Next week, one of those oft-celebrated music anniversaries comes around again. It’ll be a staggering 29 years since the summer of Britpop, as Blur and Oasis fought it out for Number 1 in the singles charts. Heady days for rock indeed, and not just because between them, the two bands sold a frankly incredible 490,000 singles in just seven days.
And yet today, the entire notion of a band going in with a bullet at Number 1 – or even Number 40 – is frankly absurd. Consider this; the Manic Street Preachers were number 1 in January 2000.