― Langley, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 15:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 15:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― DJ Martian (djmartian), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 15:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― Lynskey (Lynskey), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 15:42 (nineteen years ago) link
And what were the worst albums/bands of the era.
― Langley, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 15:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― Langley, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 15:44 (nineteen years ago) link
1994
I f-ing hated the britpop music culture 94-96.
― DJ Martian (djmartian), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 15:49 (nineteen years ago) link
Catergories - Monkey Resemblance, Number of videos with a budget above the bands station, Union Jack bandying, Current obscurity and Degree of monobrow.
― Lynskey (Lynskey), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 15:53 (nineteen years ago) link
So did Brit-pop's best band, the Boo Radleys, who annihilated their own career with the so-called screw-you-all anthem C'mon Kids. Careericide is cool, especially when it's built on great songs and an uncanny Liam imitation telling everybody to reject Liamism.
― Neudonym, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 15:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― dog latin (dog latin), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 15:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Daniel Brookes, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 16:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― Daniel Brookes, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 16:04 (nineteen years ago) link
Heh heh heh. Always loved that man's writing when he was in a mood.
Menswear were still great, though.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 16:05 (nineteen years ago) link
with any "scene" there are always going to be mediocre artists following behind the front-runners - hence menswear, shed 7 etc.
― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 16:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― Lynskey (Lynskey), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 16:23 (nineteen years ago) link
I think I quite like Britpop. I think I can understand why many people didn't.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 16:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― Langley, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 16:30 (nineteen years ago) link
Geir will answer that question over the next couple of days!
― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 16:35 (nineteen years ago) link
To which this US resident says, "Big deal. People wanted to be proud of England, let 'em. At least we got Teenage Fanclub out of it." (Yeah, I know, they weren't Brit-pop. But would they have found a rabid fanbase without it? I dunno....)
Plus: XTC/Who as spiritual godfathers = better than any two movement spiritual godfathers I can think of.
― Neudonym, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 16:39 (nineteen years ago) link
Britpop = bunch of British bands using very British influences and addressing very English issues in their lyrics: but i'm not sure it threw up any more great British music than any other stage of the 90's. Just that a lot of the good bands were related (vaguely, at least).
My fave bit in the Stubbs article is where he talks about British music being in the doldrums in the early 90's ("Suede, Massive Attack, MBV - rubbish like that.") There was always great music (and crap music) coming out of Britain, just it was more focused during that period.
― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 16:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 16:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jon Williams (ex machina), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 16:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 16:51 (nineteen years ago) link
Remove the sarcasm and you're on the money!
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 16:52 (nineteen years ago) link
i do.
― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 16:56 (nineteen years ago) link
ned, i KNEW you were going to post that post. you are a swine and a half ;-)
― Marcello Carlin, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 16:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 17:05 (nineteen years ago) link
For starters 94-96 [just limiting it to British artists]
great music was made by:bark psychosis, laika, o'rang, scorn, techno animal, The aloof, tricky, anaethma, slam, underworld and the year of 1995: jungle music one of most exciting British music cultures of alltime - was in full flow - the NME and MM virtually ignored it, apart from the odd column from Simon Reynolds. every thursday on Radio 1 at 9 - 10 - essential listening in 1995.
what fucking annoyed me was the overwhelming suffocation of NME, MM and music on TV at the time - that music revolved around a bunch of shitty conservative trad retro bands peddling melodic songs crap. The two media henchmen: Lamacq and Chris Evans were responsible for the utter mess.
the britpop/ladrock that i refer to, that stank of trad retro-isms: Shed 7, Cast, Bluetones, OCS, Oasis, Kula Shaker, Supergrass, Dodgy and Paul Weller.
I remember picking up the MM/ NME in 94/ 95 and 96 and shaking my head - how utterly wrong-headed they were each week.
― DJ Martian (djmartian), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 17:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― Arthur (Arthur), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 17:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 17:17 (nineteen years ago) link
all released at least one song i like! ok...not Shed 7...or OCS...
― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 17:20 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 17:22 (nineteen years ago) link
This is still true! In 6 years time are people going to be talking about the Vines, Datsuns, Libertines etc as the most exciting music being made in 2003? Er....bollocks are they.
But re: Tom's point - the pop is the important thing. Pulp & Blur especially released fantastic pop records during the 'Britpop' period that would have sounded fantastic regardless of whatever scene they were attached to. Obviously most of the really good guitar music being made 94-96 wasn't considered 'mainstream' Britpop - eg SFA, Boo Radleys, Gorky's - but what's new? At what point in the last 25 years has there not been great British guitar music, and when has the best stuff ever been the most widely celebrated?
So: Britpop as a 'scene' or 'movement' is worthless - a marketing device, basically. Some good records were made, lots of shit ones were too. It is entirely unremarkable.
― pete b. (pete b.), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 17:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― Langley, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 17:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 17:41 (nineteen years ago) link
the thing that annoys me the most about the 'Live Forever' film is how the makers are repeatedly quoted as inferring that the 80s were just awful and Britpop/the 90s made everything better again and i just want to slap them for being so fucking wrong
― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 17:46 (nineteen years ago) link
looking back on Britpop some terrific singles came out, a few great albums but for 'rock critics' its albums that count. But i guess its the whole flag waving thing that embarrasses everyone. I just wonder how Scottish people felt about 'Britpop'. I cant imagine scots waving union jacks with vigour somehow (or the welsh)Steve M , the 90s and the 80s had as many great singles/bands/albums as the 60s & 70s. And the same amount of rubbish. Sometimes you just need to dig deeper. Clearly the person responsible for 'Live Forever'film didnt.
― Langley, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 17:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 17:52 (nineteen years ago) link
I wonder why Britpop remains so unloveable. Similar scenes like Merseybeat and Glam (if you discount the great groups involved in both) had loads of chancers and mediocre music, but they had some kind of charm, some sense of fun. I think Britpop is hated for its cynicism, the blatant but ironised careerism of the participants. Nobody was grateful.
― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 17:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― Langley, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 18:04 (nineteen years ago) link
― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 18:05 (nineteen years ago) link
i'm trying to disprove thi, but no joy yet...
― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 18:07 (nineteen years ago) link
Stevem I mean they're inherently good even if the record is rubbish - they're like tiny micro-universes of pop where you can glimpse strange alternate realities in which the usual rules do not apply.
― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 18:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― pete b. (pete b.), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 18:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 18:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 18:11 (nineteen years ago) link
ha, never mind that Chandrasonic was a fan of The Byrds at this time (according to NME end of year singles round-up panel)
― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 18:12 (nineteen years ago) link
It will be interesting to see how much junk in the past decade makes the 100.
last time around they did it was October 93 http://www.rocklist.net/nme_writers.htm
[i,e pre britpop era, i define the Britpop era as April 94 onwards (death of Cobain, focus on Britain: first Oasis single and the english culture of Parklife)
― DJ Martian (djmartian), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 18:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― Steve McCluskey, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 18:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― Steve McCluskey, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 18:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 18:37 (nineteen years ago) link
i quite like the idea of Britpop as Messiah/sacrifical lamb - crucified for our sins...but that needs developing.
― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 18:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― matthew james (matthew james), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 18:47 (nineteen years ago) link
Anyway, weren't Echobelly Britpop? And Sonia was GREAT and 'Call me Names' is a top song, and far better than any ADF song on the same subject. So they are talking bollox.
Britpop wasn't flag waving anyway. I was there. And from what I remember it was people of all creeds and colours dancing to Sleeper in the indie discos. In fact, I was the only Brit in the student flat from January - May 1996, so any notion that Britpop was racist is ignorant pish.
And the 'new lad' thing... well fair enough, but that was just Oasis and don't think many of their beer guzzling, lardass fans would have been into the effetism of Pulp, The Divine Comedy, Suede et al.
I have fond memories of the period. I enjoyed many of the bands (yes, as it has been well documented, even Sleeper) and still rate Pulp as one of my three fave bands of all time. I agree there was a lot of toss came from Britpop, but so what? Cherish it for albums such as 'Coming Up' (the only Suede that is likely to be classed as 'Britpop' IMO), 'Definately Maybe', 'Different Class' and '1977'. I still love The Bluetones as well. I thought 'Science and Nature' was a great album.
But anyway, I'm sure many will want to rip me a new asshole for defending Britpop. But that article is toss. Chris Evans may have been many things, but he was not Howard Stern, who is as bigoted and fuckwitted and pig ignorant as even the more braindead George Bush voter.
― Calum Robert, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 18:53 (nineteen years ago) link
Shed Seven get a hard time of it, and although I'm not too familiar wasn't Chasing Rainbows quite good? Better than Coldplay anyway...
― Calum Robert, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 18:55 (nineteen years ago) link
Try to remember Nick Berry's "Every Loser Wins", which is always handy in such moments.
― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 18:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 19:00 (nineteen years ago) link
Simply know what I like - and like many of the songs and albums from that period. It reminds me of a pretty special time in my life so, oh, please forgive me for not being all snobbery and instead relying on some 'excitable sweariness'.
I hope one day music will mean the same to you - be it good, bad or indifferent.
― Calum Robert, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 19:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dave M. (rotten03), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 19:07 (nineteen years ago) link
and Dave M, understand that the hatred for Britpop is more to do with the fact that you were buying into this idea of 'Brit Culture' that didnt include a whole load of other things that were arguably just as important, meaningful and reverential as 'Cool Britannia' e.g. the development of club culture in the UK following the illegal raves fallout and urban dance genres, rise of garage etc. - fair enough if thats not your bag tho, but if you were only into it for the 'whole Anglophile trip' then itd be shame if you had not realised there was/is a lot more to youth culture in Britain than whatever bands were being championed by NME and Radio 1 at that time
― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 19:12 (nineteen years ago) link
D'oh! *flees* ;-)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 19:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 19:16 (nineteen years ago) link
― matthew james (matthew james), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 19:21 (nineteen years ago) link
I bought The Libertines album to day and, erm, contrary to what was said earlier... I think it sounds really good. Pretty much builds on the singles I had heard. The Vines are cack and despite what NME might tell you they are a poor live band that drove people away in their crowds when they played Gig on the Green (they have to be one of the worst live acts I've ever seen).
― Calum Robert, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 19:23 (nineteen years ago) link
these people did not know about: bark psychosis, laika, scorn, o.rang, flying saucer attack, insides, disco inferno, techno animal etal as championed by the Lizard and The Wire magazine.
the younger britpop generation knew nothing about the late 80s music as documented by Simon Reynolds in Blissed Out book, their music experiences/ knowledge did not include post-punk /industrial music.
― DJ Martian (djmartian), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 19:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― s samson, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 19:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― Langley, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 20:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― s samson, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 20:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― Langley, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 20:14 (nineteen years ago) link
― dave q, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 20:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― langley, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 20:31 (nineteen years ago) link
Who cares? How snobby and elitist can you get? I know nothing of the bands you mention - but big fucking deal. I bet you know very little of cinema history does that mean that I have a write to castigate you for enjoying the latest Hollywood blockbuster when you may be unfamilair with the work of Kurosawa, Welles, Hitchcock, Lang, Griffiths et al?
And for England please dig your head out of sand and read Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland into that. Hence BRITPOP. Christ, there are four countries in the UK you know.
"Britpop failed because it was a misguided and futile attempt to ignore the fact the the Rolling Stones were the only thing of any worth to come from Britain in the last 50 years"
Hmmmmmmmmm. I can't be arsed answering that actually.
― Calum Robert, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 20:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― Langley, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 20:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― Langley, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 20:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― dave q, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 20:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 21:37 (nineteen years ago) link
You spelled 'writ' wrong.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 22:42 (nineteen years ago) link
It began in weird places. All the bands from London (and waving a Union Jack around is seen abroad as a signifier of London) were people who'd spent the mid-late 80s in art/architecture/humanities courses; some of them had been going to gigs in the capital since they were in high school and were fanzine people, lots of them packed boxes in Rough Trade, and answered phones in recording studios and record companies (yo Damon, yo Emma Anderson). They were friends with the shoegazers and 80s indie people and had lots of post-punk records, Smiths, Cure, Bunnymen, 4AD, Creation, Rough Trade. American stuff mattered too - Pavement, Pixies, Sonic Youth, Happy Flowers, Bikini Kill. They also knew their Bowie and Roxy and could find a backstory of influence going back 30 years without hitting geezer-record territory (that came later when it was trendy). They were not averse to acid house, no siree. Everyone clubbed at Syndrome and Kinky Disco and went to see St Etienne, Pulp and the World of Twist. Blur were no longer Seymour and had a GIGANTIC live following.
In about '92 Blur were having Cornershop and Huggy Bear open for them - after plasticity of debut, they wanted to be more indie-arty - and Graham went out with Jo Huggy for ages. Justine was watching carefully (I met her for the first time at the Astoria for the Blur/Cornershop and the second time at a Bratmobile show). Suede were Britpop from the second they broke; intelligent application of influences and a mouthy interview. Everyone went to Blow-Up and Smashing and that's where Pulp started meeting fashionables and Menswear were recruited by Smashing's promoter Adrian.
Monobrow came from the North in 1993 and the Oasis element is really the second wave with yer evil Wellah thing going on and OCS and beer lads. Blame Johnny Marr's little brother Ian for getting them to his brother's manager before AMcG ever got hold of them. Understand why Damon made fun (he's wanky) and everyone else just yawned and passed the tinfoil (when it started going wrong for wave one, in 95/96).
― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 23:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 23:12 (nineteen years ago) link
There's a lot of truth in that, I think. It's true of me actually, except I'm older not younger! I came from a dance and black music background, having detested most of the indie music of the 1980s (although I find I like some of it now). The (better) Britpop I found refreshing because it reminded me of '70s stuff (incl. punk) - in terms of the energy not the retro-ness - and because a lot of the music I'd been into just before (house, r&b etc.) seemed a bit tired and stagnated at the time.
― David (David), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 23:28 (nineteen years ago) link
― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 23:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 23:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 4 March 2003 23:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― Terry Collins, Tuesday, 4 March 2003 23:56 (nineteen years ago) link
No, Terry: it wasn't about the Northern thing as the Boos and the Verve were in the loop I'm talking about, more when marketing people who read Loaded started smelling money in selling a concept of Northern masculinity filtered through a) slightly patronising Southern take and b) James Brown types discovering their inner pie and chips man as nostalgia for Northern childhood.
― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 00:09 (nineteen years ago) link
Your musician/artist circle somewhat different to the rank and file, I think. This is always the way; eg punk (Lydon keen on Can, Peter Hammill etc. whereas his 15 year old fans would probably not have heard of them).
― David (David), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 00:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― gareth (gareth), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 00:11 (nineteen years ago) link
David, the youngest of us were teenagers, the Creationists from groups were about to be 30, and the vast majority were undergraduates at the time. Tons of these people also worked at MVE and through underhanded means got loads of vinyl at 18. My editor had been working for NME since she was 15.
― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 00:26 (nineteen years ago) link
Can't EVEN begin to guess who this might berenyi.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 00:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 00:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― DJ Martian (djmartian), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 00:36 (nineteen years ago) link
And thankfully it isn't dead yet. Coldplay, Travis, Doves and Electric Soft Parade are brilliant examples of recent Britpop. Only they aren't called Britpop, but they are. And they are just as brilliant as Blur were at their best.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 01:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 01:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 01:46 (nineteen years ago) link
― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 01:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 01:56 (nineteen years ago) link
― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 01:57 (nineteen years ago) link
oh i definitely became aware of all these things, but again i got it through someone else's media filter because i discovered electronic music through the Prodigy/Chems 'Electronica' push, which mostly left out jungle (though i discovered it very shortly afterwards).
my point was that it's kind of ironic that a big part of what appealed to a North American teenager (me) about Britpop was the idea that even the 'laddish' and populist side of British culture seemed more intelligent and alive than my own (eg. lots of grunge leftovers; no rap or electronic music on suburban radar screen quite yet). now i see my affinity for Britpop as the kind of low-Other fetishizing of foreign culture that Edward 'Orientalism' Said had a field day with. meanwhile, the people who lived through Britpop detested much of it, and perhaps rightly so. all i want is to go back to my fantasy London!
― Dave M. (rotten03), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 02:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 02:25 (nineteen years ago) link
GH: Those ravers came from council estates (Carl Cox, Deja Vu/Dub Pistols one estate specifically, Rounshaw in Carshalton) and worked the door on the Cafe de Paris (my first flatmate, who also worked at Tony Coulston-Hayter hangar raves screamed about in The Sun) before going out to Spain and making balearic; they were soul boys on their strain of American urban imports. Soul II Soul, hello? Massive Attack and the whole Bristol colonial legacy? E came into London cheers to a torch singer initials MA and granny's fave BG who had a friend called Marilyn. Also the free party/beginnings of anti-cap protest scene did teknivals all over, and people were only too happy to march against the CJB. All of this is as British as the Hippy Trail, Chris Isherwood and Morris dancing.
― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 02:41 (nineteen years ago) link
Heroes and gods both. :-)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 02:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 02:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dave M. (rotten03), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 03:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― Langley, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 05:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Oink, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 05:58 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 06:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 06:04 (nineteen years ago) link
― Gordon Drysdale, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 06:04 (nineteen years ago) link
― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 06:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― Oink, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 06:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― Gordon Drysdale, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 06:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 06:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― Gordon Drysdale, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 06:07 (nineteen years ago) link
so britpop is now carl cox and billy childish and lush and mbv and jungle and shoegaze? isnt the workability of it as a genre completely destroyed by by this? i'm relly not a fan of the idea that world of twist, st etienne etc were britpop or that the 92 era indiepop stuff was britpop. so some of the prime movers in the london axis of britpop were into doc scott, this doesnt make doc scott britpop though. there may well have been a great london scene of early 90s where people were equally into suburban base and nancy sinatra equally, but i dont see that time as britpop.
also, when were these jungle nights and where? i cannot accept any definition of jungle pre94 (or very late 93)
― gareth (gareth), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 07:05 (nineteen years ago) link
― kevin brady (groeuvre), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 08:04 (nineteen years ago) link
Good Mixer drinking started in 1990; their extra half-hour made it popular with people who'd gone to see/been in gigs in other pubs in Camden. We listened to pirates when we weren't going to see PJ Harvey and Pulp but that was ages before we went to clubs; I went to one called Paradise in the Angel in late '93 *actually with Simon R* and wrote the first article abt. jungle for US mag; friend who later got together with record company boss worked in a shop with Kemi from Kemistry and Storm and both flipped out when Kurtney popped in the night after Syndrome with FAT? on their mind for my pal.
Whoa, I'm beginning to Zelig out EEEEK.
― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 09:31 (nineteen years ago) link
yea, i know about paradise, you are right that that is the very beginnings of jungle as its own genre rather than hardcore or darkness. any earlier and it wasnt jungle (ok ok, i'll go as far back as possibly accepting summer 93 as jungle as separate from hardcore but even then it was not separated from hardcore properly at that point)
i just think your definition of britpop is too broad. broad enough to lose its defining characteristics, i mean if you're going to throw in st etienne and boys own why not terry farley, acid house, right back to danny rampling and shoom?
i see britpop as a rejection of 88-93, or at the very least, a whittling down. you mention creation records, and how they fit through the preceding period and into britpop, but look how the creation roster changed from 93 to 94. that was quite a shift, how can it all be britpop, across the big change? a lot of people by the wayside, a lot of new people, the aesthetic so oppositional to what went before?
i just think you are describing a london scene that had intersection with britpop, partly because of an industry perspective where people would continue to be involved, but in the music and in the social context britpop ripped up what had gone before
― gareth (gareth), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 09:52 (nineteen years ago) link
"But he's a 28-year-old man with a beard." "Just look at my fixed smile."
Reminds me of Gareth.
― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 10:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― bham, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 10:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 10:55 (nineteen years ago) link
Not Britpop. But the rave culture was.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 10:58 (nineteen years ago) link
Oh . . . I thought Jerry was talking about something different:(
― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 11:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 11:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 11:21 (nineteen years ago) link
The other thing that the whole Britcentric attitude threw up was that unbelievably exciting moment in late 1996 and 97 when it looked like the Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers and Orbital and Underworld and Leftfield and Goldie and The Orb and the rest of them were all going to go overground on a major scale in the US, which now seems a bit silly and naive but I still treasure that feeling that something was about to happen. It's weird that a lot of the Britpop-bashing ravers tend to overlook that nowadays when they highlighting the failure of Oasis or Blur to make much of an impact on the US.
What do I know anyway... I hated nine-tenths of Britpop and was into the Afghan Whigs and Sebadoh at the time anyway.
― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 11:24 (nineteen years ago) link
― gareth (gareth), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 11:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 11:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 11:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 11:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 11:36 (nineteen years ago) link
Then again, yer basic teen pop never really went away; Take That and Boyzone were massive all the way through Britpop - and don't forget that both "Common People" and "Wonderwall" were kept off number one by the Waterman-produced, Cowell-managed Robson and Jerome.
― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 11:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 11:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― s samson, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 11:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 11:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― s samson, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 11:58 (nineteen years ago) link
― gareth (gareth), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 12:00 (nineteen years ago) link
Gareth is correct: 'London scene 1990s' != Britpop. He is correct as well to see Britpop as a rejection of 1988-1993, as much as a continuation.
― the pinefox, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 12:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― s samson, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 12:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― s samson, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 12:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 12:11 (nineteen years ago) link
― kate, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 12:14 (nineteen years ago) link
Who cares? How snobby and elitist can you get? I know nothing of the bands you mention - but big fucking deal.''
well I think most ppl who were into britpop were 13-17, say.
Everyone when they get into music starts buying pop, which would include britpop at that time but it is not snobbish to go and buy some TG recs and prefer that to say, oasis or sleeper.
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 12:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 12:16 (nineteen years ago) link
and they've managed to make a couple of decent singles so ADF wins!
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 12:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― KATE, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 12:22 (nineteen years ago) link
― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 12:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― s samson, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 12:54 (nineteen years ago) link
FOR THE SAKE OF HUMANITY LETS NOT GO THERE!
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 12:55 (nineteen years ago) link
They are the worst kind of reactionary politics IMO.
― calum, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 12:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 12:58 (nineteen years ago) link
I would take an ADF interview any day!
― s samson, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 12:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― David Gunnip, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 13:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 13:20 (nineteen years ago) link
(a) Skiffle was over by 1958.(b) No skiffle = no Britpop (from Cliff/Shadows/Beatles onwards). An absurd and ridiculous statement.
― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 13:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 13:32 (nineteen years ago) link
― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 13:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 13:46 (nineteen years ago) link
― calum, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 13:51 (nineteen years ago) link
well I can't remember that anything they said could be 'racist' but I'll pull out a couple of the old NMEs and check (I prob won't do this actually).
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 13:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― s samson, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 14:01 (nineteen years ago) link
plur!!
PLUR!!!!!!!!1!
do you see!!1
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 14:03 (nineteen years ago) link
It's important to highlight the connection between the British/London riot grrrl scene and Britpop. When Blow Up (then Londinium) first started the main attendees were members of Comet Gain and Huggy Bear. Paul Tunkin would always play Stereolab's "Ping Pong" and JSBX "Afro" at the club, nowhere else in London would do this. I started going there with a mate of mine who eventually formed Menswear, he also used to attend lots of riot grrrl gigs with me. The original Menswear was a 4 piece, their drummer at the time now drums for The Beatings via Heck and a few other bands whose names escape me. All of them, except for my mate, came from Southend, they went religously to The Pink Toothbrush in Raeliegh and saw tonnes of great bands play there. They weren't clueless fuckwits (well, maybe Chris was).
Suzy seems like she was right up there with the head scenesters, I on the other hand have never been. But I've been at the right places at the right time.
They're overlooked but Smash were a very important bridge between Riot Grrrl and Britpop. You have to realise, for a year or so before 1994/5, there was no indie, just bland pacific northwest inspired metal like Alice in Chains. Seeing Smash play for the first time at The Monarch was one of the most exciting things in my life (at that time).They ignited sparks for everybody that being political, being British, providing your audience, this was so important but nobody did it. TNWOTNW was quite a limp scene, it never took off but I'll stand by it, no Smash = no Britpop. You could say, No riot grrrl = no NWOTNW = no Britpop.
On the dance music side of thing, lots of people were going to Megadog at a pub in Seven Sisters (can't recall it's name) and The North London Polytechnic. I'm not sure how many of these people were also going to Blow Up, Smashing or Fantasy Ashtray but I couldn't have been the only one. London was a million times more exciting a decade ago than it is now, everything going on now, in my opinion, just seems derivative of that moment in time.
I liked The Heavenly Sunday Social, it was like the grand celebration for a clique of people who'd been broad minded and gone out of their way to experience different aspects of London. It was the first place I'd ever been to were you could have a chat at the bar to a guy wearing a Pastels t-shirt whilst a DJ was playing Masters at Work. That seems like nothing out of the ordinary now but back then it was mind-blowing, like there's loads of musically broadminded people out there and they all seem to have decided to come here.
Then the drugs kicked in and people suddenly seemed to care more about how much they earned and what they could spunk their money on rather than the music.
But shit, nothing will beat hearing "Cigarettes and Alcohol" being played at The Albany for the last Sunday Social, it was amazing. As with any scene, the build up was fantastic and I doubt the film will cover that because there was no scene to categorise at that time, just satellites that converged into one horrible monster.
― Stephen Burrows (steveeeeeeeee), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 14:26 (nineteen years ago) link
I'm sure they mean well, but having a rant at Britney for not being poitical enough is beyond silly.
― calum, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 14:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― gareth (gareth), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 14:33 (nineteen years ago) link
hahahaha!!!!!!!
this thread is a gift!
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 14:34 (nineteen years ago) link
― Genevieve, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 14:34 (nineteen years ago) link
Yeah, cheers Gareth, it turned into The Powerhaus for a bit after the one in Angel shut down. Saw The Make Up and The New Bad Things play there but not much else.
― Stephen Burrows (steveeeeeeeee), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 14:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― dave q, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 14:50 (nineteen years ago) link
Ohh I never liked SMASH or These Animal Men. No matter what they said were still too much like Camden Lurchers for me.
― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 15:37 (nineteen years ago) link
Silverfish to thread! Whatever happened to Milk, anyway?
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 16:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dadaismus, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 16:10 (nineteen years ago) link
Mr Shields was misquoted, there - he was in fact talking about the early sixties trad jazz movement.
― Chriddof (Chriddof), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 16:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― Stephen Burrows (steveeeeeeeee), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 16:29 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 16:30 (nineteen years ago) link
Yes and no. Skiffle, in its original form, was certainly over by 1958. BUT... Skiffle's main performer, Lonnie Donegan, started the 60s by releasing heavily Music Hall influenced singles like "My Old Man's a Dustman" and "Does Your Chewing Gun Lose It Flavour" - songs that were a lot more typically English-sounding than skiffle ever was. The Music Hall influences that were later to appear in the music of The Kinks, The Beatles, Queen and Madness (and, ultimately, Blur) may not have happened if it wasn't for those hits.
Sure, the British has Music Hall top hits like Mike Sarne's "Come Outside" and Temperance Seven's "You're Driving Me Crazy" in the early 60s too, but those were seen as one-off novelties, while Donegan was actually a major and important innovator name in pre-Beatles English popular music.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 16:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 18:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― Venga, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 21:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 21:50 (nineteen years ago) link
1) Dog Man Star - Suede2) Different Class - Pulp 3) Vauxhall and I - Morrissey4) The Masterplan - Oasis5) Elastica - Elastica6) Parklife - Blur7) The Sound of McAlmont and Butler - McAlmont and Butler8) Tellin' Stories - The Charalatans9) 1977 - Ash10) The It Girl - Sleeper
― Calum Robert, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 22:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― , Wednesday, 5 March 2003 22:51 (nineteen years ago) link
1. Free Peace Sweet - Dodgy2. Radiator - Super Furry Animals3. Homegrown - Dodgy4. The Great Escape - Blur5. Parklife - Blur6. It Doesn't Matter Anymore - Supernaturals7. (What's The Story) Morning Glory - Oasis8. Moseley Shoals - Ocean Colour Scene9. Fuzzy Logic - Super Furry Animals10.Coming Up - Suede
Note that I don't count Radiohead as Britpop. If I did, then "OK Computer" would be at the very top of the list - beating even Dodgy at their best.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 23:01 (nineteen years ago) link
in America the only people who possibly cared about these acts effected bad English accents and dressed badly
Have we met?
― Mary (Mary), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 23:22 (nineteen years ago) link
You mean, just like several of the earliest Nuggets bands 30 years earlier?
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 23:38 (nineteen years ago) link
But those guys were emulating the Rolling Stones, not bloody Blur.
― Venga, Wednesday, 5 March 2003 23:43 (nineteen years ago) link
Not at the start. The earliest Nuggets bands were emulating The Beatles. Listen to The Knickerbockers, The Gants or The Choir. Not a lot of Rolling Stones there, for certain.
not bloody Blur.
Sadly not, as 93-95 era Blur was clearly much better than 63-65-era Stones. :-)
Anyway, the Britpop bands didn't emulate Blur either. In fact, apart from obscurities such as Menswear and Octopus, no other Britpop bands sounded quite like Blur.
There were a lot of Oasis copycats around though.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 5 March 2003 23:53 (nineteen years ago) link
― Langley, Thursday, 6 March 2003 03:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― Philip Buesa, Thursday, 6 March 2003 03:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― keith (keithmcl), Thursday, 6 March 2003 04:12 (nineteen years ago) link
The silver age was 1988-1991 My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive, etc.
After the death of shoegazing, lo there was a famine in the land of British pop. And into the valley of death stepped the Melody Maker, with their feeble attempt to manufacture "Suedemania". But the kids saw that Suede were shit, and a feeble attempt to copy the Smiths to boot, and then Bernard Butler quit the band, and the future of British pop looked bleak indeed. And into the valley of death stepped Blur, whose debut album was a weak blend of shoegazing and baggy/Madchester. But then Damon bought a Kinks album and declared that modern life was rubbish. And then Oasis appeared. And Blur and Oasis begat Pulp, and Sleeper, and too many other boring bands to count. And then an era of mediocrity reigned across the isle of Albion from 1994 - 1997.
Hopefully future generations will look back and realize that Massive Attack, Bjork, the Chemical Brothers and the entire dance scene was what was really happening during the Britpop era, and not the idiotic "feud" between Blur and Oasis.
― John Hunter, Thursday, 6 March 2003 04:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 6 March 2003 04:28 (nineteen years ago) link
― Philip Buesa, Thursday, 6 March 2003 04:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― Philip Buesa, Thursday, 6 March 2003 04:45 (nineteen years ago) link
― roger adultery (roger adultery), Thursday, 6 March 2003 04:49 (nineteen years ago) link
― Philip Buesa, Thursday, 6 March 2003 04:53 (nineteen years ago) link
*hums "Losing My Edge"*
shoegazing is getting much better press
Goddammit! I should have written that article! But that would have meant pitching to Hilburn and there are things I will not do.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 6 March 2003 05:39 (nineteen years ago) link
I'd actually forgotten about The Bends. I'd have that in my top 10. so scrap Sleeper from my list.
― Calum Robert, Thursday, 6 March 2003 08:01 (nineteen years ago) link
who are you and what have you done with Calum?
― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 6 March 2003 08:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― Calum, Thursday, 6 March 2003 08:52 (nineteen years ago) link
No, I've settled on "you weren't"
― suzy (suzy), Thursday, 6 March 2003 11:31 (nineteen years ago) link
No, I am completely indifferent when it comes to the rhythm section (unless it gets so dominant that it starts dominating - then I hate it). A drummer's only job is to keep the pulse.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 6 March 2003 11:39 (nineteen years ago) link
Dodgy was the best band of that era, not the worst.
However, saying that Dodgy was a product of Britpop is wrong. They started out before Britpop started, and it would be more natural to compare them to acts like Lightning Seeds, Crowded House and Jellyfish - bands that already in the dark ages of music (1987-91 was the first period for music since before The Beatles) decided that they disliked the current unmelodic trend and settled for something classically melodic and influenced by the great 60s music.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 6 March 2003 11:42 (nineteen years ago) link
I am not trying to defend Cast, because Cast just didn't have good enough melodies. Their choruses didn't stick in one's head like they should, and they were too harmonically boring too, sounding more like The Searchers than The Beatles.
The Levellers started out already in 1991 or so, and were never Britpop.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 6 March 2003 11:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― dave q, Thursday, 6 March 2003 12:03 (nineteen years ago) link
Duh!
― Calum Robert, Thursday, 6 March 2003 12:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Thursday, 6 March 2003 14:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― the pinefox, Thursday, 6 March 2003 15:57 (nineteen years ago) link
― Kevin McMonagle, Thursday, 6 March 2003 17:07 (nineteen years ago) link
― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Thursday, 6 March 2003 18:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― Don King, Thursday, 6 March 2003 18:59 (nineteen years ago) link
I am not saying I dismiss all music from that era (for instance, Crowded House and Jellyfish made their best records then)
But out of the ones you mention Primal Scream, and to some extent Massive Attack, are the only ones I like. Generally the 87-91 era was too much about rhythm and noise and not enough about melody and harmony.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 6 March 2003 22:38 (nineteen years ago) link
Dodgy never changed their musical style. Blur did. Blur more or less "invented" Britpop on "Modern Life Is Rubbish" (although Suede should get some credit for that too)
As for Pulp, well, maybe they weren't really Britpop. In fact, they were just playing the kind of Bowie/Roxy Music-influenced style that was so popular when they started out in the mid 80s, and for some reason they never broke through until that kind of music became fashionable again because of Britpop.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 6 March 2003 22:41 (nineteen years ago) link
Someone may already have asked this but do you tap your foot or nod your head at all when you listen to music? If so, why?
― David (David), Thursday, 6 March 2003 23:19 (nineteen years ago) link
(I am playing find the unconvincing, hastily concocted pseudonym)
― Ferg (Ferg), Thursday, 6 March 2003 23:47 (nineteen years ago) link
Your definition of what was "really happening" in the mid-90s couldn't be any more Britpop if it tried...
― Venga, Friday, 7 March 2003 00:59 (nineteen years ago) link
― schnell schnell, Friday, 7 March 2003 19:20 (nineteen years ago) link
'87-'91 was for me the most exciting time for music in my lifetime in terms of innovation and experimentation, perhaps not so much melody and harmony and quality MOR/AOR (tcha, big loss eh?). Geir's conviction that melody and harmony are automatically superior to rhythm and noise by definition do not match my own views obviously.
― stevem (blueski), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:38 (nineteen years ago) link
the way the big dance-based acts are attached to the Britpop concept is irritating, partly for me because i felt it was very much a 'them and us' conflict that prevailed throughout most of the 90s i.e. there were indie kids and there were ravers and never the twain shall meet, until the Chemical Brothers broke thru i guess. it was good that the likes of Tom n' Ed broke down that pathetic barrier but it always felt like it was more a case of the rockist indiekids finally starting to 'get' dance music rather than ravers discovering guitars (dare i say the dance fans were that bit more open-minded, given they were into what was genuinely a new thing? i would but its a horrendous generalisation on both counts)
― stevem (blueski), Monday, 10 March 2003 20:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jim Eaton-Terry (Jim E-T), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 13:24 (nineteen years ago) link
Balls. That whole rock/dance thing was dead and buried by 92 - I remember bumping into loads of the britpop lot on the Brighton scene in '91 - and going to Trance Europe Express a bit later. The line was totally blurred - especially as britpop came out of Sarah, to some extent, and most of the Sarah fandom were loved up by the turn of the '90s (at least round my way).
― Jim Eaton-Terry (Jim E-T), Wednesday, 12 March 2003 13:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 12 March 2003 13:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― Vagina Wolf, Friday, 23 July 2004 00:54 (seventeen years ago) link
― purple patch (electricsound), Friday, 23 July 2004 01:23 (seventeen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 07:40 (sixteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 07:55 (sixteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 08:18 (sixteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:19 (sixteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:20 (sixteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 08:24 (sixteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:30 (sixteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:31 (sixteen years ago) link
the tone seemed weirdly spiteful, beyond all other considerations.
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 08:35 (sixteen years ago) link
Is it the geyser who played guitar for Motorhead?
If so, he looks to me as if the requirements of his lifestyle actually require extremely substantial subsidy.
http://www.nolifetilmetal.com/images/motorhead_wurzel.jpg
Albeit briefly.
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:35 (sixteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:37 (sixteen years ago) link
I clicked on the link, but I couldn't be arsed to read the article, I'm afraid.
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:39 (sixteen years ago) link
haha, pash, i didn't actually read it either!
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 08:40 (sixteen years ago) link
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:42 (sixteen years ago) link
― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:42 (sixteen years ago) link
What did they make of the latest Sleater-Kinney album?
(xxxx-post)
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:43 (sixteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 08:46 (sixteen years ago) link
I can't really think of anything to say about it, though.
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:48 (sixteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:48 (sixteen years ago) link
Hahahahahaha
The drummer from dodgy just complained about being grouped in with Menswear and Sleeper. Hahahahahaha
― Jamie T Smith (Jamie T Smith), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:52 (sixteen years ago) link
oof, haha.
that athlete single, as mentioned at the end of the harris piece, ir really fucking bad.
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:53 (sixteen years ago) link
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:53 (sixteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 08:54 (sixteen years ago) link
'At the end of the day it's just whether it was good music'
The drummer from dodgy is a rockist!
― Jamie T Smith (Jamie T Smith), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:54 (sixteen years ago) link
I thought that myself.
Well, that and the fact that the EQ's absolutely dreadful.
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:55 (sixteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:55 (sixteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 08:58 (sixteen years ago) link
(x-post)
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:59 (sixteen years ago) link
From the youngsters who've just learned to shave to the oldsters raving on their graves it's the same old story, England's glory, claiming back the union jack, my arse!
― Jamie T Smith (Jamie T Smith), Friday, 12 August 2005 08:59 (sixteen years ago) link
Far more so that I was of Menswear or Sleeper anyway.
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 12 August 2005 09:00 (sixteen years ago) link
x-post - the shame of admitting it, but that "water under the bridge" tune they did was pretty nice IIRC.
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 12 August 2005 09:01 (sixteen years ago) link
― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 12 August 2005 09:03 (sixteen years ago) link
8:30 pm The Britpop Story
John Harris charts the rise of Britpop, its brief romance with New Labour, the emergence of the 'new lad' culture, and the legacy Britpop has left behind.
9:00 pm Britpop Now
Damon Albarn presents a compilation of live performances from Britpop acts originally recorded on 16 August 1995, including Blur, Supergrass, Elastica and Menswear.
9:45 pm Live Forever: Storyville
Live Forever charts the sounds that defined the real mood of the 90s, offering an alternative history of the period and a more intriguing vision of Britain and its music. Strong language. [S]
11:10 pm Pulp: No Sleep Till Sheffield
In 1995, the BBC followed Jarvis Cocker and Pulp as they charmed their way around Britain, having finally become popular after many years of trying.
11:45 pm The Britpop Story
12:15 am Later: Stanley Road Revisited
Ten years on, Paul Weller reflects on what he considers the high point of his solo career, the million-selling Stanley Road album. Strong language. [S].
― koogs (koogs), Friday, 12 August 2005 09:19 (sixteen years ago) link
― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Friday, 12 August 2005 10:00 (sixteen years ago) link
Once again They seem to have mistaken 'Live Forever' for the Channel 4 docu 'A London Sumting Dis'
― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Friday, 12 August 2005 10:02 (sixteen years ago) link
-- Sociah T Azzahole (stevem7...), August 12th, 2005.
well, there is no 'defining' sound. i reckon pop house and rnb outsold both britpop and the often-touted better music we Should All Have Been Listening To (jungle, dnb, trip hop, etc etc). it's wrong to say any musical form is a 'more valid' index of 'where britain's at' than another.and at least britpop did have a major public following.
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 10:12 (sixteen years ago) link
yep, and that's what Britpop Night will be doing.
― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Friday, 12 August 2005 10:13 (sixteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 10:19 (sixteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 10:29 (sixteen years ago) link
― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 12 August 2005 10:30 (sixteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 10:33 (sixteen years ago) link
such a banal choice. blur vs oasis. rank piss vs shit.
― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 12 August 2005 10:35 (sixteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 10:36 (sixteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 10:37 (sixteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 10:39 (sixteen years ago) link
― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 12 August 2005 10:41 (sixteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 10:43 (sixteen years ago) link
― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 12 August 2005 10:45 (sixteen years ago) link
i think it's kind of trying it a bit hard to say, because britpop musicians were all white (in a 95% white population) and were not influenced by post-hip-hop/acid house black american styles, they are necessarily racist. i don't hear a big 'black' influence in the sex pistols either.
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 10:48 (sixteen years ago) link
― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 12 August 2005 10:53 (sixteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 10:55 (sixteen years ago) link
― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 12 August 2005 11:02 (sixteen years ago) link
difference was - dnb came up with some astonishing records. britrock rubbed its cock in the slim up'n'down camdon lock.
― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 12 August 2005 11:03 (sixteen years ago) link
― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 12 August 2005 11:08 (sixteen years ago) link
― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 12 August 2005 11:09 (sixteen years ago) link
-- mullygrubbr (fan...), August 12th, 2005.
yeah, well, that just like, your opinion, man.
also: no media push for trip hop and dnb? ahahahahahahahahaha!
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 11:41 (sixteen years ago) link
― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 12 August 2005 11:46 (sixteen years ago) link
― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 12 August 2005 11:48 (sixteen years ago) link
xpost: bullshit, britpop was not from the start a media invention.
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 11:51 (sixteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 11:54 (sixteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 11:55 (sixteen years ago) link
― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 12 August 2005 12:08 (sixteen years ago) link
and...ah?
― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 12 August 2005 12:10 (sixteen years ago) link
but the concept of " grassroots expression of creativity " as opposed to OH NOES CORPORATE THROAT-RAM is like, totally, not adequate.
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 12:10 (sixteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 12:11 (sixteen years ago) link
Seems to me that the problem people have is not with the bands lumped under Britpop per se but rather the media's coverage of it to the exclusion of all else. Until we have enough distance to seperate out the records that Blur, Pulp, Elastica, Supergrass, Boo Radleys, Oasis et al made from the media bollocks that surrounded it they won't be fairly judged on their musical merits.
― mms (mms), Friday, 12 August 2005 12:13 (sixteen years ago) link
― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Friday, 12 August 2005 12:14 (sixteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 12:15 (sixteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 12:17 (sixteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 12:25 (sixteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 12:26 (sixteen years ago) link
grassroots = just me knee jerking to an argument you weren't actually making i guess.
― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 12 August 2005 12:28 (sixteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 12:32 (sixteen years ago) link
― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 12 August 2005 12:34 (sixteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 12 August 2005 12:37 (sixteen years ago) link
― N_RQ, Friday, 12 August 2005 12:38 (sixteen years ago) link
xpost
― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 12 August 2005 12:38 (sixteen years ago) link
― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Friday, 12 August 2005 12:43 (sixteen years ago) link
― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Friday, 12 August 2005 12:48 (sixteen years ago) link
Spice Girls & co may have knocked Britpop out of the mainstream, but the retained the pop melody. Which has never disappeared afterwards. Britpop put a definite end to the era when a "pop song" was supposed to be something made around a repetitive synth theme, adding a thumping bass drum, a gospel influenced female vocalist in the chorus (who was not allowed to appear in the video because they'd hire some model instead) and some rapper in the verse. That era has never returned.
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 21 September 2006 00:41 (fifteen years ago) link
― Sadly, he will be the next Alexis Petridish. (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 21 September 2006 00:44 (fifteen years ago) link
― electric sound of jim [and why not] (electricsound), Thursday, 21 September 2006 00:54 (fifteen years ago) link
― electric sound of jim [and why not] (electricsound), Thursday, 21 September 2006 00:55 (fifteen years ago) link
END OF THREAD.
― Paul Edward Wagemann (PaulEdwardWagemann), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 20:27 (fifteen years ago) link
― Sadly, he will be the next Alexis Petridish. (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 20:31 (fifteen years ago) link
PLEASE PUT HIM OUT OF MY MISERY
― winter testing (winter testing), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 20:36 (fifteen years ago) link
Paul Edward Wagemann OTM.
People act like traditional pop wouldn't have existed anymore if this (bowel) movement hadn't come along, it's ridiculous.
Thank god for guerilla gigs or we'd all be listening to minimal house & crunk'n'b obviously...
― dance dance counter-revolution (fandango), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 20:46 (fifteen years ago) link
also, traditional pop - wossat then?
― winter testing (winter testing), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 20:48 (fifteen years ago) link
-- stevem
I do too.
― dance dance counter-revolution (fandango), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 20:48 (fifteen years ago) link
― dance dance counter-revolution (fandango), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 20:50 (fifteen years ago) link
― dance dance counter-revolution (fandango), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 20:51 (fifteen years ago) link
― winter testing (winter testing), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 21:09 (fifteen years ago) link
All-time greatest Scot contender Edwyn Collins did a song about it at the time:
"Its the same old story,Englands glory, Claming back the Union Jack my arse"
― everything (everything), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 21:11 (fifteen years ago) link
It never rang true from the start for me, and it felt like CLEARLY announced from the start too, unlike the natural progression of Madchester etc.
It also bugged me how it led to Northerners being thick monkeys and Southerners being clever cockneys all over again.
Of course it's totally fair to point out that the US "invasion" was waning, and yes the guitar element of the "summer of love" did seem to have fallen apart rather, as did the Hacienda dream.... still a moment of weakness hardly excuses a vicious ideological pounce & reinforcing of some *very* dubious 'values' I hardly feel any more refreshed by in the 00's than I did then.
Anyone sick of their Cigarettes and Alcohol yet?
I'm nostalgic for the early 90's too, but Britpop's "nostalgia" felt poisonous and manufactured from the word go.
Something does occur to me though... "Blinded By The Lights" vs. "Sorted for E's & Wizz"?
Maybe these thigns do come in waves but I'm wondering what exactly DID give the Britpop 2.0 movement such impetus? What was THAT reacting to? Destiny's Child?
― dance dance counter-revolution (fandango), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 21:33 (fifteen years ago) link
― dance dance counter-revolution (fandango), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 21:34 (fifteen years ago) link
― dance dance counter-revolution (fandango), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 21:36 (fifteen years ago) link
― dance dance counter-revolution (fandango), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 21:38 (fifteen years ago) link
― EARLY-90S MAN (Enrique), Thursday, 28 September 2006 07:42 (fifteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Thursday, 28 September 2006 07:44 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm dying here.
― Leopold Boom! (noodle vague), Thursday, 28 September 2006 07:47 (fifteen years ago) link
― EARLY-90S MAN (Enrique), Thursday, 28 September 2006 07:54 (fifteen years ago) link
Was, like, the Merseybeat groovy guy geezer guy geezers really the sound of the young Britain what I was grooving away to in them days of dearie Lord dearie Lord? Were there any ace records from the hit paRADE of the time? Would you 'ave got like ten points if you recalled the Trem El Oes, Billy J Kramer and like what his DaKOtas and grooviest of all groovy guy geezer guy geezers, Swinging Blue Jeans The?
― Jimmy Saveloy (nostudium), Thursday, 28 September 2006 07:57 (fifteen years ago) link
― Leopold Boom! (noodle vague), Thursday, 28 September 2006 08:01 (fifteen years ago) link
― winter testing (winter testing), Thursday, 28 September 2006 17:14 (fifteen years ago) link
― trance pants devolution (fandango), Thursday, 28 September 2006 19:36 (fifteen years ago) link
― trance pants devolution (fandango), Thursday, 28 September 2006 19:38 (fifteen years ago) link
― djmartian, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:17 (fifteen years ago) link
― Tom D., Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:21 (fifteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:22 (fifteen years ago) link
― Mark G, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:23 (fifteen years ago) link
― Tom D., Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:23 (fifteen years ago) link
― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:24 (fifteen years ago) link
― Tom D., Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:24 (fifteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:26 (fifteen years ago) link
― jim, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:26 (fifteen years ago) link
― pisces, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 16:49 (fifteen years ago) link
― pisces, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 17:10 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 21:18 (fifteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 22:13 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 22:17 (fifteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 22:57 (fifteen years ago) link
― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 22:59 (fifteen years ago) link
― Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 23:02 (fifteen years ago) link
― blueski, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 23:19 (fifteen years ago) link
― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 7 March 2007 23:26 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 8 March 2007 02:08 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 8 March 2007 02:09 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 8 March 2007 10:48 (fifteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 8 March 2007 10:49 (fifteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 8 March 2007 11:05 (fifteen years ago) link
― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 8 March 2007 11:50 (fifteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 8 March 2007 12:10 (fifteen years ago) link
― unfished business, Thursday, 8 March 2007 13:03 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 8 March 2007 13:04 (fifteen years ago) link
― unfished business, Thursday, 8 March 2007 13:10 (fifteen years ago) link
― fandango, Thursday, 8 March 2007 13:10 (fifteen years ago) link
― unfished business, Thursday, 8 March 2007 13:13 (fifteen years ago) link
― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 8 March 2007 13:14 (fifteen years ago) link
― Tom D., Thursday, 8 March 2007 13:19 (fifteen years ago) link
― Noodle Vague, Thursday, 8 March 2007 13:20 (fifteen years ago) link
― unfished business, Thursday, 8 March 2007 13:22 (fifteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 8 March 2007 13:28 (fifteen years ago) link
― Tom D., Thursday, 8 March 2007 13:29 (fifteen years ago) link
― Frogman Henry, Thursday, 8 March 2007 13:32 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 8 March 2007 13:37 (fifteen years ago) link
― the next grozart, Thursday, 8 March 2007 13:37 (fifteen years ago) link
― Tom D., Thursday, 8 March 2007 13:40 (fifteen years ago) link
― the next grozart, Thursday, 8 March 2007 13:42 (fifteen years ago) link
― blueski, Thursday, 8 March 2007 13:47 (fifteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 8 March 2007 13:48 (fifteen years ago) link
― Frogman Henry, Thursday, 8 March 2007 13:49 (fifteen years ago) link
― unfished business, Thursday, 8 March 2007 14:42 (fifteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 8 March 2007 23:41 (fifteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 8 March 2007 23:44 (fifteen years ago) link
― unfished business, Thursday, 8 March 2007 23:49 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Thursday, 8 March 2007 23:52 (fifteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro, Friday, 9 March 2007 10:46 (fifteen years ago) link
― the next grozart, Friday, 9 March 2007 11:33 (fifteen years ago) link
― unfished business, Friday, 9 March 2007 12:24 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 12:25 (fifteen years ago) link
― blueski, Friday, 9 March 2007 12:38 (fifteen years ago) link
― the next grozart, Friday, 9 March 2007 12:39 (fifteen years ago) link
― blueski, Friday, 9 March 2007 12:44 (fifteen years ago) link
why people would be looking at guitar-based music for 'forward-thinking/innovative' generally anyway because of it's age and ubiquity.
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 12:45 (fifteen years ago) link
― unfished business, Friday, 9 March 2007 12:48 (fifteen years ago) link
― the next grozart, Friday, 9 March 2007 12:48 (fifteen years ago) link
― the next grozart, Friday, 9 March 2007 12:49 (fifteen years ago) link
― unfished business, Friday, 9 March 2007 12:51 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 12:54 (fifteen years ago) link
― unfished business, Friday, 9 March 2007 12:54 (fifteen years ago) link
― Colonel Poo, Friday, 9 March 2007 12:55 (fifteen years ago) link
― DJ Mencap, Friday, 9 March 2007 12:56 (fifteen years ago) link
― the next grozart, Friday, 9 March 2007 12:57 (fifteen years ago) link
― the next grozart, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:00 (fifteen years ago) link
― the next grozart, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:01 (fifteen years ago) link
― unfished business, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:01 (fifteen years ago) link
― the next grozart, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:03 (fifteen years ago) link
― unfished business, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:04 (fifteen years ago) link
― unfished business, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:06 (fifteen years ago) link
― the next grozart, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:09 (fifteen years ago) link
― the next grozart, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:10 (fifteen years ago) link
― the next grozart, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:12 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:14 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:16 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:17 (fifteen years ago) link
― the next grozart, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:19 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:20 (fifteen years ago) link
― blueski, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:22 (fifteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:22 (fifteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:23 (fifteen years ago) link
― unfished business, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:23 (fifteen years ago) link
― blueski, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:25 (fifteen years ago) link
― lex pretend, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:25 (fifteen years ago) link
― blueski, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:26 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:27 (fifteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:29 (fifteen years ago) link
― blueski, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:31 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:40 (fifteen years ago) link
a) which innovative metal bands are British again?
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:41 (fifteen years ago) link
― the next grozart, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:43 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:44 (fifteen years ago) link
― the next grozart, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:46 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:48 (fifteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:48 (fifteen years ago) link
― djmartian, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:56 (fifteen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 9 March 2007 13:57 (fifteen years ago) link
― Tom D., Friday, 9 March 2007 13:59 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 14:05 (fifteen years ago) link
― blueski, Friday, 9 March 2007 14:19 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 14:20 (fifteen years ago) link
― scott seward, Friday, 9 March 2007 14:21 (fifteen years ago) link
― djmartian, Friday, 9 March 2007 14:22 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 14:31 (fifteen years ago) link
― djmartian, Friday, 9 March 2007 14:54 (fifteen years ago) link
― fandango, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:03 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:03 (fifteen years ago) link
― fandango, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:08 (fifteen years ago) link
― zeus, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:15 (fifteen years ago) link
― Colonel Poo, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:15 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:17 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:18 (fifteen years ago) link
― fandango, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:22 (fifteen years ago) link
― zeus, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:24 (fifteen years ago) link
― fandango, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:29 (fifteen years ago) link
― djmartian, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:29 (fifteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:30 (fifteen years ago) link
― djmartian, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:30 (fifteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:31 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:33 (fifteen years ago) link
― zeus, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:35 (fifteen years ago) link
― zeus, Friday, 9 March 2007 15:37 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:05 (fifteen years ago) link
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:07 (fifteen years ago) link
― zeus, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:21 (fifteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:48 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:50 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:54 (fifteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:54 (fifteen years ago) link
― Tom D., Friday, 9 March 2007 16:55 (fifteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 9 March 2007 16:57 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:07 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:11 (fifteen years ago) link
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:12 (fifteen years ago) link
― Tom D., Friday, 9 March 2007 17:13 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:15 (fifteen years ago) link
― Tom D., Friday, 9 March 2007 17:17 (fifteen years ago) link
― Pashmina, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:18 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:18 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:19 (fifteen years ago) link
― everything, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:42 (fifteen years ago) link
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:43 (fifteen years ago) link
― Noodle Vague, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:44 (fifteen years ago) link
― everything, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:49 (fifteen years ago) link
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:51 (fifteen years ago) link
― everything, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:52 (fifteen years ago) link
― everything, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:56 (fifteen years ago) link
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 9 March 2007 17:58 (fifteen years ago) link
― everything, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:01 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:02 (fifteen years ago) link
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:03 (fifteen years ago) link
― Noodle Vague, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:04 (fifteen years ago) link
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:05 (fifteen years ago) link
― everything, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:09 (fifteen years ago) link
― Noodle Vague, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:09 (fifteen years ago) link
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:10 (fifteen years ago) link
― everything, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:10 (fifteen years ago) link
― Noodle Vague, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:14 (fifteen years ago) link
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:18 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:19 (fifteen years ago) link
― Noodle Vague, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:22 (fifteen years ago) link
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:26 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:26 (fifteen years ago) link
― Noodle Vague, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:27 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:29 (fifteen years ago) link
― everything, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:31 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:34 (fifteen years ago) link
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:35 (fifteen years ago) link
― Masonic Boom, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:40 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:42 (fifteen years ago) link
― everything, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:45 (fifteen years ago) link
― everything, Friday, 9 March 2007 18:54 (fifteen years ago) link
― zeus, Friday, 9 March 2007 19:51 (fifteen years ago) link
― Dom Passantino, Friday, 9 March 2007 19:58 (fifteen years ago) link
― everything, Friday, 9 March 2007 20:01 (fifteen years ago) link
― JW, Friday, 9 March 2007 20:02 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Saturday, 10 March 2007 00:13 (fifteen years ago) link
― Mr. Snrub, Saturday, 10 March 2007 20:46 (fifteen years ago) link
― unfished business, Saturday, 10 March 2007 20:49 (fifteen years ago) link
― Mr. Snrub, Saturday, 10 March 2007 20:54 (fifteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro, Saturday, 10 March 2007 20:54 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Saturday, 10 March 2007 21:03 (fifteen years ago) link
― unfished business, Saturday, 10 March 2007 21:07 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Saturday, 10 March 2007 21:10 (fifteen years ago) link
― everything, Saturday, 10 March 2007 21:11 (fifteen years ago) link
― unfished business, Saturday, 10 March 2007 21:14 (fifteen years ago) link
― Mr. Snrub, Saturday, 10 March 2007 21:45 (fifteen years ago) link
― unfished business, Saturday, 10 March 2007 21:46 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Saturday, 10 March 2007 22:06 (fifteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro, Sunday, 11 March 2007 12:47 (fifteen years ago) link
― zeus, Sunday, 11 March 2007 13:01 (fifteen years ago) link
― Mr. Snrub, Sunday, 11 March 2007 16:57 (fifteen years ago) link
― Bimble, Sunday, 11 March 2007 17:12 (fifteen years ago) link
― Bimble, Sunday, 11 March 2007 17:32 (fifteen years ago) link
― the next grozart, Sunday, 11 March 2007 18:18 (fifteen years ago) link
― Bimble, Sunday, 11 March 2007 19:08 (fifteen years ago) link
― unfished business, Sunday, 11 March 2007 19:28 (fifteen years ago) link
― fandango, Sunday, 11 March 2007 19:30 (fifteen years ago) link
― the next grozart, Sunday, 11 March 2007 22:20 (fifteen years ago) link
― Stew, Monday, 12 March 2007 00:55 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 12 March 2007 01:40 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 12 March 2007 01:41 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 12 March 2007 01:42 (fifteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 12 March 2007 08:49 (fifteen years ago) link
― Stew, Monday, 12 March 2007 08:59 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 12 March 2007 09:23 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 12 March 2007 09:25 (fifteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 12 March 2007 09:40 (fifteen years ago) link
― zeus, Monday, 12 March 2007 13:42 (fifteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro, Monday, 12 March 2007 13:51 (fifteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro, Monday, 12 March 2007 13:52 (fifteen years ago) link
― Dom Passantino, Monday, 12 March 2007 13:54 (fifteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 12 March 2007 13:57 (fifteen years ago) link
― the next grozart, Monday, 12 March 2007 14:33 (fifteen years ago) link
― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Monday, 12 March 2007 14:34 (fifteen years ago) link
Oasis and Blur have reportedly been lined up to appear in a Britpop special of The Weakest Link.
The show's bosses have contacted Noel Gallagher, Liam Gallagher, Damon Albarn and Alex James to appear in the episode of the gameshow, according to the Daily Star.
"If we can pull this off it would be unbelievable," commented a BBC source. "Noel Gallagher admits he’s a Weakest Link fan."
Other stars that bosses want to have on the show include Pulp's Jarvis Cocker, Elastica's Justine Frischmann, Manic Street Preachers' James Dean Bradfield and Suede's Brett Anderson.
― blueski, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:33 (fourteen years ago) link
Shit will be pointless without Johnny Dean.
― The blue-green world is drenched with horse gore, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:37 (fourteen years ago) link
Predicted final line-up:
Bonehead Neil Codling Gary Crowley Fruitbat Chris Gentry Tony McCarroll John Power Matthew Priest Russell Senior Louise Wener
― Dingbod Kesterson, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:44 (fourteen years ago) link
if they got Noel and Damon would watch it for sure.
― chap, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:45 (fourteen years ago) link
No Drummer from Gay Dad?
― Tom D., Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:45 (fourteen years ago) link
He's too busy fearing breakbeats in the shires.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:47 (fourteen years ago) link
Luke Haines Crispin Hunt Suggs Curly-haired twat who used to drum for Stereophonics Some bloke you don't recognise in a stupid hat Skin
― The blue-green world is drenched with horse gore, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:48 (fourteen years ago) link
Junkie wife of dude from Supergrass
― Dom Passantino, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:49 (fourteen years ago) link
John Robb will be on it
― Herman G. Neuname, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:49 (fourteen years ago) link
Then I won't be watching it
― Tom D., Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:50 (fourteen years ago) link
At least one of Terrorvision.
― chap, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:51 (fourteen years ago) link
Crispian Mills Buster Bloodvessel Danbert Nobacon Bez Crispin Glover Beaky
― The blue-green world is drenched with horse gore, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:52 (fourteen years ago) link
Some bloke you don't recognise in a stupid hat = Shovel Out Of M People
― Dingbod Kesterson, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:54 (fourteen years ago) link
Nah, I recognise Shovel. He's that bloke in the stupid hat out of M People.
― The blue-green world is drenched with horse gore, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:54 (fourteen years ago) link
I feel a Weakest Link "Some bloke you don't recognise in a stupid hat" Special is but months away
― Tom D., Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:55 (fourteen years ago) link
MC Tunes
― The blue-green world is drenched with horse gore, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:55 (fourteen years ago) link
Freddie Garrity that dead bloke out of Lush Mika Jack White
― The blue-green world is drenched with horse gore, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:56 (fourteen years ago) link
Freddie's Dead
― Tom D., Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:57 (fourteen years ago) link
Phill Jupitus COMEDIAN
― Dingbod Kesterson, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:57 (fourteen years ago) link
So's that dead bloke out of Lush.
― The blue-green world is drenched with horse gore, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:58 (fourteen years ago) link
Is he?
― Tom D., Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:58 (fourteen years ago) link
This is how it goes: Pop star states a liking for some TV show. TV show exec gets overexcited, releases press statement about getting them on the show. Pop star says no.
Morrissey : Eurovision was the last one.
― Mark G, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:58 (fourteen years ago) link
Not when I saw him at Edinburgh festival.
― Billy Dods, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:59 (fourteen years ago) link
I'd like to see an "all dead people" edition of TWL. Especially with Anne Robinson hosting.
― The blue-green world is drenched with horse gore, Thursday, 17 January 2008 16:59 (fourteen years ago) link
Jamie Oliver Jamie Bell The Bridewell Taxis Aleister Crowley Dr Albarn
― The blue-green world is drenched with horse gore, Thursday, 17 January 2008 17:01 (fourteen years ago) link
Shampoo PJ & Duncan Sean Maguire
― Tom D., Thursday, 17 January 2008 17:03 (fourteen years ago) link
The not famous Gallagher brother.
― chap, Thursday, 17 January 2008 17:03 (fourteen years ago) link
Pete Best Pete Burns Pete Hooton Pete Noone Pete's Dragon
― The blue-green world is drenched with horse gore, Thursday, 17 January 2008 17:03 (fourteen years ago) link
PD Heaton FTW
― The blue-green world is drenched with horse gore, Thursday, 17 January 2008 17:04 (fourteen years ago) link
take that
― Herman G. Neuname, Thursday, 17 January 2008 17:04 (fourteen years ago) link
Jaz Mann Leeroy out of The Prodigy
― chap, Thursday, 17 January 2008 17:07 (fourteen years ago) link
Jimmy Nail The Mad Stuntman John Selwyn Gummer
― Tom D., Thursday, 17 January 2008 17:07 (fourteen years ago) link
Jyoti Mishra Scatman John Sylvester Stallone's mum the one out of Atomic Kitten who isn't a crackhead
― The blue-green world is drenched with horse gore, Thursday, 17 January 2008 17:08 (fourteen years ago) link
I hate to break it to you jim, but the scatman has gone to the great jazz club in the sky.
― Herman G. Neuname, Thursday, 17 January 2008 17:09 (fourteen years ago) link
Oh no! Say it ain't so!
― Tom D., Thursday, 17 January 2008 17:10 (fourteen years ago) link
He's scatting for Jesus now.
― chap, Thursday, 17 January 2008 17:11 (fourteen years ago) link
FUCK
RIP Big Fella. Heaven needed some dude with a big moustache.
― The blue-green world is drenched with horse gore, Thursday, 17 January 2008 17:11 (fourteen years ago) link
"Scat Paradise" (EP) [*] (1995) #45 Japan
^^^ This was epic
― The blue-green world is drenched with horse gore, Thursday, 17 January 2008 17:12 (fourteen years ago) link
Scatman John RIP
― Herman G. Neuname, Thursday, 17 January 2008 17:13 (fourteen years ago) link
Shocker
― Tom D., Thursday, 17 January 2008 17:14 (fourteen years ago) link
The show's bosses...
"bosses"?? lol britspeak
― dell, Thursday, 17 January 2008 20:39 (fourteen years ago) link
its an american term tho, like poobah
― blueski, Thursday, 17 January 2008 21:47 (fourteen years ago) link
Christopher Biggins Guru Josh Someone out of the Longpigs who isn't Richard Hawley Someone out of Hepburn A COMEDIAN you've never heard of but the BBC have this deal they can't get out of
― Dingbod Kesterson, Friday, 18 January 2008 09:42 (fourteen years ago) link
Calum Waddell
― DJ Mencap, Friday, 18 January 2008 10:04 (fourteen years ago) link
Really am counting down the days until Calum turns up as a talking head on some BBC3 list show.
― Dom Passantino, Friday, 18 January 2008 10:05 (fourteen years ago) link
ILILX?
― Mark G, Friday, 18 January 2008 10:10 (fourteen years ago) link
Dressed in a banana suit.
― Noodle Vague, Friday, 18 January 2008 10:11 (fourteen years ago) link
Why is Norway performing so well culturally in the 00s? Why are their musicians willing to be more creative? Does a smaller country facilitate music to thrive more easily compared to other larger European countries?
We surely have our share of really bad copies of English/American teen pop/MOR. It's just that you guys never get to hear that shit. It stays all over the radio here, without ever reaching abroad.
(Even if Idol is a completely ridiculous concept that does music no good, the acts that have come out of the Norwegian Idol are probably better than the average Idol act though - Margaret Berger has even released two excellent albums)
― Geir Hongro, Friday, 18 January 2008 10:16 (fourteen years ago) link
Let us discuss the group "Boys Wonder".
http://downwithtractors.blogspot.com/2008/01/boys-wonder-shine-on-me-expanded-second.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pagLNqe_eUg http://www.myspace.com/boyswonder
OG proto britpop from 1987!
I mean, they weren't actually good or anything... but, still.
― Bodrick III, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 21:55 (thirteen years ago) link
But this is not run of the mill rock’n’roll, it is decidedly English in flavour. Big Ben’s cockney vocal charm reflects everything that was essentially English about Anthony Newley, early Bowie (‘Love You Till Tuesday’) and the Small Faces on ‘Lazy Sunday’, while the hard and loud guitar pop has been compared to the finest moments of this country’s yob rock: The Who, Slade and the Sex Pistols. The national identity of their music is very important to the Boys.
“We want to sound as English as possible,” explains Ben. “A lot of people think it’s hard to sing in an English accent but I don’t find it hard at all. I think it’s more exciting… we’re from London and we want to get that London sound.”
― Bodrick III, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 21:56 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.chrishunt.biz/features38.html
I have only the vaguest memory of this shower, but I think they did get quite a bit of coverage when they were current? The singer in his get-up was something you saw a lot for a month or two back in the day. I suppose they were a bit proto-britpop in retrospect. Music was a bit nowt-nor-summat thought.
― Pashmina, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 22:02 (thirteen years ago) link
Weirdly, I just came across them again on youtube myself. They seemed to be featured in every single issue of i-D magazine between 86 and 88... but no one was 'aving it.
― Stevie T, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 22:07 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/8/6/1325942/boys%20wonder.mp3
http://premium.fileden.com/premium/2007/8/6/1325942/boys%20wonder%20dean%20final.mp3
― Bodrick III, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 22:09 (thirteen years ago) link
Very interesting! I can't figure out why I don't remember this band at all. I'm not sure whether I think they're all that good or not, but I can see how they would have seemed markedly different to what else was going on at the time.
― Bimble, Wednesday, 9 July 2008 22:27 (thirteen years ago) link
That myspace is puzzling. Who would set up a page about this band just to zing them?
― DJ Mencap, Thursday, 10 July 2008 09:16 (thirteen years ago) link
Boys Wonder!
At the Panic Station all dayer, they played. During an interval between the afternoon and evening sessions, a different band played on top of an awning that was the front entrance of Dingwalls. They were average. Then Boys Wonder backed their bus into the square playing uptop themselves, the drummer shouting abuse to the other band's drummer, at which point the bus pulled off. To which the other band downed tools and set after them.
At which point, an entirely different band jumped up to the awning and upped tools, and were actually great.
Meantime, the two drummers reappeared knocking bells off each other.
At which point, someone got the third band off the top for insurance reasons (I believe this was Jake Shillingford, who was a git (prob still is) for not letting me stand in the lobby while the interior was megahot and I was only 8.5 stone in those days due to an ongoing illness which eventually got operated on, anyway back to the tale) so they climbed down.
Meantime, the two drummers reappeared again, arm in arm, off to the bar to buy each other pints.
― Mark G, Thursday, 10 July 2008 09:45 (thirteen years ago) link
We just say what we think, look food, play loud and if people like it – fantastic!”
― Frogman Henry, Thursday, 10 July 2008 10:27 (thirteen years ago) link
They must have been hungry and got distracted!
― Mark G, Thursday, 10 July 2008 10:29 (thirteen years ago) link
"That myspace is puzzling. Who would set up a page about this band just to zing them?"
lbzc m.o, no?
― Frogman Henry, Thursday, 10 July 2008 10:30 (thirteen years ago) link
(I believe this was Jake Shillingford, who was a git (prob still is) for not letting me stand in the lobby...
-- Mark G, Thursday, 10 July 2008 09:45
Funny you should mention him because My Life Story is one of the bands these guys remind me of.
― Bodrick III, Thursday, 10 July 2008 19:16 (thirteen years ago) link
and so, here it is; the definitive list of the ultimate 90s genre :
NEW RELEASE
Ooh... it seems like only yesterday we were young & carefree, with our Union Jack T's, alco-pop fuelled Camden nights and that TV show Top of the Pops was crammed with power-chord loaded indie-pop heroes... Tuning in once more, in these grim recessionary times, it all sounds like rather a lot of fun. With the 2012 charts roadblocked by flappy corporate pap and well-schooled posh pop, there's something very refreshing about these geezers, scallies, art-school types & ravers uniting in a very disparate-but-it-worked way to create what became Britpop. Download, play loud and sing along... and be pleasantly suprised as you realise you know pretty much every song. Anthems indeed - Brit Pop will make you smile. So before the Queen's Crew pull rank with her Tea Party and the Olympic Posse get shouting, wave the Union Flag and salute the real good times.
FULL Running orderCD 1Blur - ParklifePulp - Common PeopleThe Verve - SonnetSuede - Animal NitrateEmbrace - Come Back To What You KnowElastica – ConnectionCast – SandstormShed Seven - Going For Gold Catatonia - Road RagePaul Weller - Sunflower Space - Female of the SpeciesThe Farm - Groovy TrainInspiral Carpets - This Is How It FeelsEMF - UnbelievableThe Mock Turtles - Can You Dig It?Morcheeba - Tape LoopDubstar - AnywhereThe Soup Dragons - I'm FreeFatboy Slim - Gangster Trippin'New Order - Fine TimePF Project Featuring Ewan McGregor - Choose LifeCD2Supergrass - AlrightRadiohead - JustUnderworld - Born Slippy (NUXX)Chumbawamba - TubthumpingThe Supernaturals - SmileAsh - GoldfingerDoves - PoundingGarbage - Stupid GirlThe Lightning Seeds - The Life Of RileyTerrorvision - TequilaThe Levellers - One WayTravis - DriftwoodBabybird – You’re GorgeousThe Sundays - Here's Where The Story EndsThe Thrills - Santa Cruz (You're Not That Far)Mansun - Wide Open SpaceFeeder – Buck RogersGomez - Whippin' PiccadillyStereo MC's - Connected Jesus Jones - Real Real RealJames - Sit Down
90 minutes of hell, or a bearable b-b-q soundtrack ?
― mark e, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 18:00 (ten years ago) link
This track list should be a poll. There are a few good songs here, but so many contenders for ear bleeding misery.
― Respectfully, Tyrese Gibson (Nicole), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 18:08 (ten years ago) link
There's a maximum of four things on that list i wouldn't run screaming from these days. Oddly, i'm listening to some Czech pastiche Britpop at this very moment and really enjoying it.
― Une semaine de Bunty (ShariVari), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 18:14 (ten years ago) link
i suspect radio 2/x factor hero dermot o'dreary has been using this list for the last 5 years and emi have just paid him a few quid for the list.
― mark e, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 18:15 (ten years ago) link
what i love is that @ reading '90 the stereo mcs "joked" about how they were the only hip hop act of the festival.and here their outburst is confirmed.
baggy beats do not count as hip hop
― mark e, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 18:17 (ten years ago) link
what are the Thrills doing on there. that doesn't seem right.
― kid steel (cajunsunday), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 18:39 (ten years ago) link
What is all this baggy / Madchester stuff doing on a "BritPop" comp? Inspiral Carpets? EMF
And stuff that is way too early to be BritPop? The Sundays?
And stuff that was in the original BritPop Select issue - St Etienne, The Auteurs - is nowhere to be seen?
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 18:43 (ten years ago) link
The Thrills were considered Britpop? 2003 seems pretty late for most of that tracklist.
― heated debate over derpy hooves (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 19:00 (ten years ago) link
the thrills were considered Britpop? crap.
fixed.
― mark e, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 19:02 (ten years ago) link
well, yeah. i just never thought they were lumped in with britpop.
― heated debate over derpy hooves (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 17 April 2012 19:03 (ten years ago) link
^^
as has been pointed out, the thrills along with many many others.
such a mad random list.
still, if i went to a bbq this summer and this was playing in the background i would be in a relatively good mood.
― mark e, Tuesday, 17 April 2012 19:20 (ten years ago) link
Nice one ithappenshttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/apr/24/britpop-cultural-abomination-music-blur-oasis
― ۩, Thursday, 24 April 2014 18:11 (eight years ago) link
Matt Scott
24 April 2014 7:11pmRecommend0
terrible article from a jealous virgin
― Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (nakhchivan), Thursday, 24 April 2014 18:18 (eight years ago) link
Probably not going to pay close attention to he comments on that one.
― Unsettled defender (ithappens), Thursday, 24 April 2014 19:01 (eight years ago) link
goodoldcause
24 April 2014 7:13pmRecommend40
I remember Britpop as a huge relief. Sure, there was a lot of hype and some of the bands weren't able to live up to it. But the time before Britpop, the early 90s, was so dull. Lots of manufactured pop and half-hearted US imports.
Britpop was a much-welcome burst of energy and a resurgence of interesting guitar-led bands, many of them still hugely under-rated. Just go back and listen to anything from that period by The Bluetones: it still holds up.
― ۩, Thursday, 24 April 2014 19:28 (eight years ago) link
half-hearted?
lol bluetones
There was some good stuff, there was some bad stuff.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Thursday, 24 April 2014 19:56 (eight years ago) link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/uk/02/landfill/img/landfill_map.gif
― xelab, Thursday, 24 April 2014 20:09 (eight years ago) link
good stuff ithappens.
and i say that as a defender of the nwonw groove that britpop killed, and despite the fact i still listen to the menswe@r album on a regular basis.
― mark e, Thursday, 24 April 2014 20:19 (eight years ago) link
I thought menswe@r were a pile of arse even at the time!
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Thursday, 24 April 2014 20:22 (eight years ago) link
ha .. yeah .. i know. everyone did.but the album is a case of session musicians making a fine glam pop album.(i never ever believed that anyone in the band had any input other than the vocals)
― mark e, Thursday, 24 April 2014 20:25 (eight years ago) link
are menswe@r the monkees of the 90s then?
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Thursday, 24 April 2014 20:38 (eight years ago) link
good call .. i would totally put them in that category.
― mark e, Thursday, 24 April 2014 20:39 (eight years ago) link
except for the fact that they never got a chance/skill to progress out of that corner, unlike the monkees.
― mark e, Thursday, 24 April 2014 20:40 (eight years ago) link
Britpop saved the 90s from being a Spice Girls wasteland
it also invented the idea of a band with guitars being any good in the 90s, apparently
― Master of Treacle, Thursday, 24 April 2014 21:23 (eight years ago) link
That bastard Cowell has ruined EVERYTHING....look at where we are now compared to the days of Northern Uproar
― Master of Treacle, Thursday, 24 April 2014 21:33 (eight years ago) link
In the britpop timeline I had started getting into Miles, was loving the golden age of rap and house/techno, certainly didn't need none of that garbage. It's like the art equivalent of going to see Rothko, Warhol + Nauman and then pretending that Howard Hodgkin, Peter Blake and Damien Hirst are anything but the talentless arseholes that turned up.
― xelab, Thursday, 24 April 2014 21:44 (eight years ago) link
It's like the art equivalent of going to see Rothko, Warhol + Nauman and then pretending that Howard Hodgkin, Peter Blake and Damien Hirst are anything but the talentless arseholes that turned up.
― imago, Thursday, 24 April 2014 21:46 (eight years ago) link
You fucking young british people.
― xelab, Thursday, 24 April 2014 21:49 (eight years ago) link
i thought i cd read those comments for the lulz but there was no lulz, just deep sadness, then despair, then the rising urge to take off and nuke the country from orbit
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 24 April 2014 21:53 (eight years ago) link
this would be a lovely place to discuss the oasis reunion
― imago, Thursday, 24 April 2014 21:55 (eight years ago) link
Meh. There was some good stuff, there was some bad stuff.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Thursday, 24 April 2014 21:55 (eight years ago) link
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Thursday, April 24, 2014 7:56 PM (2 hours ago)
....
― mark e, Thursday, 24 April 2014 21:59 (eight years ago) link
the piece isn't about whether people from the British indie scene made any worthwhile music between 1994 and 1997, it's about the way scenes are formed and consumed, about the way media representation interacts with public consciousness, the way pop music discourse in the UK has got stupider and narrower over the last 20 years. there was good points, there was some bad points.
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 24 April 2014 22:02 (eight years ago) link
The first good point was when some worthless prick nearly expired from heroin use, but ah then he pretended that he detoxed with night nurse and survived. When reminiscing about old scenes, when your your first thought is "I wish that fucker had died" there is something gravely absent from the music.
― xelab, Thursday, 24 April 2014 22:17 (eight years ago) link
Really liked then and still like: Blur, The Boo Radleys, Pulp, Suede, Supergrass, Super Furry Animals, Manic Street Preachers,Radiohead (because they were lumped in with this circa The Bends), The Stone Roses (pre-dated Britpop but were also lumped in), The Verve (yes, they were a shoegaze band, but Urban Hymns was definitely a "tail-end of Britpop" record and appealed to that audience).
Don't mind: Ash, The Bluetones, Elastica, Marion, Oasis (1994-1996), 60ft. Dolls, Sleeper, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Idlewild, Mansun,early Dodgy, The Auteurs, the first Catatonia album, Geneva, Placebo, Primal Scream, Ride, Teenage Fanclub, Paul Weller solo (I make no apologies for it).
Ngghhhhhhhhh: Cast, Me Me Me, Northern Uproar, Oasis (1997 onwards), Ocean Colour Scene, Kula Shaker, Longpigs, The Seahorses, Space,The Supernaturals, Travis, Bernard Butler (solo), Kenickie, The Lightning Seeds, Stereophonics.
Never cared about even at the time: Black Grape, The Divine Comedy, Echobelly ('Great Things' aside), Gene, Heavy Stereo, Menswe@r,My Life Story, Powder, Salad, Shed Seven, These Animal Men, Thurman, Dawn Of The Replicants, Dubstar, Embrace, Feeder, Gay Dad,The Gyres, Hurricane #1, Nilon Bombers, Octopus, Perfume, Puressence, Rialto, Snow Patrol, Symposium, Theaudience, Toploader,The Charlatans ('The Only One I Know' aside) and many many more...
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Thursday, 24 April 2014 22:17 (eight years ago) link
hmmm. more like Britpoop.
― mattresslessness, Thursday, 24 April 2014 22:20 (eight years ago) link
The first couple Divine Comedy albums are sooooo good. They just fill me with joy. xp
― she started dancing to that (Finefinemusic), Thursday, 24 April 2014 22:20 (eight years ago) link
I know we on the Guardian will liveblog most things, but the Mirror has spent this evening liveblogging Liam Gallagher tweeting the letters O, A, S, I and S
― Unsettled defender (ithappens), Thursday, 24 April 2014 22:23 (eight years ago) link
good luck great britain
― mattresslessness, Thursday, 24 April 2014 22:25 (eight years ago) link
― imago, Thursday, April 24, 2014 10:55 PM (33 minutes ago)
the what now
― glumdalclitch, Thursday, 24 April 2014 22:29 (eight years ago) link
The problem that I generally have with retrospective articles that focus on Britpop, is that they assume a lot of things: while I generally remember an optimistic mood and hot summers in the mid '90s; I never read Loaded, I've never found myself in the situation where I've been pissed out my mind with an arm around a best mate bellowing 'Don't Look Back In Anger' out of tune, there were a lot of bands I didn't care for at the time, and I didn't solely listen to Britpop bands - there were a lot of things going on.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Thursday, 24 April 2014 22:36 (eight years ago) link
know we on the Guardian will liveblog most things, but the Mirror has spent this evening liveblogging Liam Gallagher tweeting the letters O, A, S, I and Shttp://blog.smartbear.com/wp-content/uploads/imports/job%20well%20done.jpg
― xelab, Thursday, 24 April 2014 22:37 (eight years ago) link
Oasis was a band I never quite understood how they were a) so popular, and b) compared to the Beatles so much. Kinda boring songs, annoying vocalist, sounded nothing like the Beatles.
Britpop in general seemed like a breath of fresh air to me in the 90s, wherein British bands played music that seemed at least somewhat influenced by British music I actually liked (XTC, Kinks, Beatles again), but then really only listened to Blur, Elastica, some Supergrass.
― Dominique, Thursday, 24 April 2014 22:37 (eight years ago) link
I just don't like this insinuation that people who listened to Blur and Suede in the mid '90s also dug Northern Uproar and Menswe@r... in my case, fuck no! I fucking loved 'Firestarter', 'Hyper-Ballad' and R.E.M.'s New Adventures In Hi-Fi though, for example.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Thursday, 24 April 2014 22:43 (eight years ago) link
actually, it seems that supergrass have avoided a lot of current britpop hate, which perhaps gives hope that beyond the debut, they were a band beyond such a narrow minded genre.
i.e. of all the supposed britpop bands, supergrass are the one band i still listen to, and enjoy.
― mark e, Thursday, 24 April 2014 22:45 (eight years ago) link
x-post
Well yeah, and as I wasn't a British person while it was going on, it was super easy to not just listen to Britpop (or any other single genre for that matter). In fact, even at the time, I always thought the term was a bit ridiculous. What does it mean? Rock bands from Britain? Can you call that a genre? It just seemed like an umbrella term for UK indie rock, like calling a genre that featured Neutral Milk Hotel, Fugazi and Wilco Ameripop.
― Dominique, Thursday, 24 April 2014 22:49 (eight years ago) link
I said on my fb about how the older fans of britpop (aka the roses/primals fans) loved dance music and how we all thought oasis "would do a screamadelica" on their 3rd album , and how said dance acts supported oasis and were seen as britpop along WITH the spice girls (Geri's union jack dress), robbie williams etc but post 1997 going to #10 Cool Britannia the kids chose to go with "real music" and now Britpop has come to mean only white guitar pop. ffs i went to gigs with friends who were into britpop and baggy and grunge but also ravers, goldie fans, massive attack, prodigy, underworld, leftfield,aphex fans. 1995/96 wasnt as bad as what followed. (if its tl;dr - what turrican said)
― ۩, Thursday, 24 April 2014 22:59 (eight years ago) link
"I know we on the Guardian will liveblog most things, but the Mirror has spent this evening"... wah wah wah Even if I am stuck in a station with one pound odd in my pocket, never buying this fucking garbage again.
― xelab, Thursday, 24 April 2014 22:59 (eight years ago) link
classifying the manics as britpop seems kind of off, even their softer post-1994 material doesn't really have much in common with any of the rest of those bands.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:01 (eight years ago) link
xxxpost:
Yup, I also thought (even at the time) that the term 'Britpop' was ridiculous. In my mind, I definitely wasn't lumping all of these bands together as one thing... to me, there was a whole slew of stuff happening and I was mentally filing it into 'music I like' and 'music I don't', the same as any year.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:01 (eight years ago) link
rmde xp
― mattresslessness, Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:02 (eight years ago) link
turrican are you british?
― mattresslessness, Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:03 (eight years ago) link
i like indie rock and roll
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:06 (eight years ago) link
― ۩, Thursday, April 24, 2014 10:59 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
^ This.
I mean, I know a lot of folks that loved the first couple of Oasis records (they sold a shitload, so obviously I would) that also loved Massive Attack, Prodigy, Underworld, Leftfield, The Chemical Brothers, Aphex Twin, Bjork etc. etc. etc.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:07 (eight years ago) link
fucking hell, all that different stuff?
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:08 (eight years ago) link
endless variety
― mattresslessness, Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:09 (eight years ago) link
― mark e, Thursday, April 24, 2014 10:45 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I still have a lot of time for Supergrass, and even though 'Diamond Hoo Ha' was hardly their finest album, I still think they had plenty more in them.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:09 (eight years ago) link
lolll xp
― Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (nakhchivan), Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:09 (eight years ago) link
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Thursday, April 24, 2014 11:08 PM (52 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I'm being general, but you get the point :)
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:10 (eight years ago) link
well NV as you know fine well something happened and "indie" fans went from iking all forms of dance music and hip hop to craig david lookalike on the toilet on Melody Maker and nme readers only wanting guitar music.1997 seemed to be when it happened too in my mind.
― ۩, Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:11 (eight years ago) link
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, April 24, 2014 11:01 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
It does, but circa Everything Must Go and 'A Design For Life', they were definitely lumped in with the Britpop lot.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:12 (eight years ago) link
― she started dancing to that (Finefinemusic)
Liberation, Promenade and Casanova is possibly my favourite album run of the 90s.
― Kitchen Person, Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:19 (eight years ago) link
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican)
Such a great band. Just listened to the first two albums today and enjoyed them a ridiculous amount.
― Kitchen Person, Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:22 (eight years ago) link
hah, I thought The Divine Comedy/My Life Story stuff was some of the worst britpop on a par with bluetones and ocean colour scene
― ۩, Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:23 (eight years ago) link
I loved them both at the time but Divine Comedy still sound great to me now where as My Life Story now sounded as dated as the worst Britpop bands. I really do understand why people dislike the Divine Comedy but they've been one of my favourite bands for almost twenty years now.
― Kitchen Person, Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:25 (eight years ago) link
I dunno why but I thought you were in your mid to late twenties
― ۩, Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:27 (eight years ago) link
I'm just about to turn thirty one. I was probably twelve/thirteen when I first got into them.
― Kitchen Person, Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:32 (eight years ago) link
There were a whole number of things in '97 that had me thinking "yeah, this is getting a bit silly now"... Be Here Now has always been cited as being "the end", but there was a whole load of other nonsense going on. Stuff like Catch (essentially a glorified boyband) putting out 'Bingo', Robbie Williams' Liam Gallagher-isms on 'Old Before I Die'... I remember watching a video of Embrace doing 'All You Good Good People' on MTV and hearing Danny McNamara's foghorn vocal and thinking "seriously!?", stuff like Travis...
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:36 (eight years ago) link
20 years ago I was getting into dance music, funk, krautrock, jazz and classic canon and even classic weird stuff. Used to order things in through the local library. Expanding my knowledge from grunge/metal/indie/industrial that was my listening for the 3 years previous.My mate got cds by funkadelic/tim buckley/can and i was hooked. bought mc5, stooges,can,kraftwerk, 13th floor elevators cds as well as my own cds of the ones my mate got. Already liked a lot of 60s stuff by 1994 so britpop mainly seemed a rehash of the good stuff for me aged 21
― ۩, Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:40 (eight years ago) link
The funny thing was Be Here Now got amazing reviews (to make up for terrible reviews of morning glory). It was those who bought it who hated it. Yet it was still their 3rd best studio album lol
― ۩, Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:41 (eight years ago) link
they just picked up so many new fans each album (many of whom never heard the first)They really were massive in the UK weren't they? Pretty staggering really. Was that the last time the british music industry were basically printing money?
I remember in the aftermath the best record shop in glasgow expanded and opened other shops during the boom and it killed it. Maybe thats another reason i hate britpop so much?
― ۩, Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:44 (eight years ago) link
xpost:
Yeah, I had young parents, so there was a lot of late '70s/early '80s music in my parents record collection which I had been exposed to/was consciously listening to around that time.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:48 (eight years ago) link
Oasis were stupidly huge in 1996-1997, absolutely fucking stupidly huge. It wasn't just that they sold millions of copies of Morning Glory and played to thousands of people at Knebworth, they just seemed to be everywhere. I remember some episode of The Vicar Of Dibley being on in '96, and two of the main characters arguing over what kind of Oasis advent calendar they wanted "the Liam one or the Noel one", and there were a thousands more examples besides... there just seemed to be a point where you couldn't avoid them.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:54 (eight years ago) link
Having said that...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOFT253yNHQ
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Thursday, 24 April 2014 23:57 (eight years ago) link
I remember that. Still got a soft spot for Game On. Matthew invented emo remember ;)
― ۩, Friday, 25 April 2014 00:00 (eight years ago) link
Daniel Hewson
25 April 2014 1:54amRecommend2
Whatever you say about Britpop, the current UK music scene can't muster a worthy Glastonbury headliner, last year the Rolling Stones, year before U2. British Glastonbury headliners weren't a problem in the 90s. Where in Nick Clegg's 'modern' Britain are the Great British bands we used to produce? Or am I longing for W.G. Grace?
ithappens is as popular with the guardian commentors as a fart in a spacesuit for his article.
Well done!
― ۩, Friday, 25 April 2014 01:24 (eight years ago) link
and yes where in this guys modern Britain is Dublin?
― ۩, Friday, 25 April 2014 01:25 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av9Vn48fOEs
― ۩, Friday, 25 April 2014 04:04 (eight years ago) link
Tony Riviere
24 April 2014 7:19pmRecommend64
Though not a fan, I think Britpop reaffirmed what it was to be British, white and male. Black music informs so much of modern pop and rock (and there is nothing wrong with that) that it was most refreshing for bands to stick their heads above the parapets and wave their mojos in the face of the PC norms of journo-driven hip but utterly soulless media icons.
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Friday, 25 April 2014 11:36 (eight years ago) link
ILX's favourite sport: find the idiot, quote the idiot
― imago, Friday, 25 April 2014 11:42 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWSrx41iyfg
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Friday, 25 April 2014 11:49 (eight years ago) link
xxp impressive how much of the article he can agree with while coming to the opposite conclusion
― ogmor, Friday, 25 April 2014 12:05 (eight years ago) link
Fans replied in their thousands, demanding an explanation with many suggesting it could mean the long pined-for reunion.
"WHAT DOES THIS MEAN" one wrote, "DUDE" another said, with a third adding: "Oh my god it's happening".
This is the internet though, so obviously there was also a "Shut up I hate you".
― pick it up for ripple laser (onimo), Friday, 25 April 2014 12:10 (eight years ago) link
http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/quiz/2014/apr/25/quiz-how-much-you-know-about-britpop
― ۩, Friday, 25 April 2014 12:37 (eight years ago) link
yeah, I got 22
― Mark G, Friday, 25 April 2014 12:54 (eight years ago) link
18, but with a lot of guesswork
― A frenzied geologist (Tom D.), Friday, 25 April 2014 12:55 (eight years ago) link
Oh shit, I got 23. In my defence, this was the era I grew up in. ;_;
― emil.y, Friday, 25 April 2014 13:03 (eight years ago) link
15 and so did I, albeit in NZ
― sonic thedgehod (albvivertine), Friday, 25 April 2014 13:11 (eight years ago) link
27, please shoot me.
― Yuri Bashment (ShariVari), Friday, 25 April 2014 13:13 (eight years ago) link
22 but only coz I read Select religiously every week.
(I'm far prouder of scoring 12 out of 13 on "Cornish or Dothraki" to be honest)
― Branwell Bell, Friday, 25 April 2014 13:15 (eight years ago) link
24. And life goes on.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Friday, 25 April 2014 13:21 (eight years ago) link
Oh dear. I got 26.
― Kitchen Person, Friday, 25 April 2014 14:13 (eight years ago) link
Really wish it had been Heavy Stereo on the Yanks Go Home Select cover.
― Kitchen Person, Friday, 25 April 2014 14:14 (eight years ago) link
21. Tbf anyone who read MM/NME/Select around that time will score pretty well.
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Friday, 25 April 2014 14:47 (eight years ago) link
17, from Canada! I worked hard for that score. Select cost ~$10!
― she started dancing to that (Finefinemusic), Friday, 25 April 2014 15:19 (eight years ago) link
19, with a lot of guesses, and a reasonable number I got right by virtue of it happening around me (the Good Mixer was my local, I worked near Berwick St, etc)
― Turtleneck Work Solutions (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Friday, 25 April 2014 16:58 (eight years ago) link
19. but frankly i hate this music and wish it would die
― It's Pablum Time with (NickB), Friday, 25 April 2014 17:00 (eight years ago) link
I got 24. Who knew Parklife almost had a fruit & veg cart on the cover?
― ۩, Friday, 25 April 2014 18:44 (eight years ago) link
St George's Day knees-up at The Red Lion in Leytonstone - 23rd April 2014
http://i.imgur.com/6GCQQqR.gif
― Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (nakhchivan), Friday, 25 April 2014 20:51 (eight years ago) link
hermione008018 hours ago This is just bonkers! Can you imagine, you are having a pint in a pub and suddenly Damon Albarn is there singing Parklife???!!!! I bloody love London! :)
I honestly think I would be overjoyed if I was having a pint in a pub and suddenly Damon Albarn was there singing Parklife
― soref, Friday, 25 April 2014 21:00 (eight years ago) link
if it was Phil Daniels tho I'd glass the cunt eh lads
― imago, Friday, 25 April 2014 21:03 (eight years ago) link
After you got his autograph?
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Friday, 25 April 2014 21:45 (eight years ago) link
Roll up, roll up, and feast yer ears and eyes on the cheeky nonsense what is – The Gents!Join them for a raucous sing‐along of all your favourite pop tunes in the Cockney style! Play along to all the hits with your very own Gents kazoo!Updating the piano sing‐along for the twenty‐first century, The Gents cover tracks from Kylie to Nirvana, Talking Heads to Dolly Parton, The White Stripes to Hot Chip & Elvis to Britney Spears.In a mash up of styles incorporating the cockney knees up, gypsy punk andboogie‐woogie piano The Gents lead their drunken crowds through the full history of popular music.The Gents play on a proper old Joanna which is mounted on wheels and glides across any terrain with the greatest of ease, especially when pulled by a selection of nubile beauties –behold ‘Whores and Cart!’Alongside set pieces, costume changes, comedy asides and kazoo solo’s, The Gents fully integrate their punters into the performance and encourage audience requests and kazoo participation. The Gents generally prefer to perform with crowds surrounding the piano rather than on stage, enabling them to fully connect with the audience.With plenty of humorous banter, saucy singing and sexy outfits The Gents always make their shows something to remember. You’ll come away with a belly full of laughs, a smile on yer face and a bloody soar throat!The Gents are available for private parties, festivals, street performances, corporate bookings, tv appearances, promotional work and, well, just about anything else you want to offer them really!
Updating the piano sing‐along for the twenty‐first century, The Gents cover tracks from Kylie to Nirvana, Talking Heads to Dolly Parton, The White Stripes to Hot Chip & Elvis to Britney Spears.
In a mash up of styles incorporating the cockney knees up, gypsy punk andboogie‐woogie piano The Gents lead their drunken crowds through the full history of popular music.
The Gents play on a proper old Joanna which is mounted on wheels and glides across any terrain with the greatest of ease, especially when pulled by a selection of nubile beauties –behold ‘Whores and Cart!’
Alongside set pieces, costume changes, comedy asides and kazoo solo’s, The Gents fully integrate their punters into the performance and encourage audience requests and kazoo participation. The Gents generally prefer to perform with crowds surrounding the piano rather than on stage, enabling them to fully connect with the audience.
With plenty of humorous banter, saucy singing and sexy outfits The Gents always make their shows something to remember. You’ll come away with a belly full of laughs, a smile on yer face and a bloody soar throat!
The Gents are available for private parties, festivals, street performances, corporate bookings, tv appearances, promotional work and, well, just about anything else you want to offer them really!
― soref, Friday, 25 April 2014 21:53 (eight years ago) link
http://wearethegents.com/files/photos/picture/31.jpg
― Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (nakhchivan), Friday, 25 April 2014 22:07 (eight years ago) link
Anyone who concedes that they love music and then expressing anything other than contempt for 90's britpop should be fined at first and then sent to a gulag - the wank CD packing division. Ffs people still talking about this fucking dreck now :(:(:( and Albarn is still alive :(:(:(:(:(:(:( and lots of these cunts are still working bands :(:(:(:(:(:(
― xelab, Friday, 25 April 2014 22:55 (eight years ago) link
I think most of those posting comments only like that era of music. they were either at school/college just started work and when they got married or whatever they gave up on music (ok yeah like most "normal" people).They're more in tune with the majority than we are though.
― ۩, Friday, 25 April 2014 22:57 (eight years ago) link
no no no no no, the actual majority of people don't give a milligram of fuck about this
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Friday, 25 April 2014 23:16 (eight years ago) link
I can't answer more than a few of those on the quiz but I still have a (distannt transatlantic) fondness for a lot of that mid-90's British music - as long as I don't have to hear them speak much.
― J'ai toujours préféré la folie des passions à la sagesse de (Michael White), Friday, 25 April 2014 23:23 (eight years ago) link
I really loathe that era, it was the commercial triumph of the deluded morons, much prefer the chart music of now tbh.
― xelab, Friday, 25 April 2014 23:38 (eight years ago) link
seems like the last uk chart music movement that made majoritarian claims? idk, too young at the time thankfully, even so it seemed sort of ubiquitous in a lowering, britpop uber alles, wholely unfriendly way, even though i couldn't have cared less about it
― Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (nakhchivan), Friday, 25 April 2014 23:43 (eight years ago) link
those specious presumably fake statistics about however many cunts tried to get tickets to see oasis at knebworth
― Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (nakhchivan), Friday, 25 April 2014 23:44 (eight years ago) link
yeah but that's a presumed majority of a minority. pop music and the charts already well on the way by 1994 to being a ghettoized subslice of the population's musical experience, this last gasp of the Boomers or wannabe Boomers desperate for their reductive fax of rock and/or roll to be significant like the 1960s but much too late, using their media grip to pretend otherwise even as the media slipped away from significance itself
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Friday, 25 April 2014 23:48 (eight years ago) link
good-natured BBC journalists in on the charade covering Blur vs Oasis all baffled-like as if this iteration of popular music wasn't a crusty 30 plus year-old institution
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Friday, 25 April 2014 23:50 (eight years ago) link
I owe you a quid
― Turtleneck Work Solutions (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Friday, 25 April 2014 23:51 (eight years ago) link
rock and roll and The Teenager must be saved at all costs, too heavily entrenched in the consumer model now to let go when adolescence lasts well into yr pensionable years
xp?? lol?
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Friday, 25 April 2014 23:52 (eight years ago) link
nostalgia for a majoritarian culture probably itself relying on a mythic falsification that literally every person literally gave a shit about the beatles back in 1968 or whatever
almost a volkisch element to it, british people love this idea that all of the other british people love the same shit
find it hard not to write something like 'brotip' when i try to write britpop
― Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (nakhchivan), Saturday, 26 April 2014 00:02 (eight years ago) link
― It's Pablum Time with (NickB), Friday, April 25, 2014 5:00 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― popchips: the next snapple? (seandalai), Saturday, 26 April 2014 00:16 (eight years ago) link
My first love was the Pet Shop Boys and I have never accepted boring, stodgy army reserve type cunts in music. So Neil Tennant knows the score.
― xelab, Saturday, 26 April 2014 00:20 (eight years ago) link
I got 8 on that quiz, I win
― ogmor, Saturday, 26 April 2014 00:50 (eight years ago) link
I remember myself an my brother laughing at an MM cover about Britpop (94? 95?). We started saying "Brrrritpop"" in plummy accents and imagined that the ultimate Britpop band would wear suits and bowler hats.
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Saturday, 26 April 2014 00:56 (eight years ago) link
and a sash?
― ۩, Saturday, 26 April 2014 02:23 (eight years ago) link
Orange Uproar
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Saturday, 26 April 2014 11:01 (eight years ago) link
I scored 19 on that quiz, mostly down to being a student at the time and skimming other people's copies of Select/etc..
― an office job is as secure as a Weetabix padlock (snoball), Saturday, 26 April 2014 12:05 (eight years ago) link
That yougov poll (pdf) from the other day tries to answer the do-ppl-give-a-fuck questions. But the only thing that jumped out at me was that lib dems lean strongly to Blur.
― woof, Saturday, 26 April 2014 12:26 (eight years ago) link
Next year is the 20th anniversary ofhttp://i.imgur.com/9CXDcGi.jpg
― ۩, Saturday, 26 April 2014 16:32 (eight years ago) link
PATRICK EGGLE!
― Mark G, Saturday, 26 April 2014 19:33 (eight years ago) link
I actually bought the Orlando album a few years later and really enjoyed it for a while. Since then it's gone to the same place as my My Life Story albums.
― Kitchen Person, Saturday, 26 April 2014 19:36 (eight years ago) link
Hell?
― ۩, Saturday, 26 April 2014 19:44 (eight years ago) link
I was thinking it was more likely just in a box to give to charity but I do have a feeling I sold it on Amazon. I know it was going for quite a lot at one point.
Have never actually heard Plastic Fantastic, Sexus or Dexdexter. Should check them out.
― Kitchen Person, Saturday, 26 April 2014 20:21 (eight years ago) link
I also have the Ornaldo album
― kinder, Saturday, 26 April 2014 20:46 (eight years ago) link
THE BEATLEStwo-page special
― bizarro gazzara, Saturday, 26 April 2014 20:47 (eight years ago) link
Did any of those Romo bands actually <i>sound</i> like 80s new romantics, or was the romo scene all about looks and image? My impression was the latter. Musically, La Roux were probably much closer to the sound of 1982 than any of the Romo bands would ever manage.
― The GeirBot (Geir Hongro), Saturday, 26 April 2014 21:44 (eight years ago) link
geir otm.
(and welcome back)
― mark e, Saturday, 26 April 2014 21:50 (eight years ago) link
Loving Roxy Music stuck in the bottom corner in a Romo special
― Master of Treacle, Saturday, 26 April 2014 22:12 (eight years ago) link
ha i know that one guy on the cover of that. hiya stuart!
― ricky don't lose that number nine shirt (NickB), Saturday, 26 April 2014 22:35 (eight years ago) link
The band was formed in 1997 by Supergrass drummer Danny Goffey and his girlfriend Pearl Lowe, the former vocalist with Powder.[1] The line-up was completed by co-vocalist Neil Carlill and guitarist Will Foster, both of Delicatessen.[1][2] Lowe and Carlill's dual vocals drew comparisons with Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood.[1][2]
― Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (nakhchivan), Sunday, 27 April 2014 01:30 (eight years ago) link
I'd forgotten about the existence of Lodger. Think I only heard one single of theirs ('I'm Leaving')... didn't care about them at all.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Sunday, 27 April 2014 02:10 (eight years ago) link
I love kenickie's first album but always considered it "punk pop". It was so much better than the mallpunk garbage we got in the u.s.
― brimstead, Sunday, 27 April 2014 02:18 (eight years ago) link
The whole "romo" thing just sums up how disgusting uk music mag culture is, sorry
― brimstead, Sunday, 27 April 2014 02:19 (eight years ago) link
oh dear, perhaps i'm mistaking Romo for Grebo
― brimstead, Sunday, 27 April 2014 02:20 (eight years ago) link
upon cursory research, disgust applies to both romo and grebo
― brimstead, Sunday, 27 April 2014 02:21 (eight years ago) link
I bought all three Lodger singles but didn't end up getting the album. Still have a soft spot for I'm Leaving but can't remember anything about the other singles.
― Kitchen Person, Sunday, 27 April 2014 04:00 (eight years ago) link
They were no Rialto
― Master of Treacle, Sunday, 27 April 2014 05:02 (eight years ago) link
I think I remember Rialto for being comp to Scott Walker, maybe?
― sonic thedgehod (albvivertine), Sunday, 27 April 2014 05:21 (eight years ago) link
Romo was pretty much just Simon Price, iirc. Although the music was broadly terrible, the reaction to it seemed worse than the original push behind it. The relationship with Britpop was mostly oppositional.
― Yuri Bashment (ShariVari), Sunday, 27 April 2014 06:57 (eight years ago) link
Cinerama did what Rialto attempted to do many miles better
― PaulTMA, Sunday, 27 April 2014 11:15 (eight years ago) link
At around this time, a first anniversary party was held for Club Skinny headlined by Crush, the band of former Byker Grove TV stars Donna Air and Jayni Hoi. However, continued tensions in the scene led to the discontinuation of both Skinny and Arcadia in July 1996. Romo activities continued at the individual bands' concerts (although one Plastic Fantastic concert at Dingwalls from this time ended in a mass brawl after a hat was thrown onstage).[40]
― ۩, Sunday, 27 April 2014 11:37 (eight years ago) link
fuck throwing a hat
― bizarro gazzara, Sunday, 27 April 2014 11:54 (eight years ago) link
27th of April is the Fuck washing a hat day.
― Mark G, Friday, 21 January 2011 12:26 (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― bizarro gazzara, Sunday, 27 April 2014 12:08 (eight years ago) link
lol crushsounded like a republica tribute act iirc
― kinder, Sunday, 27 April 2014 12:10 (eight years ago) link
Rialto's thing was having two drummers, and the guy from Kinky Machine
― Master of Treacle, Sunday, 27 April 2014 12:41 (eight years ago) link
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/apr/27/britpop-and-me-looking-back-not-in-anger-eva-wiseman
― ۩, Sunday, 27 April 2014 14:49 (eight years ago) link
Britpop was our moon landing, except janglier. It was our Summer of Love, our Nelson Mandela's presidential years, our fall of the wall.
― ۩, Sunday, 27 April 2014 14:50 (eight years ago) link
The full line is
Britpop was our moon landing, except janglier. It was our Summer of Love, our Nelson Mandela's presidential years, our fall of the wall. It was the awkward suburban girl's Wonderful World of Colour. The never-kissed's big bang.
― ۩, Sunday, 27 April 2014 14:56 (eight years ago) link
Xposts I said that?
― Mark G, Sunday, 27 April 2014 16:25 (eight years ago) link
Last post here: Classics Found: Fuck Washing a Hat
― bizarro gazzara, Sunday, 27 April 2014 19:14 (eight years ago) link
― Master of Treacle
Really liked Rialto at the time. When they got dropped just before the album came out I remember paying £20 for it on Import in HMV. So much money wasted on CD's from that time. Everything Bennet ever released, albums and single by Mover, Joacasta, 18 Wheeler and Ether. Anyone remember Ether? The guy's voice was just ridiculous!
― Kitchen Person, Sunday, 27 April 2014 20:38 (eight years ago) link
http://youtu.be/HmnhsHtqzKk
― Kitchen Person, Sunday, 27 April 2014 20:41 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, I had one of their songs on a compilation, think I ended up in email correspondence with one of them?
― kinder, Sunday, 27 April 2014 20:42 (eight years ago) link
ugh just listened to it and it's horrible
― kinder, Sunday, 27 April 2014 20:43 (eight years ago) link
hated Rialto too
― kinder, Sunday, 27 April 2014 20:45 (eight years ago) link
actually no, I'm confusing them with someone else...
― kinder, Sunday, 27 April 2014 20:46 (eight years ago) link
rofl 18 wheeler
― ۩, Sunday, 27 April 2014 20:46 (eight years ago) link
nothing can be worse thanhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Geh_zrt2Ps
― ۩, Sunday, 27 April 2014 20:47 (eight years ago) link
I was doing work experience at a record shop when the Ether album came out. After a few days the owner said they couldn't pay me but I could have a couple of new CD's instead. The first album I picked was their album (as I'd enjoyed a couple of singles) That is a decision that still haunts me today. Luckily my second choice was Pulp's This is Hardcore.
― Kitchen Person, Sunday, 27 April 2014 20:47 (eight years ago) link
Xposts Thanks, bizarro gazzara.
Nice to see the day is being observed.
― Mark G, Sunday, 27 April 2014 20:47 (eight years ago) link
xp Monaco, that's who I'm confusing Rialto with
― kinder, Sunday, 27 April 2014 20:49 (eight years ago) link
Re catch
I don't recall that totp perf, but he looks exactly as I assumed.
Reminds me of listening to xfm where they played it over and.
Awful.
― Mark G, Sunday, 27 April 2014 20:50 (eight years ago) link
xpost Don't know which is my favourite 18 Wheeler moment. Them being forced to play some Labour event and being introduced by Tony Blair as Wheeler 18 or Alan McGee claiming their last album was going to be the new Screamadelica.
― Kitchen Person, Sunday, 27 April 2014 20:50 (eight years ago) link
The worst of these bands (that will occasionally get stuck in my head) is Ruth. (Sorry to remind everyone of them.)
There used to be a website probably over 10 years ago at this point called "This is Romo" where you could listen to Sexus and Plastic Fantastic and the like. They were all pretty bad, but the DexDexter song was ok. I still love the Orlando record, but I also have Fosca records, so...
I sort of like Rialto and their 2-drummer attempt at sweeping romanticism, but they lyrics were way sub-Suede/Pulp.
― DonkeyTeeth, Sunday, 27 April 2014 22:20 (eight years ago) link
*their lyrics. Ignore the grammatical mess there.
― DonkeyTeeth, Sunday, 27 April 2014 22:21 (eight years ago) link
I'm pretty sure someone once mentioned this band Ruth and i said "Who?" and a video was posted.
But I cant remember. So I'll just say who? (again?)
― ۩, Sunday, 27 April 2014 22:56 (eight years ago) link
Joacasta kind of invented Muse. I bet Tim Arnold is pissed off about that.
Ruth appeared on Blue Peter, performing their song Fear Of Flying. I imagine someday they'll be on a box set with the likes of The Smiles, The Young Offenders and Laxtons Superb. Or perhaps music will have been abolished by then
― PaulTMA, Sunday, 27 April 2014 23:24 (eight years ago) link
And also with The Poppyheads of 'Wake Up America", 'fame'
― PaulTMA, Sunday, 27 April 2014 23:25 (eight years ago) link
Ruth were a very late in the day Britpop act who had one hit single with a track called 'I Don't Know', struggled to follow it up and then got dropped. They then re-named themselves The 45's, got another record deal, couldn't get a hit and got dropped again. Then Matt Hales, their lead singer, became Aqualung (of 'Strange and Beautiful' fame).
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Sunday, 27 April 2014 23:25 (eight years ago) link
After that, he started co-writing tracks for Boyzone, Jason Mraz, Paloma Faith etc.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Sunday, 27 April 2014 23:27 (eight years ago) link
Ruth talking about mental health on the National Lottery...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz3IXutwwI8
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Sunday, 27 April 2014 23:31 (eight years ago) link
Anyway, fuck Ruth, anyone remember Speedy!?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abIWxxzXxvY
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Sunday, 27 April 2014 23:33 (eight years ago) link
nope
― popchips: the next snapple? (seandalai), Sunday, 27 April 2014 23:36 (eight years ago) link
no
― ۩, Sunday, 27 April 2014 23:43 (eight years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i15ALD6fsUU
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 27 April 2014 23:50 (eight years ago) link
worst band ive ever seen in my life T In The Park 1995 NME Tent. They were so bad they made me think the next band I saw (Cast) was goodhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er7gZ5j37qA
― ۩, Sunday, 27 April 2014 23:55 (eight years ago) link
Just reading the Taylor Parkes piece on The Quietusatm, I havent finished it and yes its great but these does anyone else feel with a lot of these anti-Britpop that it is getting the blame for things that its not neccesarily its fault? Yes it was bound up in the time, the zeitgeist and it reflected the neo-liberal ethos of the time. but to say that the cover of "parklife" in walthamstow dog track is somewhow indicative of the rise of gentrification is a bit of a stretch. most of these bands were just straight up indie bands who got branded with the tag - frank and walters would have been a britpop band if they werent from cork f'instance
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Monday, 28 April 2014 11:15 (eight years ago) link
actually its a fantastic article! well worth a read
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Monday, 28 April 2014 11:46 (eight years ago) link
http://thequietus.com/articles/15092-blur-parklife-anniversary-review
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Monday, 28 April 2014 11:47 (eight years ago) link
Self-congratulatory anti-Britpop screeds are now just as annoying and simplistic as rose-tinted Britpop nostalgia imo but the Taylor Parkes one goes so much deeper, bothers to study individual songs rather than make grand generalisations and admits that he was a participant.
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Monday, 28 April 2014 12:29 (eight years ago) link
My problem with the Taylor Parkes article is that it assumes so much from Britpop, and Blur particularly. There's something almost gleefully revisionistic about these anti-Britpop articles in that many of them don't even get the facts straight in the first place. They blame Britpop for everything that was shit about the '90s - even going so far as to say that it was Britpop which helped the rise of Tony Blair and New Labour, which is complete bollocks since BP was pretty much over by the time he came in. From the outside looking in, it's very easy to say to people of my generation - people who never counted themselves as English, who grew up away from London, who were aware of the Beatles and the Kinks but didn't really listen to Britpop bands because they sounded like the Beatles and the Kinks, who enjoyed bands like Blur, Pulp, the Boo Radleys for their musical diversity, not their conservatism, who also liked American bands and dance music and hip-hop, who only felt 'a part of something' because we happened to be young and liked to go to indie nights and dance and snog each other in our Doc Martens as opposed to because of something Stuart Maconie said on the Evening Session - It's easy to look at the surface-level media-led shit that sprang up around the arse end of Britpop and turn around 20 years later and go 'HAH, see I told you it was all SHIT', when really I think that's rather inaccurate and missing much of the point and I'd more readily side on Eva Wiseman's little piece than Parkes's in-depth and well-written but ultimately unfair drubbing.
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Monday, 28 April 2014 12:45 (eight years ago) link
I thought it was very poorly written. F-word this and F-word that; fine, you can swear as much as the average Gallagher brother. So what? Does that make you better than them? Also, far too discursive and rambling instead of addressing the topic at hand and a competent editor would not have spared their secateurs cutting the piece down. Funny how he has a go at “Girls And Boys” supposedly attacking the working class and as usual gives Pulp the free pass. Not listened to the first song on His N’ Hers recently, then?
Meanwhile, did the death of Diana really “kill” Britpop? If anything spelled out the end it must ARGUABLY have been the advent of the Spice Girls. Look! Colour, fun, humour – everything that Britpop isn’t (any more). No mention of them. Riot Grrl gets one passing, rather disdainful mention. If Elastica did anything he doesn’t mention it. And of all the Britpop loudmouths to alight upon, he decides to have a go at…Louise Wener.
The differential diagnosis would therefore include the possibility that this writer has a problem with women.
Oh, and as far as Blair and Blairism are concerned, the Britpop boom essentially happened under a Conservative government.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Monday, 28 April 2014 13:17 (eight years ago) link
You mean the Iraq War wasn't ignited by Blur's version of 'Lets Go Down the Strand', what are you saying here Marcello?
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Monday, 28 April 2014 13:36 (eight years ago) link
Not the Spice Girls, really.
My opinion being: The Spiceys could co-exist with the Britpop quite happily. One alternate 'DOBP' theory was Louise Wener, funnily enough, was in the studio doing her third album and getting a preview of Robbie's "Angels" and realising that the Mainstream could actually do this "Britpop anthem" thing better than Oasis now, so time to pack up and prepare for the taxi home. (I believe the Glitter Band had the same feeling when they saw the Sex Pistols live, back in 1976).
My theory of the end was when Blur produced "Tender", a sure-fire number one, only Britney Spears stopped them with "one more time, baby" and it was like the end of "1066 and all that" : "America was clearly top nation, and Britpop came to a full stop"
Cheers, chief.
― Mark G, Monday, 28 April 2014 13:42 (eight years ago) link
Good theories there. I'm sure Robson and Jerome are thoroughly fed up with having to take all the blame.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Monday, 28 April 2014 13:47 (eight years ago) link
even going so far as to say that it was Britpop which helped the rise of Tony Blair and New Labour, which is complete bollocks since BP was pretty much over by the time he came in.
Blairism didn't start the day he won the election you know. In fact his period as leader of the opposition (July 1994 to May 1997) is almost exactly the lifespan of Britpop, and that's when he axed Clause IV, launched New Labour, etc. You can't complain about TP's false assumptions if you're making some of your own.
Marcello is more on-point. It is rambling, and at times unclear what he even means by "Britpop" (which, like "hipster", now appears to mean Things The Writer Doesn't Like) and TP's problem with women has been noted before. I still think it's one of the better anti-Britpop rants I've read recently, if only because it's pegged to analysis of a specific album.
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Monday, 28 April 2014 13:47 (eight years ago) link
a bunch of what's being addressed here would probably more reasonably thought of within the sphere of "Cool Britannia" - an overlapping but not absolutely equivalent set of vectors to Britpop
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Monday, 28 April 2014 13:49 (eight years ago) link
and i think there is a problem when addressing Britpop in treating it as the sum of a bunch of records/artists rather than a media/social construction with a complex relationship to those artists
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Monday, 28 April 2014 13:51 (eight years ago) link
Warming up to the subject...
My brother-in-law had bought one of those "civilisation" type computer games. He installed it, and began with a small community.
Over whatever time period, he grew them and nurtured them, created huts and expanded into other areas. After some time, he felt he was doing quite well, with a small sailing fleet of wooden boats for fishing and such like. Then, suddenly, a big grey battleship came into the harbour and invaded. At which point, he said "Ah, maybe I wasn't doing quite as well as I thought!"
― Mark G, Monday, 28 April 2014 13:53 (eight years ago) link
Britpop as one of those sixth tier nations in a game of Civ who keep trying to demand tribute from clearly more powerful teams is a quality analogy
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Monday, 28 April 2014 13:55 (eight years ago) link
I was listening to the Forgotten ’90s show on Absolute Radio ‘90s last night. The DJ played “On A Rope” by Rocket from the Crypt and exclaimed disbelief that such an “alternative” record could go to #12 in the charts. “That probably won’t happen ever again,” he sighed slowly.
The way I viewed Britpop at the time was as a useful conduit for lots of “outsider” music – of whatever genre or nationality – to get through to the mainstream. Opening the floodgates and so forth. As usual with these things, it happened for a bit and then hubris and complacency set in. I queued up outside Denmark Hill Safeway’s at 8:00 on Thursday morning for Be Here Now just like so many other people, so I’m as much to blame as anybody.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Monday, 28 April 2014 14:02 (eight years ago) link
Ah, I drove specially to Richmond HMV for mine. HMV purchasers got a 'special' 1st day of issue certificate........
― Mark G, Monday, 28 April 2014 14:16 (eight years ago) link
But trying to distil Britpop into a Robbie Williams song is kind of also a glancing-off of the point of it in a way, because that's what people remember about Britpop - legions of rugger buggers singing 'Angels' as they swill back Carling on Christmas Eve 1997, Noel Gallagher shaking hands with new PM Tony Blair at his new digs while Liam flips Vs at the tabloids, Alex James eating cheese and Damon gobbling Prozac - and that's not what it was all about for me - all of these things happened after the fact. And it didn't have anything to do with the Spice Girls or Diana or any of that - those things existed, but enjoying the music of Blur as a fifteen year old had little to do with it. I didn't suddenly stop listening to the bands I liked and switched over to Robbie and the Spice Girls. Britpop didn't die, it moved on like all genres do. By 1997 I had finished my GCSEs and was listening to OK Computer - arguably a more socially involved and musically adventurous album by the majority of Britpop's standards (although I'd say Blur at their height had their own brand of social commentary, not to mention 'musicality').'Britpop' on one hand was a cynical media construct that lasted less than 3 years. On the other, it's a continuum representing British alternative-based pop and rock which for better or worse has existed since at least the mid-80s and continues to exist today in some shape or form. I would rather appreciate it for the 'pop' part rather than the 'Brit' part, which is ultimately a projection on behalf of the onlookers and those who could only observe it form the vantage point of the tabloid press well after its mid-90s peak.
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Monday, 28 April 2014 14:20 (eight years ago) link
Surely On A Rope being a hit has more to do with Nirvana et al opening the door to the mainstream for US alt rock? The Yanks Go Home triumphalism has created a narrative where it's as if people stopped listening to US music, but of course people listened to both Britpop and indie-rock/grunge/alt, and the press continued to support the latter. That's not to say that Britpop didn't serve as a gateway to 'outsider' music for a lot of people, especially those getting into music around then. I suppose I have Britpop, and the music press of the time, introducing me to Syd Barrett, Wire etc.
― Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (Stew), Monday, 28 April 2014 14:22 (eight years ago) link
Radiohead conspicuously absent from any of these Britpop commemorations but then I don't suppose they were ever really Britpop. Britrock or Brit art rock yes, but Britpop?
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Monday, 28 April 2014 14:28 (eight years ago) link
Never wore a union jack is why. Not even ironically.
― Mark G, Monday, 28 April 2014 14:30 (eight years ago) link
xpost to my own xpost - that was several xposts - i'm at work. hey dog
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Monday, 28 April 2014 14:32 (eight years ago) link
some ppl just don't like cute boys playing guitars, just like I don't give a shit about interchangeable 17-year-old models being autotuned.
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Monday, 28 April 2014 14:37 (eight years ago) link
'On a Rope' was released on three CDs at 99p each, was never sure how much that contributed to it being a hit - I know I bought all three and so did a few of my friends, there were some pretty good b-sides on there iirc (xposts).
― Gavin, Leeds, Monday, 28 April 2014 14:40 (eight years ago) link
You're right about the continuum of British alternative-based pop and rock Dog Latin, but there is a lot of resentment from the Maker writers that Britpop, in its most commercial and conservative forms, seemed to kill off the more interesting, progressive elements of that? But then was British post-rock ever going to be a serious commercial proposition? It's certainly true that Britpop has created a conservative and dominant narrative of Great British Guitar Music, and that's led to a narrowing of horizons in certain quarters. On the other hand, the internet has allowed the more interesting stuff to gain a wider audience, even if it rarely crosses over to the mainstream.
Also, RFTC - catchy tune and a great look, so of course they were on the Chart Show etc.
― Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (Stew), Monday, 28 April 2014 14:41 (eight years ago) link
The resentment from the Maker writers was that romo never took off.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Monday, 28 April 2014 14:47 (eight years ago) link
Fine, but it's still a major leap to blame the Britpop-era bands for Blairism. For a start the average fifteen year old 'indie'-kid prob was pretty fuzzy about Tony Blair's policies as the opposition leader. Come the election I think we were just happy to finally have the Tories out, but politics came later. Obviously it's not just about what the fans thought, but it's still a stretch to blame all this on Britpop. Blur were, in maybe a rather superficial story-telling way, much more critical of Britain and British life than proselytisers of it.
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Monday, 28 April 2014 14:52 (eight years ago) link
Stew - flick through a copy of Select in 1995 and there was a LOT more coverage of the music scene as a whole than just Oasis et al. They had excellent and very prominent dance music coverage near the front of the mag each month for example, a three-page Spice Girls feature, decent coverage of the US. By the time of their demise in the late 90s though they'd become exactly a caricature of a Britpop mag - think Oasis must have appeared on the cover at least three times in 98/99. The humour had been flushed out too.
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Monday, 28 April 2014 15:01 (eight years ago) link
Don't think he's 'blaming' Britpop for Blairism, he's just contextualising it. TP does acknowledge that Blur were probably just having a bit of fun with their mockney antics and didn't realise they'd helped create a monster. I think Damon Albarn's recent interviews where he talks about growing up in multi-cultural east London, while a bit too late, at least show an attempt to move away from a white English stereotype.The flag waving triumphalism of Britpop and Cool Britannia masked a deep anxiety about national identity that comes with loss of Empire, the destruction of society and industry by Thatcher etc. Britpop could have contributed to a much more progressive and pluralistic idea of what England and Britain could be, but it fell back on stereotypes and conservative nostalgia.
― Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (Stew), Monday, 28 April 2014 15:07 (eight years ago) link
xposts, I agree with those upthread saying that Britpop in many ways was a conduit for more alternative music to gain relatively mainstream acceptance, as such the musical conservatism people associate with it is a bit off. Oasis were a very conservative-sounding band, but is it fair to say that about all the music being listened to by the average alt/indie kid in 1995?
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Monday, 28 April 2014 15:10 (eight years ago) link
Dog Latin - you're quite right. I started reading Select in 1994 and it was full of dance music, American stuff, chart pop etc. A great eye-opener for a 14 year old who'd only recently started listening to new music after exhausting my parents' Beatles and Stones albums. Once Andrew Harrison left as editor it was downhill all the way. It's testament to his editorship that they had the confidence to cover a range of things in a fun way. Once it lost that energy and humour it clung onto the arse end of Britpop of Britpop, hoping that would see them through. But as TP points out about the press more broadly, perhaps the problem was that the writing wasn't engaging enough any more?
― Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (Stew), Monday, 28 April 2014 15:13 (eight years ago) link
who enjoyed bands like Blur, Pulp, the Boo Radleys for their musical diversity, not their conservatism, who also liked American bands and dance music and hip-hop, who only felt 'a part of something' because we happened to be young and liked to go to indie nights and dance and snog each other in our Doc Martens as opposed to because of something Stuart Maconie said on the Evening Session
This is bang OTM and its a fact that a lot of these anti-Britpop screeds gloss over. White, middle class men werent ruined by Britpop's conservatism like TP insists. Thats a load of bull. There was plenty of dance, rap and American rock I was open to in 1995 (I was 18)...along with lots of different old stuff (Krautrock, Sabbath, Miles Davis, Scott Walker, Beach Boys).
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Monday, 28 April 2014 15:15 (eight years ago) link
I do agree with TP about Damon Albarn's heavy-handed caricatures though. It was always something that turned me off about Blur.
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Monday, 28 April 2014 15:17 (eight years ago) link
The flag waving triumphalism of Britpop and Cool Britannia masked a deep anxiety about national identity that comes with loss of Empire, the destruction of society and industry by Thatcher etc. Britpop could have contributed to a much more progressive and pluralistic idea of what England and Britain could be, but it fell back on stereotypes and conservative nostalgia.
This is true - also death of grunge/post-grunge tawdriness coupled with well-intentioned anti-consumerism in the guise of Americophobia in some cases. In a way Britpop could be seen as less about pro-Britishness than a sort-of inter-continental rivalry between the UK and US. But it was indeed the Spice Girls who waved their flags the hardest.
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Monday, 28 April 2014 15:20 (eight years ago) link
By the time of their demise in the late 90s though they'd become exactly a caricature of a Britpop mag -
I dunno, I was gutted that Select closed, it was pretty great even then, and they'd started to do free CDs that were actually worth keeping..
― Mark G, Monday, 28 April 2014 15:23 (eight years ago) link
I remember comparing the compleat Radiohead feature they did in 1999 to the Blur one they did circa '95 and there was no competition in terms of writing-style and incite.
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Monday, 28 April 2014 15:30 (eight years ago) link
Britpop certainly changed the music press... as did the coverage of music in the mainstream media, as TP points out. The need to find a new Britpop led the music press to overlook a lot of interesting stuff that didn't fit a simple narrative, hence that self-parodic period when they championed non-existant new scenes like skunk rock and stool rock. For me the lack of good British guitar bands after Britpop led me to Beck, Beasties then hip-hop and funk. Britpop was for many the beginning of a love affair with music that led them down myriad paths. TP's beef seems to be with those who never really moved on and still treat it as the greatest youth movement ever, or at least will it to be the equal of punk, Beatlemania etc. That's fair enough, but then those people always dominate the histories. Not that I'm accepting that, but we can fight it by writing new histories.
― Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (Stew), Monday, 28 April 2014 15:31 (eight years ago) link
they championed non-existant new scenes
always the case even before britpop
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Monday, 28 April 2014 15:35 (eight years ago) link
This is true of course, but I think it got particularly desperate by the late '90s.
― Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (Stew), Monday, 28 April 2014 15:36 (eight years ago) link
But as TP points out about the press more broadly, perhaps the problem was that the writing wasn't engaging enough any more?
I would say this, obviously, but I don't think there was a massive difference in the quality of the features or reviews at Select. To me it felt more down to a loss of energy and conviction during the post-Britpop fallout and, by the end, worthy cover stars. I've seen magazines go through good and bad phases with roughly the same stable of writers. The difference is down to vision, sense of purpose and overall editorial voice. Andrew Harrison had all of those qualities. He also had a music scene that was exploding and a knack for celebrating it (and by it I include dance music, etc, not just Britpop) without fawning.
The weeklies changed more dramatically because they were more argumentative in the late 80s/early 90s so once they became cheerleaders they lost something vital that they never got back.
lol at TP having a beef with "those who never really moved on". Like some other ex-MM writers he's still reenacting office battles from 20 years ago.
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Monday, 28 April 2014 15:38 (eight years ago) link
Re: Oasis, I'm currently reading Alex Niven's 33 1/3 book on Definitely Maybe and he makes a strong case that the first album was less sonically conservative than current received wisdom suggests.
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Monday, 28 April 2014 15:42 (eight years ago) link
well it does have a shoegazery whirl of sound thing going on. i listened to it there recently and the production really works on it.
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Monday, 28 April 2014 15:44 (eight years ago) link
I always thought that about Def MayB, that it represented shoegaze coming out of murk and into melody, but when I first heard that album I knew nothing about the band and had no Gallagher stereotypes in my head. The conservatism came later
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Monday, 28 April 2014 15:52 (eight years ago) link
love this: 'shoegaze coming out of murk and into melody' - also the Verve I guess?
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Monday, 28 April 2014 15:55 (eight years ago) link
There are also strands of glam, psychedelia, baggy, hip hop and the Sex Pistols. It doesn't by any stretch of the imagination just sound like the Beatles. Critics might have lost their minds by the time of Be Here Now but I remember why they were so excited about the debut and it wasn't because they thought it was throwback meat-and-potatoes rock.
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Monday, 28 April 2014 15:56 (eight years ago) link
OTM, there wasn't that much 'real guitars made of real wood' thing AFAIR in the earlier Britpop days. Maybe a lot of that came out as some sort of grumpy backlash to drum'n'bass and 'album dance' in the mid-90s mingling with some old 'that's not REAL' moaning from Noel.
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Monday, 28 April 2014 16:03 (eight years ago) link
It's sort of forgotten now that Noel was bang into Public Enemy, asked the Prodigy and Chemical Brothers to support Oasis at Knebworth and even made a (horrible) record with Goldie. One of my favourite side-effects of Britpop was Setting Sun becoming the noisiest number one since god knows when.
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Monday, 28 April 2014 16:07 (eight years ago) link
Writing about Britpop becomes much easier if you ignore all the freak hits and outliers and genre hybrids and women and class-consciousness and so on, and pretend it was all like Three Lions and the theme music to TFI Friday.
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Monday, 28 April 2014 16:09 (eight years ago) link
Boom, yeah that's it. I was going to mention Knebworth actually - the Prodge and Chems were the reason a lot of people I knew went, and prob why I would have gone had I not been on holiday.
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Monday, 28 April 2014 16:35 (eight years ago) link
is it true the Robson and Jerome record didn't even exist until people started asking for it in shops? that's what i've heard; the idea supposedly came about as a result of old ladies going into HMV and enquiring about 'that soldier song' which had been on the Soldier Soldier TV show in some karaoke scene or some such. apocryphal bollocks perhaps.
― piscesx, Monday, 28 April 2014 16:57 (eight years ago) link
and then the shopkeeper said to the old lady 'We've got that record you asked about now' and the old ladies said 'Ooh, did I? I must have done...'
and so 4th
― Mark G, Monday, 28 April 2014 17:29 (eight years ago) link
I thought the old lady said "oooh you are awful... but I like it"
― ۩, Monday, 28 April 2014 17:42 (eight years ago) link
or was that damon albarn?
dog latin OTM throughout the discussion so far!
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Monday, 28 April 2014 18:23 (eight years ago) link
"the most disastrous misunderstanding of The Beatles since Charles Manson."
^ my fave description of oasis ever
― très hip (Treeship), Monday, 28 April 2014 18:24 (eight years ago) link
One episode of Soldier Soldier called for the duo to sing "Unchained Melody".[4] Subsequently ITV was inundated by people looking to buy the song, and the pair were persuaded by Simon Cowell to release it as a single. Cowell enlisted music producers Mike Stock and Matt Aitken, with whom he had worked many times, to produce the single.
― fit and working again, Monday, 28 April 2014 18:25 (eight years ago) link
https://jeremygilbertwriting.wordpress.com/2014/04/11/white-noise-new-labour-new-lads-britpop-and-blairism/ interesting to read this contemporary article (late '96 / early '97) and see it highlight a lot of the things that some of the current coverage is suggesting only became visible in hindsight.
― Merdeyeux, Monday, 28 April 2014 18:34 (eight years ago) link
Back in the '90s, years prior to getting internet access (which I didn't until at some point in late 1997) and Napster (which didn't happen for another couple of years after that), I was getting my musical education from a small number of sources. My parents record collection was one, but in terms of discovering music, I was basically limited to a small number of sources: MTV Europe and VH-1 (on "old" analogue Sky), and BBC Radio.
I keep forgetting this myself sometimes, but CD's were ludicrously overpriced back in the '90s... if you were lucky, you could pick up a CD for something like £9.99, or if there was a sale on, take advantage of some kind of "2-for-1" or "3-for-2" offer that happened to be going on. But mostly, new albums and reissues by "classic" bands used to cost something ridiculous like £15.99. Being of the age I was at the time, there was no way on God's green Earth that I'd even think about buying an album with the limited pocket money that I had unless I was quite sure that I was going to like it. I would never buy an album, therefore, unless I'd heard 2 or 3 singles off it, which is where the likes of MTV Europe, VH-1 and BBC Radio helped. Later on, of course, I'd be able to use Napster, download a couple of tracks, and that would help decide whether I'd want to purchase the album or not. Spotify of course has made it even easier (and would have been a dream come true for me if it had existed in the '90s), but of course these are very different times now.
Because of the avenues I was using to discover music at this time, I find it really mind-boggling when I read retrospective pieces of this period, because while a lot of bands that would be (for worse, in my opinion) lumped together under the name of 'Britpop' were getting plenty of airplay; MTV Europe, VH-1 and yes, even BBC Radio weren't just mining, or existing in, some kind of strange 'Blur vs. Oasis' vacuum. Both MTV Europe and VH-1 used to play a lot of chart stuff on one hand (of which 'Britpop', or whatever you want to call it, was included), but the pre-digital MTV Europe also used to play foreign language music, there was still a bit of a grunge hangover and have shows dedicated to stuff which was happening apart from the UK/European charts. It had shows dedicated to hip-hop, rap and non-chart oriented stuff also. VH-1 was still very young in the UK at this time (I think it only launched in 1994 here) and continued to play a lot of "older" music... '60s/'70s/'80s stuff, and Tommy Vance had his own show on there dedicated to classic rock (for example). I was of the right age to soak it all up, and soak it all up I did, and a huge part of my musical education came from those times. When I finally got Napster, and Spotify, I'd made a mental note of everything I wanted to check out further, and went on a phase of "further exploration", should I say.
I'll make no bones about it, I enjoyed the '90s for numerous reasons. Some of the music from that time still stands up, and some of it doesn't. What I will say is this though: getting into Blur and 1994-1996 Oasis gave the young me a catalyst to find music for myself that wasn't part of my parents record collection. It set me off on a voyage of musical discovery, and while I may not listen to early Oasis very much by choice now, they definitely served their purpose. Looking back, it could have been any band that set me off on the path that led me to eventually find myself here, but that's how it turned out. I don't regret a thing, and as a result I'll always look back on that time fondly. It wasn't the only thing going on, but I'll very seldom have much bad to say about Britpop, apart from what it eventually turned into. But, by the time that Be Here Now was released, I was already moving on anyway, as I suspect many people were.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Monday, 28 April 2014 18:56 (eight years ago) link
we never heard recorded music until 2003, we used to entertain ourselves by banging tin cans together and singing made-up tunes to the writing on the back of oven chip packets. we was poor but it was real.
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Monday, 28 April 2014 19:01 (eight years ago) link
By the way, it really gets my goat when, during discussion of 'Britpop', some smartarse always comes out and says "yeah, but you only rate those times because of nostalgia". Well, duh. I'm not exactly trapped in some '90s timewarp, and continue to enjoy new music as well as old, but if I want to put on Blur's Parklife, and it just so happens to remind me of some very pleasant moments in the past, then I'm perfectly entitled to do that. As does everyone who has their "own" music that soundtracked their lives at a particular age. I don't find anything particularly wrong with this. Was music "better" then? No. As everybody on here will no doubt be aware, there is good music and bad music released every year. I'd be the last person to say that Britpop was a "movement"/"scene"/"(whatever)" that outshone everything that has come along since; that would be absolutely ludicrous. Did it mean a lot for me at the time, though? Yes. And do some of those releases continue to be important to me for personal reasons? Yes.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Monday, 28 April 2014 19:04 (eight years ago) link
and TP's problem with women has been noted before.
what is this, dl?
― ۩, Monday, 28 April 2014 19:05 (eight years ago) link
on Sundays tho dad would let us listen to the Home Service on the crystal set, we used to gather round and here Tony Blair making a speech about the Third Way and the need for a modern democratic socialism that better represented the aspirations of the Bluetones roadie on the street
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Monday, 28 April 2014 19:06 (eight years ago) link
I loved the 90s esp early and mid 90s but NOT due to most britpop. But turrican kinda otm but for different reasons
― ۩, Monday, 28 April 2014 19:07 (eight years ago) link
it were a better time really, i remember the first kid in our street to get an Ocean Colour Scene cassingle, lads would be trading him a week's worth of Blackjacks and Fruit Salad just to have a read of the cover
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Monday, 28 April 2014 19:08 (eight years ago) link
nv was that before you got up before you even went to bed?
― ۩, Monday, 28 April 2014 19:08 (eight years ago) link
looking more like Alec Guinness every year, only now after he got out of the hotbox in River Kwai
http://www.holymoly.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/article_651w/big-pictures_t_damon-albarn-homeless-bum-2212a.jpg
― images of war violence and historical smoking (Dr Morbius), Monday, 28 April 2014 19:12 (eight years ago) link
The Taylor Parkes Parklife review is an interesting piece of fiction set in the Brit-pop era.
― everything, Monday, 28 April 2014 19:24 (eight years ago) link
xpThat little shit wishes, more like a halfpint o' stale guinness.
― xelab, Monday, 28 April 2014 19:26 (eight years ago) link
I miss Blackjacks :( I guess these anti-Britpop rants engender feelings of butthurtness in some people, not necessarily due to love of the music but, because it takes a dump on our memories maaaan
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Monday, 28 April 2014 19:28 (eight years ago) link
could never figure out which part of britpop was the arse-end tbh
― paolo amusing eclectic revivals (wins), Monday, 28 April 2014 19:29 (eight years ago) link
"every retreat into nostalgia is an embracement of fascism" - Keith Chadwick
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Monday, 28 April 2014 19:31 (eight years ago) link
As for the Blair/New Labour angle to the (*sick forms in the back of the throat*) "Britpop story"; I didn't give much of a shit, or even pay attention to politics at that time. I was way too young, and I was more preoccupied with more trivial things (as any person in their mid teens is). Being North-Eastern (a staunchly anti-Conservative area), though, one kinda has it drummed into them from an early age that the Conservative Party are "the enemy", so when Blair was elected there was this sense of "thank fuck for that, the Tories are finally out". The understanding of politics came a little later for me; again, due to the age I was at at the time, and I make no apologies for that.
But in terms of New Labour's "role" in Britpop, when Noel Gallagher took to the stage at the Brits and announced that Tony Blair was "one of the most important people in the room", it didn't mean a great deal to me. Certainly not as much as Jarvis pissing off Jacko, and Noel Gallagher calling Michael Hutchence a "has-been". I'll admit to finding Blair trying to make himself look cool by saying "hey, look, I was in a band once too!" to be a bit crass, but my reaction to Noel Gallagher sipping champagne with Blair at Number 10 at the time was not "oh god, look at the future war criminal hitching a ride to the prevailing bandwagon for his own ends", it was more "shit, I wasn't expecting things to blow up to this level... from playing the Barrowlands, like every other band does in 1994, to 3 years later playing Knebworth and sipping champagne at Number 10..."
I think everyone has a moment where they suddenly start paying more attention to politics, but I wasn't doing that during the "Britpop" times. Just as the likes of Blur/Oasis were the catalyst for me to strike out and discover more music of me own, it was (tragically) 9/11 that made me sit up and take notice of what was going on politically.
The death of Princess Diana meant fuck-all to me.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Monday, 28 April 2014 19:31 (eight years ago) link
It was 9/11 that made you pay attention to politics?!
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Monday, 28 April 2014 19:36 (eight years ago) link
― everything, Monday, April 28, 2014 7:24 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
get this distinct impression, and I wasn't even there (really)
― imago, Monday, 28 April 2014 19:37 (eight years ago) link
Yup, I'll readily confess to not giving a shit about politics until I was 17.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Monday, 28 April 2014 19:38 (eight years ago) link
I didn't give much of a shit, or even pay attention to politics at that time.
that is one of his points that no one gave a shit and continued to not give a shit and now politics has been removed from pop and that these people are now in charge everywhere.
― ۩, Monday, 28 April 2014 19:39 (eight years ago) link
i remember 9/11 it as if it were yesterday, the pavements still littered with spent fireworks, Tony Blair's rousing speech calling for OMOV to be seriously debated at the spring party conference, Cerys Matthews playing a Waylon Jennings joint when she was filling in for Jo Whiley on Radio 1
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Monday, 28 April 2014 19:39 (eight years ago) link
frantically combing Usenet for Spyro the Dragon cheats
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Monday, 28 April 2014 19:40 (eight years ago) link
this bit is otm.
: "back then, this stuff seemed more like a reaction against recent British music, which had been dreadful, rather than Nirvana, who everybody liked)
The Select cover was quite a bit before Oasis etc took off and doubt most people buying britpop had seen that cover. The narrative I recall was that this was "better music with commercial ambition" rather than "neds atomic dustbin/sultans of ping/kingmaker shite".
― ۩, Monday, 28 April 2014 19:49 (eight years ago) link
There was tons of great music being made in the UK prior to this. Was Brit-pop a reaction against that too or just neds/sultans/kingmaker?
― everything, Monday, 28 April 2014 19:58 (eight years ago) link
perhaps a clue can be found in the early Marion single "Fuck Off Neds/Sultans/Kingmaker"
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Monday, 28 April 2014 20:00 (eight years ago) link
Or more specifically:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NKGz2l6Erg
― everything, Monday, 28 April 2014 20:03 (eight years ago) link
Weird that Neds/Sultans/Kingmaker aren't included in that lot.
― everything, Monday, 28 April 2014 20:04 (eight years ago) link
Plenty of them liked Nirvana, Pavement and so on, and plenty liked dance music too. I agree that the main target was really the Neds/Carter axis, which I haven't seen anyone rushing to defend recently.
xp I don't even think it was predominately a retreat into nostalgia, NV. I remember a sense of excitement that this - and all the other mid-90s music that doesn't fall into a neat box and which, as many people have said itt, liked alongside Britpop - was all happening now. Sure there was a fetishisation of certain 60s elements (mod fashion, World Cup 1966, Michael Caine in Alfie, etc) but that wasn't the main driver.
What's missing from the anti-Britpop pieces I've read is any explanation for why so many people found it an exciting development at the beginning, except "lol people are idiots/racists/Blairites".
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Monday, 28 April 2014 20:04 (eight years ago) link
if i'm being a snarky little monkey i guess it's more about the 20-years-on nostalgia now than the phenomenon at the time, DL, which i agree was more complex than any of the totalizing narratives being written this year can deal with
Britpop had its discontents from the moment Select published that cover, it wasn't like the nationalistic elements weren't questioned at the time, it wasn't like the whole "scene" wasn't primarily a critics' argument rather than a brand that the kids bought into as it happened. but a horrible, dominant regressiveness was born out of the era i think - alongside other pathways, sure. and for people who like a good narrative, i think there are lots of better ones that could be woven out of commercial mildly alt UK music of the mid 90s
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Monday, 28 April 2014 20:13 (eight years ago) link
in some ways i think the notion of Britpop preserved the worst possible Whiggish reading of the history of pop music in the UK, and gave it orthodox clout, even as it pushed the other narratives into more interesting (and hidden) places. something in me seriously jibes at the 15 year journey from "We Oppose All Rock and Roll" to "Tonight Matthew, I'm a Rock'n'Roll Star"
― you poll a lot, but you're not saying anything (Noodle Vague), Monday, 28 April 2014 20:17 (eight years ago) link
It was listening to XFM to wake up to in London in the early 90s, and another execrable Carter USM single, that made me decide to give up on indie. I had better things to do with my time. I tuned my car radio to pirate jungle stations because it sounded exciting. It was friends playing me bands like Suede, Blur, Teenage Fanclub that made me take notice of indie stuff again.
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Monday, 28 April 2014 20:33 (eight years ago) link
xp Oh sorry, I mixed up my nostalgias.
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Monday, 28 April 2014 20:40 (eight years ago) link
,, and meanwhile, back in the Jungle...
― Mark G, Monday, 28 April 2014 21:00 (eight years ago) link
i recall t n the park 95 and everyone calling it the summer of britpop even though none of those bands were on mainstage tricky and the prodigy and foo fighters i think were on there. But back then you still had the raw/kerrang reading people along with the nme/mm reading crowd but they werent that different. The Prodigy really were big amongst both sets and continued to be. Underworld (who were terrific) played just before the shamen in the dance tent (massive attack headlined the same time as prodigy on mainstage. the nme tent where all the britpop bands played was full of 15 year olds (supergrass was a huge massive crush in that tent) most of those bands ended up playing the mainstage in 96. But even in 96 you got people watching other non britpop indie bands (i got a few ppl i met to go see Afghan Whigs and there was tons of pavement tshirts) as well as britpop and everyone was into dance music. esp the old roses/mondays fans. Everyone was waiting on Oasis' "Screamadelica" and when be here now dropped everyone was gutted and tbh a lot of us got off the oasis bus. But somehow they got bigger and OCS ,Travis and the dadrock got huge and the younger fans of these hated dance music. It wasnt "real". This all happened around 1997. Coinciding with Blair & cool Britannia @ #10.That is how I remember it.
So why did it (brit indie) go really conservative by 1997 and never really recover?
― ۩, Monday, 28 April 2014 21:02 (eight years ago) link
I'd post a zillion counterexamples to that^^^ last statement, but that would mean engaging with this entire tedious debate
― imago, Monday, 28 April 2014 21:03 (eight years ago) link
im not talking about music noones heard and only you liked
― ۩, Monday, 28 April 2014 21:05 (eight years ago) link
Ultrasound were not a great band
oh no only 999.99999etc squillion bands you didn't discount there
― imago, Monday, 28 April 2014 21:07 (eight years ago) link
I'd rather hear Grey Cell Green and Sheriff Fatman than any song by Blur or Oasis.
― brotherlovesdub, Monday, 28 April 2014 21:19 (eight years ago) link
Well please inform me of a squillion uk indie bands post 1997 who were amazing?50 will do though, i know you love lists. I will agree that say six by seven were good, not great, but good. Im sure there will be a few others we agree on but they didnt have the impact of their peers like coldplay or the libertines did. Or landfill indie. And landfill indie was basically britpop part 2
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 28 April 2014 21:21 (eight years ago) link
Brian thats still setting the bar low
In answer to the thread q, I think it is time. for a Pee-valuation
― mattresslessness, Monday, 28 April 2014 21:23 (eight years ago) link
And landfill indie was basically britpop part 2
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, April 28, 2014 9:21 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Nah, landfill indie was much, much more horrific than Britpop in my opinion. The worst landfill indie bands seemed like they were going for an extremely diluted version of the very tail end of Britpop or post-Britpop.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Monday, 28 April 2014 21:30 (eight years ago) link
In summary then, Britpop was shit music which was a reaction against shit music and left shit music in it's wake.
― everything, Monday, 28 April 2014 21:31 (eight years ago) link
I mean, jesus christ, imagine Scouting For Girls appearing in 1996. I'm confident that they would have been laughed at and mocked even then.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Monday, 28 April 2014 21:33 (eight years ago) link
Oh im not arguing that it wasnt worse. Of course it was! There was still a couple of good britpop bands at least.Scouting for girls did appear - Catch 'Bingo'
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 28 April 2014 21:43 (eight years ago) link
― ۩, Monday, April 28, 2014 9:02 PM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
There's no short answer to this. Obviously, after the massive success of (What's The Story) Morning Glory?, record companies were selling massive amounts of albums (at a time when albums were ludcriously expensive to buy, too), and I guess they wanted that to continue at any cost, by signing bands that they felt they could push onto the same audience, regardless of whether they were any good or not.
The established bands either moved on and did something different, produced sub-par follow-up albums or took a while to make a follow-up record, which meant that in their absence, a lot of newer bands cropped up to tide things over or try to "keep it going".
The dad-rock bands, like Cast and Ocean Colour Scene, were dead on their arse by the beginning of 1998 if I recall.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Monday, 28 April 2014 21:43 (eight years ago) link
Not up here. They were fecking massive. Ocs still pulled great crowds here long after til they split. They were far bigger than say blur
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 28 April 2014 21:47 (eight years ago) link
Pretty much every ocs fan i ever argued with used the "how can you not like them steve cradock is an amazing guitarist'. They crossed over to the mainstream stadium rock crowd up here despite never playing one (except as support to oasis)
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 28 April 2014 21:50 (eight years ago) link
I checked out of the Britpop party the day after Diana's funeral, although that actually had to do with the fact that my first son was born that day
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Monday, 28 April 2014 21:51 (eight years ago) link
Cast were as popular until they changed their sound on the third album and it flopped. Ppl actually though john power was the second coming of john lennon lol
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 28 April 2014 21:52 (eight years ago) link
Alan McGee retired and it all went to hell.
― brotherlovesdub, Monday, 28 April 2014 21:53 (eight years ago) link
and along comes Tom to remind us of other musics.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 28 April 2014 21:54 (eight years ago) link
You're kidding me? Jesus christ! It was a completely different story here... I never really heard anyone claiming to be a fan of Cast after their second album. Incredibly, I still come across Ocean Colour Scene (who haven't split up, btw!) fans from time to time, but not very many of them. But I'd say, on the whole, from their 4th album One From The Modern(?) onwards, they were definitely playing to the hardcore fans and nobody else.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Monday, 28 April 2014 21:55 (eight years ago) link
was brimful of asha big in the US? I was at a Britpop night (I know, flag post is there >>>) in the US and no-one seemed to recognise it. In the UK it was everywhere.
― kinder, Monday, 28 April 2014 21:57 (eight years ago) link
It was a staple at my indie dance club 2000-2004.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 28 April 2014 21:57 (eight years ago) link
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, April 28, 2014 9:52 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Oh, come on! Nobody thought John Power was the second coming of Lennon! Hehehehehe! A lot of goodwill was applied to Power though because of The La's, though. I remember their second album, Mother Nature Calls getting savaged in the press at the time. And rightly so, it was a turd.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Monday, 28 April 2014 21:57 (eight years ago) link
album was SPIN's #1 of the year.
xxpost
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 28 April 2014 21:58 (eight years ago) link
I'd personally put 'Brimful of Asha' down as a post-Britpop thing.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Monday, 28 April 2014 22:00 (eight years ago) link
Turrican i knew ppl who did.Btw ocs hardcore fans were massive. They still sold out gigs here whenever they played last.
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 28 April 2014 22:01 (eight years ago) link
But i am sure it was unique to scotland
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 28 April 2014 22:02 (eight years ago) link
When cast first appeared they were good live. Very loud. They supported oasis and played titp95. Then that terrible album came out all polished and you realised the lyrics were awful. It sold shitloads tho as did the second. They were the biggest tshirt band at titp95 by miles
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 28 April 2014 22:04 (eight years ago) link
I know ocs and cast outsold the great escape up here by a long way
to me Britpop is Blur (Parklife and Great Escape era only), Oasis, anyone else doing oi-oi type larks (Supergrass) and that's p much it, so it's quite narrow and in no way defines 90% of the """indie/alternative""" stuff I was listening to.
Listening to all the Nows of the 90s surprised my nostalgia by confirming that 'good' 'britpop' was very, very short-lived - a couple of years max - and that chart music in Britain hit an absolute nadir in 1999 (Texas, Robbie Williams, Stereophonics, Semisonic)
― kinder, Monday, 28 April 2014 22:05 (eight years ago) link
Suede were strictly for the indie kids. Even manics and the verve outsold them tho manics still had the rawk crowd then
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 28 April 2014 22:06 (eight years ago) link
Ugh texas. We thought we got rid of them by 1991 how wrong we were. Fuck you chris evans
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 28 April 2014 22:07 (eight years ago) link
Can we blame chris evans and tfi friday and his virgin breakfast show for it going so shit post 96?I know he had some good bands on but he broke the really bad dadrock bands
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 28 April 2014 22:09 (eight years ago) link
The other thing about 1994 onwards was that it wasnt just indie or alternative was struggled here but kerrang launched nu metal in 1994 too and those bands got bigger and bigger and all the uk rawk bands copied them. So late 90s did seem bad all-round until napster and i was able to hear what i missed ( a lot of post rock and american stuff here the uk mags ignored) the stuff i did like was new stuff by old faves like spiritualized,mercury rev,flaming lips. Stoner rock was the new stuff i listened to back then otherwise it was old stuff i was discovering .
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 28 April 2014 22:19 (eight years ago) link
I still kept buying the music press for some reason.
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 28 April 2014 22:20 (eight years ago) link
I knew things had gotten beyond stupid when Gay Dad started getting hyped.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Monday, 28 April 2014 22:29 (eight years ago) link
This still raises a chuckle, actually...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClcwKgxu2wk
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Monday, 28 April 2014 22:31 (eight years ago) link
The funny thing is that post grunge did nothing here except for the inexplicable success of Nickelback.
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 28 April 2014 22:32 (eight years ago) link
No jam bands either. Nobody knows who dmb were
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 28 April 2014 22:33 (eight years ago) link
― ۩
Lies.
― Kitchen Person, Monday, 28 April 2014 22:33 (eight years ago) link
Not sure who was better off mind you
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, April 28, 2014 10:32 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I seem to remember Bush having a hit here with 'Swallowed', which is about the most that Bush ever did here.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Monday, 28 April 2014 22:39 (eight years ago) link
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, April 28, 2014 10:33 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Yup, thankfully we were completely spared Phish and DMB!
Nit sure bush giot a hit. Maybe a vid played on the chart show but that was it. Gavin rossdale didnt get famous til he married gwen stefani. It still didnt get him a hit. Hes just a celeb. A trophy husband!
― pfunkboy (Algerian Goalkeeper), Monday, 28 April 2014 22:41 (eight years ago) link
Swallowed was a pretty big hit in the UK. Well it went top ten and they did it on Top of the Pops.
― Kitchen Person, Monday, 28 April 2014 22:44 (eight years ago) link
I wrote this on the Worst Music Writing thread:
I love Taylor Parkes and agree that his article does not belong here, but at the same time his prose style remains so redolent of Melody Maker circa 1995 that it produces a weird sense of discombobulation. Every sentence makes me more nostalgic for Britpop (maybe even the experience of hating Britpop at the time) than most of the other shit I've read about it in these terrible weeks.― Eyeball Kicks, Monday, April 28, 2014 9:52 PM
― Eyeball Kicks, Monday, April 28, 2014 9:52 PM
Some people above talk about Britpop being an early gateway to other kinds of music, and I relate to that. But I also remember the oppositional stance of certain music journalists - among them Taylor Parkes, Simon Price and Neil Kulkarni - being a greater influence on me at the time. Reading the music press encouraged this amazing dichotomy of fully felt youth: lapping it up while despising it.
― Eyeball Kicks, Monday, 28 April 2014 22:47 (eight years ago) link
really like the "we blew it" sentiment of the parkes article.
i do feel like other elements of 'britpop' have been airbrushed out in retrospect, but maybe that was the point all the time.
how was the relationship of pulp to britpop perceived at the time, and maybe more importantly, what did people make of the auteurs?
― wat is teh waht (s.clover), Monday, 28 April 2014 22:50 (eight years ago) link
parkes essay makes me think of the mekons' journey to the end of the night. was it an album about that process?
i mean...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPQG_6EoyPI
― wat is teh waht (s.clover), Monday, 28 April 2014 22:51 (eight years ago) link
Taylor Parkes and even Simon Price (in the early days at least) were quite vocal about liking Oasis
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Monday, 28 April 2014 22:53 (eight years ago) link
the auteurs were kind of outside Britpop a little bit except for that "Yanks Go Home" Select article, they werent really a Britpop band, they didnt feel like one either - they were constantly being compared to the go-betweens (i dont see it). the first album anyway
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Monday, 28 April 2014 22:55 (eight years ago) link
Agreed
― Turtleneck Work Solutions (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Monday, 28 April 2014 22:55 (eight years ago) link
Melody Maker front cover from the week after Parklife came out
http://25.media.tumblr.com/38a287a23929ec55eccee0b3a1110f1b/tumblr_milfktUgUM1rba1qao1_400.jpg
― piscesx, Monday, 28 April 2014 23:00 (eight years ago) link
Cranberries - Britpop's Biggest Export
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Monday, 28 April 2014 23:05 (eight years ago) link
CRANBERRIES BRITPOP'S BIGGEST EXPORT
― ۩, Monday, 28 April 2014 23:06 (eight years ago) link
To be honest, I had very little interest in Britpop at the time (with the exception of Blur), but it was all around me because I'd accidentally found myself living in the middle of it and knew loads of people involved with it in one way or another. I saw an early incarnation of Ultrasound a few times around 95/96 and they *were* very good live, but it was an eternity before their album came out and by then they'd somewhat lost focus and stretched every song out to 30 minutes at half-speed.
― Turtleneck Work Solutions (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Monday, 28 April 2014 23:06 (eight years ago) link
Cranberries werent Britpop. They were LimRock jeez
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Monday, 28 April 2014 23:07 (eight years ago) link
they lingered too long
― ۩, Monday, 28 April 2014 23:09 (eight years ago) link
Wonderwall I guess was the biggest actual US hit by a britpop band right? Blur werent making britpop by song 2
― ۩, Monday, 28 April 2014 23:12 (eight years ago) link
or maybe ONLY hit
― ۩, Monday, 28 April 2014 23:13 (eight years ago) link
I can see, if you wanted to make early connections, some shared sensibilities between Modern Life is Rubbish and the Auteurs' New Wave, of world weary youth playing with 'English' styles
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Monday, 28 April 2014 23:19 (eight years ago) link
Auteurs didnt sell many records did they so britpop didnt seem to care about them by the time it went mainstream. They did get 1 songon all the 90s indie comps though. Im guessing lenny valentino was popular in student discos
― ۩, Monday, 28 April 2014 23:29 (eight years ago) link
I seem to remember Luke Haines being crabby about everything to do with Britpop in interviews!
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Monday, 28 April 2014 23:30 (eight years ago) link
been meaning to read this. ive heard good things about it.
http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Vibes-Britpop-Part-Downfall/dp/0099522268
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Monday, 28 April 2014 23:33 (eight years ago) link
Im guessing lenny valentino was popular in student discos
too brief
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 28 April 2014 23:35 (eight years ago) link
and no Felix da Housecat remix
Song break: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZksFjV23qYw
Was this Britpop?
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Monday, 28 April 2014 23:48 (eight years ago) link
― Turtleneck Work Solutions (Nasty, Brutish & Short)
I was a huge fan at the time and when I met Tiny at Leeds Festival 99 I could barely talk I was so starstruck. To me honest their album was never as good as I wanted it to be. They recorded some of their best songs so many times they ended up losing what made them special. Also they pissed away their best song and only potential hit (Kurt Russel) as a B-side to a limited edition single. I could make a great album out of their songs using the album and all the singles they put out. They were great live too.
― Kitchen Person, Monday, 28 April 2014 23:52 (eight years ago) link
no cuz they were influenced by sonic youth and pavement. i saw them at t in the park and they were very good.
A band who i saw at titp who i had never cared for but were really good and had been co-opted as britpop were the wannadies. They played just before teenage fanclub (who were magnificent)xp
― ۩, Monday, 28 April 2014 23:54 (eight years ago) link
Auteurs had a pretty great career really. All four albums sound quite different and are all really solid. After Murder Park in particular is a brilliant album. I've been looking back at the NME and Melody Maker end of year lists a lot recently. I was surprised to see how well New Wave was received. Think the press had moved on by the second album though.
― Kitchen Person, Monday, 28 April 2014 23:55 (eight years ago) link
for those who want to check listshttp://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/nmeindex.html
http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/select.html
http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk/mmpage.html
― ۩, Monday, 28 April 2014 23:58 (eight years ago) link
BRITPOPFrieze, December 1995
By Simon Reynolds
http://reynoldsretro.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/britpop-dissected-2-1995-and-battle-of.html
― piscesx, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:00 (eight years ago) link
I was 25% of the audience at a ocs gig in 2004
― james lipton and his francs (darraghmac), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:04 (eight years ago) link
your dog escaped?
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:07 (eight years ago) link
lol
1. Catatonia – International Velvet
― popchips: the next snapple? (seandalai), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:12 (eight years ago) link
yes thats when MM jumped the shark
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:13 (eight years ago) link
Thanks to rave, the most vital sectors of '90's UK subculture are all about mixing it up: socially, racially, and musically (DJ cut'n'mix, remixology's deconstructive assault on the song). Returning to the 3 minute pop tune that the milkman can whistle, reinvoking a parochial Englandwith no black people, Britpop has turned its back defiantly to the future. Here's hoping the future will respond in kind, and remember Britpop only as an aberrant, anachronistic fad--like trad jazz, the early '60s student craze that resurrected the Dixieland sound of 30 years earlier. PerhapsOasis will one day seem as inexplicable as Humphrey Lyttleton!
How International Velvet managed to make #1 album of the year in MM in 1998, I'll never know. Sure, it delivered their two best known hit singles, but as an album it's quite weak. The follow-up, Equally Cursed & Blessed, is no better. It's a shame, because I still like their first album (Way Beyond Blue).
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:20 (eight years ago) link
hated that band so much. road rage gave me rage all right and as for mulder and s arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:22 (eight years ago) link
not to mention that song with space
'The Ballad Of Tom Jones'? Yeah, I hated that. But I thought Space were fucking terrible in general, anyway.
Caaaaalling all avenging angels, angels, kickass angels... arrrrgh!!!
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:23 (eight years ago) link
this is truly the dark night of your souls huh
― imago, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:24 (eight years ago) link
Looking at those lists it seems like Melody Maker were just a bit cooler for the first half of the 90s. They had Laughing Stock in their 91 list which somehow NME completely missed out. Same with Dubnobasswithmyheadman too. They had Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev albums in before Deserters Songs/Soft Bulletin. Dummy was their album of the year over NME going with Definitely Maybe. Having the first Tindersticks album as their album of the year was a really awesome move too. Indeed it didn't last when it got to having Catatonia at number one and Head Music the following year. I'm a huge Suede fan but even I knew that was nonsense at the time.
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:26 (eight years ago) link
and now it's the dark night of yours
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E02YUPnEP00
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:26 (eight years ago) link
Luke Haines's first book is a great read: funny, fast-paced, somewhat informative of the goings ons of that era. His follow-up is pretty terrible, though. I couldn't stand it. Maybe it's because he kind of stopped being interesting post-auteurs and can't really fathom why. I don't know what happened.
― afriendlypioneer, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:31 (eight years ago) link
xpost Actually it might be the 97 list where things changed. NME had Spiritualized number one and Melody Maker went with The Verve. Also they found room for Be Here Now in their top ten. Hurricane #1 and Republica lower down on the list too. Having said that I forgive them everything for having Billy Mackenzie in there and Kenickie in the top ten (where they should be)
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:31 (eight years ago) link
He's so intolerant of the music scene, and all he has to offer is warmed-over glam tunes that reveal he likes reading people's biographies .
― afriendlypioneer, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:32 (eight years ago) link
Interesting Space fact. They just released an album last month. The album title, artwork and song titles are quite something.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_of_the_Mutant_50ft_Kebab
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:33 (eight years ago) link
Space are so bad. I know someone who ranks them highly, and I don't get it. I heard a new song off the last album and it sounded like female of the species without the budget.
― afriendlypioneer, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:34 (eight years ago) link
If we came up with a WORST Britpop Songs what would go on it?One song per band so choose wisely
in no order
1) Oasis - Roll With It2) Blur Country House3) Ocean Colour Scene - Day We Caught The Train4) Dodgy - Good Enough5) Kula Shaker - Hey Dude6) Cast - Live The Dream7) Powder - Afrodisiac8) Supernaturals- Smile9) Catatonia - Mulder & Scully10) Space Feat Cerys - The Ballad Of Tom Jones11) The Divine Comedy - Something for the Weekend12) My Life Story - 12 Reasons Why I Love Her13) Sleeper - Inbetweener14) Lightning Seeds - 3 Lions15) Babybird - You’re Gorgeous.16) Bluetones - Cut Some Rug
What else can we add to worst ever Britpop Compilation?
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:35 (eight years ago) link
Poor Divine Comedy.
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:36 (eight years ago) link
There's a thread for that. I think consensus was Reef - Place Your Hands.
― afriendlypioneer, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:36 (eight years ago) link
Northern Uproar - Town
Oh yeah Reef were the worst.
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:37 (eight years ago) link
Kitchen Person - Head Music was one of the biggest letdowns ever for me. Loved those 3 albums and bsides then that travesty. I sold it. Something I rarely did.
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:37 (eight years ago) link
oh christ yeah reef
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScBuPPou5pE
― piscesx, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:38 (eight years ago) link
I dont know that at all
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:39 (eight years ago) link
Yeah I don't remember this song at all. I'm listening to the chorus right now. Reminds me of Viva Brother. Add it to the list.
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:41 (eight years ago) link
Its very proto-landfill so even if its not well known its bad enough to get in
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:43 (eight years ago) link
I've been back and forth on that album so many times I'm not sure what to think of it anymore. I do still like some of it (Electricity, Everything Will Flow and Indian Strings) but there is some absolute twoddle on there too (Savoir Faire and Head Music) Even though it is quite a flawed record who knew it would get so much worse for them.
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:44 (eight years ago) link
I thought for shed seven - dolphin. but im sure most would say going for gold
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:47 (eight years ago) link
More songs for the list.
Jocasta - Change Me Nilon Bombers - Superstar Ether - Best Friend Mainstream - Step Right Up Midget - All Fall Down 18 Wheeler - CrabsEmbrace - All songs Shed Seven - At the Link it's easy Posh - Mermaid Catch - Bingo
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:48 (eight years ago) link
Longpigs - She Said
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:50 (eight years ago) link
The Verve - Lucky Man
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:51 (eight years ago) link
The Levellers - What A Beautiful Day
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:53 (eight years ago) link
so far we have1) Oasis - Roll With It2) Blur Country House3) Ocean Colour Scene - Day We Caught The Train4) Dodgy - Good Enough5) Kula Shaker - Hey Dude6) Cast - Live The Dream7) Powder - Afrodisiac8) Supernaturals- Smile9) Catatonia - Mulder & Scully10) Space Feat Cerys - The Ballad Of Tom Jones11) The Divine Comedy - Something for the Weekend12) My Life Story - 12 Reasons Why I Love Her13) Sleeper - Inbetweener14) Lightning Seeds - 3 Lions15) Babybird - You’re Gorgeous.16) Bluetones - Cut Some Rug 17) Reef - Place Your Hands.18) Shed Seven - Dolphin.19) Longpigs - She Said.20) Catch - Bingo.21) Embrace - All You Good Good People.22) The Levellers - What A Beautiful Day23) Jocasta - Change Me24) Nilon Bombers - Superstar25) Ether - Best Friend26) Mainstream - Step Right Up27) Midget - All Fall Down28)18 Wheeler - Crabs29) Robbie Williams - Angels.
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:55 (eight years ago) link
*Starts looking through Shine compilation tracklistings*
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:56 (eight years ago) link
people hate lucky man?
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:57 (eight years ago) link
I'm now trying to outdo you with a worse song each time but I'm struggling. Think I'm going to have to go study those ITV Chart Show indie charts on Youtube again.
I've always hated Lucky Man. Think they got worse with each album and that's the one that always bugged me.
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:57 (eight years ago) link
if im gonna add tracks I hate by bands i like i may as well add Manic Street Preachers - The Everlasting.
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:58 (eight years ago) link
worst song on Head Music?
Seahorses - Love is the Law
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 00:59 (eight years ago) link
Hey, you changed my Shed Seven choice.
i already had that shed seven song in!
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:00 (eight years ago) link
Don't forget Thurman's English Tea.
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:00 (eight years ago) link
naw love is the law was their best song. they had a terible one after that i forget the name of
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:01 (eight years ago) link
which song from head music?
1. Menswe@r - Stardust2. Cast - Guiding Star3. Smokin' Mojo Filters - Come Together4. Northern Uproar - Livin' It Up5. Ruth - I Don't Know6. My Life Story - Sparkle7. Dodgy - Good Enough8. The Supernaturals - I Wasn't Built To Get Up9. Republica - Drop Dead Gorgeous10. Reef - Come Back Brighter11. The Seahorses - You Can Talk To Me12. Rialto - Monday Morning 5.1913. Travis - More Than Us
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:03 (eight years ago) link
Even though they did some weak stuff on there I just can't be the one to name a song.
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:06 (eight years ago) link
The title track.
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:07 (eight years ago) link
so far we have1) Oasis - Roll With It2) Blur Country House3) Ocean Colour Scene - Day We Caught The Train4) Dodgy - Good Enough5) Kula Shaker - Hey Dude6) Cast - Live The Dream7) Powder - Afrodisiac8) Supernaturals- Smile9) Catatonia - Mulder & Scully10) Space Feat Cerys - The Ballad Of Tom Jones11) The Divine Comedy - Something for the Weekend12) My Life Story - 12 Reasons Why I Love Her13) Sleeper - Inbetweener14) Lightning Seeds - 3 Lions15) Babybird - You’re Gorgeous.16) Bluetones - Cut Some Rug17) Reef - Place Your Hands.18) Shed Seven - Dolphin.19) Longpigs - She Said.20) Catch - Bingo.21) Embrace - All You Good Good People.22) The Levellers - What A Beautiful Day23) Jocasta - Change Me24) Nilon Bombers - Superstar25) Ether - Best Friend26) Mainstream - Step Right Up27) Midget - All Fall Down28)18 Wheeler - Crabs29) Robbie Williams - Angels.30) The Verve - Lucky Man31) Manic Street Preachers - The Everlasting32) Suede - Head Music33) Thurman - English Tea34) Northern Uproar - From A Window35) Menswe@r - Stardust36)Smokin' Mojo Filters - Come Together37) Ruth - I Don't Know38) The Seahorses - Ypu Can Talk To Me39) Republica - Drop \\dead Gorgeous40) Rialto - Monday Morning 5.1941) Travis - More Than Us
roxymuzak via FB nominated Kenickie - Punka
turrican didnt include anything by bands with a song already in it
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:07 (eight years ago) link
I like punka and have the pic disk but it has to go in as nominated (plus the reactions gonna be lols)
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:09 (eight years ago) link
Stereophonics - More Life in a Tramp's Vest Hurricane #1 - Only the Strongest Will Survive
No way should Punka be on there. Brilliant song from a brilliant band (Same with Something For the Weekend.)
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:09 (eight years ago) link
you guys have got me looking up Electrafixion singles at 2am. i hate u
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:09 (eight years ago) link
I already nominated Town by Northern Uproar. It has to be that one for "I'm going down, so down town where the streets are full of clowns"
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:10 (eight years ago) link
Edwyn Collins - The Magic Piper (Of Love)
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:11 (eight years ago) link
The Charlatans - How HighPuressence - This Feeling
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:13 (eight years ago) link
good call with turrican #1
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:13 (eight years ago) link
mr writer is worst stereophonics but i guess we can only include early stuff
can we include britrock like feeder - buck rogers?
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:16 (eight years ago) link
If you're including Britrock, then:
Terrorvision - Oblivion
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:17 (eight years ago) link
Relieved I've only heard about half of that lot. Or at least that I've blocked out any memory of hearing about half of them.
― popchips: the next snapple? (seandalai), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:18 (eight years ago) link
Lodger - I'm Leaving.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:19 (eight years ago) link
no it has to be terrorvision- tequila. an actual hit too
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:20 (eight years ago) link
looks like seandalai is requesting a spotify playlist!
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:21 (eight years ago) link
1) Oasis - Roll With It2) Blur Country House3) Ocean Colour Scene - Day We Caught The Train4) Dodgy - Good Enough5) Kula Shaker - Hey Dude6) Cast - Live The Dream7) Powder - Afrodisiac8) Supernaturals- Smile9) Catatonia - Mulder & Scully10) Space Feat Cerys - The Ballad Of Tom Jones11) The Divine Comedy - Something for the Weekend12) My Life Story - 12 Reasons Why I Love Her13) Sleeper - Inbetweener14) Lightning Seeds - 3 Lions15) Babybird - You’re Gorgeous.16) Bluetones - Cut Some Rug17) Reef - Place Your Hands.18) Shed Seven - Dolphin.19) Longpigs - She Said.20) Catch - Bingo.21) Embrace - All You Good Good People.22) The Levellers - What A Beautiful Day23) Jocasta - Change Me24) Nilon Bombers - Superstar25) Ether - Best Friend26) Mainstream - Step Right Up27) Midget - All Fall Down28)18 Wheeler - Crabs29) Robbie Williams - Angels.30) The Verve - Lucky Man31) Manic Street Preachers - The Everlasting32) Suede - Head Music33) Thurman - English Tea34) Northern Uproar - Town35) Menswe@r - Stardust36)Smokin' Mojo Filters - Come Together37) Ruth - I Don't Know38) The Seahorses - Ypu Can Talk To Me39) Republica - Drop \\dead Gorgeous40) Rialto - Monday Morning 5.1941) Travis - More Than Us42) Stereophonics - More Life in a Tramp's Vest43) Hurricane #1 - Only the Strongest Will Survive44) The Charlatans - How High45) Puressence - This Feeling46) Feeder - Buck Rogers47) Terrorvision - Tequila.
47 of the shittest songs of the era. One song per band max. Anything else to be added?
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:22 (eight years ago) link
oh shit how can i forget wake up boo
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:23 (eight years ago) link
How High is a great song as is Wake Up Boo, even if it was the reason why all my friends made fun of me naming them as one of my favourite bands.
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:28 (eight years ago) link
interesting there are no Elastica songs in the list so far. hard to think of a standout obviously-crap song from their big hits era.
― piscesx, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:28 (eight years ago) link
I think we should stick to 90s songs. High would be a good 90s Feeder choice.
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:30 (eight years ago) link
making a playlisthttp://open.spotify.com/user/pfunkboy/playlist/0y0gMIOGyKaqj70K3eEprx
hey you put lucky man on there KP so wake up boo is on (its awful)
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:31 (eight years ago) link
― piscesx
I was just thinking the same about Supergrass. Someone will nominate Alright now I'm sure.
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:31 (eight years ago) link
fat les - vindaloo
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:36 (eight years ago) link
i changed shed seven to going for gold via popular demand on my fb
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:38 (eight years ago) link
Not sure how fair that is, but you are making the rules.
Good call on Fat Les but the Christmas song was worse.
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:46 (eight years ago) link
okay a bunch of lesser known songs plus bingo by catch arent on spotify but erm enjoyhttp://open.spotify.com/user/pfunkboy/playlist/0y0gMIOGyKaqj70K3eEprx
Songs can be added to it as they get nominated
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:54 (eight years ago) link
Already following.
"Sad little indie boys stil want to fuck lauren laverne" Hey, that has nothing to do with. That first album is a classic and the second one is mostly great too.
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:57 (eight years ago) link
ILM was like that back in the day though, DG loved to annoy said people. I wish he still posted.
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 01:59 (eight years ago) link
Was looking forward to hearing Jocasta and Nilon Bombers and Thurman but they're not there. Alas.
― popchips: the next snapple? (seandalai), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 02:00 (eight years ago) link
yeah,Ive added the band I really disliked though thats gonna be controversial with everyone else
DUBSTAR.
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 02:01 (eight years ago) link
Disgraceful is a great album. Where's Lex when you need him? He'll have something to say about all this ridiculous Kenickie/Dubstar hate.
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 02:05 (eight years ago) link
oh i liked punka by kenickie and that other single. I owned them. I think ILM is pretty much all love for kenickie.
Ive always been on my own here in dubstar-hate.
btw fun lovin criminals needs a mention. Not britpop but y'know... it counts and we know it
what was their worst track?
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 02:09 (eight years ago) link
along with elastica and supergrass no one has nominated a Pulp track.
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 02:12 (eight years ago) link
Quite right too.
― Kitchen Person, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 02:14 (eight years ago) link
or Saint Etienne.
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 02:24 (eight years ago) link
I kind of like terrorvision oblivion. It's good dumb fun
― afriendlypioneer, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 02:27 (eight years ago) link
tequila got the nod. That was truly awful
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 02:29 (eight years ago) link
― ۩, Tuesday, April 29, 2014 2:09 AM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
The one that goes "I've got supermodels on my D!"
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 02:46 (eight years ago) link
I went with the 10cc cover. That was awful.
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 02:47 (eight years ago) link
btw with KP nominating Lucky Mam, I actually saw the verve play that in 1995 at t in the park(the gig they split up at) . they played a few others from urban hymns too (Come On and Rolling People)
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 03:13 (eight years ago) link
'The Rolling People' being a fine blend of Funkadelic and Aphrodite's Child.
― Toni Braxton-Hicks (Turrican), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 03:15 (eight years ago) link
or a blatant piece of stealing.
american ilxors need to make a thread/spotify list of really bad mid to late 90s us music to go with this.
Turrican you got anything to add to http://open.spotify.com/user/pfunkboy/playlist/0y0gMIOGyKaqj70K3eEprx
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 03:20 (eight years ago) link
Tequila was well after Britpop though. One of those terrible novelty singles by rock/punk bands - see also Outkast's Pretty Fly For A White Guy - which blighted my first year of uni. Terrorvision did have some Britpop era hits though with Oblivion and that song about the dolphins. But I never associated them with Britpop - they were a Kerrang! band, fun teen metal stuff I enjoyed listening to along with Green Day etc when I were a lad. Just to add to the Oasis fan constituency debate... I was discussing this with Kerr on FB, but in Scotland a large part of Oasis's fan base was the dance crowd who'd been going to big raves like Resurrection in the early 90s, and their younger siblings, who were more my age group and had just missed out on that. I remember there was a point when Oasis went from being another band the indie kids and 'moshers' would listen to, to a huge band everyone liked - IIRC it was Whatever wot did it. During rehearsals for the school musical (ha!) at the end of 94/start of 95 that song was on all the bloody time. There was a sense of excitement and optimism, with Some Like Say coming out and everyone willing the next album to be great. Seems ridiculous now, but Wonderwall was hyped up as having this Portishead thing going on. The album was a bit disappointing when it came out, but I still had good will towards them for a while, although I was moving on to Radiohead and other things. It was exciting to follow the other new releases too. While I couldn't afford many albums, I got loads of 99p singles. And not just Britpop, but other things I'd read about in the NME, heard on Mark & Lard - Nick Cave, Tricky etc. So I concur with Turrican and others who look back on it quite fondly as a time of discovering music in general, tied in with the giddiness of youth - Supergrass's Alright captures that perfectly. It was nice that all the kids at school shared a certain number of cultural references and for a while I didn't feel like such an outcast, even if that was partly wishful thinking on my behalf. I remember this girl I really fancied who had been a huge Take That fan got into Pulp, which made me think I might stand a chance (haha!). I really wasn't jazzed by all the Weller, OCS stuff that it descended into and I moved on.
― Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (Stew), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 09:00 (eight years ago) link
Outkast's Pretty Fly For A White Guy
Really?
― Mark G, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 09:07 (eight years ago) link
:D
― From Tha Crouuuch To Da Palacios (DJ Mencap), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 09:07 (eight years ago) link
Kenickie I don't really associate with Britpop in the strictest sense. They were certainly influenced by Britpop, but I'd associate them more with Pulp and the Manics: that regional indie/glam/glitter thing. At school they were one of the bands, along with Garbage, Hole etc, that all the girls who loved the Manics were into. As my male pals at the time were turning into mardy stoners who listened to Korn I wasn't supposed to like that kind of 'girl' music. God, teenage boys are the worst!
― Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (Stew), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 09:11 (eight years ago) link
Was it revenge for The Vines' "Ms Jackson" ?
― Mark G, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 09:11 (eight years ago) link
x-post - oh for an edit function. Offspring obviously. Morning brain fail. My coffee hadn't quite kicked in. The shame.
― Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (Stew), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 09:12 (eight years ago) link
Was just thinking it would actually be awesome.
Well, 'quite good' anyway.
― Mark G, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 09:13 (eight years ago) link
Thought I'd move this over from the worst music writing thread:
The Taylor Parkes piece is too muddled even though I agree that Britpop's aesthetic complacency was related to a larger political complacency that was rampant during the Blair/Clinton years. Don't really understand British class politics so I can't speak to that aspect of Blur's legacy. They sound stressful.― très hip (Treeship), Tuesday, April 29, 2014 1:09 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post PermalinkFrom my own experiences political complacency in the UK was at it's peak in the period that lay between Blair's election and the war in Iraq. That's my own outlook as I was a student during that time and I was horrified at how few students were interested in current affairs. The number of people attending student fee protests on my campus were negligible, and this is Essex Uni we're talking about, a hotspot for lefty sit-ins during the seventies. Ibiza Trance and UKG were by far the most popular styles of music for students at that time.― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Tuesday, April 29, 2014 9:47 AM (44 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post PermalinkI put it here bc I honestly regretted reading it, and it left feeling quite favourable towards Britpop, so― sonic thedgehod (albvivertine), Tuesday, April 29, 2014 9:49 AM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post PermalinkOf course a period of prosperity between the Cold War and 9/11 was going to be more apolitical but if you're going to blame Britpop for epitomising vacuous optimism and complacency then you should also blame dance music and nobody seems to be doing that.― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Tuesday, April 29, 2014 10:04 AM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post PermalinkThat's what I'm saying. I'm not blaming dance music for being apolitical (although I remember being dismayed at the time at how dance music had lost its anti-authoritarian stance and was now being used to tout 2for1 WKDs on a Friday). But why is it suddenly Britpop that's being held to account for eliding politics? What were the Smiths, MBV, Ride, the Stone Roses and umpteen other popular pre-Britpop UK indie bands saying that the likes of Pulp and Blur weren't?― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Tuesday, April 29, 2014 10:22 AM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― très hip (Treeship), Tuesday, April 29, 2014 1:09 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
From my own experiences political complacency in the UK was at it's peak in the period that lay between Blair's election and the war in Iraq. That's my own outlook as I was a student during that time and I was horrified at how few students were interested in current affairs. The number of people attending student fee protests on my campus were negligible, and this is Essex Uni we're talking about, a hotspot for lefty sit-ins during the seventies. Ibiza Trance and UKG were by far the most popular styles of music for students at that time.
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Tuesday, April 29, 2014 9:47 AM (44 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I put it here bc I honestly regretted reading it, and it left feeling quite favourable towards Britpop, so
― sonic thedgehod (albvivertine), Tuesday, April 29, 2014 9:49 AM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Of course a period of prosperity between the Cold War and 9/11 was going to be more apolitical but if you're going to blame Britpop for epitomising vacuous optimism and complacency then you should also blame dance music and nobody seems to be doing that.
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Tuesday, April 29, 2014 10:04 AM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
That's what I'm saying. I'm not blaming dance music for being apolitical (although I remember being dismayed at the time at how dance music had lost its anti-authoritarian stance and was now being used to tout 2for1 WKDs on a Friday). But why is it suddenly Britpop that's being held to account for eliding politics? What were the Smiths, MBV, Ride, the Stone Roses and umpteen other popular pre-Britpop UK indie bands saying that the likes of Pulp and Blur weren't?
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Tuesday, April 29, 2014 10:22 AM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 09:33 (eight years ago) link
To complicate things further, 95/96 gave us two great and hugely popular singles about working-class identity, Design for Life and Common People (yes, both were older bands but those songs spoke to the moment). The early 90s were definitely a more political era but, with the exception of the Manics and maybe Huggy Bear, the most outspoken bands (Levellers, Senser, SMASH, etc) are not the ones that are now fondly remembered because the apolitical ones (MBV, Slowdive) made better and more lasting music. God bless the Family Cat and the Senseless Things for making the occasional protest song but they weren't any good.
British culture became less political in the mid 90s faster than British music did and claiming the Criminal Justice Bill protests as proof of dance music's superior radicalism ignores the fact that most ravers by that point weren't arsed about traveller rights or free parties and had happily migrated to legit clubs. I've got no beef with dance music - that was mostly what I listened to at the time - but if you want to talk about the triumph of neoliberalism, Cream and Gatecrasher were more representative than Blur and Oasis.
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 09:50 (eight years ago) link
I seem to remember the roses went on political marches.
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 09:54 (eight years ago) link
I remember there was a point when Oasis went from being another band the indie kids and 'moshers' would listen to, to a huge band everyone liked - IIRC it was Whatever wot did it.
first time they got played by commercial radio in Scotland iirc. You never ever heard anything from the 1st album. Wonderwall was what made them the radio staples though. Remember Radio Forth broke the UK embargo for d'ya know what I mean?
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 09:58 (eight years ago) link
the Senseless Things for making the occasional protest song but they weren't any good
'homophobic asshole' was fucking immense.
i still listen to that track more than anything else mentioned in this thread.
― mark e, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 10:04 (eight years ago) link
Stone Roses v explicitly political through to Fool's Gold at least.
― woof, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 10:15 (eight years ago) link
Xpost was gonna say, you wanniT?
― Mark G, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 10:19 (eight years ago) link
Was the Roses' music political?
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 10:20 (eight years ago) link
Um, Elizabeth My Dear?? Bye Bye Badman??
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 10:24 (eight years ago) link
I think yes, on lyrical content - Elizabeth, My Dear = destroy monarchy; Fool's Gold/What the World is Waiting For = anti-capitalist; Bye Bye Badman = salute to the riots of Paris 68; I think there are more examples. but I'm not sure it never felt like a really active or practical politics - slightly mystic art-school situationism.
― woof, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 10:31 (eight years ago) link
(that was xpost)
― woof, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 10:34 (eight years ago) link
The amount of praise this Quietus article was getting on t'Internet was greatly depressing me but then I remembered: it's clickbait, that's all websites want at the moment - be provoked, retweet, increase hits and increase ad revenue. Cameron's Britain where the profit margin isn't the reward but the engine.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 10:38 (eight years ago) link
Marcello, you might not agree with the article but it's hardly clickbait and it's not as if anti-Britpop resentment isn't at a peak right now, so it's not that surprising it got a lot of praise.
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 10:53 (eight years ago) link
I'm very suspicious of the "clickbait" complaint. If a provocative opinion is sincere then fine. Why would a writer not want readers? My only beef with it is when it feels lazy or fraudulent - a cynical squib about a big news story, a shallow listicle - but whatever my problems with TP's piece he obviously believes in it enough to write almost 8000 words.
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 10:57 (eight years ago) link
That's one of the problems I had reading it. Why on earth is he so angry abt some pop music that came out twenty years ago?
― sonic thedgehod (albvivertine), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 11:06 (eight years ago) link
on the article fwiw, I thought it opened strongly – 'who does it serve to flatten or simplify an era?' - but meandered; lots of sympathetic points, & acknowledging its complicity. I think this conversation, for the most part trying to pick a way through yay-britpop/boo-britpop, has been more interesting: it's at least made try to remember more clearly – what was good in the 94 wave? What did I enjoy? Can we distinguish it from the grimmer TFI Britannia era? etc etc
― woof, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 11:14 (eight years ago) link
20 Reasons Why Britpop Sucked In '96. #4 gave me brain damage.
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 11:15 (eight years ago) link
Everything that is published on a popular subject is clickbait. You want people to read it. That's the whole point of writing it. Also, as I've said before, the stuff that people deride as clickbait is what buys editors and writers the chance to do the stuff they really care about.
For my Britpop piece, this was the process. The editor of G2 wanted a piece about how Britpop ruined everything. A couple of writers were asked, who couldn't do it. I decided to do it myself because a) By this point, it was going to be quicker than getting someone else to do it and the piece was needed urgently b) The proposition was close enough to what I felt about Britpop that I didn't mind doing it.
But it was an opinion piece, and that means expressing yourself in the most forceful terms, rather than umming and ahhing, so yes, you do end up with something that is overstated (and I regret using the term cultural abomination, especially once it ended up in the headline). However, I've had shedloads of people accuse me of trolling, and I wasn't trolling. That word appears to have changed its meaning. It now seems to be: a strongly expressed opinion with which I do not agree.
― Unsettled defender (ithappens), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 11:16 (eight years ago) link
remember to subscribe to the bad britpop playlisthttp://open.spotify.com/user/pfunkboy/playlist/0y0gMIOGyKaqj70K3eEprx
― ۩, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 11:17 (eight years ago) link
Have any ex-MM/NME sorts stepped up with a 'Britpop: none of it fucking mattered - the music, the music we left out, my writing, all our lives - none of it.' thinkpiece?
― woof, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 11:25 (eight years ago) link
A lot of my problem with comes from the sheer number of strawmen he throws up, especially in the opening paragraphs. All this assumptive 'Of course Britpop wasn't about Britain was it? It was about Camden, wasn't it, wasn't it?' - which simply isn't true: Manchester was still an indie music stronghold, Pulp were very much from Sheffield, Blur did admittedly go for a cheeky mockney thing despite coming from Colchester, Dodgy and Bluetones were from Hounslow IIRC. It feels more like Parkes is having a pop at the perceived concept of 'Cool Britannia' than the music of Britpop, at least for the first half. After that he picks apart the individual tracks on Parklife, but again I want to know why it's suddenly Blur's job to be kicking against the pricks?
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 11:29 (eight years ago) link
He implies that the Manchester and Sheffield bands mostly relocated to London. I think it's more about location than origin.
― Yuri Bashment (ShariVari), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 11:34 (eight years ago) link
That's been the case for years though, and it still is.
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 11:35 (eight years ago) link
Also, Parklife names a number of UK locations in its lyrics, none of which are even tangentially related to Camden. You can't base an argument about an entire music genre on the life & times of a bloated post-fame Alex James.
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 11:46 (eight years ago) link
I think if you zero in on the Camden clique that enabled Powder and Menswear to get signed then yes it does seem pretty rotten but that's a tiny sliver of the music of the mid-90s. No doubt it appeared larger if you were a journalist drinking in the same pubs.
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 12:05 (eight years ago) link
Since when did anyone care about whether music is political or not? Did I skip a meeting or something?
― A frenzied geologist (Tom D.), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 12:09 (eight years ago) link
You may have skipped the Taylor Parkes piece in which Britpop is blamed for conspiring to turn Britain into a nation of apolitical neoliberal zombies.
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 12:12 (eight years ago) link
I ask because I recently read an old piece by Rob Young (of Electric Eden etc) about C86 where he lambasted the bands for being devoid of funk (yeah, so?) and "apolitical" .. like does he really care about music being political that much? I doubt it.
― A frenzied geologist (Tom D.), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 12:16 (eight years ago) link
http://britpopnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/MBVClinton.jpg
Shoegaze and American indie were also collaborationist genres
― très hip (Treeship), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 12:20 (eight years ago) link
I don't know a single person whose record collection is predicated on whether bands are political or not but it's often used, cynically and inconsistently, as a stick with which to beat the ones you don't like.
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 12:21 (eight years ago) link
Precisely
― A frenzied geologist (Tom D.), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 12:23 (eight years ago) link
It's the weak card in the whole argument - why should it be Britpop's job to be political? Especially in light of a pan-generic, pan-global music scene that was suffering from severe post-agitprop embarrassment. I'm sure DL can school me better on this but it feels like we're only just starting to see a re-emergence of the protest song after twenty years in the wilderness. I don't think Britpop is the cause so much as part of the effect of this.
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 12:28 (eight years ago) link
Can you remember where the R. Young article was, Tom? I'd like to read what he had to say. A brief google failed to turn anything up. No doubt his lambasting had the zeal of the convert.
― Tim, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 12:32 (eight years ago) link
My suggestion is that we abandon this approach and just use real sticks instead.
― ricky don't lose that number nine shirt (NickB), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 12:42 (eight years ago) link
It's the weak card in the whole argument - why should it be Britpop's job to be political?
Britpop was politicised by politicians. There was a clear attempt to bring it into the Blairite narrative of a bright, new, confident, hip, meritocratic, liberal Britain. Some deeper interrogation of that might have been useful, in retrospect. Britpop was the arguably first era of British indie rock that actually had to make a decision about whether it stood with or against the government. The number of indie stars accused of being aligned with Thatcher could be counted on one hand. Labour surrounded itself with people from the culture industry.
More broadly, some deeper interrogation of the mild nationalism that went along with would have been useful as well. We were constantly told at the time that the revitalised pop-culture industry spoke to what it meant to be British and feel proud to be British. As Parkes points out, that kind of fell apart when you tried to look at specifics.
The difficulty is that it's hard to pin that on any particular band, though. It's not specifically Blur's role, more than anyone else's, to pick apart some of those ideas. It's easy to say that "Britpop" was politically loaded and politically naive but if you take the view that it was a media invention rather than a coherent movement, who can you really call to account?
― Yuri Bashment (ShariVari), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 12:53 (eight years ago) link
The media?
― i reject your shiny expensive consumerist stereo system (Scik Mouthy), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 12:56 (eight years ago) link
Oasis played Blair's game and got their photo taken with him at Number 10. Labour for a very short time were seen as the good guys thwarting the Tory forces of evil and I guess this PR move was good for both sides, not too different to Stevie Wonder and friends singing at Democrat rallies in the States etc. But yeah, this was the media's fault, a media thing. You could just as well blame cricket for boosting John Major.
― 1 pONO 3v3Ry+h1n G!!!1 (dog latin), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 13:11 (eight years ago) link
Everything that is published on a popular subject is clickbait. You want people to read it. That's the whole point of writing it. Also, as I've said before, the stuff that people deride as clickbait is what buys editors and writers the chance to do the stuff they really care about.For my Britpop piece, this was the process. The editor of G2 wanted a piece about how Britpop ruined everything. A couple of writers were asked, who couldn't do it. I decided to do it myself because a) By this point, it was going to be quicker than getting someone else to do it and the piece was needed urgently b) The proposition was close enough to what I felt about Britpop that I didn't mind doing it.But it was an opinion piece, and that means expressing yourself in the most forceful terms, rather than umming and ahhing, so yes, you do end up with something that is overstated (and I regret using the term cultural abomination, especially once it ended up in the headline). However, I've had shedloads of people accuse me of trolling, and I wasn't trolling. That word appears to have changed its meaning. It now seems to be: a strongly expressed opinion with which I do not agree.
You know how some people start out. They want to do something they really love, something they really believe in. But they can’t because it doesn’t pay enough for them to live on. So they do something else. It might not be what they want but they think to themselves: OK, this is not ideal, this is maybe not what I was put on this earth to do, but if it puts a roof over my head and food on the table I’ll keep at it for now and carry on doing what I actually enjoy doing as a sideline.
But as time goes by and circumstances change you find that you gradually have less and less time and resources to subsidise your own passion, and so reluctantly – SADLY, TRAGICALLY – you knuckle down without necessarily realising that you’ve just turned into a robot, a machine of habit, like everybody else. And whatever OTHER was inside you is now buried deep, too deep ever to be reclaimed or reused.
So it is with writing, and with clickbait. Wanting people to read something is not the same as writing something you know people are going to read, because clickbait is set up to annoy people deliberately in order to maximise revenue – that “pays” sticks out like the sorest of thumbs, and it has to be said; pays for what? Toynbee saying we should be nice to a right-wing “Culture Minister” who thinks that ticket touts provide a vital service to the market (as a for instance)?
“The editor of G2 wanted a piece about how Britpop ruined everything”; there’s your problem right there. Not a nuanced, multifocal piece about Britpop, but an express remit to talk about how it “ruined everything” (?)*
*and of course with 20+-year-old pictures of Good Guy Jarvis, because we all love him, don’t we, isn’t he a national treasure, might not have done anything of note or value for a good decade and a half, but oh he’s so INTELLIGENT and has so many IDEAS and has so much EMPATHY, and it’s depressing to see how many grown adults still just MELT at the mention of his name, of his being, without ever worrying, well, what’s behind all this? What if it’s NOTHING – or the precise ANTITHESIS of what we had once thought? (Actually if you listen to something like “Mis-Shapes” now it sounds like Cameron and Gove fulminating against the shirking, uncultured plebs, as opposed to upper middle class, grammar school educated Jarv being benched off because some drunken plumber wearing a white shirt laughed at him one time? And what about “Common People”? What about it? Yes, these pallid working class types, they dance and drink and screw because there’s NOTHING ELSE TO DO. Dammit, JC, how would YOU know?)
An “opinion piece” does NOT mean “expressing yourself in the most forceful terms” unless you’re setting out to be Dave Spart or something. What you term “umming and ahhing” is trying to come to honest terms with what you are writing about, attempting a calm, balanced viewpoint – gently persuading people to at least CONSIDER changing their minds - and such writing carries an entirely different tone and resonance from OTT Rants 4U stuff full of arch hype, clever-cleverness and punk rock sweaty shouting which actually, in terms of helping people to understand each other and their art, eventually signifies precisely nothing** – and even five years ago, you’d have been hard pressed to find anything like that in the Guardian or anywhere else comparable.
**Why? Because that kind of writing requires patience, long-term thinking and, yes, that most Cameronite of sins, HARD WORK if you’re going to write something that isn’t clickbait, that won’t provide easy emotional release for people who’ve been led, by whatever means of convenience, to lose their curiosity.
Good writing should be – what word would best describe it? “Awe-inspiring” is far from perfect but yes, writing and reportage at their best should inspire awe. “Intimidating” might be another good adjective, in the sense that the writing in the 1976-82 NME was intimidating, because it made you want to BETTER yourself, to prove yourself worthy of reading it. The “trollumnists” (as somebody else on ILx, I can’t remember who, called them) on the Guardian, New Statesman etc. are intimidating in a smug sense, in terms of getting one up on somebody else, with no greater ambition than stamping their feet, shouting “ith not fair,” aiming their spray can at the wall and running away.
The consequence of clickbait “culture,” however, is that you end up servicing people who really only want their basic story about the world – the world as they, and ONLY they, know it – confirmed and agreed with, because perversely that makes them feel better about themselves. I’ve had people come up to me and say that Church of Me or Then Play Long helped them get through some difficult times. I’m not aware of that ever having been said about any piece of 'tis/'tisn't/black and white with no grey whatsoever clickbait.
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 13:15 (eight years ago) link
the parkes piece didn't accuse britpop of apoliticism -- that's a strawman. the one time apolitical is used its in this context:
In the confusion of austerity a brand new Britishness is afoot, like the old one but fractionally closer to fascism. More than apolitical – actively hostile to radical thought. More than dismissive of class-consciousness – angry at the slightest suggestion that anyone's problem might not be a problem with them, but a problem with Britain. It's everywhere. And every single chance it gets, it guts that "other" Britishness, the kind pop music once personified, the kind that's all about irreverence, vitality and wit.
its very particular about a certain sort of particular attitude about class and culture that blur was heralding and how that foreshadowed where britain was going, etc. and it does feel like in retrospect i can look at blur videos and feel that context in a way i couldn't have seen at the time. the idea that they were on the wrong (but triumphant) side of history is pretty powerful as a central thesis
― wat is teh waht (s.clover), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 13:21 (eight years ago) link
Also, Blur seemed to coat itself in vague political signifiers on their Britpop albums. Whether or not they were actually political, or just tourists, is a more significant question to raise than if it been about, I don't know, M People.
Pulp also, people always claim they were on the 'right' side of this divide, as opposed to Blur, somehow more compassionate and less snarky, but does Common People really make sense? I mean, it's an amazing composition, but isn't there something condescending and problematic about the narrator basically telling a young woman that he will always be more real than her, because she can always 'call her daddy'?
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 29 April 2014 13:22 (eight years ago) link
Dodgy were from Hounslow IIRC
Bromsgrove, actually
― Just noise and screaming and no musical value at all. (Colonel Poo), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 13:31 (eight years ago) link
Common People: A lyrical discussion/dissection
― popchips: the next snapple? (seandalai), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 13:33 (eight years ago) link
And what about “Common People”? What about it? Yes, these pallid working class types, they dance and drink and screw because there’s NOTHING ELSE TO DO. Dammit, JC, how would YOU know?
That's what you take from that line??
― What is wrong with songs? Absolutely nothing. Songs are great. (DL), Tuesday, 29 April 2014 13:34 (eight years ago) link
angry at the slightest suggestion that anyone's problem might not be a problem with them, but a problem with Britain.
But that isn't Blur at all. I know Damon contradicted himself a lot but he did say this when Parklife came out: "It annoys me when we're accused of having this nostalgic romance with a mythical lost Britain. Where are these songs about how great the country is? Nearly every one is tempered with cynicism and aggression."