Knebworth 22 filmmaker on his ‘relief’ over Oasis song block and Liam Gallagher’s ‘delicate’ side

Published

2 years ago

November 17, 2022

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“Who goes back to the scene of one of their biggest ever gigs – effectively in the prime of their prior band’s career – and replicates it on their own terms as a solo artist well over a quarter of a century later?

“Obviously, the answer is that only Liam Gallagher would have the audacity and the swagger to do so.”

It’s that very swagger that has inspired filmmaker Toby L, to document the 50-year-old rock star’s return to the site of his former glory in his new film, Liam Gallagher: Knebworth 22.

No stranger to working with stars, Toby has previously made documentaries about performers including Rihanna, Olivia Rodrigo, and band Bastille. But he’s not fazed by big egos.

The filmmaker tells Sky News: “There’s that whole notion of ‘don’t meet your idols’. I’d say, ‘No, meet your idols and try to make a documentary with them’.”

The filmmaking process had its challenges – hitting the headlines last month after Liam branded his brother Noel “an angry squirt” for reportedly refusing to allow the film to use any Oasis songs.

The director says he actually felt “relieved” the Oasis bangers were off the table, and instead of “looking back” will reveal the more “delicate” side of a star better known for his confrontational attitude, hard-partying ways and outspoken views.

Some might say, it’s exactly those characteristics that compelled Liam to return to the site of his former glory in the first place, and then nail it. But first, some history.

It was back in August 1996 that Oasis played two nights at Knebworth Festival, with over a quarter of a million fans descending on 250-acre site for the sold-out gigs.

John Major was prime minister, Spice Girls were about to claim UK number one with their debut single Wannabe and Germany would soon beat England on penalties, going on to win Euro 1996.

‘Biblical’

Twenty-six years later, in June 2022, following the release of his third solo album, C’mon You Know, Liam performed to 170,000 fans at the Hertfordshire stately home, across two nights – which were again, completely sold-out.

At the time his 2022 gig was announced, Liam called it “beyond biblical,” adding, “let’s do it again in another 26 years”.

And his fans were up for it, as one says in the film: “It’s like destiny, it’s like travelling to Mecca. It’s a pilgrimage, we don’t have a choice, it’s something we have to do. We’ll be there with our parkas on and the stupid haircuts. We’ll be going for it, we’ll be ready.”

Speaking in the documentary, Liam says: “I didn’t think we’d ever get back to do Knebworth again, I didn’t think we’d ever do f****** arenas… [We] may have skirted about theatres.. up to some point when I’d have said this isn’t f****** good enough. I don’t know what I would have done. I’d have probably just knocked it on the head and vanished off. I don’t know man, when you’ve been big, you want to kind of stay biggish don’t you?”

And there’s a brief moment of early concern in the film over whether Liam’s voice is up to it, and whether it will carry across the 250-acre site.

Of course, Liam – as one would expect from a man whose Twitter bio includes the words “Godlike”, “Celestial” and “Majestical” – feels no performance anxiety, saying in the run up to the shows: “Before anyone asks me am I nervous. No, not one f****** bit. I just want to get on, and get stuck into the tunes man”.

It’s no spoiler to say the sell-out gigs were a huge success. And that success has to be credited to the charismatic performer at the heart of the show.

The wild man of rock

So, what can we expect to learn about the younger of the Oasis siblings in this latest film about his life and work?

The director says we’re in for some surprises: “He’s the wild animal Liam, he’s the rock and roll Liam and he’s the very sweary Liam… But I feel like we see another side of his personality in this.

“I’d be loath to say softer, because that would be maybe a bit too sort of mild, but definitely a delicacy… and just a super sharp wit and articulate view on the world.”

A little later, Toby adds: “I think we see all of the razor-sharp rock and roll edge that you want. And also, I think we have a more philosophical side from him as well”.

He describes Liam as “constantly entertaining,” admitting that during filming, “I had to literally bend my head back to laugh into the ether, so the boom mike didn’t pick up my laughter”.

He goes on: “We all know he’s hilarious but being in the same room or field as him as he makes some of those comments is just definitely a real highlight of my work thus far.”

The elephant in the room

The film hooks up with Liam a week before the Knebworth gig over the Platinum Jubilee weekend, taking him back to the site of his former glory and watching him prepare, but this time without his brother Noel by his side.

And of course, the fact that Noel is not part of the Knebworth re-do is something neither Liam, nor the director, can ignore.

Toby explains: “The elephant in the room is brought up straight away in the first five minutes of the film and you see the way in which Liam deals with it, in a really graceful fashion that’s non-defamatory but is also totally honest.”

In the opening scenes of the documentary, descending from the skies like a god – albeit in a helicopter rather than on a beam of light – Liam says: “I would have never of thought of doing it, because it’s f****** huge and all that. But the fans want it, they wanted it with Oasis, [Noel] obviously doesn’t want to do it, so, they’ll just have to do it with me, and I’ll f****** do it, it’s going to be amazing.”

And of course, there was the drama over the music rights for the film too.

I felt ‘relieved’

Just last month Liam branded Noel “an angry squirt” and a “horrible little man”, claiming he had “blocked” the documentary from using Oasis songs.

But far from being perturbed by the apparent snub, the director says that while he understands some fans were initially disappointed by the news, he actually felt “relieved” when he discovered he couldn’t use the band’s music and believes it’s a better film without the Oasis tracks (half of Liam’s Knebworth 22 set were Oasis numbers).

He explains: “I was struggling to find a way, while were building such personal stories around Liam, how we were going to put the Oasis music in, in a way that felt contextually sound and also in the context of the fact that there was another Oasis Netflix documentary only a year or two ago [Liam Gallagher: As It Was]…

“It’s a bold thing to say, but I didn’t miss those massive, amazing songs. It felt like this film works in its own complete form, and I was just really relieved because I felt like if we were looking back too much, it wouldn’t have been as contemporary a story as it needs to be in order to differentiate itself to the prior documentary.”

While not repeating the themes explored in Charlie Lightening and Gavin Fitzgerald’s 2019 film, Liam Gallagher: As It Was, Toby says his documentary goes on to “highlight again in a new up to date way that transition point between what do you do after peaking in the biggest band of the time and then try to find your own solo voice and growing up in public”.

Taking Liam from his wilderness years post Oasis’s 2009 split, the director says it describes the star as “he got healthy and he started looking after himself and he started treating himself in a sort of athlete capacity”.

For Liam, looking back in the documentary on his heyday in the nineties, he’s of the opinion: “The music was good, there were loads of bands in the 90s that were great, obviously there were s*** ones as well.”

As for the style of the time, Liam says: “The fashion I don’t think was amazing, but it was decent, I think it went with the music.”

Back to the ’90s

The director – who at 37 experienced the tail end of the Britpop years first hand – has a deeper analysis on a time which defined an era to people now in their late 30s early 40s, when Margaret Thatcher was out, Tony Blair’s Britain was ahead, and there was promise in the air.

“It’s hard to think of a time recently where music was so at the forefront of the cultural conversation or the political conversation. That mid-nineties period, which we also talk about in the film, that whole era and the power of music and how it interlaces with the social fiscal climate at the time that music occurs in. Oasis were just brilliantly unavoidable and everyone had an opinion.”

He describes the band as “the underdogs,” going on, “they didn’t come from privilege. They didn’t come with industry connections. They just had some phenomenal songs and an amazing stage presence.

“And I think that that’s an aspirational story to this day, and I think anyone that aspires to do something great with their lives, just remember that story. Anything can happen if you put the time and the work into it.”

So why is Liam going back to play Knebworth such a big deal?

Toby says the answer to that is that it’s something the world needed, more than we could have possibly imagined.

“We’ve all needed it. You know, the last few years have been so tough in the world and the idea of a big single is concert where we all come together and celebrate as one being, that’s what the film explores, the power of live music against adversity.”

It’s something the fans seem to appreciate, without question. And in this documentary, they are front and centre, rather than a footnote to the event.

All about the fans

Toby says: “From the very outset, we explained to [Liam] how we wanted the film to be. We wanted it to be his story going back to Knebworth for the first time in 26 years. But we also wanted to reflect some of the 170,000 fans going across the two days.”

Thousands sent in video submissions to be part of the film, with just eight making it into the final cut.

They include seven-year-old Audrina from Derby – now in remission from neuroblastoma, a rare type of cancer that mostly affects babies and young children – who says of her hero: “I think he’s cool, he’s always stayed true to himself, he’s never been bothered what the other people think about him”.

And superfan Simon Heptinstall, 42, from Halifax, who has a garden shed bar called Champagne Supernobar and owns every Oasis CD and vinyl record, as well as every album, Liam has released as a solo artist. He’s of the opinion that: “It’s a way of life really, Oasis and Liam. It’s an attitude, it’s who you are as a person”.

Plus, celebrity fan, Kasabian frontman Serge Pizzorno, makes an appearance in the documentary too, calling Liam “the epitome of rock and roll,” adding, “and rock and roll never dies”.

The director says Liam was a driving force in putting his fans at the heart of the film: “He was just totally in, and he was so excited about the idea that we were going to be focusing on his audience as much as him in this film… More so than anything else in the industry, that’s all he cares about, the people.”

Rather entertainingly, when asked in the documentary where he would position himself in the crowd if he was a fan, Liam is characteristically honest, replying: “Oh, I’d be at the f****** bar getting w******”.

So what will Liam think?

But while there’ll be a legion of fans queuing to see their hero on the big screen as the documentary hits the cinemas, Liam himself is yet to see the film. Toby explains, “he’s got reasons for wanting the right moment to watch it”.

Although rock and roll stars can be notoriously protective of their public persona, it seems Liam has no desire to micromanage his own documentary.

The director goes on: “With Liam, it’s the other extreme, which I think is every documentary makers’ dream / biggest fear, [which] is you’re going to make it, and then they’ll watch at some point and then you’ll get your feedback down the line.” He pauses, “I’m excited for when he does watch it…”

Will Oasis ever get back together?

As for whether Oasis will ever get back together, the director is philosophical: “[Liam’s] made his case pretty open, which is he’s open minded. And I think it’s Noel who understandably is like, ‘Hey, we’ve got a great legacy’. Who knows what will happen?”

It’s the question every Oasis fan would love to know, and the one the Gallagher brother’s have become adept at batting away at every single interview since their split.

Things of course came to a head for the band 18 years ago, back in 2009, minutes before a headline show in Paris. There were rumours of a physical altercation involving a guitar.

Earlier this year, Liam said the band “should never have split up” and he would “love” Oasis to get back together.

And, just last month, Noel said in an interview there was “no point” in an Oasis reunion as the band sell “as many records now” as they did when they were together.

In the same interview, in a nod to the subject at the heart of this very documentary, Noel added: “If we got back together, it would be a circus and there’s no point. Just leave it as it is. I’m happy, [Liam’s] doing his thing, he’s f***ing selling out Knebworth, it’s like, ‘Mate, good luck to you’.”

So, the jury is still out, for now at least.

But fans still have some hope to cling on to, as Toby concludes: “I’ve learnt that life is a weird thing and sometimes the things that seem the least likely do sometimes happen… If they did decide to do it one day, I just can’t imagine how gargantuan that event would be.”

Sky News has contacted both Liam and Noel Gallagher’s representatives for comment.

Liam Gallagher: Knebworth 22 is in cinemas worldwide from Thursday 17 November.

Entertainment

With Love, Meghan: What we learnt from Duchess of Sussex’s new Netflix series

Published

3 hours ago

March 4, 2025

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With Love, Meghan: What we learnt from Duchess of Sussex's new Netflix series

The Duchess of Sussex’s lifestyle series premiered this morning – in which she talks about her life in California, her time spent living in Argentina and her love of food.

With Love, Meghan – an eight-part series on Netflix – had been delayed from a January release due to the Los Angeles wildfires.

The episodes, which last about 30 minutes each, feature a host of celebrity friends along with a few cameos from her husband, Prince Harry.

From her first jobs growing up to what she was like on the Suits set, here are some things we learnt about the duchess.

‘I’m Sussex now’

One of Meghan’s guests is The Office star Mindy Kaling, who she bonds with over their lives as toddlers’ mums while putting together a tea party in the garden.

As they put sandwiches together for the tea, Meghan talks about her love of Jack In The Box – a classic US fast-food chain, to which Kaling responds: “I don’t think anyone in the world knows that Meghan Markle has eaten Jack In The Box and loves it.”

The duchess laughs and says: “It’s funny, you keep saying Meghan Markle, you know, I’m Sussex now.

“You have kids, and you go, ‘now I share my name with my children’… I didn’t know how meaningful it would be to me, but it just means so much to go ‘this is our family name, our little family name’.”

Similarities with Archie

During episode four, the duchess goes on a hike with her friend Delfina Blaquier, who is married to Argentinian polo star Nacho Figueras, and together they have a picnic with homemade focaccia bread.

The duchess reveals how she passed time during her childhood – and the similar traits her son, Archie, has: “As a kid, I was taking a bag of tea from the drawer in my house, putting it in a mason jar or probably an empty jar that once held spaghetti sauce and putting it in the sun, and sitting there… waiting for it to change colour.

“Funny enough, which Archie does now.”

Days before the show aired, in an interview with People magazine, the duchess said Archie had told her: “Mama, don’t work too hard” during filming.

She added the five-year-old helped with the clapperboard while visiting the set with his sister Lilibet and Harry.

Life in Argentina

The two friends met through their husbands – “The moment we met, we bonded over our love of the outdoors and being in nature. We always hike together whenever she’s in town. And sometimes we let our husbands join us,” Meghan says.

Reflecting on when they first met, Meghan says: “What’s so funny is, I remember when we first met, and you were like: ‘Wait a minute, you speak Argentinian Spanish?’ But it’s such a pretty language because it sounds so musical.”

Her friend says: “When you started speaking Spanish and I recognised the Argentinian, I was blown away, because I didn’t know that…”

“That I’d lived there,” Meghan responds.

She adds: “When I lived in Argentina, I think the reason I loved it so much is because it reminded me of California in a lot of ways. Where you have the mountains and you have this joy of life and the joy of being outside.

“I was only there for a few months interning at the US Embassy, but I loved it.”

First jobs in doughnut and yoghurt shops – and some more childhood memories

In episode five, as Meghan hosts long-time friends, former Suits co-star Abigail Spencer and Kelly McKee Zajfen, she says that her first job was at Humphrey Yogart, a frozen yoghurt shop in Los Angeles playfully named after actor Humphrey Bogart.

That came after she told chef Roy Choi in episode three, as she presented him with doughnuts she prepared for him, that she once had a job at a doughnut shop.

“Doughnuts in general just remind me of my childhood,” she said.

“I once had a job at a little donut shop called Little Orbit Donuts. They made tiny, tiny, little mini donuts.”

She said she often helped them sell at craft venues, adding that doughnuts generally were a big part of her childhood.

“Growing up, driving down Highland to get to school, there was always a Yum Yum Donuts right there.”

“Highland and Melrose,” Choi clarifies.

“Exactly… is it still there?”

When Choi says it is, she responds: “Oh my god. I should go back in.”

In another episode, Kaling asks whether Meghan began cooking at home or picked it up later. Meghan replies: “I was a latch-key kid so I grew up with a lot of fast food and also a lot of TV tray dinners.

“It feels like such a different time but that was so normal with the microwavable kids meals.”

Life in Montecito house

The lifestyle show, which was filmed in a California farmhouse rather than in her Montecito house, features her describing her every day life – including how it is a “daily” task to pick fruit when it’s in season at her home.

Episode one Hello Honey! features Meghan’s friend Daniel Martin as she prepares a “thoughtful guest basket”.

It begins with her harvesting honey from bees, saying: “The biggest thing is keeping a low tone – talk in our bee voice.”

With the help of a beekeeper, she talks about “trying to stay in the calm of it because it’s beautiful to be this connected”.

Harry is the king of eggs

When asked by Kaling about how best to season eggs, the duchess says: “I have a family, a husband, who no matter what meal is put in front of him before he tastes it puts salt on, so I try to under salt.”

Harry himself, it is later revealed, is something of an egg connoisseur.

Speaking to two close friends in a later episode, she says “H” is a “great cook” and makes “the best scrambled eggs”.

She further praises him by saying he generally makes “a really good breakfast”.

Bacon was the subject of discussions on more than one occasion during the series, with Meghan saying that whenever she cooks it the kitchen “becomes full of husband and three dogs”.

“It’s not my perfume that’s bringing them all in,” she jokes.

What the duchess was like during Suits

Meghan’s days of playing paralegal Rachel Zane in popular drama Suits came to an end in 2018, the year she married Harry.

But she has clearly remained close with co-star Abigail Spencer, who played Dana Scott.

In episode five, as the pair sat in Meghan’s garden alongside Kelly McKee Zajfen, Spencer reflected on what Meghan was like during the Suits days.

She said Meghan was “the head of morale on the show,” to which Meghan thanked her and added: “I liked to plan fun for everyone.”

Heart-warming moments of Meghan with beloved beagle

The whole series ends with a tribute to Meghan’s late dog, Guy, who featured prominently in several episodes.

One morning, the duchess is seen making bone-shaped peanut butter biscuits for the rescue beagle, who died shortly after filming wrapped, saying you can make them with leftover bacon from breakfast.

She admitted there was “never” any leftovers in her house because “we eat a lot of it” – another reference to the Sussexes love of bacon.

“I would do anything for Guy, and he knows it,” she then says. “He can have whatever he wants ’cause he is whatever kind of guy you need him to be depending on the day. My sweet guy, my silly guy, my saucy little guy. Always my spoiled guy.”

Later, as she hands him a peanut butter cookie, she adds: “They provide us with unconditional love, so they get unconditional peanut butter dog biscuits. Why not?”

The Sussexes also have two other dogs – another rescue beagle named Mia and a black Labrador called Pula, who is seen trying to steal some of Meghan and her guests’ food at various points during the series.

Meghan’s ‘next chapter’

In the eighth and final episode, called Feels Like Home, Meghan prepares for Prince Harry to make an appearance.

She is putting together a brunch for family and friends to celebrate the “next chapter” in her life.

Sharing details of how she envisages the so-called “next chapter”, Meghan, wearing a blue maxi dress and putting the finishing touches to a spread of food outdoors, says: “Of course, my husband will be here, my mum will be here, my best friend since college, my community having a brunch in the sunshine with the people that I love, celebrating this next chapter of my life.”

Entertainment

Dolly Parton’s husband of nearly 60 years dies

Published

8 hours ago

March 4, 2025

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Dolly Parton's husband of nearly 60 years dies

Dolly Parton’s husband – who she married in a secret ceremony aged just 20 – has died.

The country music star’s website said Carl Dean died on Monday in Nashville.

Parton said in a statement: “Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy.”

Dean was the inspiration behind Jolene, one of her biggest hits.

She said she wrote the song after a flirty bank clerk seemed to take an interest in him.

“She got this terrible crush on my husband,” Parton told NPR in 2008.

“And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention.

“It was kinda like a running joke between us… So it’s really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one.”

The pair met outside the Wishy Washy launderette, where Parton was doing her washing, the day she moved to Nashville at age 18.

“I was surprised and delighted that while he talked to me, he looked at my face (a rare thing for me),” Parton said in 2016.

“He seemed to be genuinely interested in finding out who I was and what I was about.”

Parton said her record company had asked her to wait to get married but the couple tied the knot two years later, in May 1966.

Only her mother, the preacher and his wife were in attendance at the ceremony – held out of state so local papers wouldn’t report it.

Dean owned a paving business and famously shunned the limelight, so was very rarely seen in public with the star.

“A lot of people say there’s no Carl Dean, that he’s just somebody I made up to keep other people off me,” Parton joked in a 1984 interview with AP.

The couple never had any children, but he is survived by his brother and sister.

Entertainment

Oscars 2025: Anora sweeps the Academy Awards with five awards including best picture

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1 day ago

March 3, 2025

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Oscars 2025: Anora sweeps the Academy Awards with five awards including best picture

Anora has dominated the Academy Awards, winning five gongs including best picture.

The film’s star, Mikey Madison, who plays a sex worker who marries the son of a Russian oligarch, took home the best actress award – a win that was not a total upset, but many had expected Demi Moore to scoop the prize for her performance in The Substance.

Anora filmmaker Sean Baker was named best director, and used his acceptance speech to make a plea for audiences to support cinemas, which he said were “a vital part of our culture” and at risk of being lost.

Both also thanked sex workers who consulted on the film, saying they could never have made it without them.

Anora also won the Oscars for best original screenplay and best editing. Winning all four awards he was up for, Baker tied with Walt Disney’s record for the most Oscar wins by a single person in a single night – although Disney won his awards for multiple works, rather than a single film as Baker has done.

Adrien Brody won the best actor Oscar for playing Hungarian architect Lazlo Toth in architectural epic The Brutalist.

It was his second Academy Award win in the category some 22 years after his first, for The Pianist back in 2003.

Accepting his award in a lengthy speech, he paid tribute to his partner Georgina Chapman, who he said had “re-invigorated” his “self-worth” and “sense of value”.

Best cinematography also went to The Brutalist directror Brady Corbet’s three-and-a-half-hour epic, which also took home the prize for best original score.

Papal thriller Conclave, starring Ralph Fiennes, took just one award, for best adapted screenplay.

Kieran Culkin took the first award of the night, best supporting actor, for his role in comedy drama A Real Pain, while the best supporting actress prize was won by Emilia Perez star Zoe Saldana, her first Oscar win and nomination.

One of the highest-grossing actresses ever, she cried out “Mommy, mommy”, on stage, explaining her entire family was there with her. She became tearful at the end of her speech as she spoke of being “a proud child of immigrant parents”.

Announced by Mick Jagger, best song went to Emilia Perez’s El Mal (which translates as “Evil”), while the prize for costume design went to Wicked’s Paul Tazewell – who became the first black man to receive the award. The Wizard Of Oz prequel also won best production design.

Brazilian director Walter Salles won best international feature for Portuguese-language film I’m Still Here, set in the 1970s in the midst of the Brazil’s brutal military dictatorship.

A word-of-mouth hit, the film’s Brazilian star Fernanda Torres has gone from a relative unknown to a much-talked-about actress in the US in the last few months.

Make-up and hairstyling was awarded to body horror The Substance, a film which showcased extreme prosthetics, make-up and gore throughout. It was the film’s only win of the night.

The documentary categories went to The Only Girl In The Orchestra and No Other Land – made by a Palestinian-Israeli collective – for short film and feature film respectively.

Accepting the prize, it’s makers Basel Dra and Yuval Abraham made a political plea to the US: “The foreign policy in this country is helping to block [the path of peace]. Why? Can’t you see that we are intertwined? There is another way. It’s not too late for life, for the living.”

Best sound and best visual effects went to Dune: Part Two, directed by Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve.

A night where independent and unusual filmmaking was rewarded, best animated feature went to Latvian computer-generated film Flow, while best animated short film was won by Iranian entry The Shadow Of The Cypress. Both international productions are dialogue-free.

Live action short film went to I’m Not A Robot, a study in an AI-fueled identity crisis.

During the ceremony’s in memoriam section, Morgan Freeman paid tribute to two-time Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman, who was found dead in his home along with his wife and dog earlier this week.

A video montage honoured Academy members who have passed away over the last year, including British stars Dame Maggie Smith and Dame Joan Plowwright and Donald Sutherland, and US performers James Earl Jones, Kris Kristofferson and David Lynch.

There was also a moving segment honouring late music producer Quincy Jones, led by Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg and featuring rapper Queen Latifah.

Sky News is livestreaming the Vanity Fair and Sir Elton John after-party red carpets following the ceremony. Catching the Oscar-winners as they party the night away, join us there from 6am.