Miranda Sawyer: Britpop and Beyond in 20 Songs

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: Britpop and Beyond in 20 Songs 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.

"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, and 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.

Part of Farsley Lit Fest 2024, in collaboration with Truman Books.

Book and Ticket (Common People RRP £25) - £25
Ticket Only - £15