Welcome to Britpop Summer

Step back to the summer of 1995. Britpop is HUGE. Oasis, Blur and Pulp play everywhere. The weather is amazing and there’s a sense of excitement in the air.

This was the time when Gen X were in their twenties. And it was awesome. If you were there, it’s time to remember.

If you’re Gen Y/Millennials, and were a little young, prepare to be transported.

And if you’re a Gen Z and have found your way here, I’m going to show you what life was life before phones took over. Back when everything was done in person, face to face. Without much money. With shitty jobs. Without a parent in sight. We were free. We were independent. And the music was incredible.

About Britpop Summer – the novel

Britpop Summer is the book that defines Gen X in the nineties. Elise has moved in with Harriet and is in awe of Harriet’s string of ex-boyfriends, including Ethan. Elise is surprised when he phones one afternoon and asks her to hang out. And from there things start to unravel.

Over those perfect summer months, to the soundtrack of Oasis, Blur, Pulp and Radiohead, slowly and incrementally, every one of the group start to make decisions that will affect their future. That will quietly and stealthily start to end their freedom and drive them into becoming more serious, more grown up. Into operating in a world ruled by the baby boomer generation.

Only Ethan and Elise seem to be the ones holding out. But will boomer life claim them too?

NOTE: Instead of amazon, I’m using online bookshop books.by for my books. They print in the UK, USA, Europe and Australia with a set shipping rate.

Purchase a copy of Britpop Summer

Here’s the prologue, explaining what Gen X and living in the nineties was all about as the summer of britpop hit. It was a different time and place, and one many Gen Xers look back on fondly…..

First, the music

To take you back, load up my Britpop Summer spotify playlist, put your phones away, find somewhere to sit in the sun, and just let the music surround you (or get tickets to one of the Oasis reunion concerts, or sit on a hill next to the stadium they’re playing in and listen).

NOTE: Spofity has taken away my playlist. Just trying to work out why…. Hopefully it will be back shortly. In the meantime here is the playlist below.

Next, what to read

If you’re Gen X or Gen Y, you actually know how to read a book (Gen Z, I’ve heard you can’t, which makes me very sad. Reading is awesome. It’s like Netflix INSIDE your head!!). So here are my picks of some cool books to take you back into the time of britpop summer.

How to be Famous by Caitlin Moran is a fictional account of when she moved to London at age 19 and started working as a music journalist.

I thought the first few chapters about britpop are brilliant, although she found it about boys behaving badly, and decided to be a girl behaving badly!

Lots of hilarious and very true insights into life, love and music. Would highly recommend that you read this one!

Uncommon People by Miranda Sawyer is a set of 20 essays inspired by different britpop songs, and go into the bands behind them, as well as social and cultural factors. I got to meet Miranda at the Foyles Author event and we geeked out about britpop until others in the queue wanted her to sign their book!

Afternoons with the Blinds down is the second memoir from Suede frontman, Brett Anderson. The first book Coal Black Mornings covers his life up until Suede. This one during the Suede years. I love rock bio’s and this one is full of philosophical musings as well as interesting Suede stuff. Both are definitely worth reading (and put on some Suede while you’re reading).

A bit of a blur by Alex James, who is the bassist for Blur. I wanted to like this (as I love rock bio’s) but I felt incredibly depressed after reading it. This is the story of someone who felt like going to Goldsmiths because he didn’t have anything else to do, met Damon, formed Blur, they wrote songs in minutes because it’s so easy and became rich and famous and carried on like a wanker. It was a book that said look at my amazing life where everything just came together so easily and I’m amazing. I felt quite revolted afterwards, it felt very vulgar and not very insightful at all. I can’t recommend reading this unless you want a visceral sensation of how different Blur’s story was from Oasis or any of the other britpop bands.

Okay this one is not about britpop, but Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow is set in the 90’s and is about Sam and Sadie, who became friends as kids playing computer games, and then meet again when at college (university) and decide to build a game together. I loved this book. It captures the 90’s being a time of possibility for gaming, and the type of relationships and friendships we had back then. Brilliantly written, it’s full of beautiful insights and I devoured it over two days, then quoted it to my husband for the next week. Until he started to read it too. The title is from a Shakespeare quote.

I’m sure there are other great britpop books – so let me know if have any recommendations to add here!

And the movies

Okay so you’re reading the books, but you’d like to be visually transported to britpop summer. So I’m going to give you some recommendations for documentaries, as well as movies to watch from the 90’s, which might not include britpop, but will give you a feel for being there.

I’ve watched the Oasis SuperSonic documentary twice, it’s so good! It shows the insanity of how quickly Oasis went from starting out to being the biggest rock band ever. If you’re interested in what happened afterwards – As It Was follows Liam’s forays into his next band, and then going solo. And he does it in total Liam style! Both essential viewing.

If documentaries aren’t your thing, then try Spike Island instead. This movie is about a group of lads trying to get into the milestone Stone Roses concert in Widnes in Cheshire in May 1990, on a man made island! It was six months after Fool’s Gold and this concert became iconic afterwards in the story of britpop. The movie includes Emilia Clarke (being quite the opposite of the mother of dragons!) and is quite lovely, as well as having some great music!

S.F.W is the movie Ethan and Elise and Gwen go and see in Britpop Summer and I think it’s a brilliant Gen X movie. Stephen Dorff (as Cliff Spab) and Reese Witherspoon are held hostage in a 7/11 and filmed for 30 days. They come out to find themselves media superstars as it was being broadcast. Spab’s famous line is ‘so f**king what’. This is based on a novel which also has a Gen X story behind it, which if the mood strikes me, I might write about. Anyway, this was the first time I heard Creep. And it’s an awesome scene.

Reality Bites is the ultimate Gen X movie. We watched and shrugged and were like ‘yep that’s us!’. But the media were busy labelling us Gen X and this movie was the epicentre. Some really interesting things happened with this movie though. Janeane Garofalo was thirty and felt she was more Boomer and didn’t really get it. Ethan Hawke says the pressure to be Gen X was a bit intense. And screenwriter Helen Childress thought this would be the start of her career. Her friends told her she sold out for selling the script, and then like any good Gen Xer, despite the success of the movie, she was shut out of the establishment.

Clerks was another movie that just felt like ‘us’. Two guys working in a store, talking smack. Written and directed by Gen Xer extraordinaire Kevin Smith, who scraped the money together himself to make it, he plays Silent Bob in the movie too. This was one you went around quoting for weeks. Gen Z – be aware, this is pretty raw and could be triggering.

The Breakfast Club is the movie we all watched when we were teenagers and marvelled at how well John Hughes got teen angst (even though he’s a Boomer, he got Gen X). Rewatching it again recently, it was still great. There’s a couple of parts which sit really badly with social norms today (the teasing of the jock, Judd under the desk looking up Molly’s skirt, some of the general banter) but that’s how it was back then. I still hate they made over Ally Sheedy.

Singles is about a group of people living in an apartment complex. That’s pretty much it! I rewatched it recently. Everyone is so earnest, and so clueless. It captures the nineties so well!

Still want more?

The good news? I’m currently deep into writing Live Forever.

It’s almost 30 years since Britpop Summer, back when Ethan and Elise finally got together. And they’re still together. And in love. But what do you do when you’ve ‘done’ life? The career, the kids, owning property, travelling …. you’ve achieved everything you wanted. It’s time for Gen X to find a new way forward. For themselves, and the generations after them. Because if they can find the answer, maybe, just maybe, that will make us fly.

Reviews about Britpop Summer – the novel

I love it when people email me to tell me they loved reading it (and sometimes even quote me bits of the book!). Here are my favourites:

Even though I’m not Gen X, I had so much fun reading this book. The story takes place during one summer in the ’90s in New Zealand and follows a group of friends on the interesting threshold between young adult life and “real” adult life. I read the book during a particularly rainy season, and it gave me exactly the lighthearted summer feeling I needed, thanks to many laugh-out-loud moments and the lovable characters. What makes this book even more special is the Britpop listening recommendation at the beginning of each chapter, which perfectly sets the tone for each scene. A must-read for Britpop fans that captures the lightness—and challenges—of being twenty.

Researchers say that 31% of Gen X, those born between 1965 and 1980, say they are “not very happy” or “not happy at all.” That is now, but this book is about…then: when all was fresh, new, possible, and we all weren’t yet sick of “Wonderwall.” Britpop Summer might have you confused, since this book is about summer in the Southern Hemisphere—New Zealand, to be specific—and the cast of characters is just exotic enough for this North American reader to stay intrigued by the slang, the habits, and the attitude. It’s a good, fun time from an era well before streaming—that said, you can get a Spotify soundtrack to keep you company. All I can say is: Atkins, bravo and encore!

I read this because I like britpop music. The music was kind of a backdrop (although there’s a recommended song to listen to for each chapter) but it was cool seeing what the nineties were like for this group of characters. There are a few story lines but overall you want to see if Elise and Ethan actually end up getting together.

I just finished reading your book! I absolutely love it. I really liked the summer feeling you get all along and going back to the 90’s and all the wonderful things that happened when technology wasn’t that present in our lives.

About Angela

Angela Atkins is a proud Gen Xer. Born in England, she grew up in New Zealand and has lived all over the world. She is the author of four books of non-fiction including the best-selling Management Bites and her writing has appeared in numerous magazines and blogs. She runs a global training business with her husband (because you need to earn money somehow!) and they split their time between Spain, France and the UK.