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  • Uncommon People

  • Britpop and Beyond in 20 Songs
  • By: Miranda Sawyer
  • Narrated by: Miranda Sawyer
  • Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
  • 5.0 out of 5 stars (4 ratings)

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Uncommon People

By: Miranda Sawyer
Narrated by: Miranda Sawyer
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Summary

When Miranda Sawyer interviewed Noel Gallagher in 1995, his gag wishing Damon Albarn would die of AIDS became front-page news. This fascinating pop history, exploring the mid-90s moment when British music suddenly meant everything, explains why. Picking out twenty key songs, delving into the surprising stories behind them and their unlikely creators, Uncommon People takes us back to when Jarvis Cocker became a national hero, Trainspotting was a global hit, fire-starting seemed like a good night out - and it felt as though the revolution was happening.

Initially a music press nickname, Britpop became an unexpected musical movement centred around outsiders and misfits, drop-outs and weirdos who refused to compromise on their ideas, even when they were thrust into the international spotlight. Not just a scene for white guys with guitars, but something wilder and more interesting, with songs that have proved timeless. Exploring the era's key artists - Oasis, Blur, Tricky, Pulp, Underworld, Manic Street Preachers, The Prodigy, Suede, Chemical Brothers, Garbage, Supergrass, Radiohead, PJ Harvey and more - through their definitive anthems, Miranda Sawyer transports us back to the beating heart of the nineties.

Uncommon People re-lives the mad exhilaration of what it was like to hear these songs for the very first time - and what it was like to make them. With amazing new interviews, and I-was-there insights, this book offers a backstage pass to all the most interesting bits of Britpop's Greatest Hits.

Forget New Labour, forget earnest trend theories, this book is all about the music, the people and being right there, right now.
©2024 Miranda Sawyer (P)2024 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
Great Britain History & Criticism
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Profile Image for Ian F

From the front line

Brilliantly written and narrated by a seminal and endlessly listenable, important writer who was there on the front line of 90s British music… knew all the protagonists and has documented the period peerlessly. Particularly loved the detailed poetic pieces about the Manics and Suede. Loved every moment of this book.

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An absolute delight

Uncommon People takes you on a journey through the nineties' Britpop-led music scene in a way only someone who was there can. Featuring interviews with many known and less-known greats of the era, as well as reflections drawn from author Miranda Sawyer's days at Select magazine and beyond, this was an unexpected delight and a must for anyone who remembers or wishes they remember the era.

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