ODB 055: Britpop’s Missing In Action

Disingenuous but in some ways true, but for every Pulp there was a band who couldn’t quite cut-the-mustard, or rise above the championship into the Premier league. Not always because of talent, in fact some bands that failed to shine were just too edgy for the Oasis/Blur mentality (Tiger for instance).

Britpop is a real ‘catch-all’ term, a fatuous tag like some kind of geological appellate period in evolution. Really we’re talking of British guitar groups from the rough mid to late 90s epoch – though it didn’t stop Sneaker Pimps, Dust Junkys and Death In Vegas from being affiliated if not drawn into that whole web of congratulatory pomp.

Some of these poor souls disappeared without trace, some were sucked into the machine, These Animal Men were pill-popping their way to notoriety – even hosting an edition of Top Of The Pops – years before the Britpop moniker had even been dreamt up: it could be argued they were actually among the fore bearers of that age; already attempting an alternative to Nirvana long before guitar music was back in vogue in the UK.