Suede's recent 6Music session at Maida Vale got me thinking...
I grew up on nineties indie, not just the obvious - Oasis, Cast and Blur (in fact not at all, except Blur) but those glamorous fringe-lurkers Suede and Pulp. Their songs spoke of the glamour of a London I had yet to get to know, a thrill in the down at heel and an epic sense of the self. Their romantic escapism was just what a teenage girl growing up in the Norwich suburbs wanted and needed. Suede were my obsession, I had posters of Brett Anderson on my wall and would make a weekly pilgrimage to Sainsburys - the only local outlet big enough to stock NME and the now defunct Melody Maker.
I became obsessed with the (early) Manics - all blood, glitter and rage. They introduced me to some of my earliest literary loves as well as one of my favourite albums ever in the form of the oft-forgot Gold Against the Soul. Their sense that they'd broken out of Blackwood and into the big time cut through everything they did.
Watching it back now, the videos seems a little dated - all enhanced colour - but there's no way that I can listen to these lyrics with any real purpose and not cry, or even shed a little tear. I want everyone in love to feel a little bit like The Wild Ones. Shut your eyes and just listen.
That floppy haircut slayed a million girls (and boys) in the nineties.
Note - the carpet is the same as in the Overlook Hotel (The Shining - also another one of my favourites)
Me, and my best friend Tilly put together a fanzine (an actual printed fanzine) where we interviewed bands, drew the cover art and self published.
What does this have to do with what I do now? Well, both nothing and everything. Who I am, runs through everything I do. I am who I am, with my vision of the world, because of how I grew up, and I thought I'd like to share a little of that with you.
