Be Excellent To Each Other

Elastica were the best band of the britpop era.

Discuss.

I used to hate Britpop at the time it 'came out'. But now I think it's "alright".

Some Blur tracks have quality bass playing on them.
I like Catatonia.
Elastica are pretty good.

Oasis fucking suck.

This is a partial summary of my opinions regarding Birtpop.

I like/liked the Stereophonics.

I fucking hate Catatonia.

An entire album of songs entitled "Ooooh look at me, I'm Welsh", with the following track "Did I tell you I'm Welsh?" and of course the classic "I'm from Wales, don't you know".

I really despise the Stereophonics (musically).

This has been an appendum to my opinions regarding Birtpop.

I liked Sleeper at the time. Can't now remember why, or any of their songs.

I never liked Britpop.

Oasis did one song I liked. Which never made it on to an album, and (importantly) had no singing on it. Aside from that, I loathed them.

Aside from that, none of it made me feel anything except bored.

Britpop was all about the spaces in between the main bands for me - Longpigs, Audioweb, Subcircus... some truly epic bands that never got the recognition they deserved. I'll grant you there's a lot of good stuff about nowadays but there never really should have been a gap, it was the industry not getting the mad money they expected in a time when talent was too prevalent to fully exploit that did for the scene, then the nu-metal and Cowell-pop took over.

They were alright to start off with, but for every column inch of press coverage Louise Wener became 20% more annoying. It was most gratifying when their later releases stiffed embarrassingly and she buggered off into obscurity again.

I dislike the Stereophonics despite seeing them a number of times.

I don't think I fully appreciated Blur at the time but they really are a fantastic band in my eyes.

Pulp were probably my favorite band of that time.

The whole 'scene' was wank though.

I really liked quite a lot of the singles released around the time and still have a lot of them on my ipod. I wasn't a scenester though.

Ocean Colour Scene were very, very good live.

Blur were my Britpop band of choice, both at the time and now, though I also rather liked Supergrass. There were a few Sleeper tracks I liked (Sale Of The Century still sounds excellent), but mostly my interest in them revolved around my thinking that Louise Wener was hot. Wonder what she looks like now?

She writes books now, doesn't she?

Anyway...

Shed Seven!
Longpigs!
Supergrass!
Blur!
Mansun!
Elastica!

I was a little bit sad when I read Supergrass are intending to split up after they play a few shows in the summer

Britpop wasn't my cup of tea at all. It seemed to be the mid 90s equivalent of the indie scene that preceeded it and it just wasn't as good. It was all about poncing about like an art student trying to be funny and it led to horrible, horrible things like Franz Ferdinand.

Whereas late 80s/early 90s indie was all about soaring, textured guitars and sassy beats. Things like Ride, Lush, Curve as well as awesome stuff like Ned's Atomic Dustbin.

My main memory of britpop was back when I used to work in a warehouse playing local radio all day and they made such a big deal of the 'Country House' vs 'Roll With It' thing, despite both songs being crap.

I can't say it was really my scene either but it was certainly better pop music than what came next and is still here.

I could never stand 'Wonderwall'. Drove me insane, and still does. My favourite song from that era is either Blur's 'Best Days' or their 'Universal' (even when I found out it was about prozac). The former is just gutwrenchingly mellow.

Lately, I've been listening a lot to Pulp's later albums: 'This is Hardcore' is completely different to 'Different Class' but just as awesome. 'We Love Life' is still growing on me, however.

Just be grateful you didn't live in Cardiff when they were at the heights of their popularity - you could literally be followed from bar to bar by their entire catalogue blasting out.

Suede, Pulp and Blur were and still are awesome. Britpop wasn't entirely shit.

Good Fucking God, Man.

You don't like Suede? What's wrong with you? Gay!

Bluetones!

No. I find them abhorent.

Over developed taste I guess.

No, you are!

I'm not really bothered either way about Brit Pop, some of it I like, some of it I don't. Ryan Adams does Wonderwall a whole lot better though.

FeeX

Tru dat.

FeeX

You've been such a potty mouth this year Mr Dave.

Yes!

I still remember the track numbers I could bear to listen to off of Different Class when I had to put it on to appease my Britpop loving girlfriend at the time. 1, 3, 5, 8, 10 were the numbers can't remember the names of all the songs but Disco 2000 was definitly one of them.

New Order was Britpop right?

No, no they weren't. Unless there is a mid to late 90's band called New Order that twanged out fluffy hits about loving some girl in a cafe that I missed.

If I have stamped on your joke I apologise.

No!

Yes.

I hereby revoke your signature quote.

Remember Space? I enjoyed their jolly sounding but often quite darkly themed pop.

Also, another 'yes' for Bluetones.

I had that tin box of their album I think. It were them that did "Female of the Species", weren't it?

Yes, probably their biggest 'hit'.

I liked the one about the street full of weirdoes and the one about robbing a petrol station (Neighbourhood, and Me & You Against The World, I think they were called).

What do you do if you see a Space Man?


I take it they're all smack heads now, like all post success Scouse musicians.

They were indeed. Liked the latter more than the former.

And liked "Avenging Angels" too.

Ooh, The Wannadies. They were ace.

Elastica were aceness. Echobelly were also very listenable. Didn't really listen to any more Britpop. Do Republica count?

Very much so.

I liked the Verve. Were they Britpop?

No. They were moanpap.

I only heard this news last week I think, but then I'm so out of touch that I've only recently found out that the NME isn't a newspaper any more.

Um, anyway the guys from Supergrass have a new band called the Hot Rats, I impulse bought the album on the weekend and have quite enjoyed it so far, a very creepy version of Up the Junction on there and a down right psychedelic version of You Gotta Fight For Your Right . I Should Coco lives in my car and gets played pretty regularly.

I loved Britpop, there was some absolute shit about but there were some great songs released. I guess I generally just like music from that kind of mid to late nineties era.

I'm not ashamed to say that Definitely Maybe is still one of my favourite albums of all time. I'm not even sure I like Oasis any more, I certainly can't stand Liam Gallagher and I'm not especially taken by much of their later stuff; but that album, to me, is superb. I was 16/17 when I first heard Supersonic blasting out of the jukebox at the local under age booze haunt. That album captures my A Level and first year of uni years, so listening to it now reminds me of my younger (thinner, floppier haired) years and always makes me smile.

Moseley Shoals by OCS is another in-car favourite. Policemen and Pirates.

Liked the early Stereophonics (Word Gets Around) and never really took to Catatonia. They were also massively shit live the twice I saw them.

Great:

Belle & Sebastian
Pulp
The Auteurs
Elastica
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
Divine Comedy
Super Furry Animals

Good:

Blur (edging into great)
Mansun (first two albums)
Babybird (excepting 'You're Gorgeous' obv, even the band hated that one - but the album 'There's Something Going On' is utter ace - there's a reason why Reeve's & Mortimer used one of its tracks for the egg coming out of mouth monkey baptising sketches)
Suede for first two albums

Mediocre:

Bluetones
Oasis
Suede for third album
Space (some top singles though)
Catatonia (the odd high)

Eurgh:

Shed 7
Embrace
Cast
Ocean Colour Scene (apart from that one song, y'know the one)
Suede for every subsequent album


I'd like to add a bit to Catatonia's story however. Cerys Matthew's solo stuff is very, very good. Real fine country music, and not a bit about the Welsh in it. Cockahoop is especially worth getting. She went through a bad dark place with alcoholism during Brit-pop and became disenchanted with the entire thing, which explains the bad gigs. Solo though, she's rather fine!