Many folk have tried to re-write history and get sniffy about Britpop, that era from around 1994 – 1997 when just about every indie-guitar band snagged themselves a record deal, got written about in NME and/or Select magazine, appeared on TV to promote their latest single (usually on TFI Friday) and then found themselves dropped and in debt when the bubble burst in spectacular fashion.
Now there was a lot of really average, and in fact, sub-standard stuff, that became very popular in that era. I mean, does anyone really have a soft spot for the abomination that is Ocean Colour Scene? Or Cast?? (see that opening sentence above……pot calling kettle black!)
But there was a lot of great stuff such including from a band that was originally lumped in with the very early 90s genre of shoegazing. And no, dont ask me to explain what shoegazing was exactly – something to do with a bands inability to look at their audience when playing. By that definition, just about every band in its existence has gone through a shoegazing period. Unless they have a lead singer who is just a big show-off.
Fast forward to 1996, and Lush are now part of the latest genre dreamt up by the media (shame on you for this one Stuart Maconie). Although it was inappropriate for the band to be lumped-in with loads of acts with whom they had nothing in common, it did at least get them some daytime radio play, and in 1996, three singles in a row cracked the Top 30, including this:-
mp3 : Lush – Ladykillers
Its just a cracking pop song. Great riff, melody and lyric. You can’t really ask for anything more….
I bought CD2 of the single. Here’s the three b-sides:-
mp3 : Lush – Heavenly
mp3 : Lush – Carmen
mp3 : Lush – Plums and Oranges
The first of these is really surprising. One that I could have posted up and asked readers to guess who it was, I think most of you would have struggled (unless either you’re an uber-fan or own this partucular single). The other two tracks are equally well worth a listen without being as wonderful as the a-side.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Not a genre of music I hold with any affection at all, all that little Englander pish, from the music press granted but I don’t remember many of the bands disassociating themselves with it. I have never understood how Pulp were grouped in with rest of this genre
A whole article about Lush and you manage not to mention with a single word what a cute goddess Miki Berenyi was … that’s quite an achievement, pal !!
Also, there were many even more disgraceful bands than Ocean Colour Scene back then, mind you, I still like their ‘Riverboat Song’ …
Molly half head were the worst band to come out of the brit pop explosion
Perfect pop song.
I see your Molly Half Head and I raise you Menswear. Or Marion. Or Shed ****ing Seven!
To be fair billisdead, few bands that were around at the start of Britpop ever wanted to be a part of a scene. Scenes are invented by the media. The Welsh branch of Britpop (dubbed ‘Cool Cymru’) included a host of bands who sounded nothing like each other, they just all happen to have been Welsh and played at TJ’s in Newport in the mid-90s.
I take your point about no one disassociating themselves from it, but why waste your breath saying “we’re not part of this or that” when no one except the press cares about that anyway? I’m sure the likes of Blur, Oasis, Pulp and everyone else denied they were ‘Britpop’ (though one or two of them did admittedly like to flaunt their so-called ‘Britishness’. Pulp just got lucky at the right time, I think. Maybe Britpop had something to do with that – who knows – but again, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t deliberate on their part.
Shed Seven and Marion were definitely better than Molly Half Head.
Every era of Lush has been perfect. I don’t care what you call it,
Great, now I have to go find out who Shed Seven, Molly Half Head and Marion were, never having heard of them before. Although those are absolutely crap names…
Jonny…..I always had a soft spot for Marion
https://thenewvinylvillain.wordpress.com/2014/03/03/remembering-marion/
Links to tunes:-
https://app.box.com/s/rmvdenvrqzouo958j64dtwqhkosex4q3
https://app.box.com/s/hwozz76qx623zjpduovk
https://app.box.com/s/vlgbpkinndbj31s5yc5z
https://app.box.com/s/gp8b7ddtv0z3p0ceh0wh
So in the early 90’s NME was bored with grunge having flogged that horse so dead that even a glue factory would have passed on it. They had thought the had a handle of Shoegaze, but THAT was a “genre” that’s whole purpose was to confound – beautifully I may add.
So some music journos with more time on their had than usual realize that there are quite a few bands out in the bars and clubs, that don’t come from the American Northwest, playing with guitars that seem to know each other and could be very generally be lumped together under a label. What kept Britpop alive in the music papers was not the music, it was the personalites, the gossip, the relationships and the infighting. Thank goodness House music was fresh and vibrant at the time and I could, for the most part, ignore Britpop.