January 1994: The Britpop invasion is picking up speed
January 1994: “Blur Are a bunch of Middle Class Wankers ”, Noel Gallagher sounds in his own binding way,“ Trying to Play Hardball with a Bunch of Working Class Heroes. ”And Damon Albarn counterattacked, Oasis are nothing more than a lousy copy of Status Quo . That sat. After all, Oasis saw themselves at eye level with the Beatles and the Stones.
And as in the sixties back then there should be a fight to the knife. A double mistake. Firstly, the Beatles and Stones were closely friends. Secondly, their dominance of the pop globe worked according to the principle: divide and prevail! It was careful not to get in the way of each other, especially not on the prestigious bottom of the charts. Too much was at stake. Which is why men Lennon/McCartney and Jagger/Richards met with their calendars in the Clubs of Soho to coordinate publication data of upcoming singles …
So it was avoided to let “Paint It Black” compete against “Paperback Writer” or “Hey Jude” against “Jumpin ‘Jack Flash”. A combination of cleverness and mutual respect. Factors that did not burden the close combat of the Britpop-Strithansel. Hybris and mutual contempt ruled here. But in retrospect, the race for 1st place proved to be quite insignificant.
Blurs “Country House” won very tightly and ironic only because the sales of the Oasis label failed, but the blatant sales differences of the following LPS scattered the slightest doubt about the chopping order in the realm of the Britpop. He would have loved to lose the competition at the time, said Albarn later, if all Blur albums had been sold as splendidly as “(what’s the story) Morning Glory?”.