but in a display of rank hypocrisy I was among the audience members singing along. I almost appear in the photo at the top but I think I'm obscured by the bloke on the left who is leaving.

As a Britpop kid, I remember Wener more for her opinionated rentagob status in NME and Melody Maker interviews of the time than for any of the 3rd rate Pixies recordings she and her dull combo left us

She was asked to part of the podcast because she was right bang in the middle of it all, because she's got an opinion, and because she isn't afraid of sharing it - she is, after all, one of the only people from the Britpop era to have written a book about it.

I doubt she'd claim to be spokesperson for a generation, and I'm not sure we made that claim on her behalf. In the end, Sleeper's music and the band's success - or lack of it - isn't why she was asked. We asked her because we thought she'd be interesting. That's the criteria we use when asking anyone.

that would be 'message of love'

I sort of meant that Oasis won the immediate battle, in that they went on to dominate 1995-1997, but Blur won the war. Blur became a viable, changing artistic entity while Oasis just stayed the same for a decade and petered out. But you get the general idea.

but then you featured Sleeper! Was that ironic talking about the Stone Temple Pilots of the Grunge scene and then featuring Sleeper?!

Actually, you did raise some interesting points though, mainly the thought that Britpop might well have been the last "musical movement" due to the advent of the internet and MP3's/downloading etc. Hadn't really thought about that but it's very likely and I think that's a big shame.

But a lot of stuff mentioned was hardly just relevant to Britpop, I mean the idea that suddenly alternative bands could make it onto the tele and mainstream radio was hardly new. For example I grew up watching Buzzcocks, The Ruts, The Specials, hell, even UK Subs on TOTP.

I listened to the Podcast again and looking back, the two bands that hit me at the time were Oasis and Suede. Oasis were genuinely exciting (don't laugh), I remember the first time I heard them, it was on a giveaway Select cassette actually with the brilliant track "Fade Away" and it was raw and powerful and aggressive. Lovely for me as I was bored witless with music at the time, I just remember it being "grey" (or plaid!) - no showmanship, depressive and introverted. Growing up as I did with the colour, energy and variety of the late 70's early 80's, with Punk, Post-Punk, New Wave, Two Tone, Mod Revival, New Romantics and Electronica I was probably spoilt. Seeing Suede at The Old Trout in Windsor, around the time of their first or second singles I think, I was blown away. They were so out of sync with what was going on it was wonderful - glamorous, strange and - in front of a small audience mainly consisiting of pissed up squaddies from the garrison shouting out "poof!" at Brett - they were great! One thing about Suede which is often overlooked, is that they were damn powerful live - and they certainly shut the hecklers up that night!
I wasn't so keen on Blur and Pulp at the time as they had been around a bit, Blur as baggy Madchester wannabes and Pulp hovering around the lower echelons of the Indie scene before being re-born with shiny new images as "Britpop". But I now think "Modern Life Is Rubbish" and "Different Class" are classic albums of any time or genre.

Unfortunately, the colour and excitement faded into the generic dull khaki of lad rock - everyone had to be either a Manc, Scouser or Cockney (great to be reminded of the Harry Enfield sketch - that summed it up perfectly!) - supporting a footie team and reading Loaded magazine.

Apart from the Queen comment natch. Shame on you Joe. Clearly never heard any '73-'76 Queen then. (that's all you'd want to hear mind!)

http://youtu.be/2mgPnTUkJqA

(embedding disabled)

"Fookin' Patrick Cox's"

the perfect time for a live TV pop music show - The Weekend Starts Here, and all that.

6-5 Special
RSG
The Tube
TFIF

All provided their audience with the soundtrack for getting home from work/school and getting ready to hit the town.

They don't flick my switch. Can see the appeal for others and recognise Jarvis as a "proper" pop star but I find even their greatest hits hard going. Soft spot for This Is Hardcore.

Pulp were all about Jarvis and his lyrics (and weird bloke persona becoming a star, as Andrew described) which were quite brilliant. There are some decent tunes there but the often inept playing of the music makes the records of little interest for repeat listens as far as I am concerned.

I love that 'original bands' sign, as if we'd all be going "surely it can't be THE Republica?" "What, THE original line-up of Toploader? Surely NOT?"

Brilliant. The Cheeky Girls will probably get off with Dodgy backstage.

If you on their Twitter feed it has a message @Keane asking if they will play next year.

I was amazed not to hear their name in the podcast, I was getting more and more irked as I read the thread and was just waiting for the final post so I could vent my spleen then good ole daddyclark mentions them.

They were by far the best thing to come out of britpop, tunes that could wee all over Blur, power that could rip the heads off of both Oasis and Suede. Remained a fantastic band right up to their swansong Diamond Hoo Ha which is playing as I type.

Special mention of course to the britpop of UB40 and Def Leppard by the way.

And Queen remain shite.

They're in Australia? Jarvis just graced my sister's graduation the other day. Damn, no wonder he looks knackered.

Some won't have a word said against Mr Maconie. Clearly he is great but he does appear to have an achilles heel around the importance of his discovery of/contribution to important musical progress. I would cite as evidence his knee-jerk, "I was at the BBC at the time." He corrected himself quickly but the presumption was instinctive.

finally got round to listening to this today and found him very annoying, for all the reasons listed above. Also, and to be fair I can't remember if it was him or the other one, the attempt to pass Britpop off as a working class phenomenon almost made me burst out laughing in the middle of Bristol this lunchtime.

being dragged to see Kula Shaker one Glatstonbury (or was it Reading?).

If you excuse their fundamental naffness, they're very good live.

...one of the muddiest I can remember. What actually happened was that they played twice, once on the NME stage and on the main stage on the Sunday because someone pulled out. Seemed like the final insult at the time.

tough crowd! ;-)

...and never again make the mistake of listening to a cast without consulting the website. Because, I'm certain that is what ever single other pod listener does and I wouldn't want to be out of step, would I?

I always thought that the Manics were something different to Britpop. They were there before it started - Generation Terrorists was popular well before Suede turned up - and they benefited from Britpop simply because more people were suddenly accepting of that kind of music.

If anything, the popularity of Oasis probably saved them after the somewhat listless (but occasionally brilliant) second album and the inaccessibility of The Holy Bible seemed to have condemned them to obscurity. By the time they released Design for Life, there was an army of blokes who wanted singalong anthems and loud guitars. I remember seeing them live in Leeds shortly after that single came out and the fanbase appeared to have morphed from boa-wearing glam-goths to anoraked, pudding-basin-barneted lads.

They never seemed to try to keep those fans though, so it always struck me as a career-saving coincidence, rather than them becoming a proper Britpop band. Whatever that is.

for the Kingmaker reunion