Uncommon People: Britpop and Beyond in 20 Songs

As part of the 2024 Farsley Literature Festival we are taking you back to the 90s for an evening at the Old Woollen with the definitive Britpop mixtape from award-winning pop-writer Miranda Sawyer. Sharing the vivid stories behind 20 key songs of the 90s – ‘Common People’ to ‘Girls and Boys’, ‘Connection’ to ‘Firestarter’; AND the bands that made them.

When Miranda Sawyer interviewed Noel Gallagher in 1995, his gag wishing Damon Albarn would die of AIDS became front-page news. This fascinating pop history, exploring the mid-90s moment when British music suddenly meant everything, explains why. Picking out twenty key songs, delving into the surprising stories behind them and their unlikely creators, Uncommon People takes us back to when Jarvis Cocker became a national hero, Trainspotting was a global hit, fire-starting seemed like a good night out – and it felt as though the revolution was happening.

Initially a music press nickname, Britpop became an unexpected musical movement centred around outsiders and misfits, drop-outs and weirdos who refused to compromise on their ideas, even when they were thrust into the international spotlight. Not just a scene for white guys with guitars, but something wilder and more interesting, with songs that have proved timeless. Exploring the era’s key artists – Oasis, Blur, Tricky, Pulp, Underworld, Manic Street Preachers, The Prodigy, Suede, Chemical Brothers, Garbage, Supergrass, Radiohead, PJ Harvey and more – through their definitive anthems, Miranda
Sawyer transports us back to the beating heart of the nineties.
Uncommon People re-lives the mad exhilaration of what it was like to hear these songs for the very first time – and what it was like to make them. With amazing new interviews, and I-was-there insights, this book offers a backstage pass to all the most interesting bits of Britpop’s Greatest Hits.

Forget New Labour, forget earnest trend theories, this book is all about the music, the people and being right there, right now.

‘That tired old phrase ‘if you remember the 90s you probably weren’t there’ does have a ring of truth. Luckily, Miranda Sawyer was both there and has a far better memory than me. Even more fortunately, she writes about those days with great verve, style and acuity. Absolutely indispensable.’ IRVINE WELSH

Miranda Sawyer has written about pop music since 1988, beginning on Smash Hits before moving to Select, The Face and the Observer. She’s interviewed everyone from Liam Gallagher to Tricky, PJ Harvey to Pulp, Stormzy to Billie Eilish (some of these people do not feature in a book about Britpop). Her first book Park and Ride explored the British suburbs, her second Out of Time exploded the midlife crisis, Uncommon People, her third proves that going back in time can bring you right up to date. She lives in London.