25 years since Blur v Oasis & 'The Battle of Britpop'
It's 25 years since Blur's Country House and Oasis' Roll With It went head to head in the UK Singles Chart on 14th August 1995, a battle fuelled by differences in taste, personal opinions, geography even class. It was engineered by Blur's label Food Records who intentionally moved the release date for Country House - the lead single from Blur's fourth LP The Great Escape - to the same date as the new Oasis single Roll With It, itself the second lead single from the new yet unreleased album (What's The Story?) Morning Glory. Of course the ploy worked wonders as the story captured the zeitgeist of the mid-nineties, as Britpop peaked in popularity with the story making the front pages of magazines, newspapers the world over. It even made the 10 o'clock news - see above - which is extraordinary because no one had died (why the arts can't have more of a place and replace the sensational oddities lower down the news stories I'll never know).
Of course the result was a 'win' for Blur who appeared on the following week's Top Of The Pops in typically celebratory mood:
Before Oasis responded by not playing live and with Liam and Noel swapping roles and Bonehead and Guigsy swapping positions (but not instruments):
Despite the outcome, it was Oasis who gathered momentum and in popularity stakes at least beat Blur. But Blur wisely changed course from here and took a left turn by regrouping in Iceland and looking to the American influences that ostensibly a few years earlier they had despised; in reality they secretly admired Nirvana and the wave the American rock over the pond. Beetlebum and Blur followed in '97 and was far more successful than Oasis' answer Be Here Now, despite its initial weekly sales record and pre-release hype. By the end of the year, copies had started appearing in charity shops and the initial 5 star reviews would contribute to somewhat of a backlash where it was hated by fans, the media and even Noel Gallagher who commented "it was shit".
The songs themselves? Both were enjoyable if not particular special, Country House with it's jolly gallop and Roll With It with its anthemic intro and thrill. Both released better songs that year in Wonderwall and The Universal, but they didn't have a backstory like Country House and Roll With It; for a few weeks in '95 it was as if the world was taken over by them. A welcome distraction from the problems of the day, Saddam Hussein, Mike Tyson, War et al.
I remember this well at the time being a 16 year old lad that hated Britpop. Blur have always been superior for me but maybe that's because I'm from Essex. Saying that, neither band can hold a candle to Pulp.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment and apologies for my belated reply. It's interesting looking back with the benefit of hindsight because Britpop was and still is something of a marmite subject for many. Many music fans and the bands themselves hate it whilst others such as Radio 2 look back with a lot of fondness. I'm somewhere in the middle. What I do know is that seven British bands were head and shoulders above the rest* and it's really splitting hairs which of those was the best (although after falling in love with Oasis as a kid and hating Blur then, i now see Oasis' shortcomings and love Blur. Funnily enough enjoy Pulp but never adored them like i have with the other bands I'm about to list-note not merely a list of 'Britpop' bands whatever that constitutes). Anyway glad you enjoyed the posts, cheers Jono *Blur/Oasis/Manics/Pulp/Radiohead/Suede/The Verve
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