Britpop : Time For Reevaluation?

Remove the sarcasm and you're on the money!

i do.

ned, i KNEW you were going to post that post. you are a swine and a half ;-)

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.

all released at least one song i like! ok...not Shed 7...or OCS...

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.

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

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.

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.

i'm trying to disprove thi, but no joy yet...

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.

ha, never mind that Chandrasonic was a fan of The Byrds at this time (according to NME end of year singles round-up panel)

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)

i quite like the idea of Britpop as Messiah/sacrifical lamb - crucified for our sins...but that needs developing.

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.

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...

Try to remember Nick Berry's "Every Loser Wins", which is always handy in such moments.

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.

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

D'oh! *flees* ;-)

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).

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.

Next year is going to be full of nostalgic nonsense, innit?

This season of the podcast Bandsplain is all about Britpop so you can get started on your nostalgia trip early. https://www.theringer.com/podcasts/bandsplain/2024/10/31/bandsplain-returns-november-7-across-the-pond-innit

I'm glad I don't do podcasts!

yeah if you were into podcasts then you would be forced to listen to this one and start liking Oasis.

I still like the first Oasis album actually.

I'm still slightly stunned that Shed Seven have had two chart-topping albums this year. They're mocked in this thread back in 2003, at which point they were a kind of sad, less-ridiculous variation of Menswear, but now they are bigger than Jesus. Bigger than Slowdive!

Is it some kind of cryptocurrency scam? Their comeback is so sudden and unexpected that Wikipedia doesn't even have an article on Liquid Gold, which is in theory a major #1 hit album. I learn from Wikipedia that their first comeback album, Instant Pleasures came out in 2017 and got to #8 with sales of just 13,277 units, so perhaps you only need to sell five hundred copies to top the charts nowadays. Or perhaps this is a Gary Numan thing whereby their fans buy the record en masse in the first week, and then in the second week it leaves the charts because no-one outside the fanbase cares.

Tangentally I learn that the UK Chart Company has an entry for a band called SEWRIRIHEKAWRUPELARISTUPHESLASIGORUTRUKUPHIWEFREDREWRODICRUPRUBAHUDRODEVIPASABAMO:
https://www.officialcharts.com/artists/sewririhekawrupelaristupheslasigorutrukuphiwefredrewrodicruprubahudrodevipasabamo/

The 'bamo as we used to call them.

Liquid Gold is an LP of rerecordings of their greatest hits, I think?

& you do not have to sell that many to get a #1 LP these days, most weeks have a new #1 LP.

SEWRIRIHEKAWRUPELARISTUPHESLASIGORUTRUKUPHIWEFREDREWRODICRUPRUBAHUDRODEVIPASABAMO Stats For Season

Name SEWRIRIHEKAWRUPELARISTUPHESLASIGORUTRUKUPHIWEFREDREWRODICRUPRUBAHUDRODEVIPASABAMO
Team Aston Villa
Total Appearances 0
Starts 0
Substituted 0
Total Minutes Played 0
Avg Minutes Played Per Start 0
Goals 0
Avg Goal Mins When Starting 0.0
Avg Mins Played/Goal Scored 0
Goals Scored As Sub 0
Number of Bookings 0
Total Booking Minutes 0
Avg Bookings Per Start 0
Number of Red Cards 0
Total Red Card Minutes 0
Avg Red Cards Per Start 0
Avg Booking Minutes When Starting 0.0

a great bunch of bamo's

Liquid Gold
Peak: #1
Weeks on Chart: 1

So there's your answer xps

I've always been a big Shed Seven fan (mock me as much as you like). Liquid Gold is indeed orchestral greatest hits re-recordings with a couple of new tracks. Two connected things contributed to their chart-topping this year. For one, they released both albums in different formats: one with bonus tracks, one with a live CD, one with a download of an acoustic re-recording of their debut. Second, they have a strong fanbase of suckers who get all those formats. I also could not help myself but get two versions of A Matter Of Time and three versions of Liquid Gold.
It may seem somewhat abusive of their fans but they have a great relationship with their fanbase. I see examples of people posting on a Facebook fan page that they only had paper tickets for a gig and accidentally left them at home, then the band responding and helping them get in the venue - things like that. And the band does a lot of work in promoting themselves & playing well received shows; the fans love the new material.

"Weeks on Chart: 1"

I was going to say that the UK Charts website seemingly doesn't list the actual albums on the artist page. But they do! You just have to scroll down a bit. And yes, Liquid Gold made its debut at number one and then left the charts the week after:
https://www.officialcharts.com/albums/shed-seven-liquid-gold/

I admire their focus. Like a sniper. They had one goal, and they achieved it with minimal waste. It's about sending a statement.

Liquid gold is... just gold, isn't it? There isn't a separate word for the liquid state of gold. It's not like ice, water, and steam. Boiled gold is gold, solid gold is gold, liquid gold is gold. And the reason for this is that water is a part of everyday life, whereas gold is rare.

Liquid gold is poppers, m8.

it's gold, it's hot, it's poppers. I'm sold.

No, listen to David "Kid" Jensen. This... is Liquid Gold...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KsK1ybDZ44

"We didn't think it really going to happen but we were playing a residency at Caesar's Palace in Luton and the song came on and everyone was dancing so we were really surprised when it took off the way it did"

xp knew exactly what the video would be and was not disappointed, they should do a comeback LP and call it Shed Seven (apart from the xylophone chest guy who died a few years ago)

poppers and dancing yourself dizzy are not mutually exclusive ime

Not just a pun on Solid Gold?

This might be old news to some, but I hadn't heard about it before. This went round yesterday...
https://i.imgur.com/ycpBC1i.png
in which comedian April Richardson bumps into Brett Anderson at the airport, and isn't it cute how nice he is as well as good-looking (it is!), but then there's a comment "Also I am very lucky to have encounters like this but also very unlucky in that I married the absolute worst Britpop guy" and follow-ups...
https://i.imgur.com/rAk4HCv.png
...and easy googling leads to this article (trigger warning: psychotic shitbag) in which she describes in excruciating detail how Martin Rossiter is not a very nice person at all.

Sorry that is pretty bad formatting.

Well fuck, that's even worse than the Bluetones guy, and the Mansun guy.

Eurgh, do I even want to read that, then. (Did I hate Gene? Hell yes. Did I want anyone to be have been a victim of any of them? Fuck no.)

It was mentally exhausting to even read that, hope she eventually manages to recover from the experience.

do I even want to read that

I wouldn't bother. Summary: he's a gross and damaged abuser.

Since someone I’m very close to knows her, she was privy to all that stuff a long time ago, and since it wasn’t my place to mention it I never did but yeah, that guy is a straight up piece of shit.

Looking him up on Wikipedia, seems Gene just reformed:

https://www.nme.com/news/music/gene-to-reunite-for-first-live-show-in-over-20-years-3847624

I was never a fan, but their tour manager was a friend of my stepmother, so I saw them play a few times in the late 90s.

usually-good youtube channel trash theory has posted a 'roots of britpop' type overview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WQBHboYFj4
"The 8 Songs To Blame For Britpop" posted 12 dec 2025