UK Indie & The Post Punk Revival / Carry On Up The Nation 2002 – 2008
2002 - 2005
01 The Libertines / What A Waster / A Side June 2002
02 The Coral / Shadows Fall / The Coral July 2002
03 The Libertines / Up The Bracket / Up The Bracket October 2002
04 Franz Ferdinand / Darts Of Pleasure / Darts Of Pleasure EP August 2003
05 Razorlight / Action! / Rock’n’Roll Lies EP August 2003
06 Eastern Lane / Feed Your Addiction / A Side November 2003
07 Franz Ferdinand / Take Me Out / Franz Ferdinand February 2004
08 Bloc Party / She’s Hearing Voices / A Side February 2004
09 Art Brut / Formed A Band / A Side March 2004
10 The Ordinary Boys / Week In, Week Out / A Side April 2004
11 Razorlight / Don’t Go Back To Dalston / Up All Night June 2004
12 The Libertines / Can’t Stand Me Now / The Libertines August 2004
13 The Futureheads / Hounds Of Love / The Futureheads September 2004
14 Kasabian / L.S.F. / Kasabian September 2004
15 Bloc Party / Helicopter / A Side October 2004
16 The Subways / At 1am / A Side October 2004
17 The Dead 60’s / Riot Radio / A Side October 2004
18 Babyshambles / Killamangiro / A Side November 2004
19 Dogs / London Bridge / A Side November 2004
20 Kaiser Chiefs / Everyday I Love You Less And Less / Employment March 2005
21 The Cribs / Hey Scenesters! / A Side April 2005
22 Arctic Monkeys / Fake Tales Of San Francisco / Five Minutes With.. May 2005
23 The Rakes / Work Work Work (Pub Club Sleep) / A Side July 2005
24 Mother And The Addicts / Oh Yeah You Look Quite Nice / A Side July 2005
25 The Kooks / Eddie’s Gun / A Side July 2005
2006 - 2008
01 Arctic Monkeys / Mardy Bum / Whatever People Say I Am January 2006
02 The Rifles / Repeated Offender / A Side February 2006
03 The Automatic / Raoul / A Side March 2006
04 Larrikin Love / Edwould / A Side March 2006
05 Dirty Pretty Things / You Fucking Love It / Waterloo To Anywhere May 2006
06 Kasabian / Me Plus One / Empire August 2006
07 Razorlight / Los Angeles Waltz / Razorlight August 2006
08 The Fratellis / Got Ma Nuts From A Hippie / Costello Music September 2006
09 Klaxons / Magick / A Side October 2006
10 The Horrors / Count In Fives / Count In Fives EP October 2006
11 Bromheads Jacket / What Ifs And Maybes / Dits From The Commuter Belt November 2006
12 The Noisettes / Don’t Give Up / A Side November 2006
13 Assembly Now / Leigh On Sea / A Side January 2007
14 Foals / Hummer / A Side March 2007
15 Maximo Park / Girls Who Play Guitars / Our Earthly Pleasures April 2007
16 Arctic Monkeys / Fluorescent Adolescent / Favourite Worst Nightmare April 2007
17 Blood Red Shoes / It’s Getting Boring By The Sea / A Side June 2007
18 The Enemy / We’ll Live And Die In These Towns / We’ll Live And Die In These Towns July 2007
19 Babyshambles / UnBilotitled / Shotter’s Nation October 2007
20 The Courteeners / Acrylic / A Side October 2007
21 Johnny Foreigner / Champagne Girls I Have Known / Arcs Across The City November 2007
22 These New Puritans / Elvis / Beat Pyramid January 2008
23 Pete & The Pirates / Mr Understanding / Little Death February 2008
24 Hello Wembley / Up Great Britain / A Side February 2008
25 Twisted Wheel / You Stole The Sun / A Side July 2008
They arrived in the summer of 2002, as fully formed as they’d ever be, a haze of sweat and cheap narcotics with pasty white chests poking out of skip salvaged jackets. With their tall tales of pension drawing drummers, rent boy pasts and idealistic visions of a mythical England, if you’re under thirty it’s entirely possible that The Libertines changed your world; they really were that important. That they were also a hefty kick in the bollocks to the bland Coldsailors and Stereotravises holding sway at the time was merely an added bonus. Of course, the return to youthful rock’n’roll had started with the imported Strokes, but The Libertines idealistic visions of a mythical England opened youthful eyes to a freewheeling, fancy free side of life most never knew existed. The nation suddenly became overrun by urchin rock laureates in skinny jeans and thrift store trilby’s.
Despite their huge influence, The Libertines failed to generate any real movement. Following the last party of Britpop, that was near impossible anyway, as tastes had frayed into myriad sub genres and no-one really gave a fuck about anything except money. Inevitably, The Libertines proved to be that most British of phenomena’s, the glorious failure, but they did drag along a bunch of others for their own five minutes of fame. Many, like Franz Ferdinand, Razorlight, Bloc Party and Kasabian were labelled ‘post punk revival’ as they picked one idea from post punk to baggy and beyond, and clung onto it for dear life. The sorrowful Kaiser Chiefs even latched onto Britpop, or more specifically, Blur B-Sides. The Libertines easily remained the most revered until Doherty and Barat imploded, and along came a group from Sheffield who easily became the greatest of them all.
The Arctic Monkeys even surprised themselves by how quickly they filled the gaping hole left by The Libertines blow up. Almost immediately they were declared Their Generations Most Important Band, maybe because, in essence they made stripped down punk records with every touchstone of Great British music covered: The Englishness of The Kinks, the melodic nous of The Beatles, the sneer of the Sex Pistols, the wit of The Smiths, the groove of the Stone Roses and the clatter of The Libertines. Not bad for a bunch of kids who’d spent their teens listening to hip-hop. Where that really showed was in Alex Turners lyrics and frenetic delivery. Forgetting the flowery fancies conjured up by Dickensian Doherty, his were tales of the scum-ridden streets as they were in the 21st Century not the 19th.
Unfortunately, The Libertines brief blaze and the well-deserved success of the Arctic Monkeys brought its own Britpop effect circa 2006. Suddenly, the nation was awash with a multitude of hairy chinned strummers, slavishly copying the originators every move. By 2007, these purveyors of bland, crowd pleasing sing-along’s were being wooed by a generation of media nobodies desperate to be cool. Even the mighty NME, once the absolute arbiter of taste, became a corporate entity with much talk of ‘growing the brand’ and award shows sponsored by an international hair product. Being in a band became a viable career option as attitude and any sense of reality faded. UK indie was renamed ‘Mortgage Indie’, and there was nothing cool about it at all.
Weirdly, barely six months later, the musical landscape looked startlingly similar to how it did before The Libertines arrival and not a lot has changed since. All the Animal Collectives, Fleet Foxes, Modest Mouse’s and Hold Steady’s, are lauded for their lack of obvious references and sense of adventure. Theirs is a perfectly valid reaction to the legions of Libertines/Arctic copyists that immediately preceded them and yet they seem oh so worthy, often American, usually with facial hair and boring as fuck.
What needs to happen now is for a band to come along and react against all of these things. Then the young can start having fun again, and a new generation can get on with being defined, just like the one before, and the one before that, and the one before that.
January 2010.
