Don’t Look Back in Anger: Manchester, Supersonic and Made of Stone

This chapter provides analysis of two recent rockumentary texts—The Stone Roses: Made of Stone (Dir. Shane Meadows, 2013) and Oasis: Supersonic (Dir. Mat Whitecross, 2016). Thinking through the form and structure of the visual and sonic compositions, as well as the content, it considers the ways in which both texts use the revival culture of the present to look back at the past (1980s and 1990s), and situate the bands at their heart as authentic, Mancunian creatives. It also considers the female-centred stories and sociocultural alignments between the bands and the directors. In addition, the chapter suggests that while the place of Manchester is situated as an important and somewhat mythical starting point for the music that the bands produced, that the outlooks and outputs of the bands were, and remain, much broader and inclusive than white, working-class, English, male ‘scenes’.