Andrew Harrison

So we basically covered all these bands that we thought fit the aesthetic of a new kind of music that was generated among our readers by people who were like our readers, like Jarvis, like Saint-Etienne, like Lawrence from Denim, who'd created this insane kind of 70s bubblegum pop thing called Denim, who are brilliant and are still brilliant.

And Luke Haynes and the auteurs.

And, you know, the idea that...

I mean, we were heartily sick of grunge because Nirvana, yes, great.

And in fact, brought to the magazine by Andy Perry, who was basically battering on my desk while I was kind of out of touch going, maybe we should do something on the Inspiral Carpet.

He's going, Nirvana, the people want destruction.

The people want noise.

He was absolutely correct.

But there were an awful lot of quite bad grunge bands as well.

Well, yeah.

I mean, as you know, big rock, not my thing.

So we were really sick.

We were sick of the plaid fad.

We were not down with the plaid fad in the words of Collapsed Lung, the fantastic rap band who remembers them.

And we wanted something more colourful.

I think at one point we were calling them crimpolinism.

Yeah, because if you bought charity shop clothes because you were skint and you were on the dole, which people were, you know, this is still a hangover in the 80s.

If your aesthetic went back to Scott Walker, you know, as I just mentioned, you know, if it went back to John Barry and the soundtracks of the 60s, if it went back to that look, to that feel, if it went back to the specials and madness, if it went back to old ska and reggae, this was a really rich cultural thing.

And also it wasn't just music, it was fantasy.

film and it was telly it was get carter it was space 1999 it was edgar and corey it was sorry mightly it was mike lee yeah i mean obviously meantime and you're nuts in may absolutely colossal the best it was reeves and mortimer as well yeah and we i don't listeners may remember that reeves and mortimer characters mulligan and o'hare the folk singers