The Last Party: Britpop, Blair and the Demise of English Rock
£4.78
The defining book of an era - The early 1990s was something of a low period for rock and indie music in the UK. The so called Madchester era had come and gone and the music scene was dominated by the American grunge bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam. The British indie scene meanwhile was represented by acts now largely forgotten, such as Carter USM, The Wonderstuff and The Levellers. Clearly change was needed and in 1994 the emergence of bands such as Blur, Suede, Oasis and Pulp, signalled that change and the arrival of what would become known as Britpop. Whereas in the past indie bands operated to the left of the mainstream, now they were taking certain stage. During this period Oasis held the largest ever concert in mainland Britain and their rivalry with Blur even made the news. Something unthinkable just a few years previously. John Harris s excellent book covers the golden years of this period 1994/1995 and its sudden decline in 1997 when numerous second rate bands emerged under the Britpop banner. He also considers the key albums released during the period, the bands and singers of the past which influenced the scene and the impact that the Labour party s return to power after 18 years of Conservative rule, had on the bands of the era. This book will suely go down as the defining book of an era.
Hang our heads in shame - I liked Britpop. You liked Britpop. It was great, wasn t it?It takes a dispassionate observer like John Harris to open our eyes. Yes, there was some good stuff from Pulp, Swiiide and Elastica and (at a push) Blur, but we choose to blot out the horrors of Ocean Colour Scene, Kula Shaker and (AAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!) Menswear.It is impossible to read this without regular spasms of embarrassment.
Unputdownable. - John Harris on the subject of Britpop is a dream combination. While effortlessly contextualising the phenomenon of Britpop, getting great material out of the major players, evoking the memory of those halycon years with perfectly placed details of what we were wearing, drinking, thinking, listening to, he is also a natural story-teller. The love story (Brett/Justine/Damon), the arrival of the boys from Burnage, the shift from hope and self-belief to drug-induced paranoia and disappointment is realised with the brilliance of a great novelist. And with Blair s steady rise to power playing out in parallel to the the rock-soap-opera, the book becomes the essential document of a decade that began with hope and ended in cocaine-addled cynicism. Top stuff.
Memorable moments but fundamentally flawed - A well written romp through the Britpop years, this is a great nostalgic read for those of us who turned 30 around the same time as Noel and Damon in the mid 90s. But Hammer of the Gods it ain t. ...Harris s elegant rehash of received critical wisdom from the pages of Q and NME (in particular David Cavanagh and Stuart Maconies writings on Creation and Blur) may make for an entertaining read, but ultimately is fundamentally flawed.Although well researched (I had heard years ago from a North London flatmate about Brett Anderson living with the Mennonites but until I saw this in print, never quite believed him,) Harris lacks genuine perspective and originality. His narrow obsession with the blur/elastica/suede triangle trips him up more than once into a pedantic being harder on Oasis than Blur bias. Given that Noel Gallagher is eloquent enough to defend himself even within this author s cuttings, this won t necessarily spoil anyone s enjoyment.Ultimately however, the book s biggest weakness is failing to do what it says on the cover - whilst acknowledging the early 90s Madchester phenomenon, the lack of any further historical context on record and export sales figures for British Bands means that it fails to fully chart the demise of English rock. Likewise, the focus on the guitar milieu means that the book also fails to fully convey the sheer anti-Tory vibe of 90s popular culture. Random cursory mentions aside, there is precious little acknowledgment of how deeply the (justified) political scepticism of programmes like the Day Today and Drop the Dead Donkey and HIGNFY embedded itself in the national consciousness. The parallel successes of rave culture in forging a more diverse inclusive vibe and its interaction with Britpop via festivals and the likes of Massive Attack and Talvin Singh, are also wholly ignored. Without this context, Harris s eye for detail is insufficient to fully convey the spirit of the period about which he writes. He is also weak on racial politics - the partly British Asian heritage of Cornershop and Echobelly would have seemed like a dream to anyone growing up in the 1980s and yet, amidst his clichéd reminiscence of student union politics, (Mandela bars and the like,) Harris fails to acknowledge this type of progress - which was just as visible amongst northern/working class band members as among southern artschool types.It is typical of the book that whilst referring to it in passing, Harris fails to appreciate the political significance of the War Child album released in mid-1995 - featuring the likes of Pavarotti, U2, Weller and McCartney as well as various Britpop collectives, not to mention dragging the Stone Roses away from their 4 year second album break - to raise money for victims of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. The album, coming so shortly after the Srebrenica massacre and a groundswell of global anger at the one-sided UN arms embargo enforced by the likes of Douglas Hurd, to the detriment of the multi-faith Bosnian government in Sarajevo, was almost as much a political statement as the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971. Given Blair s penchant for armed intervention ever since, even when not so universally popular, one wonders about the album s longer term political influence? Significantly for readers of this book, despite enthusing about Warchild s importance in raising awareness amongst the indie kids of England, Brett Anderson s choice of track for the album - Shipbuilding - Costello s brilliant anti-Falklands war hymn - was in a way a handy metaphor for his career.By choosing a pacifist piece about a maritime war for citizens of a landlocked country desperate to defend itself against ethnic cleansers, Suede magnificently missed the point.But then as a wise man once said, Please don t put your life in the hands of a rock and roll band, they ll only throw it away. And of course, the same goes for politicians.Niaz Alam August 2004
Memorable moments, but fundamentally flawed! - A well written romp through the Britpop years, this is a great nostalgic read for those of us who turned 30 around the same time as Noel and Damon in the mid 90s. But Hammer of the Gods it ain t. ...Harris s elegant rehash of received critical wisdom from the pages of Q and NME (in particular David Cavanagh and Stuart Maconies writings on Creation and Blur) may make for an entertaining read, but ultimately is fundamentally flawed.Although well researched (I had heard years ago from a North London flatmate about Brett Anderson living with the Mennonites but until I saw this in print, never quite believed him,) Harris lacks genuine perspective and originality. His narrow obsession with the blur/elastica/suede triangle trips him up more than once into a pedantic being harder on Oasis than Blur bias. Given that Noel Gallagher is eloquent enough to defend himself even within this author s cuttings, this won t necessarily spoil anyone s enjoyment.Ultimately however, the book s biggest weakness is failing to do what it says on the cover - whilst acknowledging the early 90s Madchester phenomenon, the lack of any further historical context on record and export sales figures for British Bands means that it fails to fully chart the demise of English rock. Likewise, the focus on the guitar milieu means that the book also fails to fully convey the sheer anti-Tory vibe of 90s popular culture. Random cursory mentions aside, there is precious little acknowledgment of how deeply the (justified) political scepticism of programmes like the Day Today and Drop the Dead Donkey and HIGNFY embedded itself in the national consciousness. The parallel successes of rave culture in forging a more diverse inclusive vibe and its interaction with Britpop via festivals and the likes of Massive Attack and Talvin Singh, are also wholly ignored. Without this context, Harris s eye for detail is insufficient to fully convey the spirit of the period about which he writes. He is also weak on racial politics - the partly British Asian heritage of Cornershop and Echobelly would have seemed like a dream to anyone growing up in the 1980s and yet, amidst his clichéd reminiscence of student union politics, (Mandela bars and the like,) Harris fails to acknowledge this type of progress - which was just as visible amongst northern/working class band members as among southern artschool types.It is typical of the book that whilst referring to it in passing, Harris fails to appreciate the political significance of the War Child album released in mid-1995 - featuring the likes of Pavarotti, U2, Weller and McCartney as well as various Britpop collectives, not to mention dragging the Stone Roses away from their 4 year second album break - to raise money for victims of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. The album, coming so shortly after the Srebrenica massacre and a groundswell of global anger at the one-sided UN arms embargo enforced by the likes of Douglas Hurd, to the detriment of the multi-faith Bosnian government in Sarajevo, was almost as much a political statement as the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971. Given Blair s penchant for armed intervention ever since, even when not so universally popular, one wonders about the album s longer term political influence? Significantly for readers of this book, despite enthusing about Warchild s importance in raising awareness amongst the indie kids of England, Brett Anderson s choice of track for the album - Shipbuilding - Costello s brilliant anti-Falklands war hymn - was in a way a handy metaphor for his career.By choosing a pacifist piece about a maritime war for citizens of a landlocked country desperate to defend itself against ethnic cleansers, Suede magnificently missed the point.But then as a wise man once said, Don t put your life in the hands of a rock and roll band, they ll only throw it away. And of course, the same goes for politicians.