90’s Britpop bands better than Oasis or Blur

[scottmcleanscontacts]

Ash
The Bluetones
The Beautiful South
Cast
Catatonia
The Charlatans 
Dodgy
Elastica
Embrace
Feeder
Garbage
James
Kula Shaker
The Lightening Seeds
Manic Street Preachers
Mansun
Ocean Club Scene
Placebo
Pulp
Reef
Republica
The Seahorses
Shed Seven
Space
Suede
Supergrass
Super Furry Animals

Definitely agree on -

The Beautiful South
James
Shed Seven

The others are all pretty much in the same category as Oasis and Blur for me, some good stuff, some not so much.

[LeeVanTeeth]

At the time I thought most of those bands were pretty average and musically conservative, nowhere near as good as a band like Massive Attack.

Compared to most of the stuff I sometimes have to suffer at work nowadays though, I'm feeling a bit nostalgic for the Britpop era.

[The OP]

The Beautiful South were utterly awful. This cannot be stated emphatically enough. 

[Savage Henry]

The Beautiful South were utterly awful. This cannot be stated emphatically enough. 

Oh god yeah. Music for people with Friends box sets.

[D.A.F.C]

The charlatans were excellent, no idea why they weren’t bigger than oasis. Telling stories superb.

I also really liked Inspirals, Happy Mondays, Primal Scream, Ride and the Roses.

It was a great time for music with all the dance stuff going on as well. To say some of those one hit wonder bands are better than Oasis and Blur is daft though.

[Savage Henry]

1 hour ago, D.A.F.C said:

The charlatans were excellent, no idea why they weren’t bigger than oasis. Telling stories superb.

I also really liked Inspirals, Happy Mondays, Primal Scream, Ride and the Roses.

It was a great time for music with all the dance stuff going on as well. To say some of those one hit wonder bands are better than Oasis and Blur is daft though.

Really?

Charlatans didn't have the anthems.  The Masterplan alone has more hooks than the Charlatans have had in their career.  Doesn't mean they aren't as good, but the infectious hooks is what made Oasis Oasis.  

And, frankly, Tim Burgess doesn't have the personality that either of the Gallagher brothers does. Telling Stories is great, though, I agree.

None of that explains why Stereophonics made it as big as they did, bereft entirely of hooks or personality.

 

[Ira Gaines]

Bereft of hooks You can accuse them of a lot of things but that sure as f**k isn't one of them. It practically made them.

[KillieCon]

There's some utter pish on that list imo. There's no way the likes of Catatonia and Space are better than Blur and Oasis.

[Sarto Mutiny]

Oasis were dreadful

[G-MAN]

Few things:

Not sure why a lot of these bands are lumped in with the “Britpop” tag....

Oasis came along at the right time.

Madchester had been and gone, Shoegazing was still going strong.

But we were being force fed Nirvana and Grunge....

All we had was the 5 minute Clip of the Indie Chart on the Chart Show on Saturday / Snub TV Or John Peel or the NME/Select.

Oasis came along and filled the void that the Stone Roses left.

No one who was there can say Oasis were “dreadful” FFS.

For someone else to say The Charlatans didn’t have hooks ??? That’s possibly the strangest thing I’ve ever read on P&B.

Our Music wasn’t on TV, Radio and no Internet kids - then it changed.
For the worse...


Finally, there are so many bands on that list that shouldn’t be there, it’s embarrassing. Where do you start.

[Spyro]

5 hours ago, D.A.F.C said:

The charlatans were excellent, no idea why they weren’t bigger than oasis. Telling stories superb.

I also really liked Inspirals, Happy Mondays, Primal Scream, Ride and the Roses.

It was a great time for music with all the dance stuff going on as well. To say some of those one hit wonder bands are better than Oasis and Blur is daft though.

Can’t argue that the dance scene was magic, if not at its best. Even though I started this off, I’d definitely say I go back to the dance tracks before 90% of the bands mentioned above

[Oscar Wilder]

Don't know if they'd be classed as britpop or not but l loved Symposium around 97 /98, especially live, their Glastonbury set on the other stage in 97 is one of my favourite live performances ever! Back on topic, Blur and Oasis were better than nearly all bands mentioned!

[Ross.]

On 22/06/2019 at 12:01, Moomintroll said:

On 22/06/2019 at 08:41, MixuFixit said:

Longpigs
Sleeper
Mansun
The Divine Comedy
 
Shed Seven were the bestest though.

Neil Hannon is an absolute musical genius, Shed Seven were the most underrated indie band of the 90s.

Hannon was the best singer/songwriter of that period for me. If not for the fact he was so sardonic and dismissive of the industry he worked in, he'd have been a superstar.

Shed Seven have aged well, the Charlatans are fucking tremendous and no matter when and where you see them they look like they are absolutely loving the fact that they are doing what they are doing, James have an outstanding back catalogue and could match anyone from the early 80's through on a single by single basis, Pulp had some supreme moments, but the Happy Mondays or Black Grape probably win the whole thing on the basis of "Step On", "Kinky Afro", Reverend Black Grape" and "Kelly's Heroes", even if they aren't strictly Britpop and my love of them is strongly linked to the chemical experimentation I was doing when I started listening to their stuff.

Edited June 25, 2019 by Ross.

[Spyro]

If my Spotify is anything to go by, James are by far the winner with the most tracks on there...

But back to the dance, and not even British(!), found this little gem from my childhood... Can’t get enough of it!!!

Yeah, Britpop was pish!

[RockMusic]

On 22/06/2019 at 23:15, BallochSonsFan said:

Sleeper were a fantastic band. First 2 albums are great. It's easy to overlook them. In part I'd argue that they were caught up with bands that they had little in common with and were far more than just another britpop band. I'd also argue that as hot as Louise Wener was/is, her image took some of the attention off their music.

Shame really. What I've heard of the new stuff doesnt really grab me but for much of their first 3 albums they made absolutely fantastic indie pop.

I didn't think they were any great shakes but I didn't listen to a great deal of their stuff after being put off by a dodgy single they had in the charts. Their lasting legacy for me is that they influenced the music press to create the term, "sleeperbloke", when describing dull, unidentifiable guys in a band where there is a big image/character female singer.

[TheScarf]

The Charlatans are brilliant IMO.  Far better than Oasis, along with, for me:

Ocean Colour Scene, The Bluetones, Suede, Supergrass.

I can give or take the rest in the OP's list.

[coprolite]

I can't fathom the love for Shed Seven on this thread. They were utter shite without redeeming features

Blur and Oasis were both quite good imo, although oasis lost it after their first album and i really need to be in a charitable mood to listen to blur at all. 

About 1/3 of that list were also quite good. I would count 3 among my top fave bestest acts, Charlatans, Suede and Divine comedy. 

The likes of Dodgy, Kula Shaker, Republican, Reef etc must be a joke surely? 

Absence of Boo Radleys is criminal. 

In summary : shed seven ffs you deaf c***s

[Bishop Briggs]

The Verve?

[fuzzydunlop]

19 hours ago, MixuFixit said:

Boo Radleys were great but I think it's a stretch to put them in britpop.

 

PS your comments on Shed Seven cannot go unpunished and I will see you on Ruel Street.

 

i think 'Wake Up Boo' would probably be the reason folk think of them as Britpop.  But Giant Steps in 1993 was a phenomanal album.

I moved to Glasgow in 1994 and was living round the corner from King Tuts. Used to be in there a couple nights a week(it felt like) watching bands from 94-99.   There was a great run of gigs at Tuts circa 1995 when (I think) Shed 7 headlined and Supergrass supported...few weeks later Supergrass headlined with Bluetones supported...then few weeks later Bluetones headlined and I think Heavy Stereo supported...

I did see Oasis at the old cathouse in Glasgow(anyone ever go to that down by the Clyde?) in December 1993.  They were supporting Verve and as Verve were givign the first couple of hundred folka  free flexi single we got down mega early, Oasis first band on...i thought they were alright, my mate loved them and bought a t-shirt. The band on after them, Acetone, I liked better!

[Boostin' Kev]

Almost all of the bands in the OPs list are very average. Blur were the best of that era, they evolved well and their music's aged well too. Saw Oasis in Dundee a couple of weeks before Supersonic was released, they were good then but dropped off hugely around the time of the second album. 

Always thought that Britpop era was a poor man's Madchester, that was a great time for white UK indie music.