Britpop defined a generation like all cultural movements, however this one seemed different. It was the last movement before the widespread use of the internet and a constant bombardment of information. Physical media was king, magazines such as NME, Select, Melody Maker and The Face were catalysts in this burgeoning scene. Television was just as important, households across the country ritualised watching Top of the Pops on a Friday night, excitedly seeing who charted at number one and who were that week’s biggest risers and fallers. Radio, just at it had in decades past, broke new bands on to the scene.
The period of 1992 to 1998 signified a cultural shift. The Labour Party conquered the Tories after their 17 (dreadful) years in power and the UK returned to the forefront of the world’s musical scene. After many long years of being subjected to Americans singing about shooting heroin and their inflated sense of self worth, the UK public finally had something relatable of their own. Blur singing about dog tracks, Pulp about wood-chip walls, and Oasis about holidaying in Spain. Stuart Maconie sums up the energy behind this musical reclamation:
“Enough is enough! Yanks go home! And take your miserable grungewear and your self-obsessed slacker bands with you. You’re already twice as cheesy as baggyism, and at least baggy was British. We don’t want plaid. We want crimplene, glamour, wit and irony. We want people who never say ‘dude or ‘sidewalk’ or ‘Can I get a beer?’ If 1992 was the American year (overweight, overrated and over here then it’s time to bring on the Home Guard. These, Kurt, are the boys who will stop your little game: Suede, Saint Etienne, Pulp, Denim and The Auteurs. Bands with pride! Over the page, Select salutes the new Best Of British, Cud name the ultimate Crimplenist soundtrack, and we save the Union Jack from the Nazis…” Select Magazine April 1993
The UK was beginning to regain its national pride. No longer was patriotism associated with the National Front and Morrissey appealing to skinheads at Finsbury Park, it now carried connotations of tea, crumpets and quaint country houses. The feeling in the air was reminiscent of the British Invasion, and the music produced was quintessentially English. This music couldn’t have been produced anywhere else in the world.
This leads to a more pertinent question (and a shift in tone), why on earth am I writing about this in the first place? The events that took place happened well within living memory, ask anyone over forty and they’ll be able to recount how it affected them, whether it be the Battle of Britpop or Jarvis Cocker’s stage invasion at the Brits. I’m writing this because of its overbearing importance on music, and the sheer mind boggling fact that it even happened in the first place. No musical movement since has ever been as big and with the widespread use of the internet and instantaneous ways to listen to music, its unlikely that this will ever happen again. It is at this point worth noting that yours truly was born well after Britpop peaked, exactly nine days after Oasis released their most disappointing album (lyrics such as, “have you ever played with plasticine, even tried a trampoline”, prove this point), was raised in Australia and only discovered the bands that will feature in this zine, after the age of 15. I think this is important to keep in mind as it has informed how I went about creating this zine. I aimed to try and find the facts and opinions from some of the key payers in the Britpop scene, and utilise what they said to help inform my own opinion, for a retrospective look back on the time period. I’m not trying to change the world with this zine, I’m simply trying to gain an understanding of how these events took place, and to build my professional practice by creating an entire publication.
With that being said, I’d like to send you on your journey
PLEASE DON’T PUT YOUR OF A ROCK AND WHO’LL THROW
journey through this zine with this quote in mind:
44 dates of the US. The number of gigs and concerts that drove Blur to hate grunge, American sensibilities and everything they encompassed. The music scene that welcomed Blur upon their return to the UK after this tour, couldn’t have held them in lower opinion. Arch rival to Albarn, Brett Anderson and his band Suede were in the charts, performing at the Brit Awards and appearing frequently on magazine front covers. Blur had been written off as purveyors of baggyism, and lacking new ideas. Single, Popscene, had failed to instil hope in the masses and Food Records were growing increasingly frustrated at Blur’s drunken antics. Blur’s future was looking bleak. However, after listening to numerous Kinks records while on this seemingly never ending American nightmare, Damon Albarn and Blur vowed to lead the renaissance of English pop.
Blur returned to the studio to record the follow up to their successful first album, Leisure. However, Food Records were unhappy with how the album was shaping up and requested Albarn to write another single, their American label said the same. On Christmas Day 1992, aware that time was running out for Blur and they were at risk of losing their careers, Albarn penned the song, For Tomorrow.
He’s a twentieth century boy With his hands on the rails
Trying not to be sick again And holding on for tomorrow London ice cracks on a seamless line
He’s hanging on for dear life And so we hold each other tightly And hold on for tomorrow
Trying not to make you sick again
Seeing what she can borrow
London’s so nice back in your seamless rhymes
But we’re lost on the West way
So we hold each other tightly
And we can wait until tomorrow
A song that encapsulates Damon’s feelings at the time and pays tribute to the quintessential Englishness of bands such as The Kinks, early Pink Floyd and The Who. The single paved the way for how the band would approach music and the way they approached their English identity for the foreseeable future (at least until 1997s self titled album, ironically inspired by American college rock).
Even though Modern Life is Rubbish failed to live up to the bands expectations, it paved the way for their third album, Parklife, which signified the coming of age of a cultural revolution. No longer were UK indie bands confined to the back pages of the NME, they were taking the world by storm. Oasis, Blur, Suede and Pulp became the biggest bands in the UK, with Oasis becoming the closest to dominating the world. In the years that followed, the bands reached new heights, the quickest selling debut album record was broken multiple times, the biggest gigs ever held in the UK took place and most importantly, the Tories were ousted, signalling hope for the population.
However, before we get started, lets check in with the four biggest players in scene, just before the revolution started…
The big boys from the north, Oasis went on to revolutionise the UK music scene with their Slade-esque rock n roll, however at the turn of the 90s the band were barely formed and lacking chief songwriter, Noel Gallagher. Plasterer, Paul Bonehead Arthurs, call centre employee, Paul Guigsy McGuigan and labourer Tony MCarrol were in a band called the Rain with signer Chris Hutton. After ousting Hutton in favour of the Burnage born Liam Gallagher, the band changed their name to Oasis, taken from an Inspiral Carpets tour poster which had them listed as playing the Swindon Oasis. While the younger Gallagher and band were rehearsing and writing songs in the basement of Manchester club the Boardwalk, the older Gallagher, Noel, was working as a roadie for seminal Manchester band Inspiral Carpets. After being fired for being a mardy git, Oasis hired Noel as their manager. After some time as their manager, in Liam Gallagher’s own words “(Noel) got on his hands and knees and said, ‘Listen I’ll do anything, just please let me be in your band.’ I said, ‘get up of your hands and knees son, you’re alright, you can do it.’” What followed was 2 years of rehearsing, gigging, and barely making a living until one fateful night in Glasgow. Forcing themselves into the line-up of a gig at King Tuts, Oasis unknowingly played to an audience containing Creation Records head honcho, Alan McGee who signed them that very night. And as they say, the rest is history…
The most successful band during this period, Blur had formed after meeting at Goldsmiths University and signed to Food Records in 1990. One of the many bands jumping on the on baggy bandwagon, Blur released their first album, Leisure in 1991 which spawned the Run-DMC sampling single, There’s No Other Way which went to number 8 in the UK charts. The band, in particular Coxon were listening to a lot of quintessential English song writers, such as Syd Barrett, and their disillusionment with American music was amplified. A feeling of why aren’t we celebrating our culture was felt, however not in a xenophobic ‘Ingerland’ sense, more so the culture of quaintness, the art school sensibilities which the great British songwriters of the 60s and 70s had. It was this sense of good willed patriotism which would influence their next three albums.
Suede had recently formed and were flourishing alongside Brett Anderson and Justine Frischmann’s relationship. Inspired by the glamour of Bowie and the misery of The Smiths, and Brett and Justine were set on writing an album that represented London and their lives in the city. It was also at this point in time that Ricky Gervais briefly managed the band. However in 1991, Justine left Brett for Damon Albarn and so began one of the biggest feuds of the Britpop years. Justine left the band after Brett’s jealousy became to much to handle, and Brett’s quasi-hatred for Damon spurred him and the band on. The NME began to take notice of the band and they appeared on the line-up of gigs hosted by the magazine. In 1992 they signed to Nude Records and released the second Britpop single, The Drowners.
Pulp had formed in 1978, and by the time the 90s rolled around had already recorded 3 albums and released two. They had made a name for themselves in the Sheffield scene and had attracted interest from major labels, such as Factory Records (who only didn’t sign them because the Happy Mondays had blown all their money, or more aptly, snorted it). However the turning point for the band was when Jarvis Cocker relocated to London to study, and meet Greek students studying sculpture at Central St Martins College. It was here that the the Pulp line-up solidified. In 1992 Pulp’s third album was released, three years after it was recorded, featuring one side of ballads and the other of acid house inspired tracks, it was a far cry from what was to follow. The same year, Pulp signed to Island Records and began their accession in to pop-superstardom.
When looking back at a who’s who of the business side of Britpop, one of the first names that pops up is usually, Jane Savidge. One of the instigators of the Britpop movement, Jane headed up Savage and Best alongside INSERTNAME HERE, and handled the PR for; Suede, Pulp, Elastica, Menswear and the Verve, amongst others. After splitting with INSERT NAME HERE, she formed Savage and Savidge and FINISH WHERE IM GOING.
Not spotting the famed orange Porsche she delivered Jarvis Cocker to an interview in (I suspect it was sold on a long time ago), I arrive at the cafe we had arranged to meet. This initial encounter was brief as she was due to give a talk about her experience as a PR manager and her thoughts on the world of PR today, however her readiness to jump straight into the heavy topics of our discussion quickly became apparent.
She recounted how the now Lord, Peter Mandleson, had asked her to compile a list of potential targets for the Labour Party to approach and how the Gallagher brothers turned the playful rivalries of Britpop nasty with their wishes of AIDs upon Damon Albarn.
As I spent more time listening to Jane and in particular attending her talk, it became apparent that she is a talented story teller. Perhaps this should’ve been obvious as she has published two best selling books, Lunch With the Wild Frontiers and Here They Come With Their Makeup On, and is currently writing a third that follows Pulp as they recorded their This is Hardcore album, but witnessing it in person was an amazing experience. She has the ability to craft a story which not only contains so much detail but is told in such and engaging way, she has the captivates the audience, eagerly hanging on her her every word. After her talk, I had the pleasure of sitting down with her and discussing the ins and outs of Britpop, the media and the world of PR.
Suede received 18 front covers before their first album came out, an amazing feat. Do you think this set the tone for the Britpop mania which followed?
I think a few people have asked what first the Britpop record was. Probably The Drowners as a single was the first Britpop Record. I mean people, people sort of talk about it and being around in the 60s in the 80s, and stuff, but what we understand is Britpop. It was definitely The Drowners I think. They were on the cover of Melody Maker before that came out. That was a fluke actually, it was meant to be EMF, and I think the pictures were really good that Tom Sheehan did of Suede, so they took a chance and put Suede on the front cover the as the best new band in Britain, and that changed everything immediately. I got calls from people saying who is this band? No one had seen them live at that point. So obviously everyone’s turned up at their next gig. But what that translates into is, 18 front covers before the first album came out. They were on the cover of Q Magazine after two singles which was unheard of. From those covers you had, two Select Magazine covers, Q Magazine, three NME’s and three Melody Makers. Suede were the hottest. Suede were bigger in the press than any other band during their exis-
1992 to 2002. They were more important to the press than any of those big four, Suede, Pulp, Blur and Oasis, even though they didn’t sell as many records as Blur and Oasis, if you could get an interview with Brett it would sell magazines.
Do you think that this level of press negatively affected the portrayal of music by commoditising it, especially when press coverage started to seep into the tabloids?
It was a very exciting time for music and the NME probably sold 200,000 copies a week at some point during the 90s, and Melody Maker would sell 80,000 copies a week, then Sounds and Record Mirror were going at the same time. Everybody was buying magazines. Every band that we looked after has sold at least 50,000 copies of their records, no matter how bog standard, Britpop derivative they were. So it was a huge time for music, probably the last great music movement. With that comes it being treated as a commodity, but I never wanted my bands ever to be in the tabloids, I hated the tabloids. But the bands suddenly became so big that we got calls from the Mirror and the Sun. So if that thing happened, it was an inevitability.
Talking about the hype surrounding bands, what was it liking working with Menswear who had signed with their publishing company for £500,000, even though they had minimal material?
Well, there was a rumour that the A&R guy had his hand up at the wrong moment when they got signed. Menswear were never given a chance and I feel quite guilty about that, because I described them as a post-modern experiment between a PR company and the media and that was a low thing to say. But it felt like at that point that they hadn’t got enough material to warrant the interest they made. So part of it was our fault and part of it was them putting themselves in front of the public so early. They should have known what would have happened to be associated with Savage and Best. They were perfect. They looked great, they had a really good vibe, so it’s not surprising that the press picked up on them. But they did flash and burn very quickly. I feel guilt about that as they are really lovely people.
So would you say at the time it was more about the hype a band created rather then their music?
Yes. I’ll say that.
Can you elaborate on the importance of the media in promoting albums back then? Especially regarding reviews.
So I was very close to the artists I looked after and I would take personal offence if one of the records wasn’t reviewed beautifully. The first Suede album, believe it or not got seven out of ten in the NME even though the NME and Melody Maker were meant to be in love with Suede. So that was a shock. I think Brett was mortified. Seven out of ten for the debut album, which was meant to be a groundbreaking record.
But the thing is about hype, by the time we get to that first album, some people think it’s a disappointment, because people in the know have been experiencing those songs live all the time. The Sex Pistols album was a disappointment to some people and some people say you just need to listen to Spunk, which was a bootleg record around the same time. Then you need to listen to the demos before it was all polished up. The same thing with The Smiths, people say you should listen to Hatful of Hollow the compilation album because they didn’t put their best tracks in the first album. But to most people the first Suede and Smiths album was the greatest album ever. But not for the people who have been seeing the band live 20 times a year. Same thing with Suede, so it’s hyped bands that often get their first album badly reviewed.
How did Oasis bursting on to the scene impact the more established bands such as Blur and Suede?
Definitely Maybe, for instance, when we got a tape of that in the office, we were laughing because the song was a derivative of Neil Innes’ track called How Sweet To Be An Idiot. I think he got royalties because one of their songs sounded like that. There were three or four other songs they had to pay royalties on. So we thought they’re doomed. Then the second album came out. I think Oasis did change everything, because I think I said before that they tapped into this laddish football majority that none of Britpop bands had done. That actually made other bands change the way that they promoted themselves. John Harris’s book notes Damon started becoming more of a lad himself. This became a bit of a joke because Damon was middle class and didn’t really understand, football and everything. I noticed he started hanging around with Phil Daniels and started doing a more Cockney accent. So Brett took the piss out of Damon, because of the Justine thing, he’s
talking about going out the apples and pears all the time. But then the same thing happened to Brett. The thing about Suede changing, is that Bernard Butler left half of the recording of Dogman Star in August 1994 which then came out in October, so Suede had to promote this record with their guitarist absent. Brett at that point changed the dynamic, he recruited seventeen year old guitarist Richard Oakes and Neil Coddling, Simon’s cousin. Brett changed his demeanour at that point, and started saying, “aw right”. There were two things go on there. One was that he thought he had to try harder because the dream was dying because Bernard left. The other reason he started doing that was because Oasis were ‘laddy’, and he thought there’s no room to be effete anymore, I have to say, “aw right”. So there are other ways this changed the behaviour of the other bands around at the time.
In regards to the Brett and Damon feud, would there ever be times where you would think, ‘oh god I can’t believe they’ve just said that’ and you would have to try and spin it in a less damaging way to the press?
It was quite sweet the things they would say, they were arguing over their relationship
with Justine and Brett never liked Damon for that in those days. But I didn’t think it was nasty, I didn’t mind it. It was fun and a bit silly. That’s what indie bands did then, they all argued about each other. But I think when Oasis arrived with their bouncers and their laddish mentality, I think that changed everything and suddenly Brett and Damon didn’t have that argument anymore. Suede were sidelined and it became between Damon and Noel. I mean Liam said some disparaging things about Justine which was pretty shitty, but generally, Noel and Damon had this barney and they said horrible things to each other, “I hope you get cancer”, “I hope you get AIDS”. That was much more serious than the silly things Brett and Damon would argue about.
Do you think Oasis and Blur’s press team found it difficult trying dealing with a feud that had gone up a level from the innocence of Bret and Damons?
I do think they found it difficult, but I think rivalries are a good thing. Similar to how it was built up with the Stones and the Beatles. I think it actually helped the scene become bigger.
Do you think that those feuds potentially ruined the bands chances of success in America as they were too busy fighting for dominance in the UK charts?
Well, I think possibly that the Battle of Britain, which was on the News at 10 and it was on the cover of the NME, probably did help their profile in America. But Blur was still very British sounding and didn’t quite crossover. Damon had said, “I want to get rid of grunge” and then of course, he thought, we need to break America, let’s make a record that sounds like it’s an American record. The reason Suede never broke America, was they were on the David Letterman Show, and David Letterman said to Brett, “What bands do you listen to when you’re at home?” And you’re meant to say Aerosmith and Guns and Roses, and he said, “I just listen to Suede.” So that was one of the reasons, they were just too effete, too sort of stylish and foppish. The reason Oasis didn’t really break America is because Noel and Liam were just arguing all the time. They could’ve made it massive in America.
On the topic of national pride, obviously it was viewed differently then from how it is today. It was a celebration of sensibilities rather than jingoism. I feel as if you couldn’t
create a cultural movement with this overbalance of patriotism in todays world?
No, no, you can’t you’re right. Even then it was problematic and Britpop is an awful name isn’t it? It’s got Brit and Pop in it, it’s shit. Then Morrissey did that thing where he commandeered the Union Jack. When Select put the Union Jack behind Brett’s head, I had to write a disclaimer, saying that we had nothing to do with it, and then Melody Maker did the same thing. The media were desperate for this, you know, if they put a Union Jack on the cover, everyone would buy it. The media were basically fuelling the agenda, it wasn’t necessarily the bands. An example is when Liam and Patsy were on the cover of Vanity Fair in bed with a Union Jack duvet. I wasn’t involved in that photo shoot, so I don’t know if that was superimposed or not, but a lot of stuff around then was superimposed on the bands. But the thing is, the Union Jack is a controversial thing, isn’t it? But since then, we’ve become almost ashamed of our Britishness. We’re trying to forgive ourselves for the terrible things we did 200 years ago. How far you have to take that, I don’t know.
Circling back to derivativeness in Britpop, when you were doing PR for Elastica, was this something you would point out to the media or would you draw attention away from it?
The thing is they had to pay the Stranglers for a guitar line in a track and I think Wire as well. I didn’t flag those things up at all. But when, when Alex James brought in me a copy of Girls and Boys, I thought it had an Elastica guitar and bass line. Then when Justine played me Line Up, I thought it was a Blur song. I genuinely thought maybe I’d seen a cassette which said Blur and Line Up on it. To bring that subject up is derogatory, because it makes most people say, “So you’re saying women can’t write great songs, and that Damon wrote it?” I’m not saying that at all I’m saying, I was probably very confused by what was going on my life because I took too many drugs. And then who’s to say that Justine and Damon didn’t play off each other with their musical influences, and Elastica and Blur ended up sounding like each other for a period of six weeks.
What were your favourite and least favourite bands from that era?
Favourite, Suede. Least favourite, Kula Shaker.
If you had to show someone one song that encapsulated Britpop what song would that be?
Common People by Pulp
Do you think there was a person that captured the essence of Britpop?
The thing is most people were Britpop deniers. In my new book about Pulp I’ve got a quote from each of the Big Four and everyone says something really terrible
about Britpop. So everybody you mentioned, is gonna be a Britpop denier. But it’s not Liam or Noel that sums it up and Suede don’t like it. I’d say Jarvis sums up Britpop. I love Pulp, I love Jarvis and they were quite Britpoppy, I think.
From a personal point of view, I think the record that destroyed Britpop was This Is Hardcore. Jarvis got on stage with Michael Jackson in February 1996 and that changed his level of fame, he became so famous policemen were shaking his hands in the street. He was utterly disappointed by fame so he created this record, in which was he used pornography as a metaphor for how had fame had turned out for him. The record was so dark and beautiful and sprawling and so non-Britpop. If you look back, Dogman Star, Blur’s American album and Oasis’ Be Here Now were meant to destroy Britpop, but the record that really destroyed it was by a band that had been going for over 25 years, because he was so anomalous with what was going on at the time. Pulp, who had been seen as this beautiful happy band making this dark masterpiece, potentially destroyed Britpop.
Well the high is probably Pulp at Glastonbury when they replaced the Stone Roses, because I literally thought they would be bottled off because no one knew they’re going to play. I thought we in the office knew who they were and nobody else did. Then they came on and started with possibly Razzmatazz, I think it was, and the place went berserk. I remember looking around being like oh my god I can’t believe this is happening. That was my high point. The low point was probably some of the drugs that circulated around the scene around 1998, that felt like it was the that was the end of Britpop really. That felt quite dark.
“Modern life is the rubbish of the past. We all live on the rubbish: It dictates our thoughts. And because its all built up over such a long period of time, there’s no necessity for any originality any more. There are so many old things to splice together in infinite permutations that there is absolutely no need to create anything new.” Damon Albarn (Harris, 2004). These thoughts by Albarn regarding the title of Blur’s second album, Modern Life is Rubbish, are poignant, reflecting the mood of up and coming British songwriters of the time. They became the catalyst for a cultural revolution that looked back on it’s past and celebrated it, as Cliff Jones says, “It was a cultural return to home, it was a rebonding with those ideas of what being British was about.” (Jones, 2023).
When Blur’s press release announcing Modern Life is Rubbish was sent to the various news desks, they included a pin-up titled British Image Number 1 (Harris, 2004). It featured the band dressed in typical skinhead attire, Fred Perry and Doc Martens, stood against a blank white wall with the title of the photo graffitied. In front of the band stands an imposing Great Dane. This symbolised a change in character from the band, who were once known as trend-followers, were now beginning to pave their own way in their reclamation of English music and patriotism (Keoghan, 2011).
It is important to remember that at this period of time, the idea of
British patriotism in music was closely associated with the Skinhead movement, of which a small portion were members of the altright with strong ties to the National Front and the British National Party (Richardson, 2019). This peaked at a 1992 concert at Finsbury Park where Morrissey incited the crowd of skinheads by parading around the stage holding the Union Jack. (Harrison, 1993). However, the infiltration of fascism into mainstream culture was calculated (Turner-Graham, 2015). The fashion sensibilities referred to the ‘casual’ dress sense of football hooligans, understated and designed to blend in (Richardson, 2019).
One of the first mainstream attempts to reclaim patriotism from the clutches of fascists was in the April 1993 issue of Select Magazine, a feature discussing the ‘Best of British’ and depicting Suede’s Brett Anderson on the cover in front of the Union Jack. In the feature, contained a piece from Andrew Harrison, which stated, “A flag should represent the best in a country … tolerance, pride without hatred…” (Harrison, 1993). Another reclamation of this is Blur’s two part series of ‘British Images’. The first, as previously described, containing the band in traditional Skinhead attire and the second depicting the band dressed in boating regalia, as if they hailed from the echelons of the upper class. The depiction of the band in these settings were meant to symbolise two distinct cultures
that made up the country, drawing influence from mixed-race two-tone groups of the 80s in the first image and the idea of quintessential Englishness of tea-parties and the countryside in the second. (Harris, 2004). These ideas, the intersection of British life, would subsequently be explored on Blur’s second and third albums. (Jones, 2023).
These examples show how the the UK indie scene at the time were trying to reclaim what was great about Britain, these players were fed up with how the English sensibilities of art-school music by the likes of Syd Barrett and The Kinks was lost and replaced by an Americanised worldview, so evident in grunge. The two aforementioned examples are some of the earliest examples of this reclamation (Jones, 2023). This shift in how the British national identity was viewed and the fact that these artists and journalists were proud of it could be said to have “perform(ed) an act of “magical recovery’ in that through its idealistic vision… it helps to rescue and revive an aspect of British cultural life which is gradually disappearing.” (Bennett, 1997). The narratives that came from the Britpop movement and its representation in the media is that this act of reclamation, saved the Union Jack from the far-right and became a representation of all the good things about England. (Hopkins, 2022) However, there is concern that it wasn’t a reclamation of pride for a nation but a way for ‘white,
heterosexual males’ to assert their Englishness (Lueders, 2017). A significant counter argument against the reclamation shown in Blur’s British Image Number 1 is, “there’s no recognition that reducing the painful lived experiences of British minorities to props from a dressing up box might be problematic” (Hopkins, 2022). The impression is that in an industry that is mainly made up of straight white men, the stories and lived experiences of minorities were pushed aside, in order to live up to this media narrative of a great coming together.
It seems that this great coming together was less so about race and more-so about social class. Blur’s British Image series depicts the band as working class and upper class and the class fluidity this time period allowed. The feature by Select goes to the effort of heavily inferring they don’t want British pride to reflect the racist demeanour of the National Front and such organisations. But at what cost? ethnic minorities were not part of this reclamation, and the honest truth is, this sense of British pride is only seen retrospectively. In the long run, British pride fell out of touch quite quickly, whether it got corrupted by ‘lad culture’ or Tony Blair destroyed it when he invaded Iraq (Savidge, 2023).
Guitarist Jon Stewart formed Sleeper alongside Louise Wener, in the early 1990s. After signing to Indolent records the band went on to have eight top forty UK singles and three top ten albums. Now a lecturer at BIMM Brighton, alongside his duties in Sleeper, Jon, kindly gave up his time to answer a few questions about how the media impacted him and the band.
How did you feel the media portrayed the band at the time?
I think, at the time, I was just grateful for any coverage. In the early 1990s there were maybe five or ten bands that I knew of personally who were in a similar situation looking for a record deal and looking to release music. (In those days it was almost impossible to finance record and distribute your work without some support from a label.) So when Sleeper got a record deal, made some EPs, and began to get some press attention it was always something you were grateful for … because it meant that people were hearing about your band. Most of the bands that we played with before we signed a record deal in Camden never got to receive any attention and you wouldn’t know them today as a result. So … there’s two parts to this question, really. The first is how we were portrayed in terms of getting any attention in the first place. For that one I think I’m just grateful that we had some media attention. Of course, you do have to remember that this was because we had a press agent. That is how the media works. That all happened because of the fact that we
managed to get a record contract and have people help record and release and promote our music. The second is the way that people reviewed the music. I guess I have mixed feelings about that because it is a total joy to receive a positive review and very painful to receive a negative review … and like most bands we had some of both. I know some of the journalists concerned and I’ve seen them give revues to other bands that I felt were very unfair, extremely harsh for no reason whatsoever. I do as a result have a great deal of sympathy for artists who feel aggrieved when they release work that is poorly reviewed.
(How) Did the the prevalent ‘lad culture’ at the time impact the band? Was it something that you would notice in the press coverage the band received?
I didn’t really enjoy or understand the lad culture of the 1990s. I didn’t like it at the time, and I don’t understand it now. I think it was an attempt to demonstrate a sense of personal freedom for men, a legitimation of male fashion and behaviours. To be honest I don’t think you can grasp any of this without understanding the economic system behind it. In that sense I think I’m probably a bit of an “economic determinist”. This idea comes from the philosopher Karl Marx. He suggested that the shape of the
economy determines culture at any given time: who owns things, how things are exchanged, how natural resources are exploited. These are the factors that shape culture. They help to determine communications technology and that, in turn determines the way that music, film, sport, literature, education and other forms of culture express themselves. So laddism came about at a time when the economics and technology behind communication were changing. We had new magazines and other sources giving young people access to the media. We had lots of Independent Record labels who driving their own agenda of free expression. That all shaped how the socalled lad culture developed. There was a suggestion at the time that this was all somehow progressive. I don’t think that was really the case. I think it was, actually, deeply conservative. I don’t think it did much to help people understand how healthy relationships work, or what are appropriate means of human interaction.
Were there times that you felt Louise received an unfair portrayal in the media, or any other instances where there was obvious sexism?
Louise definitely received sexist and unfair portrayals in the media, both from music jornalists
and television presenters. They saw her as someone who had something controversial to say which was, at that time, unusual for a young woman. I don’t think she was treated very fairly as a result, and I think that was also true of many other women in the industry at the time. I know that Louise and other artists of her ilk found that frustrating. I think things are very different today and that is a good thing.
Most bands from the time try to distance themselves from being categorised as ‘Britpop’, how do you feel about Sleeper being categorised as Britpop?
We did not have a problem being labelled as Britpop. Grunge was very popular when we formed the band and our first records sounded like a mix of British indie and American alt rock. However, we lived in Camden at the time and it was very clear that’s something new was going to happen there. London had a very positive energy. It was a vibrant city with lots of clubs and venues and street markets and you could still afford to live somewhere half decent if you found the right place. Plus, many of the American indie bands, such as Pixies, actually broke in the UK because we had a much more manageable market. There were only, say, 4,000 record shops in the UK whereas there were maybe 40,000 in the United States. So to breakthrough in a large territory such as America you had to print 10 times as many copies of your single or album – just to get one in each shop. Also, in the United Kingdom you only needed to get on one or two BBC radio shows to garner an audience. The BBC enjoyed national coverage, unlike any American radio station, so if you could get the support of a couple of key DJs you had every reason to expect that a release was going to be successful –and it wasn’t too expensive to then distribute the records nationwide across all the different points of sale.
So … there was a great deal of underlying economic and technological potential for a movement such as Britpop to become established in the United Kingdom should the opportunity arise. That came when, sadly, Kurt Cobain committed suicide. The grunge movement for which he was an artistic and creative figurehead began to wind down, and it was obvious that something new was needed to fill the gap. It was also 30 years since the heyday of the 1960s “British Invasion” bands, and many people who were young fans of that phenomenon the first time around had since risen to positions of power at record labels and media companies. Plus all the young musicians were still listening to their mum’s and dad’s records from that era. That all came together to create a huge potential for a new musical movement. We supported Blur on their Parklife tour and it was quite clear that something really big was happening. British-influenced bands, musicians and songwriters who had listened to and absorbed The Beatles and The Kinks and The Who were suddenly able to sound like the music they had grown up with, and find a whole new audience.
Being in a band in London in the early 90s, was there a feeling that this wave of new British bands were about to become the biggest in the country?
Yes, it was overwhelming. On the Blur tour I remember a moment when they played Shepherds Bush Empire. We had played there twice before, once with the Lemonheads and once with another British indie band from Bristol called The Blue Aeroplanes. Both of those shows were fun but nothing like that Blur gig. It was hugely oversold. People were dancing and bouncing around so much you could literally see the venue shaking. The sound engineer ran a cable from the front of house desk in the stalls up to the balcony, where he
had installed some additional PA speakers. That cable was visibly swaying in time with the music as the balcony moved up and down. Blur were on fire and it was an incredible show to witness. We were #1 in the indie charts, they were #1 in the mainstream charts. Quite an event. At that time it was clear something big was going on.
We were invited to an early screening of the film and saw what became the director’s cut. It was clear this was going to be a huge success. We were asked to cover a Blondie song because they wanted too much money and we were cheaper. We were glad to do it because it was a huge opportunity. We are still probably better known for our version of “Atomic” in America than we are for any of our own songs. Of course, you don’t get so much publishing revenue if you do a cover version. We did have an original song in the film, “Statuesque”. We had a big debate within the band about whether or not we should allow our own song to be used on the soundtrack. Our manager wanted to save it for a single. That seemed like a good idea because it went in the top ten.
However, in the long run, the Trainspotting soundtrack album went on to become a huge selling record worldwide. We would probably have done better too allow our own song to be used on that rather than the Blondie song. Those kind of decisions are always easier to make in hindsight. Every artist has at least one story where they have made a similar mistake one way or the other. It was just a great privilege to be associated with such a culturally important film.
How did the decline of Britpop effect the band?
It was quite clear that Britpop was going to come to an end sooner or later. All movements do. That’s only natural. A new generation of people come along and want their own music. We got to have three albums of original material plus a Greatest Hits collection. Today that would be quite a substantial career. At the time, however, it felt like it was one album short of a decent run … because it is usually sometime after a band’s fourth album that they are able to renegotiate their record and/ or publishing contract. That can be quite a lucrative moment. It’s sometimes the point at which artists become sufficiently empowered
to realise some of the income they might have generated for others along the way.
Could you tell me about how the media coined the word “Sleeperbloke” and your thoughts on it?
I don’t have too many thoughts on it. I didn’t really want to engage with the media at the time. I don’t want to engage with them now. I’m not really a fan of the media as such. I’m really, genuinely, only interested in music. Music is my passion. I don’t really care about radio, television or the music press. I guess ultimately it reflects how strong Louise was, and is, as frontperson. I have always felt very lucky to be in a band with Louise. She is a truly great songwriter.
What was your high point of the 90s?
I was very lucky to tour the UK and Europe, and then America and Japan. That is about as much fun as you can have in a band.
What was your low-point of the 90s?
There are a lot of highs and lows in music. Any band who loses a record contract would probably describe that as being a painful moment. However you have to remember that you are
incredibly privileged to be given the opportunity in the first place.
Favourite and least favourite Britpop acts?
My favourite bands and albums from that era are not really Britpop bands as such. I love Pavement, Madder Rose, and Buffalo Daughter. They are American and Japanese bands. I thought Radiohead were probably the best British band of that era. The Sun is Often Out by Long Pigs is probably my favourite album from the time. Seven singles, I think. In terms of my own influences as a guitarist, I always thought The Wedding Present released a superb string of albums throughout the 1990s … despite never being considered Britpop. I don’t have any least favourite acts. I don’t have anything negative to say about other artists.
What do you think caused the decline of Britpop?
Music scenes come and go. It’s as simple as that.
Britpop did not take place. There is no such thing as Britpop as a musical genre, only a thin veil of a cultural movement which was less about music but the rebranding of Britain. Much like Baudrillard’s essays on the Gulf War, which claimed there was no war, but a media storm to cover up atrocities committed in the Middle East (Baudrillard, 1995), this article aims to demonstrate that Britpop was solely a media phenomenon, a push to rebrand the UK and was corrupted by New Labour to push their not-so left wing agenda. While it may have started out as an attempt to shift the worlds cultural sphere away from America and back to the UK, the genre never really took off across the pond. It could be said that unlike the British Invasion which took British sensibilities to the world, Britpop was taking British sensibilities back to the UK public (Lueders, 2017).
Britpop was manufactured from the outset, the very first instance of it in the media came about from Savage and Best and Select Magazine putting a bunch of artists the former worked with on the cover (Savidge, 2023). The angle of making it a patriotic puff piece on the UK music scene was envisaged as a response to grunge and American sensibilities, Chris Heath said, “America had won with Nirvana, There was a desperation whether anything British would ever mean anything worldwide again.” (Savage, 1995). Even more specifically, Andrew Harrison’s article on the Union Jack was a response to Morrissey’s antics at Finsbury Park the year prior. (Harris, 2004). The decision for the Union Jack
on the front cover was due to the fact it sold copies. (Savidge, 2023). People wanted to buy magazines that celebrated them, and although the UK public evidently were keen on the flag, the bands featured in this issue weren’t as much. Luke Haines of The Auteurs stated in the magazine, “The Union Jack doesn’t mean anything to me. But I definitely didn’t approve of Morrissey’s actions ... He has young and impressionable fans, and to play around with that kind of imagery in times like these is dangerous in the extreme” (Haines, 1993 p.66). It’s clear the bands were uncomfortable with this idea of using the Union Jack as a motif for the music they were making, and as Jane Savidge (2023) elaborates, “The media were basically fuelling the agenda, it wasn’t necessarily the bands.”
However, the bands at the time would play with this overt expression of national pride. One of the enduring symbols of the time is Noel Gallagher and his Union Jack Epiphone at Maine Road (Lees, 2020). That being said, the guitar was a gift from Gallagher’s then partner, Meg Matthews, and he reportedly didn’t like it and what it symbolised. (The Oasis Podcast, 2021). This is further backed up by the attitude Noel and the rest of band had in the press towards the UK. Being second generation Irish, Noel stated, “There’s not a drop of English blood in me… I feel just as Irish as the next person.” (Boyd, 2008).
The fact that none of the artists felt resonance with Union Jack, and arguably the most iconic image of the period is of someone who distanced themselves from being
English holding a Union Jack guitar. Shows that this image of patriotism and pride in the UK was largely imposed upon the bands by the media.
The hype created around the bands at this time was overwhelming, key example being Menswear who had signed to their publishing company for £500,000, whilst having written less then seven songs (Simpson, 2020). Any band slightly associated with Britpop was getting press coverage and subsequently selling a huge amount of records (Savidge, 2023). While the media, made out that the whole country was Britpop mad and it was inescapable, in reality it was only one street in Camden where it was focussed (Jones, 2023). What became the turning point that took Britpop from the music press and created it a nation wide phenomenon was the tabloids picking up on it. Cliff Jones (2023) elaborates, “So the tabloids created the movement that became Britpop which then became celebrated throughout British culture. If it hadn’t been for the tabloids, Britpop would have just been another little movement like shoegazing.” The hype around a band was more important then the music itself (Savidge, 2023).
However Cliff Jones (2023) goes on to say that, “You can’t hype your way into the top ten, people either buy your record or they don’t.” This is obviously true, for example Menswear even with all their hype at the time didn’t sell as many records as the big four, even though they were tipped to be just as big (Simpson, 2020). The reason these big bands were so popular was because they are objectively good.
It is interesting to examine the story of Menswear, they were ridiculously hyped up in the media, their first mention coming before they even had a name (Harris, 2004). They signed to Savage and Best for their PR needs, with Savage and Best being arguably the most influential PR company. However, they only released a single album and had a singular top ten record (Strong, 2003). Their story does indicate that there was an aspect of media hype in creating the cultural movement that was known as Britpop. The fact that even though the band were so hyped only to “be destined to a footnote of pop history” (Erlewine, no date), is proof that the media created hype out of nothing, either to sell more copies of their publications or to promote a musical movement they gave birth to. It is with hindsight that we can see the effects of the media on the scene at the time. Before Menswear had released their album, there probably was a very real feeling that they were coming for the big bands, however they failed to live up to expectations and showed the media were the instigators of this unjustified hype.
The period after 1992 was a momentous time for British politics, after years of Conservative leadership, Labour finally stood a chance in the polls (Broxton, 2020) To mark this change the Labour Party rebranded as New Labour and incorporated the the Union Jack (at least it’s colours), into their campaign material (Savage, 1995). New Labour intended to rebrand the nations image and make it more attractive on a global scale (Culea and Suciu, 2019), the days of Thatcher were
were over and the negative image she was associated with was to be ousted. The very nickname of this era (besides Britpop) was Cool Britannia, a play on words of the English naval song, Rule Britannia, signifying due respect to British heritage but making it modern and suave. This is exactly what Blur were doing musically at the time, however instead of English naval songs their references were the 1960s English art school sensibilities of Syd Barrett, The Who and The Kinks (Jones, 2023). This is something that was noticed by Blair and his office and they subsequently tried to get in contact with these artists to endorse Labour. Blair’s push for PM was orchestrated by Peter Mandleson and Alastair Campbell, and they understood the importance of co-opting these bands, who were extremely popular, into helping them (Savidge, 2023). The bands at the time leaned into this, Blur met with Tony Blair at the Houses of Parliament and Noel Gallagher endorsed New Labour (Harris, 2004). What strengthens the case of New Labour hijacking Britpop’s media storm, is the fact that key music magazine, Q, was founded by a university friend of Tony Blair (Ahmed, 2023). It raises the question, did this feeling of overbearing patriotism, have its roots in back door deals between politicians and magazine editors? Was Britpop real or was it a convoluted attempt to rebrand the nation?
The argument against this is the fact that, in subsequent years, political parties have tried to tap into pop culture to boost their status, the same way New Labour did. An example being David Cameron’s
Conservative government during the 2012 Summer Olympics. The campaign was funded by the Tory government and administered by Sebastian Coe (a conservative) and aimed at “universal chic and young British talents that put Britain at the international forefront.” (Navarro, 2016). This signifies that it is a universal concept, politics will draw on cultural events and phenomena in order to garner support. Britpop and Cool Britannia were not solely political tools used by New Labour, but a media phenomenon which they latched on to and used to their advantage.
Britpop was an important cultural event and to say it wasn’t a phenomenon would be extremely short sighted. What this essay aims to show that unlike punk, which was a anti-establishment grass roots movement and continuously slated in the mainstream press, Britpop was highly consumerist. (Navarro, 2016). The media played a vital role in building up its image. Select Magazine’s feature demonstrates that, and the moment it crossed into the tabloids, it’s reach expanded to the entire nation. The repetitive use of the Union Jack and it being imposed constantly on the artists, by the media, implies that what we associate with Britpop was a mere attempt to sell more magazines. An interesting thought to end on, if Britpop was such a conceited attempt at refocusing the cultural sphere on the UK, why did it never achieve the same levels of success in America? Was it because it was never meant to change the worlds perspective of the UK, but to rebrand the nations self image? Were all the manifestos against grunge and the reclamation of the Union Jack all media dross used to sell magazines?
Starting his career as a journalist, Cliff Jones interviewed the likes of Oasis and Blur early on in their careers, and became one of the key tastemakers in the UK indie scene at the time. In 1994 Cliff formed his own band, Gay Dad. They went on to have numerous top forty singles and released two albums. Cliff’s exerience in the industry is second-to-none and i was lucky enough to chat with him about Britpop and the media.
So when did you first notice that press coverage was shifting from grunge bands to young British bands?
There were two stand out points in the repudiation of grunge. The first one was what Sounds were doing. The magazine built up Britpop, and it had built up grunge. There was a very particular moment where it all went wrong for them, and they kind of coincided. I began hearing the rumblings around the release of Modern Life Is Rubbish, which is the second Blur album. I remember doing an interview with Blur where we talked about British art school tradition. I had interviewed them for the first album they did and this idea of art school tradition wasn’t really there at that point. By the time they got to Modern Life Is Rubbish, there was definitely a sense that we were pulling away from the sort of the grunge aesthetic. I had a conversation with Damon about it and we were talking about the fact that there was very little that linked the Syd Barrett tradition of British art school
pop to current popular music and that lineage had been lost. I remember talking with him and Graham about that, arguing that it was time that we reasserted Britishness. It’s very important that it’s noted that this wasn’t jingoism. This was a sense of loss, that the great tradition that had led to the Beatles, Revolver, Rubber Soul and Sergeant Pepper, had been lost, and all the British tradition of art school pop that came out of Ealing, The Who, Pink Floyd, all of those bands. So that’s the first turning point, it was just around the time when Modern Life Is Rubbish came out. Modern Life Is Rubbish, is a very British album, meanwhile, American music raged on. Grunge itself was a repudiation of the West Coast American bands like Guns and Roses. But as an aesthetic, it didn’t last very long. I remember at the Face, we were going to put Evan Dando on the cover. We had shot a cover of Evan naked in a bath full of lemons. Everyone was going, Oh, it’s great. You know, he’s so gorgeous. However I had just come from the studio where I’d heard Girls and Boys by Blur and I walked into the office, and said, “Look, we have to do this”. I made a pitch to Sheryl Garratt, where I said, “We’ve got to reassert this Britishness and this whole angle on British art school pop, the traditions that led to the Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Kinks and all of those
great sort of British exports.” And she said, to her eternal credit, “Right, we’re going to do it.” She immediately decided to put Evan Dando, elsewhere in the magazine, and for this story to be the cover. It was a big risk at that point. There were several journalists that then talked about the Suede influence and all of it was rumbling there. And Select Magazine was probably the first place where we saw the idea of Britpop as a conceptual term. I think I pulled the second major cover together, which was the Blur cover. So it all happened in that 18 month period. It wasn’t like everybody woke up and suddenly we’re all Britpop. It has its origins in a very long tale, of British pop, basically being a bit bored with the aesthetic of American rock. That’s how we thought about it. But like I say, it wasn’t jingoism, we weren’t reactionary in as much as we weren’t looking back, but we did think it was time to reassert the power of British pop sensibilities. It wasn’t a right wing thing it’s exactly the opposite. It was more about trying to understand British art school aesthetics.
As a music journalist, did you ever resent the fact the tabloids got so heavily involved with the gossip surrounding the bands, potentially drawing the publics attention away from the music created by the artist?
No, because that’s a measure that you’ve crossed over. Why would anybody care about that? That’s amazing. You have to remember that the whole scene for Britpop was tiny it’s just that the tabloid press made it seem like it was massive. It wasn’t, it was like one street in Camden and a couple of people’s houses. The the tabloids made it the thing it was. You don’t get 250,000 people attending Knebworth without the support of the tabloids. I didn’t resent it for one minute. It made the era the epoch and it turned it into something that was a cultural landmark. The tabloids took it from a minor thing in the British music media and made it into something culturally resonant for the entire UK population. So it became much more than just the bands it became a cultural moment for the British people, in the same way that punk marks a sort of turning point in 70s culture. So the tabloids created the high watermark and created the movement that became Britpop that then became celebrated throughout British culture. If it hadn’t been for the tabloids, Britpop would have just been another little movement like shoegazing. It was the fact that all the people in that scene were falling over, getting drunk, playing amazing gigs, creating amazing music and the fact that the tabloids created a whole Blur vs Oasis thing. It was amazing. That’s what you want. It’s like, you know, Churchill versus Hitler or something like that. What you’ve got these binary opposition’s that the tabloids love, you’re either you’re either good or bad. There’s no in between That’s the genius of the British media.
Expanding on band rivalries, when talking to Jane Savidge, she said she thought that these rivalries were playful until Oasis entered the picture and the tone became more nasty. Do you think Oasis entering the scene changed how artists spoke about each other in the media?
The rivalry between Brett and Damon was very middle
class, it was a very sort of respectful feud. When Oasis came to town, it became class rivalry. It became about the triumph and the assertion of the working class, Noel Gallagher’s a smart guy but he’s definitely got a chip on his shoulder and had massive chip on his shoulder at that point. Liam was far more playful and much more fun to be around then Noel. Noel continues to have a sort of bitterness. It was Noel versus the world and he really resented the the wealth and class that came with Blur, Suede and all those bands. It was art school kids versus northern comprehensive kids. So essentially, they brought a kind of caustic, chippy, northern, class focused agenda to it and it did become rather vitriolic. I think Liam and especially Noel felt that it was their job to sort of puncture the rather fey essence of what passed as British pop at that point. It became much more aggressive.
Bands, such as Menswear, had a massive amount of hype built around them by the media, yet ultimately failed to live up to it. Do you think this excessive hype from the media had the power to be detrimental to artists, and is this something you noticed as a journalist?
My band was one that that was tagged with the label hype. It’s not really hype at all. It’s just not every band can have a number one, you know, I had a top 10 and a bunch of top 20s. Menswear did the same, not everybody can be Oasis. Hype is bullshit, it doesn’t really exist. If you’re cool enough to get column inches, and you cross over into the tabloids, that’s just you being good at what you do. Hype is something that people pin on things if the music doesn’t live up to expectation. I would challenge anyone, go and listen to that Menswear album, go and listen to the Gay Dad record, it’s the equal of anything that was done by Blur or Oasis in terms of the actual songs. But not everybody can be top of the pile, that’s the way it rolls. Was it hype? It’s never hype. You can’t
hype your way into the top 10. People either buy your record or they don’t. The point is that hype is bullshit and doesn’t really exist. Things didn’t really happen but we like to pretend they did and it’s all about the story, isn’t it?
Do you think that as Britpop flourished, artists became less authentic while portraying themselves? For example Damon Albarn exaggerating his ‘Cockney Credentials’ and playing into the concept of laddism.
Authenticity in academic terms is really problematic when you apply it to things like pop music. Eurovision’s authentic, if you happen to be in the culture of Eurovision. Damon wasn’t inauthentic, he just knew that being a sort of educated middle class kid wasn’t him. He was finding his identity, he wasn’t being inauthentic. He said to me when I raised it with him, “Look, I need to slip between these identities I don’t feel comfortable anywhere.” Some people are just like that, I don’t think it’s inauthentic. Inauthentic behaviour is only inauthentic to people outside a particular scene. Authenticity is something bestowed by adherence to an aesthetic.
Do you think that at the peak of Britpop, the most important thing a band could have was good press coverage?
You can’t manufacture press. You’ve got to be worthy of conversation. You have to understand that having hit records is a beauty contest. People have to fundamentally like what you are to have a hit record. They have to believe in what you are. Britpop wasn’t created by press, Britpop was created by people who wanted others to believe in something as strongly as they did. I believed everything I wrote about Oasis and Blur. If you read the last paragraph of both features that I wrote on both of those artists, you will see me talking directly to the reader saying why you need to believe this, why this is important. I think at the heart of it, the great journalists of that period were evangelists. We also believed that we owed it to British culture to celebrate British culture. I have to say that’s not jingoism, that is a celebration of a culture that gave birth to tea, crumpets, psychedelia and to The Beatles. There was an idea that somehow things are manufactured. You can’t manufacture success.
Ultimately, people have the audience have to love it. I used to call it a willing conspiracy between the audience, the labels, the bands and the culture itself. People want to believe. Your job, as a PR or a journalist, is to show other people why they need to believe. Journalists at that point had the power to filter the culture to say no, don’t focus on that bullshit over there, fuck your Genesis records and your Take That albums, this is why you need to put down all that bullshit, shitty pop that you’re listening to. This is why you need to believe in this. We tried to make people feel and think things and remind them of the culture that had given rise to The Smiths, for example. We wanted something new and that’s what the journalism was. This rounds up to perhaps the most important point of all: This movement was not about music. It just wasn’t about music at all. It was about it was about the reassertion of British culture and British cultural values in the music that we sold and gave to the world. It’s not jingoism this is people going actually Morrissey is much more fucking important than Kurt Cobain. In other words, it was it was a willing conspiracy to re-establish British culture on a global stage. The tabloids, the music press and the media in general, worked with
the artists to create this kind of loose conspiracy of the willing. That’s why it’s such an important cultural force because at that moment, there was a sense that we were united as a nation that we had finally found a way forward politically, socio-economically, that we were thriving. We weren’t just surviving we were thriving and there was something cool about that.
I don’t think Britpop ended, it’s like any movement, it just kind of gets tired and people move on. It fragmented, I think it’s there in Blur’s 13 record, the re-looking to American music. In the same way that the Beatles began embracing wider musical forms. So did The Stones in 1968 and went back to a traditional American blues and folk music. In the same way Britpop kind of began looking back to America, and again Blur lead the way with 13. It was the exit soundtrack to Britpop. What ended it really was Knebworth. It was its big moment, but it also ended it for everybody.
The high point of Britpop for me is with a mate, Mike Leonard, the editor of Guitar Magazine, who’s now sadly died.
I got a tip off from Laurent at Creation Records. She said, “Look, there’s going to be a gig tonight, this new band that Alan’s signing, they’re playing at Water Rats. Come down to see them. You’ll really like it.” So I went to that gig. And then they played again, like two weeks later at Deptford. They were probably about 10 people in the audience for their set, and I went with Mike. Every single one of those people was a journalist who later went on to be important in Britpop. I remember staying up with Mike, we were so blown away. We then went back into central London, we went to a place called the Troy Club. We stayed up all night drinking and just going, this is our moment. This is it. We finally got a new popstar figurehead, and his name is Liam Gallagher. It was all about Liam. That was the high point. I think the low point for me is difficult because it was a triumph in so many ways but I would say Knebworth was the end and I can tell you the exact moment for me. I remember being out there and wandering in the crowd and seeing a bunch of rugger buggers who were all posh kids. They were all singing along with their pints. I kind of thought, “You know what, this is the fucking end. This is what Britpop is; all the promise of that sort of class agility is now here.” It felt like a sort of swan song. I feel that those of us that were ahead of the curve knew at that point it was over.
If you had to show someone one song that encapsulated Britpop what song would that be?
I’m gonna give you four. The first one is Columbia, that was really like, “whoa okay, this is something. There’s some energy here.” The second one is Champagne Supernova, because it kind of is the melodic high point of Britpop, it like, encapsulates all of the drugs, the social change, and the power and optimism of that period. The third one would be Disco 2000 by Pulp. I don’t like
this song but it does embody something. It’s intense embodiment of a sort of Christopher Isherwood-esque meets Charles Hawtree style of social observation. It’s very, very class based. It’s the middle class terraced life, it wasn’t working class. The sort of the terrible ennui of the British is embodied in that song. In terms of records that I think are incredible from that period, I would say Girls and Boys by Blur. I first heard that, and I thought this is it, it’s a great pop record. For me personally, it was the moment where I realised that all of that Englishness had led to a globally brilliant pop record. To hear it freshly minted before anyone had heard it and go right with finally they’ve done it, I think that was my moment. If I had to rank them, I’d probably put Columbia and Girls and Boys together. Then Champagne Supernova because it’s pop and by that point it got popular. Finally, Disco 2000 which captures a sort of British class thing in one go. Carry on up the charts with Jarvis Cocker.
Popscene contains three interviews, from journalist Cliff Jones, PR manager Jane Savidge and Guitarist Jon Stewart. I wanted to create a holy trinity, of the artist, the press and their PR to try and gain an understanding of how they viewed the media during the Britpop years. With Cliff and Jane I asked very similar questions as their lines of work were different sides of the same coin, so to speak. With Jon I aimed to ask questions that focussed on his time in Sleeper and attitudes he noticed, being in a band. One of the stark contrasts I found between Jane and Cliff’s interviews is their opinion on the tabloids. Jane was of the opinion that they were an inevitable hurdle when a band became famous, but she hated them. Cliff on the other hand believed that without the tabloids Britpop would never have been as all encompassing and for that reason he has no problem with them. I think these are both interesting stand points and personally I think it boils down to what angle you’re approaching the question from. My opinion is that Jane, who has approached from the perspective of PR, would be more so focussed on getting positive media coverage and that wasn’t something that was guaranteed with tabloids. Whereas Cliff, being a journalist and an artist, uses tabloids as a measure of fame and in turn success.
I find it interesting how both Jon and especially Cliff, drilled in the fact that Britpop was heavily inspired by British music of the 60s. Listening to it, it is quite obvious, but I guess at that time American music had been dominant for so long, it was refreshing to see British music that sounded like it came from Britain. They both note that the press saw it as a chance to reposition the cultural sphere and to focus the music scene back on the UK. I think it’s is important to note that Jon and Cliff are on the opposite sides of the ‘holy trinity’,
with one being a journalist (or at least interviewed for his experience as a journalist) and the other being a musician. I think this makes it quite clear that both musicians and journalists saw this as an opportunity to refocus the spotlight on their ‘local scene’. Jon also touches on how the people in positions of power at the time, were children of the 60s and grew up with this music that Britpop bands referenced. This implies that the bands that were referencing the 60s, got pushed to the top of the pile as the label bosses, not necessarily the general public, liked their music. Indicating that this was potentially forced on to the public.
Both Cliff and Jane acknowledged that the vibe changed when Oasis entered the scene. It became more aggressive and Jane said it caused bands to change they way they presented themselves. You could read that as, “the working class became cool”. Damon Albarn for instance started to change his accent and become more laddish according to Jane. However Cliff disagreed with this and said Damon wasn’t being inauthentic but was slipping between the social classes trying to find out where he fit in. In my opinion I think it was a bit of both, I think Damon realised that appearing working class could be enjoyable and boost his image, but I do think he probably felt a disconnect for a period of time with the middle class image he was previously portraying. I think the fact that Blur changed and evolved musically, Damon, and to an extent, the rest of the band were evolving alongside it.
All three interviewees said that they thought Britpop kind of faded out, that the artists became disillusioned with it and turned to different genres of music for inspiration, Pulp’s This is Hardcore and Blur’s 13, being key examples. I think it’s clear to see that the bands involved in the scene just followed a natural path of evolution and that took them away from what was described as Britpop. Jon states that another factor was a new generation of people wanted their own music. If it is to be believed that music impacts people the most during their late teenage years and into their early twenties, then the fact this movement lasted almost 6 years carries a generation from the ages of 17 to 23. It was probably time for something new to happen. It was probably a combination of, no-one wanted Britpop and no artists were making it.
And just like that it faded away, Britpop became as voguish as synth-pop was in 1992. The period soared to the highest heights, but to repurpose a quote from the film 24 Hour Party People, “I’ll say one word, Icarus. If you get it, great. If you don’t, that’s okay too, but you should probably read more.” Britpop eventually gave way to the more musically complex bands such as Radiohead and to a lesser extent, Muse. The UK would not experience a phenomenon as awe inspiring again. The recently christened, Indie Sleaze era of 2004-2012ish, barely holding a torch to the flame of Britpop. Who can blame it? With the widespread use of the internet and the instantaneous access to music, the sounds that reached the nations ears was not as finely curated as that of yesteryear. Was Britpop real? That’s a recurring question that came up in this zine and my honest opinion is yes it was. Those big four bands knew what they were doing, especially in the case of Suede, Blur and Pulp who all ended up evolving their music. This made it seem like a conceited effort by these artists to truly change the industry and although they never received mainstream US success, managed to shift the focus back to homegrown music, at least in the UK. It does hurt my heart to say that Oasis never really embraced change and although that’s why they were the last of the big four to split, it hampers the argument of Britpop being a conceited effort by bands to change the industry.
I asked all my interviewees the same run of short questions and I think its only fair if I also give them a shot. So here is, the Britpop insight no one asked for:
My favourite Britpop band is Oasis, I don’t think any band came close to matching the longevity of their popularity. I mean I’ve seen the Gallaghers live eight times in total, and still haven’t got bored of those songs. I think what they managed to do was transcend the level of Blur and the rest of the big four and made it something completely different. There’s a reason why 250,000 people turned up to Knebworth the first time round and 25 years later 180,000 turned up to watch Liam play there again. My least favourite Britpop band is probably someone group like Ocean Colour Scene, Kula Shaker or Supergrass, the less famous ones essentially. I think that the music in the Britpop scene had the tendency to be very similar and it was easy for bands to release turgid records which didn’t instil hope in the listener. I’m not knocking what they do, and I am pleased they all found some level of success, it’s more than what I’ve done. I just think why would I listen to someone like Shed Seven when I can listen to Oasis or Blur or Suede instead?
I do have to agree with Jane on this one and say Common People by Pulp. I think the song has it all, its very catchy for a start, it has humorous lyrics and a swagger about it. It is an ode to common people just like you or me. Failing that I think Country House by Blur is up there, the significance in the Battle of Britpop, the obvious references to art school sensibilities and the fact that Damien Hirst directed the video all make it something that captures the essence of the time period. Although they are my faves, I don’t think Oasis really have a song that captured Britpop, I don’t even really think they were Britpop in the first place. A can of worms I know, I don’t have the time to even begin my reasoning here, maybe I’ll have to write another zine covering this topic!
Do you think there was a person that captured the essence of Britpop?
If you had to show someone one song that encapsulated Britpop what song would that be?
No. Looking back I don’t really think it’s a very good question, hence why it only got asked once before I axed it. I think Jane’s answer is the only legitimate answer someone could come up with. I think Jarvis’ antics at the Brits in ’96 with Michael Jackson cements his place as the only true answer to the question.
What do you think led to the downfall of Britpop?
I think a general boredom of the movement itself. Oasis releasing Be Here Now, which was hyped up before its release as if it was going to be the greatest record ever. I think the press had shat themselves after they all gave What’s the Story (Morning Glory), pretty average reviews and then it became one of the biggest albums of all time. So they weren’t going to risk ending up with egg on their face for the third Oasis record. However, Be Here Now was no where near the same standard as the previous album and it just seemed a bit ridiculous that it got so hyped for nothing. I also think that the death of Princess Diana signalled the end of the movement, just as the death of Kurt Cobain signalled the end of grunge. Its funny though as these two events happened around the same time in 1997, yet one of the defining Britpop records, Urban Hymns was released that same year. I don’t think you can pinpoint when it ended, as Cliff and Jon said, movements just fade away.
band crash and burn like they did must have been heart breaking. A high point I think would be seeing either, Blur at Mile End Stadium, Oasis at Maine Road or The Verve at Haigh Hall. Nothing beats seeing a band perform on their home turf, especially the Oasis or Verve gigs where the band were returning after relocating to London and finally reaching superstardom. It means just as much to the band as it does the audience, it truly creates a special atmosphere.
This is a tough one as I wasn’t alive, but I think a low-point, although not entirely Britpop, would have been the Stone Roses final performance at Reading Festival in 1996. To see such an influential
As Suede, Blur and Oasis’ ground-breaking Britpop albums reach thirty, and the Tories seem set to lose the next general election, are we currently about to enter a cultural renaissance of our own. Yes it will be different and no it probably won’t be as patriotic, we all saw how that went for New Labour when they invaded Iraq, but change is brewing.
The next revolution is coming.
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