Forget Oasis — these are the British groups that deserve to come back
It’s a musical return the whole nation has been secretly holding out for, but could we really see it happening? Britain is a country whose cohesion relies on a few remaining symbols: the monarchy, the Church of England, Cadbury’s Creme Eggs, the National Health Service… but one stands above all, especially in the minds of Gen Xers. I am of course talking about Britain’s musical saviours of the 90s, whose songs can still be heard belted out across the country, from pubs to football stadiums, cars to yoga classes. What a glorious day it will be, indeed, when The Spice Girls get back together.
There’s also been a bit of fuss over Oasis reforming. You know, the brothers from Manchester who talk shite about everyone, including each other? Though Noel and Liam Gallagher’s mutual animosity is probably not uncommon among siblings, the fact that they are rockstars definitely elevates things. Whether or not you think it reaches the level of emotional duplicity of Fleetwood Mac, there certainly is a novelty to watching a rock band whose members have clubbed each other around the head with tambourines and cricket bats.
I assume it’s actually the music, rather than the soap opera antics, that is generating such frenzied hype for this reunion. The purity of Oasis’ rock sound was to some a rebellion against the branching subgenres of the 80s and early 90s, with the emergence of many kinds of electronic music. With their barre-chords and distortion pedals, Oasis affirmed the righteousness of working class lads bashing away at their guitars. After Manchester’s own Stone Roses came dangerously close to innovating on this model by blending rock with dance music, Oasis took it back a few steps. Love them or hate them, they succeeded in making a timeless rock sound with their first two albums, Definitely Maybe, and What’s The Story (Morning Glory). As for the other albums… let’s just say they sound like Oasis.
While the press lose their mind over the guys who made ‘Wonderwall’, I would personally rather see some other groups return to the limelight.
1. Stereolab
Although technically reformed in 2019, the Anglo-French avant-electro group have been notably absent in recent years. With their distinctly lounge-styled sound, playful experimentalism and philosophical lyrics, Stereolab is the mathematical opposite of Britpop, and all the better for it.
2. Portishead
The cult trio, known for pioneering trip-hop in the nineties, has released a scant few albums across their career. With 2008’s Third moving away from film soundtrack sampling towards a looser and more abrasive direction, the prospect of a new expectation-defying album is tantalising. Thankfully, the band members have kept busy, with singer Beth Gibbon’s recent solo album Lives Outgrown scratching the same melancholic itch.
3. The Verve
Except for a brief reformation and album in the mid noughties, The Verve’s creative output was largely consigned to the nineties. A shame, because out of the Manchester bands that blew up in that decade these guys were among the more original. Though famous for their symphonic trip-hop inspired 1997 single Bitter Sweet Symphony, the band have a lot more going for them. Their debut album, A Storm in Heaven, created a shoegazey spin on psychedelic rock. In other words, it sounds like Oasis if they really had gone supersonic.
4. My Bloody Valentine
Another case of a band that, although not broken up, has been MIA for longer than a decade. The divine cacophony of the Irish/English group, who shared the same record label with Oasis, Creation Records, has been influentual but hard to imitate. It takes a rare talent indeed to make a guitar sound like a vacuum cleaner. Though guitarist and de facto frontman Kevin Shields has been continually promising new material since the release of 2013s MBV, fans are still waiting. (He promised ‘100%’ that we would get a new album in 2018 — cue tumbleweeds.)
5. The Police
It may be about as likely as Elvis being discovered in the Bermuda Triangle, but the reformation of the classic pop/rock trio would possibly smash concert records — their last, brief reunion tour across 2007/2008 was, at that time, the third highest grossing ever. While not as petulant as a certain Manchester band, the Police’s arguments in the studio are legendary. There was the time Sting buried the tape of an Andy Summers composition, Behind my Camel, in the garden because he hated it so much. Or the tumultous recording of Every Breath You Take, in which Stewart Copeland lost his mind over the removal of a high-hat. On stage, however, there’s no denying the chemistry of the band.
6. The Monsoon Bassoon
I discovered this band about five minutes before the publishing of this article, and what can I say? First of all, 10/10 marks for the name. Secondly, there’s more scales in this one song than Liam Gallagher’s indoor koi fish pond. While Oasis rake in the millions from extortionate ticketmaster sales, these guys had to split up because they ran out of money. Shame!
8. Genesis
It’s highly debatable whether we ‘deserve’ to have Genesis back, or what that would even entail. Yet Noel Gallagher’s distaste for Collins and later-era Genesis necessitates the band’s inclusion on this list.
9. Portsmouth Sinfonia
As orchestras go, Portsmouth Sinfonia is unparalleled in its ability to make the listener wish for all sound to cease. The project was begun in Portsmouth School of Art in 1970 as a tongue-in-cheek experiment: anybody could join, regardless of ability and experienced musicians were encouraged to pick up an instrument they were unfamiliar with. Armed with such staggering musical incompetence, the orchestra gained interest for its butchering of classical music pieces. To my ears, the results are still more pleasant than 80% of Oasis’ output.
10. Feminist Improvising Group
It may sound like a radical university theatre society, but Feminist Improvising Group or FIG meant business. As a response to the abundance of male-dominated free improvisation groups in the 1970s, musicians Maggie Nichols and Lindsay Cooper created an exclusively female ensemble. Free improvisation, hence the name, is an experimental style of music with no defined set of rules. As well as the many dimenstions of the female voice, FIG took the liberty of exploring ‘the sonic possibilities of household items’ in their sprawling compositions. Now that’s real working class music.
