Tim Robson

Writing, ranting, drinking and dating. Ancient Rome. Whatever I damn well feel is good to write about.

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The first - and best - album.

The first - and best - album.

Oasis: Twenty Minute Setlist

December 18, 2018 by Tim Robson in 20 Minute Setlist, Rock

This is a 20 minute set list I’d love to see!

When Oasis were emerging in 1994 / 95, they could take on any other band live. Loud overdriven guitars, pulsing beat, great songs, sing-a-long choruses and a singer who had both charisma and talent. They continued and concluded the Holy Trinity of Manchester bands (Smiths, Stone Roses, Oasis).

I was a Blur fan but even I was swept away in the winter of 1994 as the band appeared on an Xmas show and played their new single ‘Whatever’ in all its Beatle-esque glory before tearing into a full scale toe to toe with the Fab Four, delivering a supreme I Am Walrus. Audacious bastards! They just went for the balls and powered out Lennon’s anthem with maximum swagger and sneering. (see video below)

I never saw Oasis live though I remember them coming to the Brighton Centre December 1994. Looking at the setlist that night is feels like it was a massive night, a first album homage. And I think, in retrospect, looking at YouTube videos, Oasis were at their best when they were climbing the mountain, not when they were on top and definitely not on their way down. Although the crowds kept coming, they weren’t as hungry, as urgent and - like most Oasis fans - I think the 1994 line up was the best.

So here it is, my fantasy Oasis playlist delivered by them as they were in 1994!

Rock n Roll Star

Fade Away

Bring it on Down

Slide Away

I Am Walrus

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December 18, 2018 /Tim Robson
Oasis
20 Minute Setlist, Rock
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knebworth oasis 1.jpeg

Oasis Maine Road 1996 Flyer

January 28, 2018 by Tim Robson in 1990's, Britpop

A good gig. Watch it on YouTube! 

Oasis gigs Tim never went to, part 2.

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January 28, 2018 /Tim Robson
Oasis, Maine Road, 1996
1990's, Britpop
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knebworth oasis.jpeg

Oasis Knebworth Flyer

January 28, 2018 by Tim Robson in 1990's, Nostalgia

Digging around my scrapbooks - a real Sunday thing to do - found this flyer for Oasis' massive Knebworth gig in 1996. Don't know why I kept it, didn't go, but it's quite historical. 

More 90's memories to follow.

Tim's Blog RSS
January 28, 2018 /Tim Robson
Oasis, Knebworth, 1996
1990's, Nostalgia
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For Tomorrow.jpeg

Top 10 Britpop Songs

January 05, 2018 by Tim Robson in Music, Britpop, 1990's

MId 90’s Britain - Cool Britannia, Blur v Oasis, 60’s revival, mad for it!

Firstly, let me narrow down exactly which period I’m talking about as things could get muddled and – as someone who used to alphabetise his vinyl collection and order his CDs across two 180cm Ikea Billy cabinets -  structure and order in music are important to me.

The beginning of Britpop was in 1992 when Blur launched their non-album single Popscene onto an uncaring world. Popscene wasn’t ‘baggy’ or ‘Madchester’ or ‘grunge’ or even 'Shoe-Gazing'; it was something noticeably different. Blur spelt this out further the next year pushing the single ‘For Tomorrow’ from their album ‘Modern Life is Rubbish’. They were all about Doc Martens, dog racing and Kink’s style whimsy. Britpop was born.* So 1993 is our start.

And the end? Well, it would be a neat book end to close Britpop down with Blur’s 1997 back to basics Blur album. By that time, Tony Blair and New Labour were in power and Cool Britannia was already a jaded concept. It had run its course and was now just embarrassing.

Probably though the actual end came the summer before when Oasis played their two huge Knebworth gigs. Britpop couldn’t get any bigger. There was nowhere else to go.** It seemed a celebration but also a fin de siècle party for a lost age. A final round of drinks before time was called.

So 1993 – 1996 it is then (or 93-97 if I find a good track and need to bend my own rules).

The Charlatans – Just Lookin’

The Charlatans by the mid 90's had a groove. I saw them a couple of times in the 90's. Great gigs. I love this song for the guitar sound, the guitar solo and the fact that it ROCKS.

Teenage Fanclub – Neil Jung

Saw the Fannies a lot in 1990's. Although they came out of the grunge scene, they produced probably the best Britpop Album in 1995 - Grand Prix. I loved this song and the lyrics always seemed a little personal to me. I did have a girlfriend. She was a lot younger than me.

Ride – From Time to Time

I only saw Ride only once - on The Leave Them All Behind Tour 1992. This one comes from 1994 from Carnival of Light. From Time To Time is one of my favourite Britpop songs but also, one of my favourites anytime, anywhere. Magical, hypnotic, great harmonies. 

Radiohead – Street Spirit (Fade Out)

I remember someone telling me in 1993 that they liked Radiohead. I bought Pablo Honey and thought it shit and so avoided them for the next year. I probably caught the last part of their set at Reading 1993 waiting for Blur. And then - whilst browsing in the Virgin Store in Brighton - they were playing The Bends in 1994. Those last three tracks! Wow! Stunning. And this one, magical and so perfect. They were never this good again.

The Blue Tones – Slight Return

Yeah, I stretch the envelope to 1997 with this one. It takes me back to the Amex Sports and Social Club which had a juke box. I used to play this all the time. Jingle-jangle perfection. 

Oasis -  Rock n Roll Star

There's not much to say that hasn't been said. The mighty Oasis coming out of the blocks with Track 1 of their debut album. They didn't mean this ironically they fooking meant it, man. I never saw Oasis. Or did I? Maybe at The Boardwalk in 1992 before they were famous. But I was pissed and there was a girl.

Morrissey – Spring Heeled Jim

Morrissey, Prince of the Losers in the 80's, was still big in the 90's. I love this track and the authentic scally-wag voices in the background "And they caught 'im, and they said he was mental!"

The Boo Radleys – Wake up Boo

Every morning in the mid 90's you would wake up listening to Chris Evans. His theme song was a bastardised version of this ditty "Wake up! Chris Evans on the Radio...". Cheerful, infectious - a classic. (Though I do prefer their earlier shoe-gazing incarnation).

Blur – Girls and Boys

This is the song that really kicked off Britpop. Blur's 1993 album 'Modern Life is Rubbish' didn't produce any hit singles. I was a big Blur fan and saw them loads of times in the 90's. And then I turned on Top of The Pops in March 1994 and there's my favourite band bouncing around in tracky tops and trainers to this weird song that combines 80's beats with thrashy guitar and amazingly catchy chorus. I remember this as the soundtrack to Tim in Budapest in April 1994.

Sleeper – What Do I Do Now

I saw Sleeper once definitely in Brighton circa 1995 or 1996 as they toured The It Girl. They were shit to be honest. I may have seen them earlier as they supported Blur in either 1993 or 1994 but can't remember. Anyway, although the singer was attractive she was pretty talentless but occasionally (this song, Sale of the Century) Sleeper came out with a bloody good song. You can't ask for more, can you?

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*Some might argue Suede had something to do with it as well but as I thought then – as I think now – they’re just derivative Bowie wannabes, they don’t count. And they’re shite. End of.

 

** As evidenced by Oasis supporting U2 on their Pop Mart tour in the States. From playing to hundreds of thousands to being the support act to half empty stadiums. It kind of rams it home.

January 05, 2018 /Tim Robson
Britpop, Oasis, Charlatans, Blur, Sleeper, The Blue Tones
Music, Britpop, 1990's
Christmas. October 19th. Lavender Hill

Christmas. October 19th. Lavender Hill

Signs of Christmas on Lavender Hill

Battersea Arts Centre
November 09, 2017 by Tim Robson in Bollox

It's getting to that time of year again.

The Ascension of the Lord's garden is fenced off in preparation for selling Christmas trees. Fine. Fine. But who the hell buys cut Christmas trees in early November? Fools. That's who.

Bar Social has Christmas lights in October (see picture). Ocean going stupidity - like Christmas carols playing in a garden centre during September. Like scraping into a car in Tesco carpark and doing a runner without leaving a note. Just crass.

The fashion this year is for the ladies to don a wooly hat with a pom pom. Today I was falling over fashionable Clapham women in these accrutiments sashaying past me and into memory. Which reminds me, I think I need to upgrade my head gear - had a business meeting today with a client in a flat cap.

Tim switches from white wine to red wine in honour of the festive season. Let us not forget the religious nature of Saturnalia. Er, Christmas.

Below we have Oasis going toe to toe with Beatles around Xmas 1994. They are the only group who could (briefly) take on The Fab Four and not get their ass handed to them. Enjoy.

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November 09, 2017 /Tim Robson
Lavender Hill, Christmas, Oasis
Bollox
Blur battle Oasis for the future destination of Britpop at Frigidus.

Blur battle Oasis for the future destination of Britpop at Frigidus.

Frigidus and the Lost Battles of Britpop

Battersea Arts Centre
October 04, 2016 by Tim Robson in Music, Ancient Rome

There are many battles in history whose importance recedes with time.

One thinks of, randomly, The Battle of Colline Gate, the Battles of Frigidus, Poitiers, Marston Moor, Assaye, Goose Green, whatever whatever, blah blah. History is a bitch. 'Now' is all that counts. Apparently everything that happens now has never happened before. 

But what about a real battle from history: Oasis v Blur 1995?

Yes - I realise that was a dreadful segue, a shocking attempt to shoehorn some history into an article about two mid 90's Britpop English bands. Sorry.

I liked Blur from the start. Leisure's one of my favourite albums ever. I think I was one of the very few people who bought their post Leisure single Popscene in 1992. I loved Modern Life is Rubbish. Saw them at the Reading Festival 93, a festival in Brighton and then on the Sugary Tea tour late 1993 at Sussex University where Damon crowd surfed on my head (and I took the set list off the mixing desk). I was so happy when Boys and Girls made number 5 in 1994. I celebrated with them on their late 94 tour at the Event in Brighton.

But from 1994 onwards there was also this five piece combo from Manchester who played loud and wrote songs that didn't pretend to be clever - they just went for the balls. And they had a singer who had it all - the swagger of Ian Brown, the attitude of Lennon, the voice of a rock god.

The first song I ever heard from Oasis was on some free-with-the-magazine Q compilation CD. Slide Away. Wow! I mean, at last my retro tastes - Beatles, Stones, Led Zep, Who, Sex Pistols had a modern application! Oasis did loads more but I always return to this moody song from Year Zero of the Gallagher consulship.

See the video below of Oasis in 1994.

In 1995, in the great battle of the singles - Country House v Roll With It, my head said Blur but my heart was always Oasis.

Me being me, I actually bought both.

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October 04, 2016 /Tim Robson
Oasis, Blur, Britpop, Battle of Frigidus
Music, Ancient Rome

Didn't know I could edit this!