Summer 1995. The UK is experiencing a surprise heatwave with peaks of 30°C unprecedented since 1976. To make things even hotter, two of the biggest and most-talked about bands of the year have decided to come to a showdown, more symbolic than physical, yet decisive.
Blur and Oasis, brains and brawn of Britpop – the genre that brought the UK back, artistically and socially, at the center of the world – have decided to drop a single on the same day, August 14th. The first, “Country House”, a witty, tongue-in-cheek social commentary of wealthy Essex inhabitants; the latter, “Roll With It”, a muscular and swaggering tune filled with the Mancunian insolence typical of the Gallagher brothers. The bands were so big by the mid-’90s that Oasis even had their own official cover band, No Way Sis, that charted with a cover of The Seekers’ “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)” – unapologetically similar to the Mancunians’ single “Shakermaker”.
If Blur embodied Southern England middle-class, intellectual and art school kids, Oasis mirrored the Northerner working-class attitude. Two polarized sides of the same country that brought England together (like The Lightning Seeds' "Three Lions" would do the following summer) seducing both the audience and the media thanks to a rivalry reminiscent of the Beatles-Stones one.
Britpop and Tony Blair’s New Labour for a moment filled England with the same positive and creative energy of Swinging London and Clement Attlee reforms. The press ignited the fire with the NME dubbing the rivalry as “British Heavyweight Championship”, similarly to what the Andrew Loog Oldham-coined quote “Would you let your daughter marry a Rolling Stone?” did.
The aim of this playlist, though, is that of showing a less swaggering and finger-pointing side of both bands, digging amongst lesser-known album numbers, covers and B-sides. Blur’s attraction for America and British seaside towns’ carousels next to Oasis’ visceral love for The Fab Four, shown both with covers and subtle in-text references (“The Shock of the Lighting”). If Blur are known for being more eclectic than Oasis, this playlist highlights lesser-known sides of the Gallaghers. Instrumental “Fucking in the Bushes” and the tongue-in-cheek Blur-esque ballads “Bonehead’s Bank Holiday” and “She’s Electric” show a more varied aspect of Oasis’ sound palette.
There is, in fact, more than clothes and mops to draw the two bands together. Take, for example, their fascination – common to many kids who grew up in the 1960s – with the space (Blur’s “Far Out” and “Thought I Was A Spaceman” – with its Gorillaz-esque vibe – and Oasis’ “D’Yer Wanna Be A Spaceman”). Also consider the Mad-chester sound of Blur’s “Come Together” from their debut album Leisure, picturing the Londoners still in a shoegaze phase.
In the end, “Country House” – with its video directed by Damien Hirst – won selling approximately 60,000 copies more than the Gallaghers’ song that charted at number 2, resulting in the fifth consecutive top 10 single for the Mancunians.
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