Uncommon People: Britpop and Beyond in 20 Songs

by Miranda Sawyer

When Miranda Sawyer interviewed Liam Gallagher in 1994, his gag wishing Damon Albarn would die of AIDS became front-page news all over the world. This fascinating pop history, exploring the moment 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, films like Trainspotting were international hits, rave became what everybody did - and it felt like the revolution was happening.

Initially a mocking tabloid nickname, Britpop became an unexpected musical movement created by squatters, activists, students and kids barely out of school and their songs have proved timeless. Exploring the era's most definitive anthems - Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Manic Street Preachers, Suede, Chemical Brothers, Massive Attack, Garbage, Supergrass, Radiohead, Underworld, PJ Harvey, The Prodigy and more - Miranda Sawyer transports us back to the beating heart of the nineties, to relive 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. Based on amazing new interviews with the leading figures, this book offers a backstage pass to all the most interesting bits of Britpop's Greatest Hits.

Forget New Labour, forget earnest theories about trends, this book is all about the music, the people and being right there, right now.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Biography

326 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 24, 2024

About the author

Miranda Sawyer is an English journalist and broadcaster. She has a degree in Jurisprudence at Pembroke College, Oxford. She moved to London in 1988 to begin her career as a journalist on the magazine Smash Hits.

In 1993, she became the youngest winner of the Periodical Publishers Association Magazine Writer of the Year award for her work on Select magazine. She formerly wrote columns for Time Out (1993–96) and The Mirror (2000-3), and was a frequent contributor to Mixmag and The Face during the 1990s. She is now a feature writer for The Observer and its radio critic. Her writing appears in GQ, Vogue and The Guardian and she is a regular arts critic in print, on television and on radio. She was a member of the judging panel for the 2007 Turner Prize and the panel that awarded Liverpool its Capital of Culture status.

In 2004, Sawyer wrote, researched and presented an hour-long documentary for Channel 4 about the age of consent entitled, Sex Before 16: How the Law Is Failing. In 2006, she made a highly personal documentary for More 4 on abortion rights in the US, A Matter of Life and Death, as part of its Travels With My Camera strand.

Her first book Park and Ride, a travel book on the Great British suburbs, was published by Little, Brown in 1999.

She is also an occasional guest on the UK arts programme Newsnight Review on BBC2, The Culture Show (BBC 2) and also BBC Radio 2's Radcliffe and Maconie Show.

Reviews

[Jo_Scho_Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes I’m old enough to remember the 1990’s, in fact I felt like I did most of my partying in the latter part of that decade. Drinking, dancing, clubbing and friendship, that was my life back then. Oh youth, when did you leave me? 😭

And a huge part of this period was devoted to music. Indie clubs (Newcastle Riverside IYKYK), gigs all around the city and the constant listening to bands like The Stone Roses, Oasis, Ocean Colour Scene, Cast, The Verve, Gene, Suede and Blur to name just a tiny few, meant that my heart really, truly, did belong to Britpop 🇬🇧

So this book is a belter. Within it Miranda Sawyer looks back at those blisteringly brilliant years and the key artists that made Britpop so special. From Oasis to the Manics (I saw them both at Loch Lomond, oh what a day that was), from Pulp to The Prodigy, this is a hugely atmospheric trip down Memory Lane.

It also helps that Miranda Sawyer is an excellent journalist and writer (if you haven’t read her book Out of Time and, like me, you’re getting on a bit then I can’t recommend it enough) so you’re in great hands here. This book will have you running for your old cd’s and playing them at full blast and briefly remembering what it was like to be young again.

Britpop. The UK. Mid-nineties.
What a time to be alive!!

[Ele Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

SO ENJOYABLE I WISH I WAS THEREEEEEE

[Izzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would have been insufferable in the 90s

[Mrs]

Fun!

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded down. Some chapters I enjoyed and some I glossed over feeling it had all got a bit repetitive. I liked the nostalgia trip and did found out some background on Britpop artists I didn’t already know so much about (Tricky, Cornershop, Supergrass).

[Andy Mackenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only book I've read about the mid 90s that manages to fully conjure up how it felt living through it.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good, very personal - which great writing on music has to be - these 20 essays took me right back to coming of age in the Britpop era. We didn't realise quite how good we had it, did we?

[Kariss Ainsworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the history and anacdotes we well as the mini band deep dives, def one to listen as an audio book

[Rebecca Harper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this trip down memory lane. Inspired the playing of so many tunes I haven’t heard for a loooong time 😁

[Harry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did music peak in 1999?

[Jim Dennison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a solid 4.5 / 5.0

I listened to it on audiobook with the author narrating. It was strange at first because I kept expecting her voice to stop and the music to start.

But she narrates it well and is easy to listen to.

The content itself is an incredibly nostalgic journey through the first 7 years or so of the 1990s. Each chapter the backstory and history of a different band.

The earliest chapters (Suede, Blur, Manics, Oasis, …) really drew me in since I’m a fan of the first three especially and have seen them all live. Despite coming to them later in life (I was a married 25yo in 1995)

But although the final chapters were less compelling they were all good and her skills as a veteran music journalist really shine through with deft, sometimes poetic prose and wry humour.

Very strongly recommended to those who remember that golden period of British Pop.

[Jim Dennison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a solid 4.5 / 5.0

I listened to it on audiobook with the author narrating. It was strange at first because I kept expecting her voice to stop and the music to start.

But she narrates it well and is easy to listen to.

The content itself is an incredibly nostalgic journey through the first 7 years or so of the 1990s. Each chapter the backstory and history of a different band.

The earliest chapters (Suede, Blur, Manics, Oasis, …) really drew me in since I’m a fan of the first three especially and have seen them all live. Despite coming to them later in life (I was a married 25yo in 1995)

But although the final chapters were less compelling they were all good and her skills as a veteran music journalist really shine through with deft, sometimes poetic prose and wry humour.

Very strongly recommended to those who remember that golden period of British Pop.

[Francis Cooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uncommon People takes a welcomely expansive view of Britpop, not just including the usual suspects (Oasis/Blur/Pulp/Elastica/Suede/Sleeper/Verve/Manics et al) but also embracing Tricky, Cornershop, The Chemical Brothers and others who were part of the weird soup of British indie, dance and pop music in the mid-90s. The essay about Edwyn Collins' 'A Girl Like You' in particular is a lovely, perfect little encapsulation of one particular approach that can be taken to a life as a musician, and how one song (accompanied with some smart and fortunate decisions) can mean everything.

[Adam Parrilli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very entertaining look back at the ‘90s and Britpop by a writer that was there writing about and living it.
I was a Select magazine devotee despite living over here in the lower 48. Fondly recall going to bookstores to buy or skim thru issues of the weeklies. I’m talking to you Barnes & Noble and T.I.S. Bookstore. I studied the inkies to stay on top of the newest bands I loved so much over in the UK. Cheers!

[Rhys Webster · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 90s. What a decade. Shame I only experienced* the last 3 years.

*by experience I mean shitting myself as a baby

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

💭 There are a myriad of books and TV shows out there about the 90’s musical scene which is, usually disparagingly, referred to as ‘Britpop’. Although, for those of us who were there, living and breathing it, no amount of mockery will ever take away the shine of the teenage or otherwise personal identity- forming memories.

Miranda Sawyer’s Uncommon People feels like a gift to those of us who would get it, or what finally delivers a true account of the essence of those years, for those might not have been there, but possess a sufficiently deep desire to explore it.

I must admit, I haven’t exactly read a lot of other books about this subject, but let’s face it: when it comes to TV shows or so called ‘documentaries’, the majority blatantly lack any real insight and as such generally fail to convey the depth of what it was actually like being young and part of it all in those years. And don’t come at me for my choice of the word ‘depth’ here, as this is a hill I will happily keel over on.

Uncommon People’s cover is made to look like the front cover of a cassette tape and each band or artist explored through its pages is presented through a pivotal song, chosen by Sawyer to best represent them. Thus presented, neatly encased between an introduction and an ‘outro’- although no ‘hidden tracks’ are to be found here, perhaps for a good reason, considering the usual quality of those in CDs at the time (yes, Ash. I mean you).

Through her deep dive into each act, through a mini-biography in each chapter, Sawyer’s accounts come alive thanks to a multitude of facts and events, accompanied by first- person, anecdotal accounts, relaid by Sawyer herself and those who were at the centre of that exciting chaos.

All stories may be told from multiple points of view, and Sawyer’s voice as being only one such view is sometimes evident in the differing depths of the narrative, which sometimes lacks consistency between each chapter.
Some convey more deeply personal and vivid accounts than others, and such instances are generally London-centric, revolving around bands or artists that Sawyer clearly had closer links to.

However, this is also a strength of this book as therein, this book provides that extra layer that nobody has been able to convey in mainstream media so far. That deeper dive is precisely what managed to evoke those feelings of gut-wrenching nostalgia that Ewan McGregor’s recollection touches on, when describing how he felt after watching Oasis’s ‘Supersonic’ documentary.
Through each band’s story and significant events, Sawyer often branches out into the periphery of names, faces, places and happenings that formed integral parts of that scene and which will feel intrinsically embedded into it to those who were there.
From the dancefloor of Smashing Club via Pulp’s videos, the hedonism of the Groucho Club and its regular patrons, described as an offshoot of Blur’s mini-bio.
Through the films that sometimes launched the songs, and consequently the bands they belonged to, forever pinning them into the fabric of popular culture- as is the case of Edwyn Collins through Pulp Fiction, or Underworld via Born Slippy and Trainspotting.

My own memories of those times, much like Sawyer’s, have been hazy for a while.
But it was a truly unique pleasure to be reminded, through the simple mention of those names, of bumping into Jo & Pat Skinny on my first night of freedom in 1996 Camden Town, or how the Ozzie lads in the Mixer always told us not to bother with the Top of The Pops Quiz machine, as only Andy Ross ever managed to hit that £20 jackpot.

I bet Select magazine- fanatic 16- year old me would have regarded this book like some sort of religious scripture. Middle aged me, on the other hand, certainly enjoyed having some vivid colours injected back into faded memories.

[Shell · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5
Eh, some chapters felt like filler, some felt like they didn't have much depth. The most interesting were the outsider bands on the periphery that offered a different perspective (Cornershop, Tricky, Garbage, Sleeper, PJ Harvey, The Prodigy). Some chapters I found incredibly boring, partly because I had no interest in the band but also because the bio's about a bunch of blokes forming a band blah blah blah became too repetitive or have been told a million times already. Some felt like a vehicle to talk about a particular thing (Underworld and Trainspotting for example)

I enjoyed reading the headlines from the tabloids when Jarvis invaded the stage at the Brit awards calling him a 'yob rocker' a reminder how ridiculous the tabloid media was (is). Louise Wener was an interesting choice to discuss sexism in the 90s music industry- I think it's a topic that needed much more discussion and hearing from any non white, straight male voices from that time is always interesting. I am biased but the Garbage chapter was disappointing- Shirley has a lot of interesting things to say about that time and was a outspoken voice at the time and the chapter was short and didn't say a whole lot.

Bands I would have included? Lush, Skunk Anansie, Massive Attack, Echobelly, Sneaker Pimps... hell even Robbie Williams- he kind of killed Britpop after all... And Martina Topley-Bird should have been given more attention in the Tricky chapter imo.

There's a Jo Whiley quote on the cover so that probably gives you an idea of what you are dealing with! Also the need to tell us "the young Kier Starmer was a fan" of Orange Juice in the Edwyn Collins chapter is just bizarre.

[selfless plug of my zine Ladykillers which looks at women in music in the 90s and 00s and sexism in the music industry: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/10566... ]

[North Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading this, but as a pendant I feel obliged to point out some errors.

About Suede: "By August 1991, they had ‘The Drowners’, ‘Moving’, ‘Pantomime Horse’, ‘To the Birds’, all excellent songs that would end up on their eponymous first album."

('To the birds' is not on Suede's first album, it's a b-side for 'The Drowners')

"The Stone Roses had caused a massive splash, but, after ‘Fools Gold’ in 1990, had gone quiet. In the gap they left behind nestled a few Madchester-type bands – Happy Mondays, obviously, but also Inspiral Carpets, Northern Uproar, London’s Flowered Up."

(Not sure who the author is confusing Northern Uproar with, but they were not Madchester and they only released their first song in 1995)

About Blur playing Glastonbury in June 1994: "...the first time that their no-roof arm-wavers like ‘To the End’ and ‘The Universal’ had ever been played in that way, out into the sunset, everyone singing, up and away."

('The Universal' was not played at Glastonbury 1994 - it wasn't released until September 1995)

"Grooverider were playing"

(Grooverider is just one person)

"...the utterly forgettable 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' by Deep Blue (who?)"

(The name of the band is Deep Blue Something)

[Simon Pitfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

1995 was a very good year, (for all sorts of reasons) and Miranda Sawyer captures the essence of what made it such a good time for music. The tracks and artists here take me back directly to all the other momentous events I associate with that year, unleashing a warm fuzzy rush of nostalgia alongside absolute incredulity that all this was thirty years ago. More importantly, the writing itself is so clear, so thoughtful, so perceptive and above all so kind that reading Miranda Sawyer's take on Britpop is like one of those late night discussions you have when you get back together with old uni friends, do you remember, yes, and weren't they, and didn't she and I can't believe we, and it's all so comfortable and right. If you have any fond memories at all of the Britpop years, this book will rekindle and amplify them; and if you are unlucky enough not to be old enough to have been there, this mixtape of a book offers the perfect entry point to one of the last truly universal waves of British music, before the internet atomised everything. All I can do now is wait for the remastered, extended mix edition with some of the bonus tracks hinted at in the outro. Come on Miranda, you know you want to!

[Michael Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I had a dime every time I read a book called Uncommon People about British popstars id have 2 dimes which isn't a lot but it's weird (especially if you consider David Hepworth wrote the other...)
there's lots to love in this book - the chapters on Sleeper & Garbage are stark reminders about how shit music business can be for women, the chapter on Tricky is really powerful in explaining his upbringing (and why he is how he is without ever justifying). The chapters on the smaller players such as Ash & Cornershop are also really interesting.
I think the book is weakest when discussing the bands you'd expect to be in a Britpop book - Blur, Oasis etc as it's all been said before and it feels unauthentic (but they needed to be covered obvs) and it did nothing to dampen my thoughts that Suede & Elastica were only ever relevant due to geographic proximity to where the music journos were. nobody would care about them if they were from Cov or Huddersfield.

But well worth a read and just skip the chapters on bands whose reunions take place in stadiums.

[Richard S · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read for anyone who was a teenager in the 90s. Each chapter is like a mini biography of the bands and artists included in the book weaved together with personal memories from Miranda and an analysis of the culture surrounding the creation of some excellent music.
There are bands and artists included here who don't necessarily fall into the usual Britpop category, but that's what makes the book an intriguing and interesting read. I learned a lot about artists I knew only passing details about previously and, more importantly, the book inspired me to go and listen to their music; I found a lot of songs I like!
It would be great if a follow-up book could be done to include some of those bands and artists which were not included here, and I think there are a multitude of stories still out there.
This is one of my favourite books I've read in a while.

[Lizzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was in my mid to late teens during the early-mid 90s and not quite part of the drug-addled Britpop gig, club and festival scene, but this was nevertheless a nostalgic trip down memory lane, as many of the bands showcased I listened to back then, at full volume, on repeat. Each chapter is just a snapshot about how the bands were formed and about their music and their place in the Britpop scene - but it was a fun listen on audiobook, especially as I also listened to each song at the end of its chapter (there is an accompanying playlist on Spotify). Miranda was the right person to write this, she was clearly deep in the culture herself at the time, and keen to remind us all of the power of music and what it can mean to us. I'm now looking forward to listening to the albums for the first time in years and diving even deeper into nostalgia!

[Chris Barstow · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a fun, nostalgic read, but the format feels a bit lightweight, and the title is misleading, as it's not about 20 songs that tell the story of Britpop. It's more that each chapter is dedicated to a band and is a short potted history of them.

Enjoy Miranda Sawyer's writing style, and she had first-hand experience of the times and the scene, so it has a nice boots-on-the-ground, anecdotal feel to it.

A criticism would be it falls into the trap of writing about certain band members like they are universal truth sayers sent from the gods, but all books I’ve read about this era fall into that trap.

Most interesting bits were the chapters on Sleeper, Garbage, Elastica and PJ Harvey and how the women here had to deal with sexism and misogyny of the music press and the label PR machinery, especially in an era which is sometimes naively looked back on as being empowering to women.

[Rachael Hutchings · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

A really fun audiobook which is easy to devour with succinct chapters focussing on individual stories of 90s artists. All the main culprits you expect from a book about Britpop - but I was happy to hear about Manics and Ash too, my FAVOURITE bands. It takes you on a cultural, spiritual and musical journey, and is very humorous and honest.

There are some random errors dotted through it though which is a shame. For instance - author refers to Clint Boon as a member of Pop Will Eat Itself, when it should be Clint Mansell. Although to be fair, in the final chapter the author is self aware about the fact there may be a few mistakes, and it doesn’t take anything away from the book.

[Aimee · Rating 2 out of 5]

A fairly decent junk food book. It was interesting listening to a few songs I hadn’t heard or had forgotten and the mini article nature of each chapter make it easy to pick up and put down. Some inclusions I thought bizarre - Manic Street Preachers, PJ Harvey, The Prodigy - Britpop?? I also may just be pedantic but I often find when a journalist writes a book it feels like articles stretched to the brink to make a book for the sake of it. For me it was passingly interesting biographies in miniature seeped in nostalgia. Just ok.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of good 90s bands got lumped together under the umbrella of Britpop and, by focusing on a specific group and song in each chapter, Miranda Sawyer is able to overcome the issue that they don’t have very much in common. Because she was there and has her own journalistic record of her encounters with the bands, the author writes authoritatively and steers clear of crass generalisations. Her respect for the musicians shines through and my only minor gripe is that some of my personal favourites from the era (Ocean Colour Scene, Cast, Shed Seven) were omitted.

[Lisa O'Hare · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who was a student through the pivotal years this book covers I flew through this book like nobody’s business. Filled with stories behind music I adored that led to a life long love of music, lyrics and rhythm. Miranda is a wonderful writer and her own self reflection on the brutal world of music journalism is really interesting. I especially loved the chapters covering the women artists as growing up at that time.

[Guso · Rating 3 out of 5]

No tanto sobre Britpop sino más sobre música alternativa británica de los noventa, que no es lo mismo, pero la autora se cuelga del término para lanzar la idea. Muy apreciable el reporte desde dentro, de una mujer que estuvo presente en los bares, los estudios y los escenarios mientras todo sucedía, pero confieso que sí me salté dos o tres canciones que no conozco porque la narración no fue suficiente para mantenerse por sí misma.

[Donnchadh Tiernan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The aim of this book seems to have been to celebrate the music of the nineties and reminisce about the glory days of music journalism. It’s really well written, will have you throwing on some total bangers and kind of lands the point that all of it - the music, the writing, the partying, the clothes, the passion - really, really matters and continues to. If the subtitle even half catches your eye this is for you.

[Sharon Donnelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I’d say some chapters were great, these were bands that I loved and some bands that I wasn’t particularly into, but the recounting of their stories interested me. However some chapters felt a bit like they were just fillers.