Liam Gallagher: As It Was | Little White Lies

Liam Gal­lagher: As It Was

06 Jun 2019 / Released: 06 Jun 2019

Words by Lou Thomas

Directed by Charlie Lightening and Gavin Fitzgerald

Starring Liam Gallagher

Intense black-and-white portrait of a man with a serious expression, facing slightly downward and to the side, with light and shadow creating strong contrasts on his face.
Intense black-and-white portrait of a man with a serious expression, facing slightly downward and to the side, with light and shadow creating strong contrasts on his face.
3

Anticipation.

Liam’s a laugh, but have we seen this all before?

4

Enjoyment.

Surprisingly moving in parts and hysterically funny everywhere else.

3

In Retrospect.

An even better insight into Liam’s world than his tweets.

The for­mer Oasis front­man reflects on his life as a rock and roll star in this enter­tain­ing docu-profile.

With Liam Gal­lagher: As It Was, direc­tors Char­lie Light­en­ing and Gavin Fitzger­ald have full access to Liam, his fam­i­ly, friends and col­leagues, with the notable excep­tion of Noël, who has sup­pos­ed­ly not spo­ken to Liam since Oasis split in August 2009. The back­stage row at Rock en Seine fes­ti­val near Paris that led to their part­ing is dis­cussed by Liam and oth­ers present over footage shot by fans at the can­celled gig.

Liam’s life in Oasis and his sub­se­quent band, Beady Eye, is men­tioned but the pri­ma­ry focus here is 2017 – 2018, with the rock and roll star prepar­ing for the release of his debut solo album As You Were’ and a pro­mo­tion­al world tour. An abun­dance of live and behind-the-scenes footage is aug­ment­ed by can­did inter­views with Liam, mum Peg­gy, old­er broth­er Paul and for­mer Oasis gui­tarist Paul Bone­head” Arthurs, among others.

Back of person holding microphone at crowded political protest, black and white image.

The foul-mouthed Man­cun­ian speaks mov­ing­ly of try­ing to con­tact Noël to no avail. In the stu­dio, we see Liam’s infec­tious enthu­si­asm, sol­id work eth­ic and world-class bon­homie. Famil­ial vignettes see Liam ban­ter with Peg­gy and Paul in her Bur­nage home and sons Lennon and Gene ride his tour bus. Part­ner and man­ag­er Deb­bie Gwyther seems a steady­ing pres­ence after his mar­riages to Pat­sy Ken­sit and Nicole Apple­ton. We even see Mol­ly, Liam’s now-adult daugh­ter by Lisa Moor­ish, on a Cal­i­forn­ian walk in the hills. Until May 2018, Liam hadn’t seen Mol­ly since she was an infant in the late 90s.

The film is fre­quent­ly hilar­i­ous and filled with pro­fan­i­ty. Whether run­ning up Hamp­stead Heath or shar­ing laughs with David Beck­ham back­stage at Glas­ton­bury in 2017, bare­ly a minute goes by with­out some colour­ful lan­guage or a laugh-out-loud moment. If Liam had the patience for writ­ing a stand-up rou­tine, you sense he’d ace it.

Yet cer­tain crit­i­cisms of As It Was are unavoid­able. Though the Beady Eye and solo music we hear is fine, there is none of Liam’s best work from his Oasis days, pre­sum­ably owing to Noël refus­ing per­mis­sion to use it. Noël’s absence is a shame, but ful­ly expect­ed. Oth­er­wise, this fea­ture may come too soon after 2016’s Super­son­ic for some. That film com­pre­hen­sive­ly cov­ered Oasis’ hey­day and too much Liam can be exhaust­ing. Those quib­bles aside, this is uproar­i­ous­ly enter­tain­ing stuff.

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