup><\/a> But no use to you because it\u2019s outside the scope of your film\u2026<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: Well we did have it in our film at one point because Noel – and again it was another section that I miss\u2026.<\/p>\n

Tom: Were you looking at\u00a0when\u00a0Noel went to [the\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Caribbean island] Mustique, to record the demos for Be Here Now? [12]<\/sup><\/a> <\/i><\/b>
\nMat: The Mustique thing yeah. Again we didn\u2019t have very much footage – we had a few pap shots, but we\u2019d cobbled together something that we thought was quite clever. And we had Johnny Depp lined up, because obviously Noel had been staying with him. Noel was at his most introspective and vulnerable when he was talking about that stuff because he was saying: \u201cLook, that was the one moment where I really froze and I just couldn\u2019t produce the goods for the first time in my life. And it was one of those moments where the spotlight was on me and I was being told not only the fans but also the band, the shareholders, and the whole future of Sony, Creation, and everything else was all riding on me strumming a guitar, sitting in Mick Jagger\u2019s house in Mustique\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Noel said that for the first time ever the songs weren\u2019t flowing out, and he was avoiding doing it. He didn\u2019t know what to do. We had this whole section where we had the rushes from D\u2019You Know What I Mean?, and we had the Mustique demos, which were part of the film at one point. It was a really lovely sequence but we didn\u2019t have that much footage, so we were having to find interesting ways around it.<\/p>\n

We\u2019d lined up Johnny, and Johnny very generously said he was going to be part of the film and then, again, it was just too much of a good thing and we couldn\u2019t find a way into it. But I loved the way that Noel talked about it because obviously, as usual, he was very amusing about it. He was saying at the first session, \u201cWhat I should\u2019ve done\u2026\u201d, his only regret was that if he\u2019d saved all those B-sides, that could have been the third album. \u201cImagine the size of that band then, how big we would have been – I certainly wouldn\u2019t be talking to you, I\u2019d have been talking to Martin Scorsese right now.\u201d Which I\u2019m sure is true!<\/p>\n

Having said that, he kind of immediately contradicted himself. Because, in a way, the making of the band was also the B-sides. The fact that they could suddenly open with Acquiesce and finish with the Masterplan at a gig – that\u2019s almost unheard of. That\u2019s Beatles territory, where your B-sides are as good as, or better than, the A-sides and you don\u2019t want to short-change your fans. The \u201990s were the era where you put out a naff dance remix and sold two CDs with different artwork on the front because you wanted to rinse the fans for everything. And that wasn\u2019t Noel or the band\u2019s ethos, but it did mean they used up a lot of great tunes on each single. Tunes which could easily have been the third and fourth album I guess.<\/p>\n

\n

Tom: Knebworth looks fantastic in high definition and I know that an official release has been mooted for a few years now. Presumably it was important to the film that you were able to use that footage first.<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: Yeah, no-one even mentioned it to us to be honest. I hope they do release it because the footage is beautiful. Dick [Carruthers] shot that and he did a beautiful job. For me it\u2019s interesting though because they shot it on a silly amount of cameras. At that stage everyone finally got the picture and everyone knew we\u2019ve got to commemorate this; it\u2019s a big deal. They had three cranes I think, and I can\u2019t remember how many cameras.[13]<\/sup><\/a> But weirdly (and I guess it\u2019s partly my prejudice) but we ended up using mostly super 8mm footage.<\/p>\n

I think they had a couple of guys wandering around with super 8 cameras and the footage is so dreamlike, and abstract, and beautiful that it just seemed to take the edge off the harshness of video. Even though we spent most of the previous two hours watching video, there was something about what we were trying to say about Knebworth that suited film.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve encountered a similar thing on music videos – there\u2019s a band I\u2019m touring with at the moment and it\u2019s one of those things where you end up thinking: \u201cAs great as these other cameras are, there\u2019s something about film which is gorgeous.\u201d There\u2019s tons and tons of stuff which [Oasis] should definitely release because it\u2019s beautiful, and it\u2019s a great gig, and they\u2019ve got two nights of it. So I hope that happens at some point.<\/p>\n

Tom: You mentioned elsewhere that Knebworth wasn\u2019t originally the end of the film\u2026<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: There was originally a whole coda about the next trip to the States, which was so disastrous. And the whole thing of going on stage at the MTV awards and spitting in front of the audience, and that being – in some ways – the final nail in the coffin. And then the beginnings of Be Here Now<\/em>. But it was another twenty-minute sequence and it just didn\u2019t seem to fit. We couldn\u2019t squeeze it in.<\/p>\n

Tom: It would\u2019ve changed the tone as well, wouldn\u2019t it? Because it\u2019s less triumphant from that point on, it gets a lot more sour. And you do end with the sort of \u2018heroes winning the battle\u2019; they come out of it a bit more self-aware and you know that their world is never going to be the same again, but it\u2019s still a moment of triumph isn\u2019t it?<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: Yeah, I think so. What I loved about it was that after I\u2019d made all these plans about starting and ending with Knebworth, we were then struggling in the edit because we hadn\u2019t got to that point in the interviews. And we were like, \u201cWhat if no-one has anything to say about Knebworth?\u201d Other than it was a big gig and it went quite well. Is there anything more to say about that? It\u2019s not the ending of a film; it\u2019s certainly not the beginning and ending of a film about this band.<\/p>\n

But actually, interestingly enough, completely unprompted Noel – and particularly Bonehead – started talking about it in very bittersweet terms, saying \u201cThat was the beginning of the end, that was when the rot set in\u2026 that\u2019s when we became this machine, this brand. And we lost that punk spirit.\u201d And then that, to me, made sense because you could have something that\u2019s a huge celebration but with this slightly darker undertone to it. It doesn\u2019t feel like it\u2019s an empty big gig. And you\u2019re right – adding anything to the end of that feels like we\u2019ve made the point. What are we going to learn from another fight in America? That the brothers didn\u2019t get on. Well, we\u2019ve dealt with that exhaustively. Are we gonna have another moment where Noel leaves the band in America? Well, we\u2019ve kinda done that as well. So there\u2019s a few things like that which just didn\u2019t quite seem to sit in the same film.<\/p>\n

Tom: Were there other music documentaries that you liked and which informed your style? I was reminded of Julien Temple\u2019s film about the Sex Pistols (The Filth and the Fury<\/a>) I guess partly because of the voice-over but also the collage feel.<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: Well I guess those films are part of your DNA without you realising. We didn\u2019t really watch anything – partly because we didn\u2019t have the time, and partly because there\u2019s always a bit of me that worries that we\u2019ll then end up ripping them off deliberately. At least this way you encounter problems and you try and solve them on your own. But probably your subconscious is telling you how to deal with them anyway. It wasn\u2019t a deliberate thing and obviously we used a similar technique with the audio interviews to the way that Asif [Kapadia] did with Amy<\/em><\/a> (2015) and Senna<\/em><\/a> (2010)\u2026<\/p>\n

Tom: There\u2019s a house style there isn\u2019t there\u2026<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: Yeah but it wasn\u2019t intentional. I mean obviously I love those films but it wasn\u2019t anything that anyone asked us to do. That came, again, from what we were saying about Noel not wanting to appear in the film. I was like, \u201cWell that makes sense, and this is the only way to do it.\u201d Some of my favourite band documentaries\u2026 there are so many but probably my all-time favourite is Don\u2019t Look Back<\/em><\/a> (dir. D. A. Pennebaker, 1965). It has a much more fragmented style; obviously it\u2019s in the moment, it\u2019s being filmed. But I love the staccato editing style of that. We did quite a bit of that ourselves but it didn\u2019t seem to suit [Supersonic<\/em>], weirdly. There\u2019s a million great documentaries, or the same ones that everyone else loves, but it wasn\u2019t like we sat down and did a little masterclass so that we could remember how to do it.<\/p>\n

I think each band deserves a different style. It was interesting talking to Asif about it – he was doing his own stuff, but a couple of times I met him over coffee and we had a chat. He was saying that the one thing he discovered with that technique was \u2013 and it seems obvious, I guess \u2013 but if someone\u2019s saying something important then don\u2019t have anything too interesting on-screen. And vice versa: if you\u2019re watching something crucial, then don\u2019t have anyone jabbering over the top. But, actually, once we were playing around with it we discovered that Amy<\/em> is a jazz film with a jazz mood to it and quite a slow pace, deliberately. And it\u2019s a tragedy, whereas ours is a punk rock film – so if we slowed it down too much we lost a lot of energy; whereas we ended up speeding it up. I think audiences are hungry enough and sophisticated enough to assimilate a lot of information simultaneously, and also it rewards repeat viewings. I\u2019m sure Oasis fans will watch it a few times and get something else out of it each time.<\/p>\n

\n

Tom: The music sets the tone doesn\u2019t it? Your film is a big statement over huge crowd shots and people being attacked with cricket bats and hammers. It\u2019s quite physical isn\u2019t it?<\/em><\/strong>
\nMat: Yeah it\u2019s different, and that\u2019s the thing. How do you make something that has a very varied tone? Because they\u2019re very funny but they\u2019re dealing with a very deep subject, and at times they\u2019re dealing with heavy stuff. They have that ability in an interview to flip between the tragic and the serious and the comic within seconds, without blinking\u2026 so I kind of felt like you get away with it because that\u2019s how they are. Even tough stuff they can laugh it off. And in a way that\u2019s more revealing than if they were bursting into tears every five seconds [whilst] talking about how difficult life is.<\/p>\n

Top of Page<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Mat Whitecross was interviewed by Tom Stroud on 26th<\/sup> October 2016. Check out\u00a0Part 1 here<\/a>. In Part 3<\/a> Mat talks in-depth about Supersonic<\/em>\u2019s final cut and Oasis\u2019s legacy. Online presentation and footnotes by David Huggins. Supersonic<\/em> is available now on DVD<\/a>, Blu-Ray<\/a>, and digital download from iTunes<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Notes<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Missing, Believed Wiped<\/strong><\/em>
\n1.<\/strong> (Back to article)<\/a><\/em> By the mid-1990s many television companies were starting to appreciate the commercial value of the programmes in their archives, but policies were slow to change. Satellite TV channels such as UK Gold (devoted to repeats of vintage programmes) and the flourishing home video market all proved there was a healthy audience for classic television.<\/p>\n

In some cases this inspired broadcasters to search for copies of programmes that they had wiped decades before. A classic example of this is Doctor Who<\/em>; the BBC junked<\/a> many episodes of the sci-fi series in the \u201960s, when the cost of keeping the tapes outweighed any perceived commercial benefit (in terms of overseas sales or domestic repeats). In the years since, many of the series\u2019 lost episodes have been recovered and released on VHS and DVD. For a detailed account of the whole \u201cmissing episodes\u201d saga (with Doctor Who<\/em> as the case study) I would recommend Richard Molesworth\u2019s definitive tome Wiped!<\/em><\/a> (Telos, 2013). Dick Fiddy\u2019s Missing Believed Wiped<\/em><\/a> (BFI, 2001) is another excellent resource.<\/p>\n

But whilst the BBC had started to greatly improve its archive, many other broadcasters and independent production companies did not invest so heavily in retaining their output. Director Mat Whitecross acknowledges that the gaps in MTV\u2019s 1990s archive initially proved problematic when sourcing Oasis footage for Supersonic<\/em>. And it was recently discovered<\/a> that (in 2010) Disney wiped the master tapes of ITV\u2019s Motormouth<\/em>, which included many performances by iconic bands of the \u201990s, such as the Manic Street Preachers playing Love\u2019s Sweet Exile<\/a>\u00a0in 1991; this\u00a0now only exists as an off-air videotape. Such home recordings may now be the best chance of saving many lost music programmes from the \u201960s right through to the \u201990s. Visitors to this site may be especially interested in the hunt for Oasis\u2019s lost appearance on the 1992 Blackpool Roadshow. Researcher James McDonald picks up the story in a fascinating article for the Archive Zones<\/em><\/a> journal.<\/p>\n

Goodbye, I’m going home: the Scott McLeod saga<\/strong><\/em>
\n2.<\/strong> (Back to article)<\/a><\/em> In September 1995 bassist Paul \u201cGuigsy\u201d McGuigan quit Oasis, exhausted by the rigours of the band\u2019s constant touring. But the show had to go on and Oasis quickly recruited former Ya Ya\u2019s guitarist Scott McLeod as his replacement. Scott had previously supported Oasis whilst with the Ya Ya\u2019s, and was full of enthusiasm for his new job. He explained to the Melody Maker<\/em> that: \u201cI\u2019m just really excited. I\u2019ve just joined the greatest band in the world as far as I\u2019m concerned. They\u2019ve got a fantastic songwriter with Noel.\u201d He added that: \u201cIt\u2019s a giant step for me [\u2026] obviously I\u2019m a bit nervous about it, but it\u2019s not as if I haven\u2019t played in front of people before. It\u2019s just\u2026 well, not 20,000!\u201d<\/p>\n

After appearing in Nigel Dick\u2019s promotional film for Wonderwall, Scott joined Oasis for a brief, ill-fated tour in the USA. Oasis\u2019s second album (What\u2019s the Story) Morning Glory?<\/em> had sold 250,000 copies in its first week on sale in the States, and the band were keen to capitalise on its success by crossing the Atlantic to play a short series of promotional gigs. All seemed well, but after only a handful of concerts Scott suddenly decided (on 17th<\/sup> October 1995) to leave the band. Noel and Liam were incredulous, and Creation Records issued a statement two days later: \u201cHe gave no apparent reason for leaving, other than he was unhappy and didn\u2019t feel he fitted in. No amount amount of persuasion from the band\u2019s tour manager or manager could persuade him to stay – he refused to discuss the matter with any band members.\u201d (Melody Maker<\/em>, 28.10.95).<\/p>\n

In crisis, Oasis cancelled their outstanding dates in Buffalo, Toronto, Detroit and Chicago. They were only able to fulfil their TV appearance on CBS\u2019s David Letterman Show<\/em><\/a> (broadcast 19th<\/sup> October 1995) by playing as a four-piece, with Bonehead on bass. Introduced by Letterman as \u201cThe most popular rock \u2019n\u2019 roll band in England today\u201d, they blasted through a ferocious version of the title track from (What\u2019s the Story) Morning Glory?<\/em> to a rapturous response from the audience. Noel later received a phone call from Scott, who explained: \u201cI think I\u2019ve made the wrong decision.\u201d Noel retorted: \u201cI think you have too. Good luck signing on.\u201d (BBC News:\u00a0Traumas follow Oasis tours<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Once back in the UK, Oasis started searching for yet another new bass player; the clock was ticking, as they had huge gigs lined up at London Earl\u2019s Court on 4th<\/sup> and 5th<\/sup> November 1995. At the last minute, however, Guigsy announced that he was well enough to rejoin the band. Speaking to writer Paolo Hewitt after the gigs, Noel joked about his bassist\u2019s reasons for returning: \u201cThe fact that I threatened to sack him if he didn\u2019t might have had something to do with it\u2026 he seemed to perk up quite dramatically after that.\u201d (There and Then<\/em><\/a>).<\/p>\n

Amsterdamage<\/strong><\/em>
\n3.<\/strong> (Back to article)<\/a><\/em> The punch-up on the ferry to Amsterdam drew much press coverage at the time, helping to build up Oasis\u2019s wild image. Perhaps the best-remembered piece on this was by the journalist John Harris, who interviewed Noel and Liam (for an article entitled \u201cThe Bruise Brothers\u201d) published in the NME<\/em> on 23rd<\/sup> April 1994. Harris summarised Noel and Liam\u2019s disagreement over the event in his\u00a0Britpop memoir\u00a0The Last Party<\/em><\/a>: \u201cLiam celebrated his role as an uncontrollable libertine; Noel,\u00a0taking issue with his brother\u2019s pride in Oasis\u2019s high jinx, insisted that attention be paid to\u00a0nothing but the music\u201d (Harris, p. 146). The tape recording of this interview was later edited\u00a0and released in 1995 by Fierce Panda records as a CD single entitled\u00a0Wibbling Rivalry<\/a>,\u00a0attributed to \u201cOas*s.\u201d It became the highest-charting interview release in the UK, having\u00a0reached number 52 on 25th\u00a0November 1995.<\/p>\n

Noel strikes back in Newcastle<\/strong><\/em>
\n4.<\/strong> (Back to article)<\/a><\/em> Johnny Marr recalls lending his priceless 1960 Les Paul guitar to Noel in this hilarious interview he gave to Channel Bee in 2009. \u201cTaketh thy Les Paul and lay down some heavy licks\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n