Don't Look Back In Anger: The Rise and Fall of Cool Britannia

by Daniel Rachel

The nineties was the decade when British culture reclaimed its position at the artistic centre of the world. Not since the 'Swinging Sixties' had art, comedy, fashion, film, football, literature and music interwoven into a blooming of national self-confidence. It was the decade of Lad Culture and Girl Power; of Blur vs Oasis. When fashion runways shone with British talent, Young British Artists became household names, football was 'coming home' and British film went worldwide. From Old Labour's defeat in 1992 through to New Labour's historic landslide in 1997, Don't Look Back In Anger chronicles the Cool Britannia age when the country united through a resurgence of patriotism and a celebration of all things British.

But it was also an era of false promises and misplaced trust, when the weight of substance was based on the airlessness of branding, spin and the first stirrings of celebrity culture. A decade that started with hope then ended with the death of the 'people's princess' and 9/11 - an event that redefined a new world order.

Through sixty-seven voices that epitomise the decade - including Tony Blair, John Major, Noel Gallagher, Tracey Emin, Keith Allen, Meera Syal, David Baddiel, Irvine Welsh and Steve Coogan - we re-live the epic highs and crashing lows of one of the most eventful periods in British history. Today, in an age where identity dominates the national agenda, Don't Look Back In Anger is a necessary and compelling historical document.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History, Pop Culture, Politics, Historical, Audiobook

495 pages, Hardcover

First published September 5, 2019

About the author

Daniel Rachel is a musician turned award winning and best-selling author. His works include:
Isle of Noises: Conversations with Great British Songwriters (a Guardian and NME Book of the Year),
Walls Come Tumbling Down: the music & politics of Rock Against Racism, 2 Tone and Red Wedge (winner of the Penderyn Music Book prize),
Don’t Look Back in Anger: the Rise & Fall of Cool Britannia (An Evening Standard and Metro Book of the Year),
The Lost Album of The Beatles: What if the Beatles hadn’t Split Up? (Guardian Book Choice)
Too Much Too Young: The 2 Tone Records Story: Rude Boys, Racism and the Soundtrack of a Generation

He has also co-authored
Oasis: Knebworth: Two Nights That Will Live Forever (with Jill Furmanovsky – A Sunday Times Bestseller),
When Ziggy Played the Marquee by Terry O'Neill (editor)
Ranking Roger's autobiography I Just Can't Stop It: My Life in The Beat (a Vive Le Rock Book of the Year).
One For The Road (The Life & Lyrics of Simon Fowler & Ocean Colour Scene)
David Bowie: Icon

HIs latest book, This Ain't Rock 'n' Roll: Pop Music, the Swastika and the Third Reich is published in November 2025

Praise for Isle of Noises

‘Without doubt the finest book I've ever read about songwriters and the songs they write.’ NOEL GALLAGHER

‘I was astounded by Daniel’s knowledge and even after all these years to be asked original questions that surprise you was very impressive.’ ROBIN GIBB

‘It makes for a fascinating read. Especially if you're trying to get a sense of what it takes to write songs.’ ANNIE LENNOX

‘…sometimes you know straightaway if someone’s going to be trotting out the same old stuff. Daniel’s obviously got a real feeling for the esoteric, romantic and spiritual side of it.’ JOHNNY MARR

Reviews

[Rita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative and funny! I really reccomend the audiobook version as it allows you to listen to excerpts from the actual interviews.

[Zachary Barker · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have finished reading “Don’t Look Back in Anger: The Rise and Fall of Cool Britannia, told by those who were there” by Daniel Rachel.

This book is an oral history that follows the course of the Cool Britannia decade (the 1990s), with contributions from figures famous from that era who include; artists, musicians, comedians, journalists, businessmen and politicians.

What was Cool Britannia? The contributors vary on exact definitions, but the consensus seem to agree that it was a time of unusually heightened cultural activity mixed with a general mood of national positivity. There is some argument that it was a natural feelgood rebound from the sometimes dystopian reality of Thatcher’s Britain. Soon it seemed riots gave away to raves.

Some artists disdained Thatcher. Others either begrudgingly or more or less directly gave her credit for setting up the conditions that led to the rise of those who became the Young British Artists. Abandoned parts of London became studios and some including Tracey Enim even used Thatcher era entrepreneurial grants to find their feet, perhaps making a virtue out of necessity.

The discussion about music during the Cool Britannia period and how it came about was also interesting. The strength of these sections of the book were greatly aided by the inclusion of contributions from some important musicians including but not limited to; Noel Gallagher, Jarvis Cocker and Damon Albarn. There seemed to be general agreement in this discussion that what became Britpop came together due to a desire by artists to make music that was either more uplifting than American Grunge or more authentic, gritty and speculative than the seemingly more superficial 1980s. The mix of the personalities in the discussions made for constantly engaging chapters, with useful insights mixed in with gossip and not a little bit of ego tripping in some cases.

Cool Britannia, was seen as unique in that it was both advertised as being positive about the future, but it was always self-conscious about the past. Comparisons between this period and the so-called Swinging London period of the 60s are either grudgingly acknowledged or flat out rejected by many contributors. Some of the contributors seemed to do this out of a sense of guilt that Cool Britannia was mainly something that was London-centric, a topic I will return to near the end of this review.

The most engaging and in many ways unsettling chapters were those focused on the media, the rise of infotainment and celebrity press voyeurism. These are unsettling today because in many ways social media has made these problems worse many times over. Considering how things went it makes for a very intriguing origin story and more than one cautionary tale. I am just pleased Piers Morgan didn’t defile this book with his words. The same goes for Kelvin Mackenzie. The contributions of former tabloid hacks were unsettling enough, recalling considering certain celebrities as enemies because they didn’t give them the access they craved.

The political sections were very interesting in terms of what was said and, typically for politics, how some things were said and others were very particularly stated. The author did extremely well to get Tony Blair, John Major and Alistair Campbell all making valuable contributions. Some more candid than others it has to be said. I am left conflicted about whether the author did enough to ask difficult questions though. There were no comments about the early New Labour scandals including the Ecclestone Tobacco ads controversy. But perhaps sadly, the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and it’s wide significance is also not mentioned.

Overall, I found this book to be a very absorbing read. The contributions were fun, interesting and unique. There were some contributions that came off as surprisingly candid, I personally found Mel C from the Spice Girls not only candid but also funny and thoughtful. I feel self-conscious trying to fairly rate a book that talks about a decade that personally means a lot to me. But I will say that I think a good test of it is that it did make me think twice about how I once judged some of the contributors. The book captures well the spirit of optimism and national self-confidence. There were hints at the end of how some contributors thought the endgame of Cool Britannia sowed the seeds of Brexit. I would have been interested to have seen this discussion develop more.

I think there are some modest areas for constructive criticism. There was a constant reference to how Cool Britannia was seen as London centric. But I would say that is not because nothing was happening out here in the provinces. In fact, there were many contributions from around the UK which were popular at the time but were rarely acknowledged as coming from outside the M25 ring, but deserved to be. Take for instance the rise of the genre of Trip-Hop, a music genre with two pioneering artists from my home ground, the West Country, namely Portishead and Massive Attack. These acts were and in many ways still are influential. Cool Cymru bands were barely given any mention at all. There were notable Scottish musicians and bands that were ignored too like Texas. So quite ironically the book did nothing to get rid of the London centric-ness when the ingredients were right there in the 1990s! Isn’t it ironic? The book also seemed very focused on the guitar-centric bands of the era (which admittedly are my favourite). But I have a certain appreciation now I am older for the different genres represented in that era. The rave scene for instance gave way to some enduring and achieving like the Prodigy. RIP Keith Flint.

The start of the book lists the contributors and who they are. I think a shorter list of them could have accompanied the start of each chapter, since at times I had trouble remembering some of those who I wasn’t familiar with. It is less easy to switch to and from the contributor list when reading this on a Kindle as I did.

I would also have been interested to hear more about Cool Britannia from the perspective of the LGBTQ+ community as well as black artists.

Personal note: I was born in the 80s but I really grew up in the 1990s. But my view of the 1990s was obscured from moving between the US and UK (the former in which I lived in for a few years). I felt the time I really came to appreciate Cool Britannia was in the mid to late 1990s. I lived just south of Manchester at the height of the Oasis fandom. I remember the day my Dad went to Woolworths in St. Ives to by the much anticipated Be Here Now Oasis album. This was then followed by the extremely emotionally odd time of Diana’s death and funeral. For myself the 1990s was loud, out there, self-confident and in many ways more innocent than today (at least from my childhood perspective). Times weren’t always easy at school. But culturally there was always something either new or exciting. All in all it was definitely an interesting period to be alive in.

[Caitlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Music, sex, drugs, parties, and Damon Albarn

[Joe O'Donnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given the political hellscape and cultural wasteland that we inhabit in the late 2010s, it is perhaps understandable that recent years have seen an upsurge in rose-tinted nostalgia for the halcyon days of the 1990s. The now commonly-touted narrative is that the 1990s were a time of post-Berlin Wall / ‘End-of-History’ optimism, marked by vaguely-progressive politics, comparative peace and racial harmony (possibly complacency), and illuminated by unbridled creativity across music, film and fashion. “Don’t Look Back in Anger” is Daniel Rachel’s attempt to explore that decade from within a British context – where it meant Britpop, Tony Blair’s New Labour and ‘Cool Britannia’.
When it comes to the main players of the ‘Cool Britannia’ period – whether they be from the worlds of Politics, Music, Comedy or Art – Daniel Rachel gets terrific access. Whatever else you might think of them, it is a huge coup to get no less than two former Prime Ministers in Tony Blair and John Major to speak so openly and frankly about the era. Daniel Rachel must have a contacts book to die for, managing to get in-depth interviews with both Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn, Tracey Emin and Steve Coogan, through to Alastair Campbell and many of the key players in the New Labour project.

The fact that “Don’t Look Back In Anger” lands such access can, however, be both a blessing and a curse when it comes to the structure and pacing of the book. Having secured so many high-profile interviewees (68 in total covering every cultural and political strand of the period), Daniel Rachel seems determined to shoehorn their views into the text no matter what the topic of the chapter. This means we get the incongruous and utterly unnecessary spectacles of the lead singer of Ocean Colour Scene holding fort on the subject of Acid House, the ghastly Keith Allen giving his tuppence worth on the death of Princess Diana and, non-entities like Jo Wylie and Toby Young giving their opinions on, well, anything.

This speaks to a wider flaw with the oral history format of “Don’t Look Back in Anger” in that it can prove hugely repetitive. While Daniel Rachel’s direct voice is absent outside of the introduction, you often get the sense that through his selection and presentation of quotes that he is really trying to hammer home a particular point. It results in annoying affectations like half-a-dozen consecutive interviewees all chiming that “We were Thatcher’s children” or “Football/Comedy in the 90s was the new rock ’n’ roll”.

I would expect a lot of readers to pick up “Don’t Look Back in Anger” (largely based on its Oasis-inspired title) expecting it to solely focus on the Britpop phenomenon. And while Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Elastica et al are all covered comprehensively, the music chapters are often the least satisfying or enlightening in this book. This is partly because similar terrain was explored – and arguably covered far more insightfully – over fifteen years ago in “The Last Party”, John Harris’s classic account of the excesses of Britpop and how the initial optimism of that movement curdled into reactionary musical dead-ends. It is also because the musicians interviewed in “Don’t Look Back in Anger” have a tendency to come across as preposterously self-aggrandising (Noel Gallagher), overly chippy (Bret Anderson) or cold and taciturn (Damon Albarn). Conversely, the sections on the Young British Artists – or ‘YBA’ movement – are much more insightful and give a greater understanding of the cultural currents of 1990s Britain.

But, by far the most interesting parts of this book – and the sections that really make “Don’t Look Back in Anger” worth any examination – are those that deal with how Tony Blair’s New Labour intermingled with the various strands of ‘Cool Britannia’. Daniel Rachel’s book is fascinating on how the New Labour project relentlessly – and quite cynically – went about courting and co-opting the British artistic communities ahead of the 1997 General Election. Partly due to the surprising candidness of the politicos and spindoctors interviewed here, “Don’t Look Back in Anger” is much sharper when addressing the politics of Britain in the 1990s that it is when excavating the now-familiar turf of Britpop and Lad Culture.

And therein lies both the strength and weakness of “Don’t Look Back in Anger”; it would have been a more effective read had it confined its perspective to being an oral history of New Labour rather than trying to extend its reach across every creative industry of British culture during the 1990s. There are some compelling insights into 1990s Britain within “Don’t Look Back in Anger”; it is just that the reader needs to cut a swathe through a jungle of verbiage and repetition in order to discover them.

[Ophelia Sings · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't expecting this book to be a series of bitesize 'talking heads'-type snapshots from the figures of the day, and at first I was somewhat disappointed by the format. However, I stuck with it and urge you to do the same.

The vast cast - a truly diverse one, at that - means that the 90s are seen from all sides; politically and from the worlds of entertainment, sport and journalism. The view, then, is balanced, which is essential for a historical document such as this.

This is a fascinating book if you lived through it, particularly if you were too young (or too distracted by grunge or Britpop) to take it all in at the time. But it's equally fascinating if you weren't there.

A comprehensive trawl through the best and worst of the decade, this works as both a repository of nostalgia and a historical record. Dip in or settle in - however you read it, read it.

My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Neal Obermeyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went back and forth between 2 and 5 stars on this book at various points.

1. The participants are fantastic, but it’s worth emphasizing that this really does cover a broad scope of “Cool Britannia,” including a lot around the art and fashion scenes. The book was recommended to me as a Britpop book, and while that’s definitely what gets most of the attention (as you might guess from the title), there is a *lot* of other context, including the aforementioned art and fashion worlds, as well as politics, journalism and other media. When I was expecting more of a Britpop book, I was growing irritated at what felt like not getting to the point, but eventually these (seemingly) disparate threads come together well.

2. It could benefit from being trimmed back about 20%. I understand the temptation to keep all of these quotes included, because there are some great sources, but so many are repetitive and add so little value. It’s fun to juxtapose conflicting or subtly complementary quotes, but many times this went so far beyond that. It made the book kind of tedious at times.

3. You’ll grow to hate nearly everyone in the book, as so many of them expose themselves to be be the most loathsomely self-absorbed children, even 20 years past their primes.

4. But eventually, that becomes the point; by the time you get to the fall of Cool Britannia, these sources fall neatly into three camps. You’ve got the adults, who were adults then and are adults now (the politicians end up becoming one of the most fascinating subsets of sources). You’ve got the people who lived it up in the 90s but have matured and are reflecting with hindsight and added maturity (Steve Coogan and Melanie C are two of my favorites in this category, and Jarvis Cocker somewhat unsurprisingly lands here as well). And then you’ve got the petulant brats who were children then and still children now (if you have been itching to read Keith Allen and Noel Gallagher incessantly bragging in 2019 about how much coke they did in 1995, this is the book for you). This divergence toward the final fourth of the book or so almost makes the tedium of the first three quarters all worth it. I’d still recommend cutting a lot, but it pays off.

[Madeline · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is hard to give a star rating as it's so well put together but the content makes this one of the most utterly painful books I've ever sat through. 

This is one of those oral histories, which I've only ever really listened to in audio format in the past (see This Searing Light: The Sun and Everything Else: Joy Division: The Oral History, which I found to be a good listen in the background whilst doing chores or gaming). It's good to dip in and out of. I have chronic fatigue syndrome, and on bad days I can find it hard to focus on something with a through narrative, so this found a place as a book for when I wanted to read something, as opposed to listen, but something easy that doesn't require much brain power. That's not where my issue with the book lies, not at all. It's fantastically compiled and must have been a gargantuan task to undertake, but it's the quotes themselves and the people interviewed that just made this so unlikable. 


Take for example the chapter about football and Italia 90. Now, I'm not very well versed in football history, aside from conversations I've had with my dad who is intensely knowledgeable on the topic. David Baddiel, who, quite frankly has had zero character development since the early 90s, and I fear if he were to fall victim to a brain-eating amoeba, the amoeba would starve rapidly, talks about how, suddenly, it was acceptable to be a man who likes women, football, and beer. This threw me. When has it ever NOT been acceptable to be a man who likes these things? I posted this to my Twitter to share my confusion and a friend of mine who was actually around at the time proposed perhaps he is referring to the 1980s idea of the "New Man", but that ultimately, it still comes across the same as people today going on about how "woke culture" has ruined things. A few pages on, Baddiel elaborates further, using the example that football was now becoming separated from the idea of "hooliganism", and uses the Hillsborough tragedy as an example. If you don't know, in short, this was a disaster where 96 people, including children, lost their lives in a crowd crush due to poor crowd control and police incompetence. Of course, the fans got the blame, and The Sun newspaper ran with false headlines about fans supposedly pickpocketing the dead. This is why The Sun is no longer sold in Liverpool. 

Basically this is an incredibly tone deaf example for him to use. 

What he means is that football became gentrified. It was acceptable for middle class men to like football, now. Irvine Welsh points this out, and I'm actually a little resentful that I agree with Irvine Welsh on something. 

Baddiel later goes on to once again defend his infamously racist caricature of Jason Lee on Fantasy Football League, saying that "it was nothing to do with him being black, it was because he was a shit footballer", whilst Baddiel was in blackface, fake dreadlocks and with a fucking pineapple on his head. Then he only apologised when he had a documentary to plug in 2022. 


This is a theme throughout the perspectives offered throughout the book. It's all very male, white, and most of all, middle class, and, unsurprisingly pro-establishment. There are some women included, but the lack of quotes from people like Justine Frischmann (who is spoken about as a mere object and is never given the opportunity to speak for herself) and in particular Miki Berenyi, who's 2022 memoir Fingers Crossed completely burns to the ground any last vestiges of the idea of "cool Britannia" not being a breeding ground for misogyny and racism. She even calls out certain musicians by by name for their sexual harassment. Alex James, who was already known to be a violent misogynist in the 90s according to forum posts on Internet Archive dating from around 1996, as well as Graham Coxon and the Gallaghers. The way women's experiences with these men have been completely silenced is unspeakably frustrating. 


 I've had this joke for a few years now that Britpop was a government psyop, and I'm starting to think there might be some truth to the joke. 

Tjinder Singh offers a really refreshing perspective on the use of the Union Flag and its connotations and his experiences as a British Asian in the supposedly progressive 1990s, and as always Jarvis Cocker, Brett Anderson and Jane Savidge have some really great quotes, though being a proud Suede super-fan who has seen them 21 times since 2019 and writes a blog about them, I might be a little bit biased. Anderson in particular does a great job of dismantling the misconception that Suede were trying to resist American Grunge in some way. Anyone who has analysed Suede beyond a surface level can see the clear grunge influence on their sound. He disparages the front cover of his image superimposed over a Union Flag with the headline "yanks go home", which is something he would never say, through the front cover gives the impression of a pull quote. Anderson, and all of Suede, have always been keen to distance themselves from Britpop, and a lot of people ask why this is. They've been vocal in how they feel it was nationalistic and there was a streak of misogyny which made them deeply uncomfortable to be associated with. 

I enjoyed the chapter on Asian British culture a lot, but overall this just felt like a load of middle class people having a coked up conversation in a club like nodding dogs.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this so much. While it could have been this rose-coloured glasses view of what was going on at the time, I think Rachel does well to cover it in a way that touches on both the good and the bad of the era. I like how it was told through the lens of those involved, sort of similar to "Please Kill Me," another favourite. Well done, Daniel Rachel.

[Monica (crazy_4_books) · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 🌟 Don't Look Back in Anger: The Rise and Fall of Cool Britannia is an oral history of the nineties in Britain labeled as “Cool Britannia” by the media. The book covers all things British: art, comedy, fashion, film, football, literature and music. The author interviewed 68 personalities. The experience while reading this was very similar to last year’s book about Saturday Night Live, when you get so many people together in one long book purely interview structured, some names are going to fly over your head and some topics are going to appeal more than others. I came here for the Britpop tea and the book delivered plenty on that section. Damon Albarn and Noel Gallagher steal the show by contradicting each other in their recount of events. And since I’ve been re-discovering Blur for the past three months and watching a lot of material on YouTube, some of these anecdotes I’ve heard about while I also learned a bunch of new juicy bits. The Girl Power section & the Spice Girls phenomenon was welcome since I like them, I only wish the author could have interviewed more than one of the group members. The political sections became a drag pretty fast. I am not British so, to me, it was too much. Although he was not interviewed for this book, nor was he a key player in the Britpop years, I loved how often Robbie Williams is mentioned here. He was like a lurking lapdog following the Gallaghers around waiting for the window of opportunity after Britpop was over so he could take the spotlight in British pop music scene in the late 90’s. Robbie was very successful in doing so, even beating Oasis 1996 Knebworth attendance in 2003. Robbie is a household name everywhere except in the U.S.A. (your loss Americans!). I liked the inclusion of new filmmakers from the era, like Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting and its soundtrack full of Britpop luminaries. Overall, the book delivered plenty of what I was looking for, the rest is just white noise.

[Ben Gould · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a teenager in the 90s and although I spent most of that time alone in my bedroom (cue violins), the era still feels like a high cultural watermark. Part of this is rose-tinted glasses, whilst the influence of the media's latching onto these various cultural movements, relentlessly promoting and ultimately neutering them (then subsequently mythologising them all over again) is another factor. But there was clearly a lot of cool stuff happening, and Don't Look Back in Anger makes a decent fist of covering it all.

The chapters focusing on fashion and art were less interesting to me, mainly because I'm more interested in the music and the media stuff. However this probably reflects a certain weakness in Rachel's oral history approach, which makes it harder for the reader to be engaged with things they don't already have a stake in if the talking heads aren't particularly illuminating. But some of the interviewees are very good at offering more interesting perspectives on the events of the decade and their role in shaping them.

Ultimately, although I couldn't tell you what a definitive history of the Cool Britannia period would look like, this doesn't quite feel like It.

[Downward · Rating 3 out of 5]

a granular oral history of the UK mostly during the period 93-97 during a cultural and arts boom that is, and I had no idea it had this very corny name, known as 'cool brittania'. this is the sort of thing that is interesting if you're interested and probably incredibly boring if you're not; but it probably is mostly interesting to people who hit a weird spot of being interested but also existing outside of that culture entirely, whether geographically or generationally, because if you were there I'd imagine it's just a pretty boring recap of the greatest hits of an era: oasis blur pulp david beckham irvine welsh the spice girls princess di tony blair loaded magazine tracey emin damien hirst kate moss nick hornby four weddings and a funeral did I get it all?

[Joel Workman · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first I wasn’t sure if I liked the format of the book - it being made up entirely of quotes from interviews with relevant people. But it is put together in a way that makes for writing just as coherent as if it were full prose. This is a book full of people’s opinions rather than facts, but it works quite nicely as the wide range of interviewees used allows British culture in the ‘90s to be viewed from many different perspectives - something which seems more appropriate than just hearing one person’s version of events.

[Pippa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Labour were clearly trying to associate themselves with a young, hedonistic generation who no doubt wanted change but ideologically, in truth, didn’t give two fucks.

Simon Fowler (Ocean Colour Scene lead singer)

Interesting - particularly in how it dives into the begging of tabloid culture and the cynicism of New Labour’s engagement with pop culture - but highly repetitive. I ended up skimming the last 100 pages because I was just ready to be done and it is a TOME to lug about.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an impressively wide-ranging book that must have taken an exceptional amount of work to create, and it does pay off. Although it does not provide a tonne of factual information, for anyone with even a passing interest in the 90s and its culture it is really fascinating to hear it from people who created the 'scene' back then. I was too young to appreciate it at the time but not anymore!

I listened to an audiobook version which was great as the different voices within the text came across so much better than it would if I had read the printed version, so I'd highly recommend!

[Philip Robertson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nicely presented narrative of a cultural movement that formed identities pre-internet. Music, art, tv and comedy with sport and politics added on, helped define characters. Don’t Look Back in Anger charts the 90s in Britain, generally London centric, through oral interviews with key protagonists including prime ministers, government officials, actors and musicians of seminal bands. An enjoyable take and part explanation of what happened. Hard to believe it was half a lifetime ago.

[Mac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed it much more than its predecessor, probably because I lived through it, to an extent, at the time. The drugs talk gets dull, as it always does, but the political talk doesn't get as nitty-gritty which is likely as much a product of the time as anything else. My lone true complaint is that even though the cast of interviewees is impressive and large, it was still missing some pretty key elements.

[I Read, Therefore I Blog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daniel Rachel is a musician turned critically acclaimed author. On balance this account of the 1990s ‘Cool Britannia’ phenomenon is worth a read as Rachel has secured interviews with some key figures (including Tony Blair, Noel Gallagher, Jarvis Cocker, Tracey Emin and Melanie Chisholm) if only to get their view on what happened and what it meant but there are notable omissions (e.g. Justine Frischmann) and nothing on Black British contributions.

[Caley]

I love non fiction with this writing style, just pieced together using quotes. I just find it really cool and so clever
I had expected this to be a bit chattier in delivery, but at times it felt very slow paced at times
I found the book to be mostly pretty interesting. I was only 3 when the 90s started so I didn't know too much about Cool Britannia other than the music side of things. Even then, this was boiled down to being Oasis or Blur so I liked learning about the art and tv

[Mr Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tour through the decade.

Hard to put this down; an era that is thoroughly missed, certainly in retrospect.
Interesting to hear it from the perspective of many people who were considered key to the era.

The only strange thing for me was an acknowledgement to Noel Gallagher for the use of his song title. Didn't he liberate that from David Bowie?!

Regardless, an excellent read.

[Jonny Brick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This will be the last British culture without black people. A comprehensive look at the 1990s in London, mostly, which is particularly good on the importance of PR, British art and fashion and, naturally, the tunes. A stellar cast of interviewees too.

[Simon Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

It shouldn't work but it does.

The author interviewed sixty-eight people connected with nineties Britain and then groups their words into thematically-linked chapters (Blur vs Oasis, the death of Diana, etc.) Some chapters are more interesting than others, but overall it's impressive.

[Doris Raines · Rating 2 out of 5]

DONT LOOK BACK IN ANGER. HOW TRUE ANGER SLOVES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.WALK IT OFF. CALM ? DOWN SLOVE THE PROBLEMS OR PROBLEM. LATER. IT TRUELY WORKS FOR ME THANKS🤙😎

[David Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

From Margaret Thatcher to Boris Johnson.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't expect this book to be a series of quotes from people around at the time - Damon Albarn, Jarvis Cocker, Brett Anderson etc. Good but gets a bit repetitive towards the end

[Fernando · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente historia contada por sus protagonistas sobre el auge y caida del britpop

[char · Rating 5 out of 5]

so so so enjoyable

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating insight into a decade when I was not (mercifully, it seems) in UK. Written totally in interview snippets, it has contradictory memories and opinions. So entertaining (at a distance).

[Matt Garville · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an Oasis obsessive and anglophile, there wasn't as much Noel & Liam as I would’ve liked. I could've read 500 pages just on the Creation Records years, but there's other books for that and I will tackle them in due time.

This is a detailed, funny oral history of 90's London. No stone is left unturned and there's an impressive cast of characters across- music, film, tv, comedy, art and politics. Liam didn't participate sadly but Noel is featured throughout.

The 90's were a special time and certainly was in London.

[Luci · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an oral history of the music scene of the 1990s, the myths and realities behind the story of Cool Britannia. As in Daniel Rachel's previous book, The Walls Come Tumbling Down, the story is told through snippets from interviews with 68 people, many of them figures who regularly appeared in the media of the decade, including musicians, comedians, artists and politicians (both Labour and Conservative).

The author is a writer and a musician with an impressive contacts list, including members of Pulp, Blur, Oasis, the Spice Girls, Tony Blair, Chris Smith, Virginia Bottomley, Tracey Emin and many many others. So the many anecdotes here have an intimate feel.

A drawback of the book is that it is made up of rather short quotes from interviewees, arranged thematically, and the narrative becomes a bit choppy. I would have liked an approach closer to that of The Walls Come Tumbling Down as I remember it, with more context, longer extracts from interviews, a little more of a narrative feel, more of a chance for the author to draw together ideas and insights from all the conversations.

While I had a Netgalley review copy of this, I actually read a printed copy borrrowed from the library.. There are 16 pages of photographic plates, with some colour pictures, some black and white - I think that this must reflect whether they were taken for glossy magazines (90s lad culture including magazines like Loaded and FHM are covered in some depth) or newspapers. Maybe who the pictures were taken for is a reason why the pictures, more than the text of the book, seem to have far more men in them than women, and most of the people in them are white, with just two black women (PP Arnold with Simon Fowler of Ocean Colour Scene, Me l B with the other Spice Girls) and one Asian woman shown. It is disappointing that the pictures don't reflect well the diversity of interviewees in the book - especially for someone who has lived in two very multicultural cities and has also written a book about Two Tone.

Overall, Don't Look Back in Anger is an interesting look back at the 1990s, but could have been so much better.

Rating: 3.5

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You thought you were going to live forever, but then if you're smart you grow up. Some people came through, some people didn’t.”

68 voices. 450+ pages. This vivid, hilarious, and sensitive oral history of the Cool Britannia era digs up a wealth of retrospection and comment on a period considered by one contributor as “the last big, major fest”, ‘the last party’ where “the nation [was] intoxicated by an air of success” and a confluence of different media led to the stars aligning around a confected media narrative. This is despite the fact, as the book makes clear, many of the participants eschewed the ‘Cool Britannia’ label; it’s only by looking back that such a ‘movement’ comes into the rear view mirror. It’s striking how much of this emerges as a response to Thatcherism, both to her avowal of ‘no such thing as society’ (the ‘90s are partly about finding community through leisure and communal experiences) and, ironically, to the entrepreneurial spirit she espoused and inadvertently encouraged through the £40-a-week unemployment allowance and enterprise schemes. Like New Labour, much of it is in her shadow.

"You could argue the nineties was the same as Nero fiddling while Rome burned.”

There’s a slight awareness of this retrospective being penned after the shockwaves of the 2010s, and in a way feels elegiac for a supposedly simpler time. Yet the book makes clear that the ‘90s were in many ways key to a twenty-first-century Britain, and far from a halcyon past. The attempt to provide an “optimistic narrative about Britain” was never fully realised; it is this, one suggests, “shaped what became the cataclysmic Brexit decision”. Perhaps this is too far, but there’s a sense of a candle burning very brightly and very quickly, captured in the 68 voices on show, woven together in a really readable way that manages to capture just how interconnected and supposedly unified these different media were until the bubble inevitably burst.