FEATURE:
“He's Got Morning Glory and Life's a Different Story”
IN THIS PHOTO: Blur circa 1995
The Blur/Oasis Britpop Chart Battle at Twenty-Five
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ONE chapter of music history that creates division…
IN THIS PHOTO: Oasis in 1995/PHOTO CREDIT: PA
is Britpop. There are some who adore the spirit and brilliance of the music produced by the likes of Oasis, Blur, Supergrass, Suede, and so many other great bands at the time. There are others that feel Britpop was a rather cloying and over-hyped movement that did not really produce anything substantial or memorable. I have a lot of affection for the period, and I was fascinated as a child watching these great British bands of the time rising and creating anthems. There is conflict as to when Britpop officially started but, by 1995, it was reaching its peak. Tomorrow (14th August), it will be twenty-five years since the two biggest British bands of 1995, Oasis and Blur, launched singles. Today, it feels strange to get excited about singles and the charts, but back in 1995, so many people were watching with interest as Blur’s Country House took on Oasis’ Roll with It. Country House was the lead single from Blur’s underrated 1995 classic, The Great Escape, whilst Roll with It was taken from Oasis masterpiece second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory? No doubt, those tracks are not among the biggest and best tracks from those albums. I think pitting Blur’s Charmless Man against Oasis’ Morning Glory would have made for a better battle; two stronger songs that, whilst not as spirited and commercial as the tracks they released on 14th August, 1995, would be more enduring.
The chart battle was won by Blur, but one can say that Oasis benefited more in the long-term; their career rose and the two bands would experience different paths in 1995 – Blur would overtake Oasis in 1997 in terms of album quality – the former’s eponymous album is much finer than Oasis’ Be Here Now (which was heralded in 1997, but has since been seen as overblown and overrated). I know there will be a lot of articles in the next week or so, as many reflect on a very exciting and charged time for British music. I recall reading the music press at the time and feeling this real sense of anticipation, conflict, and rivalry! In 2015, SPIN marked twenty years since the Country House/Roll with It showdown:
“On this day 20 years ago, Britpop reached its apex as a pop-culture phenomenon, with the simultaneous release of Blur’s “Country House” and Oasis’ “Roll With It” singles. Not that the songs were all that great — today, neither would necessitate a spot in either band’s greatest-hits live set — but what they represented certainly was: The climax of a long-brewing feud between the movement’s two biggest bands, and a chance to empirically determine which was truly the greater outfit, by vote of the people.
Of course, it wasn’t close to that simple: Nearly as soon as the victor was crowned in the first round of Blur vs. Oasis, the momentum of the fight shifted dramatically in the other direction. And so it would go over the decades to come, the groups constantly toggling back and forth in who was leading in popularity, public perception, and overall legacy. Long after the bands stopped fighting in real life — and really it’s been radio silence for some time now on that front, with respective leaders Damon Albarn and Noel Gallagher even dueting with one another on the former’s “Tender” two years ago — the debate rages on among fans, who couldn’t let the thrill of ’95 go even if they wanted to”.
If it was just a case of Oasis and Blur releasing two good singles from poor albums, then I don’t think many people would be so invested in this Britpop peak so far down the road! The fact is that both bands were on top form and released majestic records in 1995. If (What's the Story) Morning Glory? Is better-reviewed and remembered, Blur’s The Great Escape was a worthy follow-up to Parklife (1994) – tracks such as Stereotypes, Charmless Man, Fade Away, He Thought of Cars, and The Universal are classic Blur cuts! One can only imagine how much pressure there was in Oasis and Blur’s camps when they released their singles in 1995, and so many people were creating this huge sense of drama. We do not really have that thing now of different but beloved bands take on one another and have this very healthy rivalry – the fact Oasis and Blur released albums in 1994, 1995, and 1997 and there was this sense of tribalism and both bands having distinct sets of fans who, for the most part, did not really overlap. It was a very exciting time for British music was Britpop and, in a feature from NME from last year, Stephen Street (who produced for Blur) and Oasis’ press officer, Johnny Hopkins, cast their minds back to the heady Britpop days of 1995:
“Stephen Street (Blur producer): “Following [1994’s] ‘Parklife’, optimism was very high. There was a lot of confidence flying through Blur. We knew that when we made a record there was a good chance it would get heard on the radio, which hadn’t been the case three or four years previously. At that point Damon was revelling in being one of the hottest things on the planet. He was still going out with Justine (Frischmann, of Elastica) at that time, so they were the hottest couple in town.”
Johnny Hopkins (Oasis press officer): “The first Oasis album had been the best-selling debut album ever. There was a lot of confidence, a lot of excitement, a lot of celebration around that time. The intention was to keep them away from Britpop as much as possible. I saw them as an international rock’n’roll band. I found the whole Britpop idea to be pretty parochial and limiting, and in parts pretty sinister. They weren’t hanging out at [Camden pub] The Good Mixer like all the other so-called Britpop bands were. The only time they ever went in there was after a Creation Unplugged press conference at NME. There was an idea that they should go in there, just to fire a warning shot across the bows. Mission accomplished”.
This year has been a rotten one, and I think it is good that we can be nostalgic and mark a brilliant time in music. No matter whether you supported Oasis or Blur, or if you liked Roll with It, or Country House, or felt that the songs were a bit weak, one cannot deny that August 1995 was a hugely memorable time! I want to go back to that SPIN article, that talks a bit about the aftermath and fallout from that epic chart battle:
Blur won the battle, as “Country House” outsold “Roll With It” by about 60,000 copies, but the rest of the war was a bloodbath for them. Oasis would brush off the loss and springboard to their greatest success ever almost immediately afterwards, as “Wonderwall” would not only trump any subsequent single from Blur’s The Great Escape, but also catapult them to superstardom in the U.S. and everywhere else.
Oasis’ (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? would go on to vastly outsell The Great Escape pretty much everywhere, and continued to spin off hits (“Champagne Supernova,” “Don’t Look Back in Anger”) on both sides of the pond well into ’96. Blur ended the year as clear silver medalists — bronze, perhaps, if you counted Pulp — and were in serious need of regrouping”.
I look forward to seeing what comes out in the media in the coming days regarding the infamous Blur and Oasis Britpop war, and I am sure we will see Liam Gallagher post something on Twitter – maybe he’ll take a dig at Blur’s Damon Albarn or the band in general! It was a wonderful time to be a child/young – I was twelve when Oasis and Blur faced up in 1995 -, and I look back with fondness. I know we will be talking about Britpop for decades to come, and we will focus on the time when two enormous bands put their singles into the world, and there was this feverishness in the air! I will leave things there but, if you have heard much about Britpop or are unfamiliar with the Blur/Oasis rivalry, then Noel Gallagher from Oasis explains more (in his unique way!), and this interesting video gives some context. Me, personally, I love both Oasis and Blur, but when it comes to choosing between those two Britpop singles of 1995, I will always be in the corner…
OF Blur’s Country House!