How have your favourite Britpop stars changed over the years?
18 July 2023, 13:31
How have the great 90s stars changed in looks and attitude? Radio X compares and contrasts.
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Jarvis Cocker of Pulp
Jarvis Cocker performing with Pulp at T In The Park, July 1996... and at Finsbury Park, July 2023. Picture: Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo Jarvis at the height of Britpop, and again as part of Pulp's 2023 reunion shows.
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Blur then and now
Blur in 1991... and again in 2023. Picture: DPA Picture Alliance/Alamy Stock Photo/Matt Crossick This fresh-faced, mop-haired youths are about to take on the world with their uniquely English songs… ...And here they are again, at Radio X Towers in May 2023, launching the new album The Ballad Of Darren.
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Sleeper then and now
Louise Wener backstage at Cardiff University in February 1994 and again, at Wychwood Festival, June 2023. Picture: Rob Watkins/MusicLive/Alamy Stock Photo Sleeper were best known for the hits Sale Of The Century and What Do I Do Now? They were fronted by the charismatic Louise Wener, who once wore an ironic t-shirt claiming they were "Another Female-Fronted Band"...
Nowadays, Wener is better known for being an author, having written the four novels, including Goodnight Steve McQueen. But wait! Sleeper came back in 2019 with a new album, The Modern Age and followed it up two years later with another, This Time Tomorrow.
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Liam Gallagher then and now
Young Liam Gallagher at The Fleece and Firkin in Bristol in March 1994; and playing Milan in July 2023. Picture: Rob Watkins/Rodolfo Sassano/Alamy Stock Photo Here's the younger Gallagher at the time of the release of the debut Oasis album Definitely Maybe. And here he is, twenty-nine years later. Different jacket, same (ish) haircut. Older, and no doubt wiser.
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Noel Gallagher then and now
Noel Gallagher in Munich in January 1996; and at the Eithad in Manchester, May 2023. Picture: DPA Picture Alliance/News Images Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo Noel Gallagher, back when he was a guitar roadie for Oldham's very own Inspiral Carpets......and here he is 33 years later - a lot of water under the Britpop bridge.
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Gaz Coombes of Supergrass
Gaz Coombes playing with Supergrass at Glamorgan University, March 1995... and as a solo artist in Bath June 2022. Picture: Rob Watkins/Steve Owen/Alamy Stock Photo The fresh-faced trio featured singer Gaz Coombes picture in the mid 1990s, around the time of their debut album, I Should Coco. They always looked like they were aged 12, even when they were actually in their 20s... …And here’s Gaz Coombes onstage 27 years later.
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Richard Ashcroft of The Verve
Richard Ashcroft with The Verve in Cardiff, September 1993; and at the Teenage Cancer Trust shows in London, March 2023. Picture: Rob Watkins/PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo The Verve fromtman (no "The" in those days), pictured at the time of the band's debut album, A Storm In Heaven. And here's Ashcroft performing a solo show at the Royal Albert Hall in 2023.
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Rick Witter of Shed Seven
Rick Witter performing with Shed Seven at Reading 1998... and again at Camp Bestival in July 2022. Picture: PA Images/SOPA Images Limited/Alamy Stock Photo York's finest were fronted by Rick Witter (third from left) and known for such Britpop classics as Going For Gold and Chasing Rainbows... and the band are still going strong.
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Sonya Madan of Echobelly
Sonya Madan performing with Echobelly at the Zap Club in Brighton in September 1994; at Cool Britannia Festival, Knebworth, September 2019. Picture: James Boardman/Simon Newbury/Alamy Stock Photo Fronted by the charismatic frontwoman Sonya Madan, the band were best known for the track King Of The Kerb and their second album On. Echobelly are still a going concern and playing shows, but Madan and guitarist Glenn Johansson also have an acoustic side-project, Calm Of Zero.
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Suede
Brett Anderson performing with Suede in Newport, December 1994; and again in June 2023 at Kite Festival in Oxfordshire. Picture: Rob Watkins/Alamy/Graham Tarrant/Alamy Live News Here's Brett Anderson at the start of Suede's career... and touring the band's ninth album Autofiction.