It’s almost 14 years since Blur and Oasis went head to head in the chart battle that has come to define the swagger, excess and blaring self-confidence of Britpop.
As has been repeated endlessly in the years since, it was a critical staging-post in music history, the moment ‘indie’ music went overground in a single dazzling depth-charge of publicity and excitement.
The Blur/Oasis tussle was reported on the News At Ten, debated by the UN Security Council – and sparked a brief-but-bloody civil conflict in Burkina Faso.
Grunge bands, instantly exposed as dreary and workmanlike, unanimously gave up overnight. National productivity quadrupled; and the entire population of Britain started wearing Union Jack parkas and bellowing the lyrics to ‘Tracy Jacks’ in each other’s faces.
It was a pretty big deal.
NME, 12 August, 1995
Then of course there were the insults, thrilling exchanges of verbal poison, the most memorable being Noel Gallagher’s withering smackdown: “Damon? He went bald trying to be me.”
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Received wisdom states that Blur won the initial skirmish (‘Country House’ beat ‘Roll With It’ to Number One), while Oasis won the long-term war – a view backed up by figures released yesterday by PRS, which show that, by any measure – album sales, airplay, royalty earnings – Oasis are the more successful band.
Now, of course, the rivalry has been reignited. The two veteran acts are currently the biggest draw on the live circuit (excluding Take That and their mechanical elephant).
Blur’s astonishing comeback has seen them steal the show at Glastonbury and pay two megagigs at Hyde Park. Meanwhile, Oasis are about to play three nights at Wembley Stadium.
Altogether, the two bands will have played to almost 500,000 people inside two weeks.
Clearly, Blur are the band with all the momentum. There’s an impassioned edge to what they’re doing right now, demonstrated by Damon’s tearful delivery of ‘To The End’ at Glastonbury.
Oasis, meanwhile, have been plagued by bad luck – think of the power failure at Heaton Park – and persistent rumours that they’re on the verge of quitting, or at least taking a lengthy hiatus.
But what do you think? From the perspective of 2009, which is the better band?
(And before you comment, yes, we know it’s pointless trying to turn a subjective preference into an empirical ‘fact’. But that’s never stopped us before).