A review by thebobsphere
The Last Party: Britpop, Blair and the demise of English rock by John Harris

5.0

Unlike most people of my generation (late 30's) I did not get into alternative rock via grunge. One day in March 1994, I saw Blur's Girls and Boys on television. It was a revelation and weirdly I started to notice a ton of British bands started to creep into my life: Pulp, Oasis, Supergrass, Radiohead, Sleeper, Terrorvision, Reef, Echobelly, Suede, Cast, Shed 7 (yeah I now they are joke but they did have a couple of great tunes) and so many more. These songs were played on national radio (for Malta that means a lot) and also, for the first time, loads of compilations had these songs so if you were willing to spend 11.00 LM they were yours. Personally the last half of 1994, the whole of 1995 and the first half of 1996 were great times to be a teenager and getting into alt music. Then The Spice Girls came along and ruined everything until 2001 when The Strokes gave music balls again but that's another story.

Now looking back and re-listening to britpop hits, I am noticing that they don't hold up very well. The exceptions being Suede, Pulp, Blur and the first two Oasis albums.

Anyway John Harris documents the Britpop phenomena in The Last party and it is fantastic. From the humble beginnings with Suede and Blur then the high points, drugs and record label excess. All culminating with Blair's election and the aftermath. If anyone wants some insight to this musical phase then this is the book to read.