The day the music died..

... was somewhere mid 1999 I'd say. I listened to a retrospective of 90's indie classics last night, which plunged me into deep nostalgia - a place I seem to wallow ever more of late. Ah, the 90's. Back when there were no TV shows to set up wimpy little girl&boy bands & bland solo artists (although I admit that before X-Factor et all, newspaper ads seemed to perform this function - hence the creation of the Spice Girls/Take That).

It's sad that many of the great and original Britpop scene are no longer around, at least to my knowledge anyway - Sleeper, Suede, Sleeper, Skunk Anansie, Garbage, Mansun, Pulp (I was lucky enough to see them in concert, supported by Dubstar, when I was very wee in October 1995 - my first gig!)

There's a few that were arguably less notable/prolific, but still had a fantastic couple of 'choons' - The Lightning Seeds, Dodgy, Kula Shaker, Space, Shed Seven, Bluetones, Elastica, Alisha's Attic etc. etc..

Some bands have fractured, leading to solo success for several of the members, or indeed splintered into entirely different bands (Blur - I mean you). Then there's Oasis, who until very recently, continued to tour & release new material. Doesn't look like the Gallagher Brothers will be getting together anytime in the near future though, their brotherly tiffs have not mellowed with age.

Radiohead are one of the few examples who seem to have weathered the storm, and continue to tour & release new music - much different to their mid-90's output, but still hugely respected and full of creativity.

I could write on this subject for ages, delving into more trivial banter about how much better looking the male singers were - the raw appeal of Mr Cocker in all his tradmark lankiness in 'Common People', the scrumptiousness of Blur in their video for 'Universal', the strangely appealing face of Thom Yorke as he stares at the screen in 'No surprises'...

Many bands nowadays, even the 'indie' ones are styled within an inch of their lives, expert lighting and retouchers doing all the rest - what a dull, homogenised lot.