I was watching another of Guy Garvey's From The Vaults series the other day while doing the ironing. From The Vaults is on Sky Arts on the Freeview channels, a series compiling clips and performances from the wealth of material the UK's independent TV channels- Granada, Tyne Tees etc- amassed in the 70s and 80s, some unseen since broadcast. It is amazing to see what bands were willing to do to plug their latest single- Prefab Sprout miming at Alton Towers, trying to balance while standing and playing When Love Breaks Down on hydraulic platforms sticks in the mind.
As well as doing episodes based on specific years the producers have started to put together some themed episodes, an electronic music one and a Britpop one. As I was ironing I didn't feel the need to be paying 100% attention or to be too challenged so I stuck the Britpop one on. Several things struck me. How long ago the mid 90s look on TV now for one- it was three decades ago so that's to be expected but it looks like it too. The fact it's all filmed on tape not digitally makes it look dated and everyone, roughly the same age as me, looks so young and fresh faced. There are some very mid 90s clothes too. Second, there were some bands who struck lucky during that period, signed big deals with major labels, got some press behind them, had huge amounts of money thrown at them but sounded very much like the kind of band you hear in pubs. Thirdly, out of all the acts shown Suede took the crown by some distance with a performance of their debut single The Drowners
The Drowners is a blast, thumping drums with a dirty, loose, gritty, string bending Bernard Butler guitar riff and Brett singing about illicit sex and being taken over.
I kind of missed out on Suede at the time. I read the music press every week so was well aware of them but my head and tastes were not in that area at all in 1992, I just wasn't tuning into grimy, glam inspired indie at that point. I did like and buy Animal Nitrate in 1993 and then loved Trash in 1996 but my Suede collection is pretty small, a few singles and a Best Of CD.
