What did you do during Britpop, grandad?
While in a queue the other day waiting to see the Long Blondes, I ended up talking to a group of teenagers who turned out to be heavily into the likes of Suede, Pulp etc... and seemed genuinely awestruck at the idea that I'd seen them live. To them, Britpop seems as long ago as the 60s do for me (I was born in 1980) - while they were genuinely interested, it did have the impact of making me feel very old.
The shoe was on the other foot a few days later when I was talking to an older friend at a James gig who revealed that he first saw them in 1983 at the Hacienda - I was immediately full of questions about what the scene was like at the time.
I'm not sure I have a particular question to go with this, other than when were you last made to feel very old - musically speaking? And what is it about music that inspires an interest in the past?
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Hendrix, Nirvana and Buckley.
I remember being genuinely excited when introduced to a friend of a friend who had seen Hendrix on the isle of Wight and asking him dozens of questions about the event.
A few years have passed and have had the same in reverse from my nephew and daughter's friend about gig's when I saw Nirvana and Jeff Buckley.
Youngsters in awe of the past goes on and on and on........
Ah
the great joy about dropping the 'Oh, I saw Nirvana at their last ever UK gig' bombshell on your younger relatives is the follow up of 'And it was RUBBISH'.
I think I saw the last ever
I think I saw the last ever Catatonia gig, and maybe also Sleeper. I think that might be a separate topic, though... not that either of them carry the weight of Nirvana.
Last Night of The Progs
I was at the last ever Levitation gig in 1993, that was a hoot - you can't beat a good rant at the audience followed by wandering off stage and leaving the other members of the band looking befuddled and bewildered finale.
They were an amazing live band though.
I must admit to having mischievously told the odd
youngster that I own five splendid Nirvana albums, originally issued in the years 1967, 1968, 1970, 1972 and 1996.
The result is either contempt ("this old fart is just trying to be hip 'n' groovy when he's just a berk") or puzzlement.
Only occasionally do I get the reply, "Oh, you mean the British group of the same name?", and even then, they're probably thinking "silly old bugger didn't realise there's another Nirvana".
Then I go on to mention that the '96 album includes a performance of "Lithium" composed by one K. Cobain.
Our Nirvana wind-up with impressionable youngsters...
We saw Nirvana not once but twice at that Reading Festival thing. Second gig the moderately famous headliner shortly before the end, but a couple of years before they were on mid-way through I think the Saturday afternoon. Nursing hang-overs I think our reaction was ' Jesus what is this racket? And when are Teenage Fanclub on.'
Brit Pop
I was stuck in high school surrounded by people I hated who all love, LOVED Oasis.
I have no idea how good Oasis are, but I'll never like them because of the people I knew who LOVED them.
Yeah, Oasis truely were massive. Luckily for me I had no interest in music back then, so I missed having to listen to half the garbage the record companies released during the 90's.
When was I last made to feel very old?
At about 5.30 this morning when the alarm went off.
I meant musically.
Maybe your alarm plays a Lonnie Donnegan track, though. ;)
I've edited my original post for clarity.
What did I do during Britpop?
In between attending the odd Pulp, Blur and Supergrass gig, and despairing about the popularity of Oasis, I was busy filling in the gaps in my Tangerine Dream collection.
When was I last made to feel very old? (part 2)
When I realised that there are STILL gaps in my Tangerine Dream collection.
You just made me feel incredibly old
by saying you were born in 1980 and feel very old.
What I meant
Was that I was made to feel very old by their interest in what I still feel to be quite a recent thing (Britpop) - even thought it was over a decade ago now. On which subject, has anyone else read "The Last Party" - really good book on the subject.
Very good book
Probably as good a book on the subject as there's ever going to be. Unless future authors get super-massive co-operation from all the bands involved.
Or another writer just takes the piss and writes the world's most sarcastic book.
Or a book that goes obscure and just deals with the also-rans like Sleeper and Dodgy.
The Britpop Years
did have something special about them. There are little things you could tell kids now that they wouldn't believe.
Like how almost any pub erupted into a massive singalong whenever Parklife or Wonderwall came on the jukebox. (I even experienced this in an otherwise quiet curry-house.)
Absolutely
I remember the whole of a dodgy Runcorn pub singing 'Don't look back in anger'. Great times.
Quakes with fear
and crosses Runcorn off holiday itinerary.
Suede
I went to see Suede, two singles out and the rising stars, in a tiny club in Dublin in 1993, and spent most of the evening trying to explain to the crowd around me who T-Rex were, as a point of comparison. I felt old that night, at 29. I went to stand at the back where I got to lean against the sound desk beside Larry Mullen & The Edge who had clearly come down to check out the new competition.
But the worst was trying to explain to the new guy in the office who Roxy Music were, having been to see them on the 2001 live reunion. "Their last single was 'Jealous Guy' in early 1981", I said. "You must remember it - the John Lennon song - it was No.1 for ages". He paused, laughed, and said "Not really, I was born in '82". I'm not sure where he's working now.
I
saw the brushed leather ones in a barn in Braintree at t'other end of their career ('96/97 possibly, 'Coming Up'?) - strictly going through the motions which was a shame for a set of songs that made no.1 on the toppermost.
I can remember a girl starting at our office in 96, born in 1980, who shouted 'Who?' back at me when some colleagues and I were discussing the merits of a Brummie band whose lead singer kept falling off boats.
I also like to freak young rock gods in my local out by 'casually' mentioning I was one of the 250 snotty teenagers in the Marquee for Guns n' Roses inaugural UK visit. Don't remember much of it, except for thinking Slash had a cool hat.
My mate's mum had gone all the way to London to buy their Live Like a Suicide EP from Shades, so at the time she was equally cool, if not cooler, for having ventured downstairs in Soho to purchase it. Anyone else remember Shades?
Shades
I remember Shades very well, and I bought Live Like A Suicide there too, as well as the first Motley Crue album on Leathur Records, and lots of other big-haired nonsense.
I was at two of the four Guns n' Roses shows. At the time I knew some Japanese girls who would happily queue all day for such events, so me and a friend would roll up just before the doors opened and join them, jumping the queue.
There was a picture in Sounds a week later that showed me at the front of the stage, Slash's Les Paul pointed over my shoulder into the audience. And as I knew they were recording the encores, I howled all the way through the quiet bits of Knocking On Heaven's Door. It (and me) turned up on the b-side of the 12" of Welcome to the Jungle.
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Yeah,
that's very cool.
But I liked his hat. : -). Was probably pogo-ing next to you screaming Mr. Brownstone at the top of my teenage lungs.
Shades was mecca for us provincial boys in the mid-Eighties. If a gig occurred on a Saturday night, we'd go up to London mid-morning just to hang around at Shades and pretend we were cool. I had quite a bit of stuff signed there too, including my own version of your Japanese girls endurance feat when my best friend and I got there at 9 in the morning to see Poison. I still have their debut album, all nicely signed. Others included Dan Reed (now there was a talented band) and the Bullet Boys (who weren't). Big haired nonsense - ah, the good old days etc etc.
suede in tivoli
I was there - chaperoning my 14 year old sister who was in the middle of teenybop fandom - to the extent that she chased The Edge down Francis Street shouting - 'Brett is Great and ye're just shit'
Don't Laugh.......
......but it was already very many years ago, at an Alice Cooper concert, Birmingham Odeon, I think, long since no longer a live venue. I was probably a youngster of about 30-something odd, with some real young 'uns in front. I recall them singing along vigourously to Schools Out, despite, whilst possibly actually being current school pupils, not being even born when the song came out. I was about 15 when it came out (which probably made me 11 when I'm 18 came out but that's another tale)
It is this sort of realisation generally that the songs of my youth, still so memorable, were as far ago, comparatively, as Run Rabbit Run and Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Hitler were to the Beatles.
Talk about remember the war, Grandad....
Birmingham Odeon: cracking venue. Still got all the stubs from those halcyon days: Pretenders, Stranglers, Boomtown Rats, Richard Thompson Band, UB 40, Joan Armatrading, Paul Young (!-big mistake, small girly audience)and many more.
Underneath The Arches
maybe, Retro, but I think the Mr Hitler ditty was knocked up 'specially for Captain Mainwaring. Bud on vocal duties of course, but only just in time.
I live and learn....
Thank you, callow youth.
I've not had a chance to boast yet
despite being born in 1967...
Dodgy
I felt very old at a Dodgy gig last week.I love it when people get nostalgic about Brit Pop - it was a great time to be 16.
I loved them
Were they any good ??
5 star reviews
in the Gaurdien(sic). Playing a couple of festivals this summer. Not menswear.
It seems a bit soon for Brit Pop nostalgia...
... but I've just turned 30 and I'm getting married next week, so here goes…
For some reason, in my mind, the whole Brit Pop era has crystallised into a single afternoon - Summer, 2006. England are playing and it's a hot day. We've gathered at a friend's house as his folks are on holiday. England win. We listen to ‘Piccadilly Palare' by Morrissey and ‘Metal Mickey' by Suede in celebration. We go outside with cans of lager and start to play football in the street with some local kids. Ahh… memories.
More factually, I went to see Pulp at the Octagon in Sheffield during the His ‘N' Hers tour. Jarvis threw lollipops into the crowd before telling us ‘didn't your mother ever tell you not to except sweets from strange men?'
But if you tell kids that nowadays, they won't believe you…
I kid you not
At work recently we were discussing the biggest news stories we could remember. In age the group ranged from late 50's down to a girl in her 20's.
The topics were the usual, the moon landing, September 11, the Berlin Wall coming down etc. The 20's girl mentioned Princess Diana dying and I said "That was huge, the only thing I can compare it to was John Lennon being shot" and she said "Who?"
They're all my age!
I go to quite a few gigs, normally the crowd is a pretty mixed bunch but last week I went to see Kimmie Rhodes and was struck by how old the average age of the crowd must be and then I realised that I probably fitted right in.
Spike Island
My 14 year old is positively awestruck that I, as a 19 year old, attended the Roses gigs at the Empress Ballroom, Ally Pally and Spike Island. Constantly asking questions about the experience. It's hard to convey the real sense of disappointment at sitting in dusty field surrounded by ICI's finest chemical spewing chimneys and 30,000 gooned up northern monkeys with no support band (barring the On-U Sound System !) and negotiating precarious canal crossings for 10 hours without crushing her rose tinted view of Brown and Squire.