Tuesday 1 January 2013

The Nearly Men

Before I finish my Britpop retrospective, I should mention some of the bands that didn't make it, or I just couldn't be bothered to buy any of their albums.

Dodgy were a poppier, summery sounding band, and were shit. They are regularly perceived as one the reasons Britpop was shit by haters of the period, and were seen as one of the dadrock-type bands that Chris Evans championed.

Like Dodgy, Reef were a band tainted by their Chris Evans associations, making their name when one of their songs was used regularly on "TFI Friday". Coming from the West Country, the band had a large regional fanbase, but seemed only to be liked by retro rock fans elsewhere in the country.

Sheffield's Longpigs were actually not that bad, having a couple of good singles and half-decent debut album. That said, I couldn't be bothered to buy the album again. The band are most notable today because they featured Richard Hawley on guitar, though when I was at school, it was rumoured that singer Crispin Hunt was originally from my home town of Leek (in Staffordshire), and formed the band when he went to university in Sheffield, though I've never been able to confirm if this is true or not.

Northern Uproar were one of the most hated of all Britpop bands. Seen as being a poor man's Oasis, due to kind of looking and sounding like a worse version of them, and the band were constantly mocked by music magazines and fans alike.

If one Britpop band were hated more than Northern Uproar, it was Shed Seven, though this was probably related to the fact that they were a lot more successful than Northen Uproar and a lot more people had heard of them. Singer Rick Witter's name became Britpop rhyming slang, and lots of stories went around about how the band got its name (because the singer was one of a family of seven that were born and lived in a shed, being my favourite). Like Northern Uproar, they were a crapper Oasis.

Scotland's The Supernaturals had a couple of poppy hit singles, then disappeared again. I can't really add any more than that.

No comments:

Post a Comment