I’ve not covered many documentaries on the blog, and when I have, they’ve generally been about music, bands or individual musicians.
Supersonic from 2016, is about the British band of the 90s – Oasis.
The film shows how the band went from being unemployed in Manchester, to playing to the biggest crowd ever assembled for a rock concert at Knebworth around two and a half years later.
It’s a real rags to riches tale, but the film also focuses heavily on the relationship between the lead singer Liam, and the songwriter Noel. Two brothers from a tough background, and a spectacularly broken home.
I can’t say I’ve read very much about Oasis over the years, so the documentary opened my eyes to the real rivalry between the two brothers (which has been well publicised), and their separate personalities shone through. It suddenly became clear to me why the band had broken up, and why their fall from grace musically happened so quickly. They weren’t just playing around at hating each other, the two brothers had genuine, long lasting issues going back to childhood.
This is also a film about writing songs. Noel talks about the process, and how he knew when recording their first album that he’d hit on a rich vein of form, and how he could almost do no wrong. Some writers (even script writers) may recognise this, I know I do. Noel even claims he knew one particular song was going to be number one in the charts before he’d even written it!
The documentary is emotional, funny, frank and at times painfully honest. Anybody around from the 90s should watch this…
Matthew Cooper has been a script writer for hire for over 20 years. He’s written for most of the UK soaps, including writing award winning episodes of Emmerdale, EastEnders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs and has been BAFTA shortlisted and Royal Television Society nominated as a script writer. He’s also a leading UK script consultant. You can find some of his broadcast credits on the IMDb. You can get in touch with Matthew on matcoop23@yahoo.co.uk or hire him on Peopleperhour