Bad Vibes: Britpop and My Part in its Downfall

Bad Vibes: Britpop and My Part in its Downfall (Windmill)by Luke Haines

As time creeps on, the period of the 1990s is increasingly being seen through sepia-tinted glasses - stand by for the 20th Anniversary celebrations in the next few years. For now, we have a number of books that encapsulate that period written by those at the heart of the madness. Bad Vibes is Luke Haines take on the period, and he is perfectly positioned to offer a viewpoint on the time, as the lead singer of The Auteurs, as a band who were feted along with Suede to be one of the bands of the 1990s.

This represents another retrospective account of the 1990s music scene - I have avoided the word Britpop for reasons that become apparent when you read this book, with all the characters that you would expect to see from this time are mentioned with varying degrees of venom.

Suede, the band that emerged at the same time as Haines’s band, occasionally get barbed comments, though deep down you can almost sense a begrudging admiration for the band. They even get an acknowledgement at the end of the book.

This cannot be said for a number of his other bands of the time Blur, Oasis, Elastica, Verve, Pulp Sleeper and Echobelly all get the sharp end of his pen in equal measure, and for the second successive book I have read about this period, there is a particularly vituperative attack on the Boo Radleys. The biggest band of the generation Oasis, he describes them as a ‘crap new comedy band…[who are] wowing them in the aisles, and they [the fans] swarm on them like flies on shit.’

Even Britpop flag bearer Chris Evans comes under attack having participated in the pilot of TFI Friday, Haines describes Evans as 'a shallow bullying man-child, a jumped-up kissogram-turned-light-entertainment-colossus.’ Even fans of the other bands get a dose of Haines’ venom; he describes Placebo’s fans as ‘screaming ingrates’.
It is not just his peers from the ‘Britpop’ generation provoke Haines’ ire. The The, the 80s band, led by Matt Johnson are portrayed as ‘humourless’. On one early support tour with the band, the Auteurs are demoted to opening at 7.30 just as the doors open, in favour of the ‘unfunny’ comedian Tommy Cockles. This provokes a stand up row and an attack on Johnson’s guitars, which sees the Auteurs subsequently kicked off the tour.

There are the usual tales of bad luck and poor record companies, as well as brushes with cults in Japan and fans who take his songs about terrorism as a call to arms. As is the case of many a rock journal there are tales of excess, the drug busts in Europe. The way that future bust were to be overcome was by posting the drugs onto venues and hotels while in France. This came with the realisation that they had now moved on from a potential possession rap to that of trafficking – albeit to themselves

The tone is angry throughout, but it is not a bitter account. In fact there are some real laugh out loud moments.Whether you have been a fan of the numerous bands that Haines has been associated with down the years, it doesn’t matter this is a brilliant evocation of that period and serves as a handy companion for those ‘wasn’t it great’ journals that have arrived recently and makes this book an indispensable account of the British 90s music scene.