BEST of these mid to late-90s 'Britrock' bands

The Wildhearts because Therapy? went so shit

Skunk Anansie by a country leap year.

Seriously still got huge love for those guys.

Soundgarden steal dead man's finger BTW

"Anthem" by The Wildhearts is a fucking classic. So is "Old Folks" by A.

I liked Therapy? best out of that lot at the time. They were great live.

I bought a single last week for a pound by a band who featured I think two of the brothers from "A", released on a mid-90s DIY hardcore label

Ash, I guess, cos by mid-to-late 90s Therapy? was shite.

Don't remember Honeycrack or Baby Chaos at all.

Honeycrack was some bloke out of Wildhearts I think?

CJ. I saw them at T In The Park

The Wildhearts have the song blueprint that sounds like Caffeine Bomb and the song blueprint that tries to be all Beatlesy and stringsy, but 50/50 ain't so bad, so it's them or Therapy? and pretend nothing after Screamager happened (though I'd probably still take their later stuff over anything Ash did after the first album, and they're the only other contender for me, maybe just for Petrol/Kung Fu/Jack Names the Planets).

xposted-xpost I think Baby Chaos was too, but I might be wrong. Remember wanting their album just for who was in the band but never hearing a note of theirs.

yeah, Ash.

Still make the occasional good record.

Therapy? were awesome for 1st 2 eps and 2 lps but afterwards were horrible.
1st 2 Wildhearts were classics. 1st 3 times I saw them live were great and the 4th and last was the worst gig Ive ever been to.

Baby Chaos supported them at one of those gigs.

Baby Chaos: maybe descendants of Senseless Things? And Wildhearts for me. Anyone a fan of Fishing For Luckies here? I should probably be ashamed to admit to owning a mail-order only (at the time at least) Wildhearts album, but it is great, and still holds up now.

I think of the Wildhearts as sort of precursors to the Libertines - very loyal and mental fanbase, smack by the gallon, dire imprompyu acoustic gigs. This did fit a bit more snugly before Heat readers knew what Pete Doherty looked like obv

The only ones I remember are Skunk Anansie, Ash, and Therapy?. Of those three, CLEARLY Therapy?.

I dimly recall Feeder by name but I don't know that I ever heard them.

A lot of Feeder fans feel the same way.

and the fact that Ginger was a great songwriter and the Libertines dont have one.

The only band on that list that I could concievably vote for would be skunk anansie, and I'd only be voting for them because I really REALLY fancied the lead singer, so, er, no.

no vote that is.

Theraphy? had one good song - "teethgrinder" and some Sabres of Paradise remixes too if I remember correctly. But Skunk Anansie got my vote.

Everything else grim - especially Symposium.

Symposium were truly fucking awful.

Headswim started as a "UK Grunge Band" then went all Radiohead influenced.

TIGHTEN THE TOURNIQUET

How do the various members of Terrorvision spend their time these days?

Just to confuse matters there was a US band called Headswim as well who played kinda AmRep-style grunge. I think they were around first.

Worked in Our Price in the mid 90s with an utter cunt who kept this stuff on the stereo non stop - and justified it because he was assistant manager and "this is what the public wanted to hear" - ugh do not want

I liked Headswim's debut and have fond memories of seeing them play. I haven't listened to them for over a decade, they were probably rubbish really.

Yep, not very good at all.

Compulsion.

was never a kerrang reader but had mates who were, the only band here that i ever had any affection for was the wildhearts, they could write a cracking tune.

i liked the 1st 2 compulsion albums. Still have the cds somewhere.

Worst band of the early 90s though would have to be Skin, Quireboys or Little Angels.

i liked the 1st 2 compulsion albums. Still have the cds somewhere.

i loved the final album, future is medium. and live they were fantasically in yer face.
the use of electronics meant they were obviously not going to last much longer though (dance remixes ! howie b involvement !)
i don't think anyone forsaw the rise of the bands garrett lee (aka jacknife lee) as the worlds most in demand producer of 2007/2008.

Acrimony or Fudge Tunnel were the best britrock bands of the 90s along with The Wildhearts and early Therapy?

Therapy? were great with their first drummer, Fyfe Ewing and his breakbeats - once he left, they merely 'rocked'.

Wildhearts without a doubt.

PHUQ is awesome. They were also my first ever live gig, in Warrington in perhaps 1996 (or was it 1994? it's been a while since I kept the ticket bluetacked to my wall, though I still have it in a box somewhere I think, so should check).

skunk anansie, wildhearts, therapy?, and headswim all had their moments - both good and bad.

skunk anansie probably hold up better than most these days, and in truth were probably the best of the bunch back then too.

but I'm going to vote for headswim, just because they had the widest and most unfeasible gap between really decent debut (battering riffs, blazing organs, filth-encrusted rural english psychedelia) and appalling follow-up (proto-coldplay bollocks). and somehow that abandoned potential is more appealing than the actuality of any of these bands.

Voted for Skunk Anansie...

skunk anansie probably hold up better than most these days

...probably because they had very little to do with Britpop and nothing to do with the detestable bandwagon jumping that happened around 1994-5 (every band is suddenly a crap version of Oasis!).

Voted Therapy? coz they were the only obe I ever bought a record by. And coz of the letraset accident.

I've actually had to listen to Skunk Anansie quite a bit more than I'd like the past couple of years coz apparently all lesbians like to play 'em when drunk.

(I, too, thought the lead singer of Skunk Anansie was smokin' hot.)

Saw SA live in a sweat box before anyone had heard of them, and they were scorching. I was very disappointed when I heard their recorded stuff.

Saw them at t in the park. they were ok. opening band though, not a great slot. They only had 1 single out (the one that didnt get in the charts)

Saw SA live in a sweat box before anyone had heard of them, and they were scorching.

me too, and I concur. incredible live band. but the first album was pretty good. after that, they veered more and more into ballad territory - not their greatest strength, I fear.

...probably because they had very little to do with Britpop and nothing to do with the detestable bandwagon jumping that happened around 1994-5 (every band is suddenly a crap version of Oasis!).

eh? yes, britpop was largely awful (unless pulp count), but almost every other band on that list had nothing to do with it either, with the arguable and tenuous exceptions of reef and feeder. and later headswim.

(I had the chance to hijack headswim's limo once. their driver asked me 'are you headswim?' as I left the theatre where they had just played (on channel 5's jack docherty show). if only I'd answered 'yes'. how wildly different my life could have been: sun, sea, girls, peanuts, fame and fortune. or maybe just a free ride home.)

baby chaos are the only band on the list who I have no recollection of.

i thought ash, but decided on feeder

they had a stack of really good singles

Most of those are generally too rock for their own good. Voted Ash because they always retained the pop melodies in spite of being a rock'n'roll band on the surface. Their best album, "Free All Angels" was from the 00s though.

"too rock"

as if anything can be...

I went for Ash here, because Trailer and 1977 were solid gold. I never got into Therapy? - too much of a Britpop kid (and I mean kid, I was 11 in 1994) - but I do love Troublegum. Andy Cairns went to my school and lived in the same small town, true fact.

Further to the perennial support band thing, there was a time when Seafood seemed to be on every tour. I saw them supporting Ash (there we go again) and My Vitriol around 2001.

Wasn't really into any of this lot, so only ever saw two of them live - Skunky Nancy at the Camden Underworld, dunno the year, but they were supporting the godlike genius of Come (SA came across as weedy posturing, Come blew them out of the bath); also saw Therapy? playing one of their first London shows, definitely at the New Cross Venue, possibly with Bitch Magnet - they were pretty good, I bought their first single off them (but sold it shortly afterwards, wonder if it's worth anything?). So Therapy? wins for me I guess...

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Whoa

3 Colours Red were as good as the Sex Pistols and not one vote!

aka: not very good

i would of voted Ash, though they are hardly the best.

Andy Cairns went to my school and lived in the same small town, true fact.

Even many years after Therapy? stopped meaning anything to me, the former terminally single Troublegum-obsessed spotty loser schoolkid inside me felt a little pang of betrayal on meeting someone who said he'd been at school with Cairns and that he'd been well-liked and had various girlfriends while there, contrary to his assertions in interviews.

"DJ Mencap left out Rachel Stamp, Cecil, King Adora, Blameless and other no-hopers who were around that time.

-- Herman G. Neuname, Friday, 30 May 2008 23:05 (6 days ago) Bookmark Link"

DJ Mencap once wrote the most damning review ever of a King Adora gig. It went like this:

I used to theoretically really like the Wildheats, but never actually listened to them that much. By far the best thing they ever did was the remastered version of their first EP that came with their second EP.

Skunk Anasie had one or two great songs, with great sounds but were mostly rubbish.

And whoever above mentioned Therapy with their first drummer was spot on. When he left they lost their uniqueness.

Why aren't Oasis in this poll? Wrong period?

Lurkers heart Ash.

I heart The Lurkers more than Ash

Ash are/were rubbish.

Is the dead man's finger somehow a reference to 'Sealth', the (awesome) cover of Into The Void they did on the b-side of (awesome) Jesus Christ Pose?

ash weren't that kerrangy till the 00s rly. first album kind of indie, second one kind of rubbish noo yawk new wave bullshit.

First criteria for inclusion in the poll was whether Kerrang! wrote about them or not - hence no Oasis

I think K! were writing about Ash from more or less the beginning actually - maybe not front cover material until '98 or summat but still

i guess they had canny marketing or whatever coz 'kung fu' or that one track ('angel interceptor'?) are pretty much britpop.

DJ Mencap once wrote the most damning review ever of a King Adora gig. It went like this:

-- mei, Thursday, 5 June 2008 09:40 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

I sense the intro to "It's like that" RunDMC started there.

ash won? what's wrong with you people?!

Kung Fu is Britpop? Sounds more like straight up pop-punk to me. Angel Interceptor, yeah fair enough.

Britpop-punk innit.

a lot of britpop, like elastica, and some other bands i can't name because they didn't exist, was pop-punk rly.

Well yeah, cos Elastica were left over from NWONW. Apart from a couple of Supergrass songs (Caught By The Fuzz etc) I'm having trouble thinking of any others.

blur did a token 'punk track' on parklife and the great escape. but yeah.

Mark G, my post looks stupid cos of the formatting. I meant that the review said nothing. It was a 3 band bill, they were in the middle, and he didn't mention them, cos he didn't like them. That's pretty damning!

fair enough. I sort of guessed that was what you meant, but how, I didn;t get. Ta.

*Mourns the week RAW Magazine turned into a britpop magazine with The Bluetones on the cover*

My girlfriend still has all the Britpop RAWs. I'd never seen them. They are terrible even compared to the worst of their competition.

When RAW was a metal mag I preferred it to Kerrang.

Me too

That issue also came free with that month's Select, in a cardboard box which also had a free packet of Nik-Naks. Let's get things into perspective

I always preferred Melody Maker and RAW to NME & Kerrang.

Select was overrated. Did love the stone roses box issue though i must admit.

2nd cover of RAW as a britpop mag

http://www.thestoneroses.co.uk/images/Raw1995_1.jpg

The whole article
http://www.thestoneroses.co.uk/press/1995-12-06-raw.html

Raw Magazine was a biweekly heavy metal magazine published by EMAP.

The magazine was a rival to Kerrang! which was published by the people behind Sounds. However, when the publisher of Sounds and Kerrang! decided to concentrate on trade papers such as Music Week, the Kerrang! brand was sold onto EMAP who decided it was the stronger brand amongst Metal fans.

Due to this, Raw Magazine was relaunched in the mid 1990s as a biweekly sister magazine to EMAP's monthly Select, with its musical focus shifted from that of metal to that of Britpop. This relaunch confused longterm readers, and with sales falling, the magazine did not manage to survive into the 2000s.

In 1993 a weekly television programme named Raw Power was launched to accompany the magazine. It later changed its name to Noisy Mothers when Raw ceased publication.

Raw Power and Noisy Mothers was great.

Krusher's Kingdom 4ever.

I liked Metal Hammer the best.

let's see em try to re-brand a mag called 'Metal Hammer' as being about britpop.

somewhere in my parents' attic are about 20 videos ful of episodes of raw power.

used to love RAW, but somehow I've deleted its britpop years from my memory.

That'll be because it was britpop months not years. It didn't last long.

As if by magic, Dalston Oxfam Shop post a tape of Gallon Drunk and a load of their contemporaries.

Must download that when I get home, I still have the tape somewhere. Only really weak track is the Dog Hunch one IIRC. The Jacob's Mouse track is particularly good.

Honeycrack deserved to be one of the biggest bands of the late 90s. Sadly they weren't.

They should have renamed the magazine "noisy mothers", they'd have sold tons of subscriptions in the first couple weeks.

I had that cassette. It wasn't as good as the Lime Liz Sup Pop one w/Pavitt and Poneman's top ten anglo tracks on the sleeve though.

I have loads of Raw Power and Noisy Mothers on tape. I also watched it previously when it was called The Power Hour.

Ricky from the Almighty's rock wife: where are you now?

Tracklisting for the actual and real new Wildhearts covers album:

AC Rocket - Foil
Geez Louise - The Unband
Understanding Jane - The Icicle Works
The World Comes Tumblin’ - The Distillers
Unsung - Helmet
Waiting Room - Fugazi
Ice Hockey Hair - Super Furry Animals
Possum Kingdom - Toadies
Pep Talk - Descendents
Rocket 69 - The Lee Harvey Oswald Band
Battleship Chains - Georgia Satellites
Rearrange You - Baby Chaos
Everyday Formula - Regurgitator
The Judge - Soul Asylum
Carmelita - Warren Zevon

This was in my head for some weird reason this morning (hadn't heard it in at least a decade) and I was surprised to find it on youtube. So I am posting it here so Herman G. Neuname can laugh at me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REZJN1dP0qM