Thirty years since Blur beat Oasis in the Battle of Britpop, I chat with a lost Britpop hero about what really happened in the sparkly corners of the scene.
Category: Pop culture
Why I’m thrilled my book has ended up in Fopp
When I saw my book about the music of the 1990s heavily discounted in record shop Fopp, I was delighted not disappointed. Here’s why.
Live Forever: The ’90s in one song
I try very hard not to like Oasis in the mid-1990s, even wearing a T-shirt bearing the logo of their rivals Blur, to the famous gigs in Knebworth Park. But something about Liam Gallagher’s agitated sense of hope gets my attention.
A song meant to be sung through tears – why ‘Yes’ won the real Britpop wars
Thirty years since the release of McAlmont and Butler’s toweringly bittersweet anthem ‘Yes’, here is a chapter from Connection is … More
The drunk crucifer
It’s Christmas so here is the gift of chapter sixteen from my book, Connection is a Song: Coming Up and … More
Connection is a Song – A book about you
Hello, it’s been a while since I posted here and that’s because I spent 2023 writing a book. It’s called … More
30 years of Little Baby Nothing, a hazy blackness descending
In my kitchen cupboard there’s a mug in red, black and white. It sits there next to the Leeds mug, … More
Jumbled pebbles of sound
I used to write pretty lists and carefully crafted summaries at the end of each year, imagining myself into a … More
Lockdown LPs – Let’s play all our records!
Right. I’m going to do something I’ve always wanted to do: A near-300 LP DJ set over several months. The … More
Pulp – This is Hardcore – 20 years on
It’s 20 years since Pulp released This is Hardcore, the band’s sixth studio album. This was Jarvis Cocker’s dark time. … More
For your savage amusement 