Rachel - Dont Look Back in Anger : The Rise and Fall of Cool Britannia

For Kate and the time we used to be x

A Cruel Con Trick
Cool Britannia

BACK TO BASICS
Thatcherism. 1992 election. John Major

THE SECOND SUMMER OF LOVE
Ecstasy. Rave

LONDON BABES
Fashion. Sign of the Times. Kate Moss. Stylists

COME OUT, COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE
Young British Artists. Freeze. Turner Prize. Damien Hirst. The Shop

LOVES GOT THE WORLD IN MOTION
Football violence. World Cup 90. New Order. Fever Pitch

A BLOODLESS REVOLUTION
Roots of Britpop. Morrissey. Union Jack. Grunge

FREEDOMS CHILDREN
Tony Blair. Clause IV. New Labour, New Britain

BOLLOCKS TO THE NEW MAN
Lad culture. Loaded. Ladettes. The Girlie Show. Pornography

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.
Oasis. Britpop. War Child. Labour Youth Vote

THE PHYSICAL IMPOSSIBILITY OF DEATH IN THE MIND OF
SOMEONE LIVING YBAs. Low Expectations. Pulp

BRITISH HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Blur vs Oasis

HANGING ON IN QUIET DESPERATION
British film. Trainspotting

FOOTBALLS COMING HOME
Comedy. Fantasy Football League. Three Lions. Euro 96

THE 1 MILLION CUP OF TEA
Radio 1. Chris Evans. Top of the Pops. TFI Friday

OFF HIS COCKER
BRITs 1996

SIMPLY EVERYONES TAKING COCAINE
Drugs. Met Bar. Groucho Club

LONDON SWINGS AGAIN!
Swinging London. Newsweek. GQ. Vanity Fair

CHAMPAGNE SUPERNOVA
Oasis at Knebworth. Labour youth conference

ZIG-A-ZIG-AH
Spice Girls. Girl Power

EVERYONE I HAVE EVER SLEPT WITH
Sensation. The Turner Prize

THE ENORMOUS ELECTION
Conservative Party. General Election 1997

THE MATCHMAKER
Downing Street reception party

SOFTHEADED SOCIALISM
The Project. Class

BATTLE OVER BRITAIN
DEMOS. Union Jack. Creative Industries

HUNDRED MILE HIGH CITY
Supernova Heights

IVE GOT SUNSHINE IN A BAG
Britpop demise. Be Here Now. Zoe vs Chris

THE PEOPLES PRINCESS
Diana

BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM
Celebrity culture. David and Victoria. World Cup 98. Media

EVER HAD THE FEELING YOUVE BEEN CHEATED?
Blair first term. Margaret Thatcher. Spin. Ireland

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?
Millennium Dome. Tate Modern

WHEN I WAS BORN FOR THE 7TH TIME
Asian culture. Muslim riots

A TURNING POINT IN HISTORY
9/11

WHILE ROME BURNED
Cool Britannia legacy

Lifes but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act V, sc. v

I dont want to be neutral. I dont want to be a saint. I
want to be a lost cause. I want to be corrupt and futile!

John Osborne, Look Back in Anger, Act III, sc. ii

Please dont put your life in the hands
of a rock n roll band
Wholl throw it all away

Noel Gallagher, Dont Look Back in Anger

The nineties was the decade when British culture reclaimed its position at the artistic centre of the world. Not since the Swinging Sixties had art, comedy, fashion, film, football, literature, music and politics interwoven into a blooming of national self-confidence. It was the era of lad culture, ladettes, Girl Power, hedonism, a time when the country united through a resurgence of patriotism and a celebration of all things British: Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen in fashion; Gazza and David Beckham in football; Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst and the Young British Artists; at the cinema Four Weddings and a Funeral and Trainspotting. It was the time of Britpop, the Spice Girls, and even the three surviving Beatles recording together again. Loaded magazine was launched for men who should know better, and Chris Evans re-invented the Radio 1 Breakfast Show before launching TFI Friday, providing a hub for Cool Britannia revelry. The resurgence of artistic endeavour frequently led the national news, and the countrys thirst for celebrity gossip was whetted and duly served by a ravenous media. Spin was the new buzz word, and as marketing and branding entered a golden age of influence, the country bathed in an innocence oblivious to the looming digital revolution of the new millennium.

If Cool Britannia was distilled to a single image, Tony Blair shaking hands with Noel Gallagher at a Downing Street reception party, in the wake of New Labours 1997 election victory, would undoubtedly satisfy popular mythology. On the surface, the triumphant Prime Minister ingratiating himself with one of the decades cultural icons, both basking in one anothers reflected glory, defined the spirit of the age. But as with all good stories, there are nuances, subtleties and contradictions to be told. Cool Britannia, as a concept, had a deeper and far greater ambition than pop stars and politicians sipping champagne together and sharing a joke in the eye of the media lens.

Exasperated by the Labour Partys fourth successive general election defeat in 1992, key thinkers on the left began to re-assess the identity of the parliamentary party, and on a grander scale, the image of Britain on the world stage. The emergent story was of a nation cowering in the shadow of its former glories empire, Shakespeare, royal dynasties and in need of a contemporary narrative. Naturally, the Union Jack became a symbol of renewal, and, coupled with a desire to embrace post-war cultural achievement, a freshly named New Labour embarked on a modernisation programme fit for the twenty-first century.

By coincidence, the Union Jack was simultaneously being adopted by a new wave of artists, noticeably across music and fashion. Kate Moss was photographed on a catwalk in a Galliano Union Jack jacket, TheFace superimposed Damon Albarn of Blur against a backdrop of red, white and blue, and Geri Halliwell left little to the imagination performing at the BRITs in a self-styled national flag Gucci mini-dress complete with a CND logo on the reverse. The happy confluence of progressive political thinking and patriotic cultural expression led to one of the great ironies of the 1990s: Cool Britannia occurred under a Conservative government.

In 1996, as Newsweek declared, London the coolest city on the planet, and Vanity Fair, London Swings Again! Prime Minister John Major may well have judged the jubilant mood of the nation as a welcome fillip to the governments flagging popularity. With the general public seemingly in a continuous state of heightened rapture, be it around Euro 96 and the possibility of England winning their first major football tournament in thirty years or the fifth of the population who applied for tickets to see Oasis at Knebworth, the Labour Party faced the possibility of the national mood lifting the stature of the Conservative Party and returning it to power for a record-breaking fifth successive term.

When interviewed for this book, both Alastair Campbell and Tony Blair expressed mild shock when reminded that Cool Britannia predated Labours return to power in May 1997. Popular apologue marries the boom with Blair. It is a misconception not entirely without foundation. Although Blair never spoke the words Cool Britannia, whether by default or deft chicanery, the leader of the Labour Party was indelibly linked with the branded phenomenon. The face of a new, young, dynamic leader chimed with the countrys aspirations for modernity after eighteen years of Conservative rule. Blair represented hope and optimism, and symbolised a kingpin who could lead the nation in an expanding international arena. Yet, despite Blairs linguistic restraint, Alastair Campbell assimilated the vernacular of Cool Britannia, and with it aligned Labours presentation with the cultural zeitgeist. Intriguingly, behind the media limelight, an influential third man enters the sub-plot. As a strategist and speech writer, Peter Hyman was a key member of the Labour Partys inner circle and an advocate for national identity renewal. His analysis of Cool Britannia leads to the profound judgement that had the project been successful, Britain today would not be experiencing a crisis of identity in the wake of the electorates majority vote to leave the European Union at the 2016 referendum.