Nostalgia

1993 or there about, I can remember sitting in a pub with a friend of mine having the Oasis v Blur argument. The same one so many people were having at the time. It was the battle of the Brit Poppers. I was  taking a contrary view from my friend to wind him up as I would do a lot in those days. I didn't really care about either bands although I knew enough about them to make up an opinion.

The friend is gone. I don't know where he is or what he's doing although I could probably find out if I wanted to. Back then I lent him some money and misty eyed he promised he would repay me with interest. I'm still waiting. He came down in the Oasis camp. A socialist of the theoretical kind, the gravelly, druggy, I don't give a shit approach of Oasis as opposed to the more calculating persona that was Blur appealed to his own working man up against it angst and was the spearhead of his argument. I liked him, he was passionate and I believed he believed what he was telling me. He really liked Oasis and I can imagine him still playing the air guitar when Wonderwall comes on in the pub.

I am thinking about all this now because I just noticed that Blur have a new album out and my instinctive thought was "Aaah, Steve, looks like Blur have won the staying power argument", which of course is deadly childish but that is what music can do to you. 

Like Steve was, I imagine Blur's new album will be a big disappointment to me. While I was never that fond of them anyway, I was having a great time in the early 90s and they were part of the background noise but I am not fooled by nostalgia. In those days I listened with glee to the likes of Nirvana, Suede, The Jesus and Mary Chain etc.. I didn't seek these bands out, they found me and I was bopping around the living room on a Friday night with everyone else. But that was then and this is now. Bowie, Dylan, Cohen, all great in the day but you really had to be there. Come back artists are victims of their own past and will always let you down if you remember them the first time around. A bit like my old friend, Steve.