Definitely Maybe, The 90s Were The Biz
Every generation romanticises the decade in which they grew up - and that, for me, was the 90s...
I make no secret of the fact that I am a loud and proud 90s girl. Lucky bloody me, right? According to current Gen Zers on Tiktok and all of us grumpy bollocks (while still thoroughly marvellous) Gen Xers, the 90s were banging.
Tiktok will be the first to tell you that our decade was the coolest of the cool. Probs how I felt about my mom and dad navigating the 60s and 70s, to be honest. When I first heard Led Zeppelin – their greatest hits double disc was released on CD in the 90s – I was hooked. All thanks to a boyfriend insisting I give it a whirl at Look & Listen – remember how they had those little booths in their Rosebank store where you could pop on headphones for an entire album listen before you bought?
Spoiler alert: I bought.
When I brought the album home and played it, my parents thought it was hilarious that I thought I had ‘discovered’ Led Zeppelin, because they had been listening to it back when Robert Plant was just a lad. One of my fondest mems of my mom was her telling me to listen to the album with headphones because you could hear the stereo sound undulating from one ear to the other and it was ‘totally trippy’. Her words, not mine. I think I might have fainted that day. “Totally trippy” were not words my doctor mother used very often ever.
But there you have it! For every generation there is a decade to lust after – nostalgia for the fashion and music and people you never got to weave into your daily life first-hand. And for my punks and the rest of Gen Z, that decade is the 90s.
My and Elizabeth Hurley’s – thanks to a quote from a new interview – most fun decade. Fashion and music, as ever, went hand in hand, and for me that was equal parts grunge, alternative and Britpop… The bands of the Eighties like Depeche Mode, The Cure, The Smiths had made space for a slew of Britpop guitar bands that collectively allowed for the term Cool Brittania to grab the world in a chokehold. And none were more chokey than Oasis.
In 1997, Vanity Fair published its London Swings Again cover with Liam and his fiancee Patsy Kensit, in a Union Jack bed no less. That image is legendary and at that time, London was A Scene. It had just been named ‘the coolest city on the planet’ by Newsweek and it was literally the nerve centre of global coolth.
That same year, Oasis became the first British band to be named the Best Act in the World Today by Q mag, which was one of the biggest music mags at the time. Their acceptance speeches, according to Vanity Fair, went like this:
Noel, unsmilingly: “Best act today. Tomorrow. The day after that. And the day after that. And the day after that.”
Liam, affably: “I'd like to say thank you very much. I was about to smash the gaff up anyway if you didn't do it.” [A few hours later he will go on a bender, stay out all night, smash up the snooker room of the Groucho Club in Soho and get arrested in the street the following morning ‘on suspicion’ of possessing drugs by a bobby who will mistake him for a tramp.]
It was a wild time and eventually both Liam and Noel Gallagher swore blind that they would never perform together again. If you lived through Liam and Noel of the 90s you knew this to be a fact that was irrefutable. Never ever would those two, who barneyed their way through all their immense success, ever get their heads out of their arses far enough to reform for another round.
Back in 2023, Matty Healy of The 1975 said: “What are Oasis doing? Can you imagine being in potentially - right now, still - the coolest band in the world, and not doing it because you’re in a mard with your brother? I can deal with them dressing like they’re in their 20s and being in their 50s, but not acting like they’re in their 20s. They need to grow up. There’s not one kid, not one person, going to a High Flying Birds gig or a Liam Gallagher gig that would not rather be at an Oasis gig. Do me a favour: Get back together, stop messing around. That’s my public service announcement for today.” Watch the full quote here if just for his accent.
In response Liam tweeted: “It’s our time to waste. Who made him the boss of time?” and Noel called him “a slack-jawed fuckwit.” So far, so Oasis.
But here they are - finallllly - getting on with it. After 16 years of silence, the Oasis tour has kicked off! With 40-odd dates, millions of fans who sold out the tickets within hours globally, got to see the pair stride on stage, hand-in-hand. They look a bit grizzled, don’t we all? And no less bloody brilliant and snarky and rock starry.
Forking hell, they are again a reminder of how much fun it was to be partying in the 90s – no one giving two hoots, lots of ciggies, lots of booze, lots of loud singing, no posing for pics, just fun to the power of a gazillion and a bucket hat if your hair was having a bad day. Without smartphones, you could go to clubs and parties you weren’t reallllly allowed to be at by simply ensuring that everyone who was tagging along had the same fib about who was staying over at whose house. And despite all this skullduggery, we didn’t need to be medicated for anxiety, none of us were sober curious, we shared ciggies with hot boys and girls if we wanted to strike up a convo… And when we went travelling, we phoned home reverse charges once a fortnight (definitely maybe!) and wrote the odd and highly irregular “I am alive and having loads of fun” postcard.
“Nice one for putting up with us over the years. We are hard work - I get it,” Liam told the screaming crowd in Cardiff last week. I guess, so were we all.
But here’s the banger – Oasis weren’t the only ones trotting onto stage in a major revival of alt 90s cool! I use this exclamation mark and all I can hear in my head is that brilliant and thoroughly perfect clip of The Cure’s Robert Smith saying “not as excited as you” when the bubbly red carpet interviewer asks him if he’s excited about his rock n roll hall of fame induction back in 2019. Haven’t seen it? Watch it here.
Robert Smith – all messy lips and kohled eyes - joined Olivia Rodrigo on stage at Glastonbury this year where they collectively belted through Friday I’m In Love and Just like Heaven. Watch it here. Pulp also made a surprise appearance at Glastonbury, headlining a set in a 30 year anniversary celebration of their seminal Cool Brittania 1995 set… Classics like Disco 2000 and Common People and Jarvis Cocker’s iconic specs were all ticked off the list. For major nostalgia, watch here.
What am I missing? The Face magazine, which launched the career of ultimate 90s icon, Mossy, pulled the crowds with its Culture Shift exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery earlier this year, while ex-British Vogue ed Edward Enninful is curating The 90s. It’s an exhibition slated for Tate Britain next year, which will explore ‘a decade characterised by its bold creativity and rebellious spirit.’
Oasis will be touring til end November so expect to see a lot of denim shirts, anorks zipped to the chin, bucket hats and beer. Tis the season of the champagne supernova - and I am here for all of it!