Various – Popscene: From Baggy to Britpop 1989 – 1994
Cherry Red Records
4 CD box set
Out now
Over 4 CDs Popscene explores how Madchester’s Baggy scene inspired the chart topping Britpop movement.
In the late 1980s everywhere you looked in Manchester there were flares and beanie hats as the Baggy movement began to become a national movement, driven by the chart success of scene leaders like The Stones Roses and Happy Mondays.
Baggy peaked on Sunday 27th May 1990 when the Roses played a massive open air gig at Spike Island, and while that gig has become the stuff of legend it was actually a bit shit. That badly organised debacle was the beginning of the end for Baggy, and thankfully flares. This box set traces the end of Baggy and the rise of Britpop as a London centric reaction to Madchester’s sixties influenced shambling pop.
The first CD kicks off with three classics from the Mondays, The Roses and the Inspirals. who are all Baggy greats, before The House of Love representing down south contribute the spikey I Don’t Know Why I Love You. Electronic was Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner joining their considerable forces, so not surprisingly their work was full of melody, and Getting Away With It is still utterly sublime. James weren’t really a Manchester band, but were part of the Baggy moment, and there are better examples of their work than How Was it For You?, and Liverpool’s the La’s offer the pure pop of Feelin’. Ocean Colour Scene’s career spanned Baggy and Britpop showing early promise on Yesterday Today, and in a nice touch the should have been massive Manc cult legends World of Twist are included.
The second CD is still pretty much later period Baggy with the Primals indie disco classic Movin’ On Up kicking things off nicely, and Cockney legends Flowered Up’s indie dance banger Take It. Before they went pub rock the Manics were an essential band in this period and You Love us is as visceral as ever. Scotland’s The Soup Dragons were always a reliable Baggy band and Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine’s The Only Living Boy In New Cross may be the track that marks one movement ending and a new one emerging.
By disc 3 Britpop was becoming an idea centred around the achingly trendy Blow Up in Camden Town offering an alternative to grunge, and from those humble beginnings Britpop mutated into a chart topping machine, which reached its peak when Tony Blair’s New Labour took power in 1997. This box set traces Britpop early days before it went mainstream, so we have Blur’s Popscene which is often seen as the movement’s first single, and quickly followed by Suede’s The Drowners, which is as louche as ever. Stourbridge’s former grebos Pop Will Eat Itself quickly jumped on the bandwagon with the catchy Bulletproof. Catchy riffs were central to Britpop and there were few better than Dodgy with Lovebirds but even better were Scotland’s riff masters Teenage Fanclub, and Radio should have been a bigger hit. Space’s If It’s Real is their usual crap, but in a pretty macho scene Sleeper’s Louise Wener shows what a great vocalist she was on Swallow.
Newly solo Paul Weller leads off the final CD as Britpop start its relentless assault on the charts with the tuneful top 20 hit Sunflower, and Caught By The Fuzz by Supergrass is madcap pop genius. After years on the cusp of success Pulp made their breakthrough with Lipgloss, Terry Hall’s Sense defines sardonic pop and Gene took on The Smiths mantle with For the Dead. Longpigs featuring Richard Hawley were another band who should have been as big as Oasis and the alternative version of She Said soars. Echobelly and Lush were other acts who took on the machismo of Britpop and there’s a lovely demo version of Cast’s Finetime, featuring ex La John Power.
Away from the big names there are rare tracks from These Animal men, S*M*A*S*H, The Auteurs, Kingmaker, My Life Story, The Weekenders, The Pooh Sticks and The Bluetones.
Licensing issues mean kings of Britpop Oasis and the mighty Elastica aren’t included, but there’s enough here to make the case that without Baggy there would have been no Britpop.
You can follow Cherry Red on Facebook and Twitter.
~
Words by Paul Clarke, you can see his author profile here.
We have a small favour to ask. Subscribe to Louder Than War and help keep the flame of independent music burning. Click the button below to see the extras you get!
