September 2, 2008 11:16

Brett Anderson: 'Britpop was horrible'

Ex-Suede star also says he is shocked he's still alive

Brett Anderson has slammed the Britpop scene that his former band Suede were associated with in the '90s.

He claimed that Suede were never part of the scene - and that they frowned upon people who were involved in it.

Anderson told The Guardian: "I had always been fascinated by suburbia and I liked to throw these twisted references to small-town British life into songs. This was before we had that horrible term Britpop.

"We were never at the party, and Britpop was like a big party: people slapping one another on the back and getting beery and jingoistic. We could not have been more uninterested in that whole boozy, cartoon-like, fake working-class thing."

The singer, whose new solo album 'Wilderness' is out now, also admitted that he's surprised he's still alive, aged 40, today after partying hard during Suede's heyday.

"I was always surprised I made it to 30," he said. "I was on a collision course. But once you've made it beyond a certain point, you are faced with two choices: carry on and end up killing yourself, or change your life radically. I chose the latter."