All language subtitles for Blur Oasis The Britpop Years (2014) BR Eng

We're gonna have a good time.
We're gonna have a party.

MAN: Just what is it
that you want to do?

2ND MAN: We want to be free.

We want to be free to do
what we want to do.

And we wanna get loaded
and we wanna have a good time.

That's what we're gonna do.
3RD MAN: Away baby, let's go.

We're gonna have a good time.
We're gonna have a party.

In the early to mid '90s, British pop
music went through a sea change,

which was reminiscence
of the swinging '60s.

Independent pop groups, most of them
from working-class backgrounds,

invaded the pop charts
by creating a musical identity

which was both optimistic
and quintessentially British.

The celebratory atmosphere
this created

was in stark contrast to the era
of social conflict of the 1980s

under the government
of Margaret Thatcher.

These were the Britpop years.

It was a point in time
you just felt the music's right,

the politic is right,
and the football's right,

all at once,
it all seemed really cool.

A new generation
wanting to steal the thunder
of the people who'd come before.

That stuff is absolutely vital.
It's the very heartbeat of what, uh,

makes the rock'n'roll cycle tick.

The whole climate in the UK
was changing, you know.

Imperceptibly really, but it was.

It was changing. And then,
all of a sudden, everyone thought,

"We're on a roll," you know.
It's like...

Britain's back.

# Oh, we were born
within an hour of each other

# Our mothers said we could be sister
and brother #

It's not imaginary,
it's not exaggerated,

it's not romanticised,
it's woodchip on the wall.

# With woodchip on the wall

# When I came round to call #

One thing we're really good at
making in this country is
intelligent pop music.

You know, it doesn't have to be
lowbrow, you know, it can be really,

you know, witty and sharp,
and intelligent, and I was...

If you look at the kind of the bands
that came through in that period

of Britpop. I mean, you've got
some very, very good songwriters.

Suddenly, their moment had arrived.

# London ice cracks
on a seamless line

# He's hanging on for dear life #

Just as had been the case
in the 1960s, when the Beatles
confronted the Rolling Stones,

two groups found themselves at the
heart of this cultural revolution.

Blur, a group from the nation's
capital locked horns with Oasis,

a group from Burnage,
a working-class suburb of Manchester.

Blur seemed very good at making
mainstream pop

really exciting and more accessible.

Oasis just felt like a
juggernaut coming through the house.

Oasis felt like
when the Sex Pistols arrived,

it felt, uh,
like nobody saw it coming.

And they had a singer, Liam
Gallagher,

that looked like a proper rock star.

And they had total gang attitude.

# Tonight

# I'm a rock'n'roll star... #

The popularity of both groups gave
rise to a bitter rivalry between
them.

Who of Blur and Oasis would prove
to be the major pop group
of their generation?

In 1995, the story gripped the
nation.

But it was only the last stage
of a cultural upheaval which
started almost a decade earlier.

Right about '94... '93, '94, '95,
there was this huge

momentum of change
going on in Britain.

Um, but it went all the way back.

As the 1990s dawned,

Britain was in its tenth of a Tory
government led by Margaret Thatcher.

Economic policies had led to a
country deeply divided between rich
and poor

and a situation where certain cities
of the North, such as Manchester,

were more or less left to rot.

Despite the fact that in 1990,
Margaret Thatcher was forced
by her own party to step down,

the Conservatives continued
to rule the country.

Ladies and gentlemen,

we're leaving Downing Street
for the last time

after eleven-and-a-half
wonderful years.

And we're very happy
that we leave United Kingdom

in a very, very much better state

than when we came here
elven-and-half years ago.

The Conservative government,
it changed personnel,

but the Conservatives themselves
had been governing the country

for something like 15 years.

And...there was this sense of, like,

we're gonna have to do it ourselves
cos they're not actually gonna help
the people.

For young people, the only answer
to a society which offered them
no future was to party.

The way forward was shown by
an independent record label owner
and TV presenter in Manchester,

called Tony Wilson.

His passion for music
and for his own city

led him to reinvest the profits
from his label, Factory Records,

whose recording artists included
Joy Division and New Order,

back into the youth culture
of the city.

The centre of this strategy was the
opening of a club called The
Hacienda.

This is The Hacienda.
You know, it may not look much,

but it is the cathedral
to house music in Britain.

Life-size picture of Tony Wilson's
head inside there. Yeah.

In a real sense, it was here on the
dance floor of The Hacienda

that the cultural revolution
in the 1990s took flight.

This is the gateway
to the dance floor.

The musical soundtrack of this new
cultural revolution was acid house

and its drug of predilection, a new
and euphoric one called ecstasy.

(ACID HOUSE MUSIC)

In the early '90s, The Hacienda
was to spread its message nationally

resulting in a wave of illegal
open-air parties throughout
the country known as raves.

There's a great saying
about the '60s.

It was two people who are having a
party and everyone else trying to
find it.

And I think the '90s,
everybody found the party.

Instead of going to a shit nightclub
with a big plastic palm tree

and somebody playing a set of
records that they played every
single week,

there was this sense of you would
drive, not knowing where the rave
was.

And this was going on
all over the country.

You would find yourself in a field

out in the home counties,
or in a field outside Blackburn

with these huge lasers
projecting across.

Suddenly, it felt like
young people could create control

and own their own entertainment.

The audience and the DJs
became the artists.

# Oh, is this the way they say
the future's meant to feel?

# Or just 20,000 people
standing in a field

# And I don't quite understand
just what this feeling is

# But that's OK cos
we're all sorted out for Es and whizz

# And tell me when... #

BROWN: Lots of things changed.

Drugs no longer became the domain
of just rock stars and junkies
and the privileged.

They became, after ecstasy,
something that became part of the
social life.

Part of the social fabric.

It was Manchester which remained
the epicentre of this new tide
of optimism.

Manchester thus became known
as Madchester,

as a sort of creative frenzy
took hold of the city.

The one group who came to
symbolise this popular creative
upheaval were The Stone Roses,

a band from Manchester whose music

made the connection
between acid house

and the guitar-based pop music
which was to follow and be baptised
Britpop.

I think the Roses were never
actually an acid house band.

The reason people bought their
records is cos they were kind of
psychedelic-ish.

They're going to these clubs, they
understand this culture,

they're making the music,
the soundtrack's in.

# Any time you want me

# Any time at all #

Remember that
their manager at the time

would go around Afflecks Palace,
the clothes shop,

giving out cassettes of the Roses.
People started playing 'em.

You started hearing the Roses in
Manchester, coming out of bedsit
windows.

It became part of the fabric
of the music of the city.

And it kind of merged into this kind
of trippiness. Manchester seemed to
be glowing.

It was psychedelic. It was like
San Francisco in the '60s.

But it was a working-class version.

Normal kids dressing up
in sort of hippie-ish clothes.

# Show me your vision,
your wild apparition

# And sink to the depths
of your soul #

That Stone Roses album
was a very uplifting record,
you know. It was...

It kind of harked back to the '60s
in lots of ways but in another way,

specially with Fool's Gold, you
know, it showed that this kind of

thing of sampling loops
and integrating and matchmaking.

People who used to like guitar bands
started going clubbing

and started enjoying themselves.

That was where the main
shift happened. This was like,
you know, a celebratory,

all-encompassing thing that
happened.

# The pack on my back is aching

# The straps seem
to cut me like a knife

(WHOOPING)

# I'm no clown... #

The Stone Roses were a rock band,
quite a conventional rock band,

but they also had a kind of dance
dimension to what they did.

So the Spike Island concert was not
only a traditional rock festival,

but also a rave, a gigantic rave.

And that was a key change, I think.

The Stone Roses concert
at Spike Island on March 27th 1990,

sometimes referred to
as the Woodstock of the '90s,

was a statement of intent
from a generation looking forward
to a brighter future.

was a statement of intent
We want to be free to do
what we want to do.

Soon, London was to pick up
the torch lit by the Stone Roses.

In the first months
of the new decade,

an incredible number
of young pop bands

with a semipsychedelic
guitar-based sound

could be heard playing
in clubs and pubs around the city.

STREET: At that time, the early
'90s, after the initial acid house
explosion,

there was a bit of
a kind of comedown.

Things just kind of mellowed out
for a little while.

Everything kind of went a little bit
back to being

kind of like grungy
and, you know, introspective again.

Um, and out of that scene,
really, came

this next wave of groups,
you know, including Blur,

that actually then, you know,
took that and then progressed
to something else.

For the small, independent labels
looking for new bands,

this was a rich hunting ground.

Talent scouts were out and about
almost every night,

taking in as many concerts
as possible

in the hope of finding THE group
who could take the pop charts
by storm.

One of those doing the rounds
was Andy Ross, head of Food Records,

an independent label who finally
set up shop in Camden,

a popular district of North London.

I'd be going to up to five
different shows a night,
looking for bands,

cos I was, um,
very enthusiastic at the time.

And so around that time,
uh, I found this little group,

uh, called Seymour.

I had meetings with the manager
who brought a cassette to me.

The cassette had four songs on it,

two of which
were pretty rubbish, really.

And, uh... But two were really,
really interesting, and so, uh,

I went to see them at, uh,
Dingwalls in Camden.

And after that, full steam ahead.
We signed them almost immediately
after that

in February 1990.

The two problems, uh,
we had with Seymour,

was firstly, didn't like the name.

There were too many bands around
at that time like James and Raymonde

and Seymour just sounded
like a hairdresser's name to me.

I really didn't like it and so
we had to address that situation.

Everyone chucked their ideas
in a hat

and we'll see what comes out best.

Blur won. So they became Blur.

In those days, unless you were
uh, Depeche Mode,

it was very unusual for indie bands
to make any impact on the UK charts.

So, uh, we bided with our time
and the first single,

She's So High, reached 48.

It was big success for us,
we thought at the time.

That was a good start, and then
we thought, 'Where do we go next?'

And we had some recordings
by Stephen Street.

Um, one of which was a song called
There's No Other Way.

So I went uptown to meet them at a
pub in the West End and we got on
great

and we booked a studio
for the following week

and went in and recorded two songs
as a kind of test session.

And one of those songs was, uh,
There's No Other Way.

At that time, there was still
an overhang of the kind of dancing,

kind of overhanging into
the indie clubs and things
that these kids would kind of go to.

Um... And, um...
So I definitely wanted to make sure

that There's No Other Way, if it
could, could work on the dance
floor.

But let's not overemphasise
that too much.

For me the killer thing is
the guitar riff that kick-starts it.

(GUITAR RIFF)

You know, it still has that
uplifting, you know, power.

# You're taking the fun
out of everything

# You're making me run
when I don't wanna think

# You're taking the fun
out of everything

# I don't wanna think at all

# There's no other way,
there's no other way

# All that you can do is
watch them play

# There's no other way
there's no other way

# All that you can do is
watch them play #

Had a meeting with the band.
Damon's very vocal, and he still is.

But at the time,
he was sort of saying,

"There's no other way."
And I said, "Look, that's a hit."
He was like, "No, that's a B-side."

I was like,
"You're wrong, it's a hit." And...

because we were the record label,
uh, eventually, we could just

put our foot down and say,
"It's a single."

And so they were a bit grumpy
about that.

Um, less grumpy
when it was in the top ten.

Blur were not, however, to savour
the taste of success for very long.

An unexpected wind blowing in
from Seattle on the West coast
of the United States

gate-crashed their party.
Grunge music had arrived.

In short, Nirvana. Nirvana.
Everywhere Nirvana.

America had found a voice,
and a face capable of expressing
its anxiety and self loathing.

An angelic face
amongst the shopping malls.

When Nirvana arrived - and
with Kurt Cobain, as well,

he had this kind of iconic thing
about him,

this look and this kind of deep down
desire and...and integrity -

it did kind of make a lot of bands

in this country kind of go, "Wait a
minute, what are we dealing with
here?"

# With the lights out,
it's less dangerous

# Here we are now, entertain us

# I feel stupid and contagious

# Here we are now, entertain us #

I think this really affected Blur
most probably more than anyone else

because they were touring the States
at the time

on the back of their first album.

And there was this
shift, definitely in America anyway,

where really, all of a sudden,
you know, Nirvana was it,

and all that grunge thing,
the Seattle kind of a sound.

It kind of put Blur
a little bit on the back burner.

The came back from that tour

where people were saying, "Hey, are
you guys from Manchester?"

And, you know, and kind of like,
they didn't really know
what Blur were about.

And I think they felt isolated.

They kind of spent a long time over
there trying to crack America, as it
were,

and came back pretty much
with their tail between their legs.

It all ground to a halt
around that period,

and we went away and thought,
"What do we do next?"

And they went in to the wilderness
for a little while.

At the time, Blur were very much
not flavour of the month.

I think you'd find that Suede
were much more popular
at that particular time than Blur,

and they were kind of big rivals.

In 1993, Suede were the most popular
band in Britain.

Their fans were loyal diehards who
identified with the lyrics of their
songs.

And particularly
with the lead singer, Brett Anderson,

whose sexual ambiguity
and enigmatic character

fascinated more than one or two
teenagers in search of an identity.

Suede, inadvertently, became part of
that scene because of the press.

But Brett really kept to himself. He
really didn't, you know,

become part of anything. He was
quite enigmatic

and he did what he did with his own
friends.

He didn't go to all the parties
at all or anything like that.

They would distance themselves,
in that respect.

They were a bit, you know,
a bit cool.

# Oh, it turns you o-o-on

# O-o-on

# And now he has gone #

Damon Albarn was not indifferent
to the size of Suede's following.

Having himself tasted success,

he had his own ideas of who should be
the public's favourite.

I know that Damon used to be...

Liked to sort of know
how well Suede were doing.

It wasn't like a sort of a,
"Oh, my God, we must beat them"

but he definitely had one eye
on what was happening with them

and what press they were getting
and things like that.

At that time, Damon was
writing a lot of songs that were
character-based songs

like Colin Zeal and...and
things like that,

where he's talking about
a kind of character,

and I think that kind of tapped into
that kind of linage of writing,

like, from Ray Davies or Syd
Barrett,

where you get these interesting
little English characters,

you know, these kind of
strange people that, you know,

kind of inspire a...a song
to be written around that person.

I think, you know,
the best people can do that.

And very different to kind of,
you know, the things that rock and
grunge bands were writing about.

# End of a century

# Oh, it's nothing special

# We all say, "Don't want to be
alone"

# We wear the same clothes
cos we feel the same

# We kiss with dry lips
when we say good night

# End of a century

# Oh, it's nothing special

# Oh, end of a century

# Oh, it's nothing special #

The period around the early
'90s - '92, '93, '94, I think -

it was kind of a false dawn
for British indie music.

Uh, Suede were extremely popular.

Blur were fairly popular.
And, I mean, within our small world,

we were both big names, you know.

Then suddenly this band
from Manchester

suddenly appeared on the scene -
Oasis.

The group Oasis had formed
in Manchester in the early
'90s around two brothers,

Liam Gallagher, the singer,
and his elder brother,
Noel, who wrote the songs.

# I don't know what it is
that makes me feel alive

# I don't know how to wake the
things that sleep inside

# I only wish to see the light
that shines behind your eyes #

Oasis just felt like juggernaut
coming through the house.

Oasis felt like
when the Sex Pistols arrived.

It felt like nobody saw it coming.

Nobody knew anything about this
band.

And suddenly Creation were saying,
"We've got the band."

# Because we need each other

# We believe in one another

# I know we're going to uncover... #

Creation Records was an independent
label based in London

and founded by a certain Alan McGee.

Having had some success in the '80s

with bands such as My Bloody
Valentine and the Jesus & Mary Chain,

he was in the early '90s
still looking for the band

who would project his label
to a higher level of success.

Fate was to take a hand
on the 31st May 1993,

when he found himself
at a concert in Glasgow.

The members of the band Oasis
were in the hall,

but were not scheduled to play
during the evening.

We want to be free to do
what we want to do.

I showed up, and there was a weird
licensing law change in Glasgow

cos it had been made City of
Culture.

And, uh, they had decided to start
the band at half ten.

So I was there at half eight. So
I...

saw this kind of of weird atmosphere
developing.

And it was because these kids from
Manchester,

who were called Oasis,
wanted to get on the bill.

And, uh, they didn't even
want to let them play.

There were only two bouncers in the
place and there was, like, 12 moody
Mancs.

So, I think it was decided, let the
moody Mancs have the four songs.

Nobody will care anyway. I think
that was the vibe for the club.

And then I went upstairs
just to check them out.

I don't know why. I just thought,
"Oh, let's see what they're like."

And then, you know, they played
and it was amazing.

# I need to be myself

# I can't be no-one else

# I'm feeling supersonic

# Give me gin and tonic

# You can have it all, but... #

I said, you know,
"Who's the manager?"

And he went, "There is no manager
but I'll go and get you the guy."

Then he brought the guy out and
it was Noel Gallagher.

I went, "Do you want a record deal?"
He went, "Who with?"

And I went, "Creation."
And he went, "Yeah."

# In my yellow submarine

# You need to find out

# Cos no-one's gonna tell you
what I'm on about #

The house where the Gallagher
brothers had grown up is situated in
Burnage,

a working-class suburb of Manchester.

It was here that they'd drawn up
their plans to make it big through
music.

Oasis are one of the examples of,
you know, purely working-class acts.

They're utterly admirable, uh,
with an immense commercial drive,

because they just wanted to get out
of, you know, Burnage.

And, um, you know, working-class
musicians have an enormous, uh,

drive to improve their lives.

Despite wanting to get out of Burnage
at all costs,

the Gallagher brothers also used it
as a source of inspiration.

We're outside Sifters,
which is in Burnage.

Oasis made this record shop famous,

um, when they used it
in the promotional video

for their second single,
Shakermaker.

How that came about was that
they were on the way to the studio,

Johnny Marr's studio in Altrincham,
to record it.

On the way to the studio,
Liam was panicking

because they had to
take a verse out of the track

and he kept saying, "When you gonna
write the new lyrics?" to Noel.

And as the taxi drove down the road
here, it pulled up outside the
lights

and Noel got his pen and paper
out and wrote,

'Mr Sifter sold me the songs when I
was just 16. Now he stops at traffic
lights

but only when they're green.'
He said, "Learn that."

# Mr Sifter sold me songs

# When I was just 16

# Now he stops at traffic lights

# But only when they're green

# Ah-h-h-h

# Shake along with me #

Noel Gallagher is really amazing
at writing songs.

He had that knack of getting through
to normal people

because he didn't seem he was from
the elite.

He seemed like a normal guy with a
guitar who could write brilliant
songs

that everyone could relate to.
They looked like the everyman.

And that worked, you know,
his community, his camaraderie.

Noel can write songs
that touch people's hearts.

He's the man, he writes the gear,
he's got it sewn up.

He's wrote songs that... He's got
hundreds and hundreds of songs

that are just mega. And they go
different...

You know, totally different from
what we're doing now.

Oasis in a way are the Pistols and
the Beatles just stuck together,
aren't they?

But also like a museum
of British pop culture, I think.

There's so many British band
influences in there.

You could hear Slade and T Rex
and Bowie.

# We can work it out,
we can work it out #

LIAM: I'd say the Beatles were
at the top. If there is a top.

I'd say they were at the top. A lot
of other bands were sort of like...

Just...not quite there, you know
what I mean? I wanted to be like...

You know what I mean?
Or like wherever. Depends.

Just like, what day is it today?
Tuesday, yeah?

You know what I mean? People coming
here tonight on a Tuesday. It's
raining.

People are coming down here
going, "Yeah, man.

This is gonna be a mega night."
Giving it some.

It happened to me with the Roses.

I went there and I thought, "Yeah,
man.

Top, man. I'm really glad
to be a part of it."

# I would like to leave this city

# This old town don't smell
too pretty and

# I can feel the warning signs

# Running around... #

Well, they're like, unique, really.

Compared to other things around,
they're not like any other band.

A brilliant band. England's best
band at the moment, I'd say.

Well, they're really new
and they're really fresh,

and they don't really care
what the critics say or anything.

They seem really confident.

Oasis' success with the public
at large

was underlined by
their first album Definitely Maybe.

Released in 1994, it sold
150,000 copies in its first week,

thus becoming the fastest-selling
debut album in British musical
history,

and going straight into the charts
at the number one spot.

# So what do you say?
You can't give me... #

NOEL: There's been people there
since 11 in the morning.

We wanted to do that for them
because without them we're nothing.

And, you know... It's like,
if I didn't wanna be in this band

or if I didn't wanna sign autographs

or if I didn't want to, you know,
live my life in a fishbowl,

I'd just get up from here
and take my case out of the van.

I'd go to the airport, go to Brazil.
Nobody could stop me because I've
got the money.

But I don't because I want to be
here.

We're playing the game,
and we mean it, and we're honest.

And we've got the best songs. So
that's why we're in everyone's face.

# Maybe I don't really wanna know

# How your garden grows
cos I just want to fly

# Lately, did you ever feel the pain

# In the morning rain? #

The success of Oasis was about a
connection with the audience...

..and the ability to really excite
and inspire an audience
and tap into a generation.

# We're gonna live forever

# We're gonna live forever

# We're gonna live forever #

Oasis were not the only group
to release a successful album
in 1994.

Blur made a more-than-staggering
comeback album with Parklife,

a record which for many
is the epitome of the term Britpop.

The songs on the album
are a sort of homage

to the daily life and values
of working-class London.

# Confidence is a preference for
the habitual voyeur

# Of what is known as...

# Parklife #

ANDY: After Modern Life Is Rubbish,
Blur were at a bit of a low ebb.

But the tide was turning. We didn't
really appreciate that at the time.

But within a year, we had the
release of Parklife.

So we got a kind of a slingshot
reaction from the press, going from,

"We missed them then, but we're
gonna go for it this time."

And so, suddenly the press were way
behind them, you know, all the way.

And so when Parklife came out,
it was like a done deal.

# All the people

# So many people

# And they all go hand in hand

# Hand in hand
through their parklife #

I'm very proud of it. It's a very
varied album.

You know, I mean, one of the things
I always remember vividly is,

you know, working on
Girls and Boys, um...

Damon kind of bought in a very basic
demo that he'd made of it,

pretty much a home demo,
and I remember saying to him,

"Look, this is great, and we should
do it as a 120 bpm disco record
because that's really..."

Cos he'd done it with a very simple
kind of basic drumbeat at home.

And I said, "That's its power."

# Girls who are boys,
who like boys to be girls

# Who do boys like they're girls,
who do girls like they're boys

# Always should be someone
you really love

# Oh, oh, oh, oh-oh-oh

# Oh, oh, oh, oh-oh #

That really set the ball rolling,
and the album went in at number one.

And that started...
That was the genesis of Britpop.

Guitar bands playing slightly '60s,
slightly trippy-tinge music.

A lot of them in the template
of the Stone Roses. You'd buy...

It took them five years
to make their next album.

In that gap, everyone in the country
had learnt how to be The Stone Roses
apart from The Stone Roses,

who'd sort of forgotten. (CHUCKLES)
Which is quite weird, innit?

So, um, Britpop was a continuation
of Manchester.

But, geographically,
it was more nationwide.

It was like the doors were suddenly
opened, "Come in, you're welcome."

All these bands are out there
playing guitar and doing their own
national tours

and not really ever getting
inside the top 30,

were suddenly welcome to the party.

# Because she stayed out late from
Monday

# Till Saturday turned into Sunday

# And now we're back here on Monday

# We're gonna do it all over again

# And we go, "Aah ah ah, aah ah ah
Aah ah ah, aah ah ah" #

And suddenly you get this situation
where the acts that used to have
platinum records

like the Eurythmics or Tina Turner,

suddenly...it wasn't just their
domain,

it was the domain of these bands,
you know, like Blur and Pulp and
Oasis.

And it was just a wonderful
thing because all of a sudden,

the music we were making...
We weren't changing our music to fit
into the market,

the market just adjusted to us
and gave it the name Britpop.

# I know that her mind is made up

# To get rocked #

# We are young, we run green

# Keep our teeth nice and clean

# See our friends, see the sights
and feel all right #

# Shopping for kicks, got the weekend
to get through

# She's keeping the rain
off her Saturday hairdo

# She stops for a coffee,
she smiles at the waiter #

It became a time more of
celebration, gradually, by osmosis.

Just the whole climate in the UK
was changing, you know.

Imperceptibly, really, but it was.

The changes taking place in British
society continued with the arrival

on the scene of a young Labour MP,
Tony Blair,

who on 21st July 1994
became leader of New Labour.

BROWN: There was this MP arrived.
Tony Blair, young MP.

And suddenly he understood that
if he headed a football with
Kevin Keegan,

who would go on to be the England
manager, who was then manager of
Newcastle,

he would look like a man of the
people.

Tony Blair didn't really deliver
policy, he just marketed himself.

Britpop was regarded as sexy
and quintessentially English

and cool, and Tony Blair
affiliated himself,

pretty much nailed his colours to
the mast there, or wanted to
appropriate

the scene and associate it with
New Labour.

And certainly

I remember being in
the Palace of Westminster

and I had a minute-long conversation
with Tony Blair.

Shook his hand
and talking rubbish about,

yes, it's really important
and it's a great thing to be,
blah, blah, blah...

So, yeah, I had an audience
with Tony Blair.

I've got the letter
of invitation back at home.

But he was very interested

in appropriating the scene
to the cause.

In late 1994, Tony Blair

was one of the special guests
at the Q Awards,

the music awards organised by Mark
Ellen, founder of Q magazine.

You know, rock'n'roll
plays such a big part in the lives
of all of us

or has done certainly with me.

I mean, I remember
those, you know, those opening
bars of From Me To You.

That time when you realised
that you could shock
your parents rigid

by saying that Mick Jagger
was a role model

when your mother was telling you
about that nice man

playing the double bass with
the glasses in The New Seekers.

Tony Blair was at the Q Awards
because I had invited him.
I was at college with him.

We were in a rock'n'roll band
that played five or six concerts,

but subsequently became enormously
well-known -

we weren't at the time - because
Tony had been the singer and, erm...

Tony had...
Tony really wanted to come.

And it was a complicated situation

because for a leader
of the opposition

about to be the Prime Minister
to attend an event like that,

obviously, the political lives
are scrutinized

to the most extraordinary degree
and it was big decision

to decide whether or not
he could come to an event like that

and should be associated
with rock'n'roll.

I got fed up with all the sex
and the sleaze

and the backhanders of rock'n'roll.

(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)

As you can see, I graduated
into politics and, erm,

I just wanted to say two things
to you tonight - this afternoon -

first of all that rock'n'roll

is not just an important part
of our culture,

it's an important part
of our way of life.

It's an important industry.
It's part of our lives.

There was a brilliant moment
where he was leaving

and I was taking him up the stairs
and Noel Gallagher ran down

and stopped in front of him
and said, "Do it for us, man.
You've gotta win it!"

Which was an extraordinary thing

and an extraordinary thing
for Tony, too,

because Tony realised there were
a lot of people of that generation,

represented by people like Noel, who
really wanted Labour to get in.

I think New Labour were happy
to sleep around

with the musicians of the time.

I don't think they had a particular
preference for North or South.

I think Oasis or Blur, to them,
probably equally usable.

And so they whored themselves around
a little bit around the musicians

to make them cool by association
certainly.

But at the end of 1994,

the political career of Tony Blair
was the last thing on the minds
of Blur and Oasis,

who found themselves vying for the
role of Britain's biggest band.

The best LP of 1994...

And again, I'm sure our readers have
got this right.

..is Parklife by Blur.
(CHEERING)

Thank you ever so much.

It's nice to be respectable.
Everyone wants to be respectable.

I suppose that's what it gives us -
a certain air of respectability.

# Tonight, I'm a rock'n'roll star #

The Best New Group of 1994 are
Oasis.

# OASIS: Live Forever

To the readers, I'd just like
to applaud your wisdom. Thank you.

To the readers, I'd just like
to applaud your wisdom. Thank you.
We want to be free to do
what we want to do.

As 1994 came to a close,
Britpop was in full swing.

Everything seemed rosy in the world
of pop music.

But soon the sun was to cloud over
as it became clear there was

only going to be enough room
for one band to achieve mega-stardom

and that either Blur or Oasis
would have to step aside.

Thus, 1995 was to become the year
of the battle of the bands.

# Today is gonna be the day

# That they're gonna throw it
back to you

# By now, you should have somehow
realised what you gotta do

# I don't believe that anybody

# Feels the way I do about you now #

But, as 1995 dawned,

there was still no sign
of the future hostilities.

When you have a record label,
you need to have a pub.

Because you don't want these
herberts loitering in your office.

The reason we chose the Good Mixer
to make our number-two office

was we came in here, it was empty,
and we thought, "Well, this is
home."

This where we're gonna be
really based from now on.

And around that time, a very
influential press office called Best
In Press had moved in next door.

They were doing press for likes
of Pulp and Suede

and Elastica and many more.

And we'd all be drinking in this
pub.

Everyone. All the bands came in
here. Everyone was getting along

and everything was going
swimmingly well.

Oasis, certainly, were coming in
here

and having beers with Blur
and all of the various artists.

Blur were doing well with Parklife.

Their lead single, Girls and Boys,
had done incredibly well.

And so had Oasis
with their initial singles, as well.

So, suddenly, you had two indie
bands

that normally would've been in
the 10s and 20s of the chart,

actually regularly getting
into the top ten.

And I think for the media,
this is interesting, you know.

You've got this Mancunian
working-class band,

really a bit rough and ready,

and then you've got the smart
and witty, kind of, er,

art-school vibe, perhaps, inspired
by Syd Barrett

and that kind of thing of Blur.

And it kind of created a rivalry
as far as the press were concerned

rather than the actual
bands themself.

Although I think Noel and Liam were
always quick to have a good slag

of someone, if they could,
within their interviews.

We wanna be the biggest band
in the world... Big as we can be.

..and that is it, end of story.

And we want the things that go with
it.

I want to be a big pop star and do
loads of people's heads in.

They're going, 'Look at him.' And
I'm going, 'Uhhh!'

I didn't work for either of them
by then.

But the stuff that Noel said about

"I wish they'd die of Aids" and all
that stuff. Ouch.

I remember going out with Damon and
Alex one night in the West End and
bumping into Liam

and Liam acting like a complete
gorilla towards them

and being really, really quite
awkward.

And I think, actually, that was
the...

I always remember that night
happening,

where Damon felt his feathers
ruffled a little bit

and thought, 'We'll see. If that
means we are in competition, we are
in competition.'

Liam likes to be more in-your-face
than I do.

But I'm harder.

Best band about today, on the
planet. That's a fact.

# Some might say

# We will find a brighter day #

The rivalry between Blur and Oasis
grew in intensity in April 1995,

when, for the first time, Oasis
had a number-one single with
Some Might Say.

To celebrate its success, a party
was organised at a club
in central London

and, surprisingly,
Blur were on the guest list.

Yeah, they were there. We invited
them.

And Oasis were tired.

I remember Noel saying, "Are Blur
coming?"

And I went, "Yeah." And he went,
"Uhh."

So he was... I don't know. I think
he knew that Liam would have a go.

And then Liam had a go at Damon
about being number one.

It's just the way life goes,
you know.

There was now no turning back

and a head-on clash between the two
bands seemed inevitable.

This was to take place when both Blur
and Oasis would release singles
on the same day -

14th August 1995.

Both bands had important singles
coming out around the same time

and the boss of Parlophone,
who we are affiliated to,

was very good friends
with the manager of Oasis.

And for six months, the two had been
in touch with each other

to make sure that the two singles
did not clash.

They'd have their number one

and then two weeks later,
we'd have our number one

and everyone would be happy.

And then we found out their release
date was one week before ours

and we couldn't fathom that at all.

So we thought, "What do we do
about this?" And we thought,

"Well, either we run and hide
or we switch our release date

and go head-to-head with Oasis."

Basically, we released a single
on the same day

because it was
either that or a punch-up.

And we thought there'd
be less bloodshed.

Once it became clear
that these two singles

were gonna be indeed released
on the same day,

it became like a...
like pick your side, pick your team.

And it was amazing.
I can remember going into HMV

and seeing the singles stacked
right next to each other

and the media and the press
picking up on it.

And when the BBC News
picked up on it,

I just thought this is really
going too far now.

The Manchester band Oasis and their
arch rivals Blur have released new
singles today,

each hoping to reach the number-one
spot next week.

The music industry hasn't seen
anything like it since the Beatles

and the Rolling Stones fought it out
in the 60s.

Both singles, which I think
were Country House and Roll With It,

were not representative
of those groups at all.

They were actually one of the least
important and the least effective

records that either group ever made.

Country House was a strange
aberration

into a kind of faux-Cockney
vaudeville. A bit of a knees-up.

# He lives in a house
a very big house in the country

# Watching afternoon repeats
and the food he eats in the country #

And Roll With It I don't remember
anything about at all.

It was a completely uneventful song.

# You've gotta roll with it
You've gotta take your time

# You gotta say what you say
Don't let anybody... #

They both produced much better work
but that was the moment

when they had to come up
with the killer record

and the whole world would conspire
to pit them against each other.

Blur v Oasis was essentially an NME
cover. They put Blur v Oasis

with an old-fashioned
drawing of a boxer between them.

It was very good front cover.
That was it really, it became
a good news story.

You know what probably happened.
The probably both wanted to
be on the cover

and they couldn't give them both
the cover or neither of them
would do an interview.

Now, it's being called the biggest
battle in pop music for nearly
30 years.

Two of Britain's leading bands,
Blur and Oasis, released singles
on the same day last week,

backed by massive marketing
campaigns.

The result was announced
on BBC Radio yesterday,

with Blur going straight
into the charts at number one
and Oasis at number two.

(HORN HONKING)

Hello, we're Blur, we're number one

and we're gonna be camping it up
later on Top of the Pops.

Tonight, Blur are Top of the Pops.

# So the story begins

# City dweller, successful fella

# Thought to himself,
"Oops, I've got a lot of money"

# Caught in a rat race, terminally #

The reason that we got number one
and they didn't

was so mundane, it's unbelievable.

It was because we had a better
selection of formats than they had.

They had a seven inch.
We went for a cassette.

# Blow me out, I am so sad

# I don't know why

# Blow, blow me out

# I am so sad

# I don't know why #

And then in the evening,
we celebrated.

We were number one
and Oasis was number two.

And it didn't feel like
we'd beaten Oasis particularly.

It felt like we had a number-one
record. That was exciting.

The main thing was that

Blur changed their release date
and made it a competition.

But, erm...

Which was kind of pathetic

but brilliant in a way for us
because it made...

Oasis suddenly as big as Blur
when we never were.

We were about a quarter of the size
of Blur.

We were 500,000, they were
at two million. And suddenly...

we had this fight in public,
we lost.

But then we put out Morning Glory
and then we smashed it.

# And so, Sally can wait

# She knows it's too late
as we're walking on by

# Her soul slides away

# But don't look back in anger,
I heard you say #

Noel Gallagher's got a great quote,
so I'll paraphrase him.

He said they set the stage up
for Blur and the music press

and he goes, 'Then we turned up,
they didn't want us but we took the
stage.'

Cos it was never planned
that a Manchester band

would kind of turn up and gate-crash
its own party.

Cos the party was a Manchester
party.

Blur had kind of taken over.
They were the biggest band
in the country.

Along turns up Noel, his little
brother and his ragbag of a band
from Manchester.

They ended up being the biggest band
in the country. Completely not the
plan,

but all the more brilliant for it.

With the release of the album,

(What's The Story) Morning Glory? in
October 1995, Oasis, who had lost the
battle of the singles,

finally wound up winning the war.

The album was to stay top three
of the charts for seven months

and become the third-biggest-selling
British album of all time.

Best singer, best songwriter.
Best band.

How old are you? 14.
How old are you? ALL: 14

On the crest of a wave,
Oasis made 1996 their year,

playing concerts in front
of huge audiences,

whether, it'd be the 50,000 fans
who made their way to Knebworth

or those who filled Maine Road
football stadium in Manchester.

The biggest band in Britain
were the best band in Britain.

There was like 20,000 kids,
teenagers, singing every word

and it felt like those films
of the Beatles. I'd never seen that.

It felt like a victory.

# Some Might Say

I think it was a victory.

It was one of these victories
that bemused all concerned.

I remember Noel and me going back

to see him in his little caravan
after it

and he went, "I don't know
what we do now."

He was confused, you know what I
mean?

He looked...he looked...

..shell-shocked, to be honest.

There has to be something that comes
after us

that's so far removed from
what we're doing

and it has to go
in a different direction.

If it doesn't, I'd be quite upset.

I'll probably have to do it myself.

You know what I mean? Cos everyone's
so lazy and can't get off their
arse.

I'll have to invent a new form of
music just to do my own head in.

# PULP: Common People

The victory of Britpop was
the victory of the man in the street.

In less than ten years,
those who had previously
been marginalised by society

were now role models in a
rapidly-changing British social
landscape.

Whether it'd be football, music
or fashion,

street culture was no longer
looked down upon

but rather seen as something
to copy and aspire to.

# You want to live like common people

# You want to see whatever
common people see

# You want to sleep
with common people

# You want to sleep with
common people like me?

# But she didn't understand

# She just smiled and held my hand #

On 1st May 1997, Tony Blair
became Prime Minister of Britain

thus ending 18 years of Tory rule.

His landslide victory was in part
due to a general sense of having
had enough,

but also to a wave of optimism
which had been sweeping the country

and which in part could be laid
at the door of Britpop.

And yet in 1997, the press headlines
no longer spoke of Britpop

but rather of Cool Britannia,

a marketing phrase concocted by media
and politicians alike

to publicize this new, young,
vibrant Britain.

The Cool Britannia thing
was just opportunism

by the political parties involved

to try and latch on
to this kind of popularity

that was currently being enjoyed
by those kind of bands.

I think if you look at Damon and
Noel,

they felt uncomfortable
being involved with that anyway.

Even though Blur's success put them
on top of the world,

they still felt the need to distance
themselves from Tony Blair's
Cool Britannia.

Leaving for Iceland, they there
recorded their fifth album

in a style more
reminiscent of American indie
rock than of British pop.

The Britpop years seemed
no more than a distant memory.

# Whoo-hoo!

# Whoo-hoo! #

It was a weird time in Britain,
where the music got very insular

and we all got, you know,

very carried away with the idea of
British music taking over the world

and stupid things like that, you
know.

But was that something
you were probably responsible for?

In part, yeah. But, erm...

I mean, it all seems a bit kind of
ludicrous to me now, and juvenile.

A few weeks after his election,
Tony Blair held a reception
at Downing Street

for those who, in his opinion,
best represented the ideology
of Cool Britannia.

Amongst the guests, were both
Noel Gallagher and Alan McGee.

In only two or three years,
Noel Gallagher had moved from
a bedroom in a suburb of Manchester

to the Prime Minister's
private residence.

I don't regret that, going to
Downing Street, because I knew I was
never gonna be asked back.

Noel's working class and I'm working
class and it's a bit like,

if somebody asks you to go to the
Prime Minister's gaff

do you know what, you may as well
have a little look.

So, whether that is cool or not,
I really couldn't give a shit.

By 1997, Oasis had become
the biggest band in the world.

Everything they did was henceforth,
on a monumental scale.

Their third album Be Here Now
was released in August 1997

to rave reviews.

However, despite huge sales
of eight million copies before
the year was out,

it came to be regarded as something
of a failure, artistically,

and as symbolizing the end of an era.

The Britpop years
had finally come to a close.

But once again, as in the '60s,

Britpop had shown the capacity of
music to change radically the face of
British society.

I'm not sure you're gonna see it
again.

I think we're moving
into a new dimension of musicality,

where people receive and consume
music in a completely different way.

So, I'm not sure we are gonna see
the same thing again.

That was the last time, I think,
there was that white heat,

that intensity of a relationship

between the kind of rock'n'roll
consumer, the fan, if you like,

and the rock band.

And that is
what produces great legends

and produces golden eras, if you
like, like the mid '90s.

My personal thoughts about Britpop
is that everyone had a great time.

We had a lot of fun and any legacy,
musical or otherwise, is a bonus.

# Come and play the tunes of glory

# Raise your voice in celebration

# Of the days that we have wasted

# In the cafe

# In the station

# And learn the meaning of existence

# In fortnightly instalments

# Come share this golden age with me

# In my single-room apartment

# And if it all amounts to nothing

# It doesn't matter

# These are still our glory days... #

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