how time flies... it's been 16 years since the "battle of the bands" (Oasis vs Blur) and the international (european-japanese?) rise of britpop (94-98)

do you still dig the bands of that era??

well, I still do lol

I still enjoy the 90s albums of Suede, Blur, Oasis, Radiohead or The Verve, and despite not being a fan of Pulp, their This Is Hardcore album is my fav rock album of the late 90s.

On the other hand, other bands like Supergrass, Cranberries, Cardigans, Garbage or Elastica (despite some strong singles) bore the hell out of me now and I find them "a bit" tacky (I dig them back in the day, lol)

I love Britpop because it was a refreshing antidote against the mainstream bullshit of the mid-90s (adult contemporary ballads, teen bands, mid-tempo R&B, nu-metal, etc). I spent the summer of 1997 in London and you could tell there REALLY was a SCENE: the clubs played the britpop bands like crazy and everbody talked about them, wearing T-shirts and other stuff. Probably, the London'97 was not as cool as the London'77 or New York in 1977-79, but still pretty cool. Aahhh, memories...

and it's clear that Britpop has HEAVILY influenced strong current bands like the Strokes, Arctic Monkeys or Franz Ferdinand...

discuss.

I was into a lot of this stuff, in particular Oasis and The Verve.

Up here in Scotland it was very much a "scene" too, there were the club nights devoted to Britpop and the fashions too, and of course the gigs.

I went to see Oasis on their tour for Definitely Maybe at Glasgow Barrowlands, they played two songs then Liam walked off stage, Noel came back and played half an hour on acoustic, but the crowd were very angry, the gig was rescheduled for two weeks later, and on that date Oasis came back and blew us all away.

I was never interested in the Blur v's Oasis shit, just the gigs really, seen The Verve at the Barrowlands too, fucking amazing band, Richard Ashcroft is such a good singer.

I cannot listen to any of this stuff now, though Ashcrofts solo albums were good. I recently read an interview with Liam Gallagher, and he is still droning on about being the best in the world and all that shit, Well Liam, the thing is mate.......no you're not, but good on him.

The thing I liked about the Britpop thing was it was the opposite to the USA's grunge thing, we wanted to dress up smart, wear deodorant and live forever, but the Americans still hated themselves and wanted to die, walking around looking depressed with hair over their eyes like half shut knives. . Britpop was about living it large and having a great time.

There are a few bands that have endured all that era and came out shining too, Pulp (although they have still split?), and The Verve, and I suppose even people like Ian Brown re-launched himself at the end of the Britpop thing and have done very well indeed, quite a clever move.

Mad times.

Wow, just found my tickets for the Oasis shows at Irvine Beach in July 1995, they played two nights in a huge marquee tent thing, can't remember much of those nights to be honest, but I do remember they were slamming gigs, Cast supported I think, remember them?

TheDigitalGardener said:

Wow, just found my tickets for the Oasis shows at Irvine Beach in July 1995, they played two nights in a huge marquee tent thing, can't remember much of those nights to be honest, but I do remember they were slamming gigs, Cast supported I think, remember them?

"Cast" ?? no I don't lol

great stories anyway

Except for Elastica and Garbage I wasn't a fan of the albums, but more so random great singles. I also recently discovered Kenickie which I think were very cool.

Most of it kinda passed me by. I really like Pulp, but my favourite record from them is the post-britpop Scott Walker-produced We Love Life. And I really liked the Auteurs & the second side of Suede’s Dogmanstar. Otherwise, like Sexton said, I loved the odd song (Alright by Supergrass, Chemical World by Blur), but most of it just made me want to go play the Kinks Village Green album.

TheDigitalGardener said:

Wow, just found my tickets for the Oasis shows at Irvine Beach in July 1995, they played two nights in a huge marquee tent thing, can't remember much of those nights to be honest, but I do remember they were slamming gigs, Cast supported I think, remember them?

Cast included a few castaways from the La's as I recall. I don't think I ever heard any of their music. I always thought the La's record was a touch overvalued. There are some fantastic songs on it certainly, but some very sketchy, underwritten ones too.

sextonseven said:

Except for Elastica and Garbage I wasn't a fan of the albums, but more so random great singles. I also recently discovered Kenickie which I think were very cool.

The first two Garbage albums were great, good remixes too. I always thought of Garbage being seperate from the Britpop era, a cut above, and the fact that they were in fact American, though they were thrown in with it all due to lazy journalism probably. Shirley the singer came from my city.

damosuzuki said:

TheDigitalGardener said:

Wow, just found my tickets for the Oasis shows at Irvine Beach in July 1995, they played two nights in a huge marquee tent thing, can't remember much of those nights to be honest, but I do remember they were slamming gigs, Cast supported I think, remember them?

Cast included a few castaways from the La's as I recall. I don't think I ever heard any of their music. I always thought the La's record was a touch overvalued. There are some fantastic songs on it certainly, but some very sketchy, underwritten ones too.

Yeah, John Power from The La's. Cast were very similar in sound to The La's.

TheDigitalGardener said:

sextonseven said:

Except for Elastica and Garbage I wasn't a fan of the albums, but more so random great singles. I also recently discovered Kenickie which I think were very cool.

The first two Garbage albums were great, good remixes too. I always thought of Garbage being a cut above

really????

"I'm only happy when it raaaaaaiinsss"

"The world is noooot enooooooough"

JoeTyler said:

TheDigitalGardener said:

The first two Garbage albums were great, good remixes too. I always thought of Garbage being a cut above

really????

"I'm only happy when it raaaaaaiinsss"

"The world is noooot enooooooough"

Mmm, yeah, the OO7 thing was a bit of a turkey.

TheDigitalGardener said:

sextonseven said:

Except for Elastica and Garbage I wasn't a fan of the albums, but more so random great singles. I also recently discovered Kenickie which I think were very cool.

The first two Garbage albums were great, good remixes too. I always thought of Garbage being seperate from the Britpop era, a cut above, and the fact that they were in fact American, though they were thrown in with it all due to lazy journalism probably. Shirley the singer came from my city.

I agree, I never associated Garbage with Britpop either. I was just responding to the list of names mentioned in the OP.

I also was a big fan of Lush which moved into Britpop territory with their last album before breaking up.

sextonseven said:

TheDigitalGardener said:

The first two Garbage albums were great, good remixes too. I always thought of Garbage being seperate from the Britpop era, a cut above, and the fact that they were in fact American, though they were thrown in with it all due to lazy journalism probably. Shirley the singer came from my city.

I agree, I never associated Garbage with Britpop either. I was just responding to the list of names mentioned in the OP.

I also was a big fan of Lush which moved into Britpop territory with their last album before breaking up.

you mean this album?

I remember that my sister was a BIG Lush fan; ... I wasn't mad about them

but that album was (is) fine

JoeTyler said:

sextonseven said:

I agree, I never associated Garbage with Britpop either. I was just responding to the list of names mentioned in the OP.

I also was a big fan of Lush which moved into Britpop territory with their last album before breaking up.

you mean this album?

I remember that my sister was a BIG Lush fan; ... I wasn't mad about them

but that album was (is) fine

I meant this one:

Lovelife (1996)

There's even a duet with Jarvis Cocker on it ("Ciao"). Can't get more Britpop than that.

Shit I wasn't even that into Britpop and I remember Cast.

"Free Me" was their big song IIRC.

I think Britpop was the mainstream bullshit of the mid-nineties, certainly a significant portion of it anyway. Remember Menswear? Salad? Tiny Monroe? No you probably don't, but you did mention Blur, who, strangely enough, given all they'd come to represent, kinda signalled the end of Britpop by looking to America for their influences. I think that was around late summer 97, it'd all been wound down come early98.

The Cranberries are Irish, and they broke big during the grunge era.

I liked Sleeper and Garbage as far as each bands first two albums went.

This was Cast's biggest tune, still find it quite touching.

I don't know if Lush had much in common stylistically to be regarded as having been Britpop, but this is my favourite song from them-

JoeTyler said:

sextonseven said:

I agree, I never associated Garbage with Britpop either. I was just responding to the list of names mentioned in the OP.

I also was a big fan of Lush which moved into Britpop territory with their last album before breaking up.

you mean this album?

I remember that my sister was a BIG Lush fan; ... I wasn't mad about them

but that album was (is) fine

that record is a masterpiece!

elmer said:

I don't know if Lush had much in common stylistically to be regarded as having been Britpop

They started out as part of the shoegaze scene, but moved into Britpop with 1996's Lovelife album.

elmer said:

I think Britpop was the mainstream bullshit of the mid-nineties

Correction: this wasn't the case outside of the UK. Looking back, I don't mind most of the Britpop bands at all. I was unhappy at the time and still clinging to the music that had come outta Seattle a few years earlier that I felt close to. Damon Albarn's affected cockney singing voice and the ironic anti-intellectualism of some of their hits was pretty irritating, but at least they had the ability to adapt and grow beyond Britpop, whereas Oasis.....pfffff

I wouldn't lumped Lush in, but hey.

Suede's my favorite, their first two albums in particular.

JoeTyler said:

how time flies... it's been 16 years since the "battle of the bands" (Oasis vs Blur) and the international (european-japanese?) rise of britpop (94-98)

do you still dig the bands of that era??

well, I still do lol

I still enjoy the 90s albums of Suede, Blur, Oasis, Radiohead or The Verve, and despite not being a fan of Pulp, their This Is Hardcore album is my fav rock album of the late 90s.

On the other hand, other bands like Supergrass, Cranberries, Cardigans, Garbage or Elastica (despite some strong singles) bore the hell out of me now and I find them "a bit" tacky (I dig them back in the day, lol)

I love Britpop because it was a refreshing antidote against the mainstream bullshit of the mid-90s (adult contemporary ballads, teen bands, mid-tempo R&B, nu-metal, etc). I spent the summer of 1997 in London and you could tell there REALLY was a SCENE: the clubs played the britpop bands like crazy and everbody talked about them, wearing T-shirts and other stuff. Probably, the London'97 was not as cool as the London'77 or New York in 1977-79, but still pretty cool. Aahhh, memories...

and it's clear that Britpop has HEAVILY influenced strong current bands like the Strokes, Arctic Monkeys or Franz Ferdinand...

discuss.

I'm a huge Blur fan and, despite the fact that I also like Oasis, I always thought that the "rivalry" was terribly one-sided. For me Blur were clearly the superior group. So much more variety and they pushed themselves musically while Oasis kind of stuck to the same thing. I thought it was strange that Blur did a very left field album with 13 and it was virtually ignored but when Radiohead released Kid A they were hailed as geniuses. Some of Graham's solo albums were really great (particularly the last few) but these guys need to get together and make one last great album. I'm not sure if you can fit the stuff that Damon has done with the stuff Graham has been doing but it could be interesting.

I didn't get an appreciation for Robbie Williams until years after his '90s peak but his first three albums are all very solid. I'm a little shocked that there hasn't been a decent b-sides/stray tracks compilation because he really was on fire circa 1996-2001 with many great songs not making the albums.

I love the first two albums but Coming Up by Suede was absolutely packed with great songs. After that they really faded but the early stuff is still great.

I think it's time to dust off some of my britpop discs and party like it's 1995!

shonenjoe said:

I wouldn't lumped Lush in, but hey.

sextonseven said:

They started out as part of the shoegaze scene, but moved into Britpop with 1996's Lovelife album.

sextonseven said:

shonenjoe said:

I wouldn't lumped Lush in, but hey.

sextonseven said:

They started out as part of the shoegaze scene, but moved into Britpop with 1996's Lovelife album.

Those chicks were such brilliant writers. It was so sad that Chris killed himself, but I wish they'd kept going.

abigail05 said:

sextonseven said:

Those chicks were such brilliant writers. It was so sad that Chris killed himself, but I wish they'd kept going.

Yes, Miki is not even in the business anymore. I think she works in an office now. Emma released two great albums with Sing-Sing before that band folded too.

rialb said:

I'm a huge Blur fan and, despite the fact that I also like Oasis, I always thought that the "rivalry" was terribly one-sided. For me Blur were clearly the superior group. So much more variety and they pushed themselves musically while Oasis kind of stuck to the same thing. I thought it was strange that Blur did a very left field album with 13 and it was virtually ignored but when Radiohead released Kid A they were hailed as geniuses. Some of Graham's solo albums were really great (particularly the last few) but these guys need to get together and make one last great album. I'm not sure if you can fit the stuff that Damon has done with the stuff Graham has been doing but it could be interesting.

I didn't get an appreciation for Robbie Williams until years after his '90s peak but his first three albums are all very solid. I'm a little shocked that there hasn't been a decent b-sides/stray tracks compilation because he really was on fire circa 1996-2001 with many great songs not making the albums.

I love the first two albums but Coming Up by Suede was absolutely packed with great songs. After that they really faded but the early stuff is still great.

I think it's time to dust off some of my britpop discs and party like it's 1995!

Oasis went downhill after 1996 lol. They only released one strong album after the Morning Glory craze, and that album was a compilation of B-sides and leftovers...and that's sayin' something...lol

Blur reinvented themselves with "Song 2" and 13 had some gems, specially Tender, which is, perhaps, the most underrated song of the late 90s...

Robbie Williams had amazing brit-pop singles during the 97-99 era. Ironically, and ex-Take That member had better singles than Oasis, lol ("Lazy Days", "Old Before I Die", "Win Some Lose Some", etc). The Ego Has Landed compilation is soooooo cool

Coming Up is my favorite album of 1996, of any genre

sextonseven said:

abigail05 said:

Those chicks were such brilliant writers. It was so sad that Chris killed himself, but I wish they'd kept going.

Yes, Miki is not even in the business anymore. I think she works in an office now. Emma released two great albums with Sing-Sing before that band folded too.

?

what kind of office? does she work, at least, for a label or something similar?

and other question: did she lose all the money she earned during the 90s???

JoeTyler said:

sextonseven said:

Yes, Miki is not even in the business anymore. I think she works in an office now. Emma released two great albums with Sing-Sing before that band folded too.

?

what kind of office? does she work, at least, for a label or something similar?

and other question: did she lose all the money she earned during the 90s???

I have no idea about her money situation. From Wiki:

She currently works for a magazine as a sub-editor.

sextonseven said:

JoeTyler said:

?

what kind of office? does she work, at least, for a label or something similar?

and other question: did she lose all the money she earned during the 90s???

I have no idea about her money situation. From Wiki:

She currently works for a magazine as a sub-editor.

well, that looks like a typical job for a former pop/rock star, not bad at all