Blur v Oasis - the battle of Britpop 30-years on

 

Thirty years ago, Britpop went into overdrive as Blur and Oasis released the singles Country House and Roll With It on the same day. 

It was a chart clash that played out like a playground scrap - threats, name calling, bringing girlfriends into it, slaggings... only the playground was the entire UK, and the fight was front-page news and headline news on TV! 

On one side, four council estate lads from Burnage, snarling, sneering and swaggering their way through music history, lifting riffs and melodies from the best and making them their own.

On the other, four former art school students from Colchester by way of Goldsmiths, doused in irony, retro stylings and cheeky Southern charm.

The context matters. The context mattered. 

By mid-1995, Britpop was no longer just a scene, it was a phenomenon. You didn't have to tune into the Evening Session to get your fix of independent/alternative music. Radio 1 was soundtracking mornings with Elastica, Supergrass and Pulp. Anything was possible, the summer was super sunny, Tony Blair was rebranding Labour and Things Could Only Get Better. Maybe it's rose tinted glasses, maybe it's because I was 19 in 1995, but it was a time when bands really mattered, you could fall for them, believe in them and follow them.

Blur had already won the race to Britpop fame. They kicked things off with Modern Life Is Rubbish in 1993 and swiftly followed it with Parklife in April 1994. Damon Albarn was on telly more than some soap stars, promoting single after single, with his band set to release The Great Escape, their third album in three years. 

But the Gallagher brothers were coming fast. Definitely Maybe was a declaration of intent and Some Might Say had given Oasis their first No.1 in April '95. The stage was set.

But here's where the fun starts. Originally, Oasis were set to release Roll With It on 14 August 1995. Blur’s new single Country House was planned for two weeks later. But whether it was competitiveness, cockiness, or marketing genius (probably all three), Blur moved their release forward to go head-to-head.

It was an act of provocation. And Oasis, never ones to back down, embraced it.

Suddenly, it was war - North v South / working class v middle class / cigarettes & alcohol v tea and irony. There were public wind ups and bickering - Noel calling Blur Chas n Dave, Damon singing Status Quo's Rocking All Over The World over the top of Roll With It on the radio, Liam saying he fancied Damon's girlfriend Justine. See the video below.

Blur had the marketing might of Food/EMI behind them, fancy CD packaging (and crucially 2 CD singles with different b-sides), a glossy video directed by Damien Hirst with Loaded girl Jo Guest and Alex James Groucho Club mate Keith Allen. 

Country House was colourful, bouncy and bonkers, a music hall knees-up about a man who escapes the city for a nervous breakdown in the countryside. The jaunty song does contain a beautiful melancholic breakdown that is often overlooked when discussing the song; Blow, blow me out, I am so sad I don't know why. 

Meanwhile, Roll With It was Oasis doing what Oasis did best - an arms aloft anthem. Straight up guitar music with attitude - you gotta say what you say, don't let anybody get in your way ...

The intensity of the battle increased; Blur moved a date to play Bournemouth the same night as Oasis. Noel was affronted and worried that their own chart and media battle would spill into kids fighting on the streets.

Things got ugly. Noel's comment about hoping that Albarn and Alex James would catch aids and die was utterly horrific, one that he would swiftly apologise for. 

Then came the chart result, revealed on Sunday 20 August 1995. Blur won. Country House went straight to No.1 with 274,000 copies sold. Oasis sold 216,000. The media declared Blur the victors - they were Top of the Pops.

Speaking of which, Oasis had played the prior week, (17th August episode), with Noel on (mimed) lead vocals and Liam playing guitar. The following week, (24th August episode), Jarvis Cocker introduced a perky Blur, complete with bassist Alex James wearing an Oasis t-shirt.

One month later, Oasis dropped (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? and the real war was over. It sold by the millions. Wonderwall became the anthem for the nation. The band played two epic nights at Earls Court that cemented their reputation as the best live band out. Within a year, they were selling out two-nights at Knebworth and playing to 250,000 people, this after squeezing in two-nights at Maine Road. They were everywhere. Oasis connected with people in a way that Blur never could.

What next

Blur retreated and reinvented themselves with a darker, more introspective sound. Their eponymous 1997 album opened with lead single Beetlebum - a song about Damon Albarn's experiences with heroin. It was beautifully dreamy, edgy and closer to The Beatles (was the title a dig at Oasis?) than anything Noel Gallagher every produced with Oasis. Although credit to Noel for his Setting Sun single with The Chemical Brothers in 1996.

By contrast, Oasis released the lumpen, cocaine fuelled Be Here Now in the same year. It sold well, contains a couple of gems, like Don't Go Away and Stand By Me, but the production is dire and there is nothing interesting in the layering of sounds, no experimentation from any of the musicians. Just Noel layering guitar upon guitar, no grooves. By this point, no-one questioned Noel or his band. His label knew his records would sell in their millions, any magazine with a Noel/Liam interview sold bucketloads and everyone wanted to be around them. They were so big that no-one dared to criticise them.

That still seems to the case in 2025. Liam's instantly forgettable solo albums received lots of 4/5 star reviews! Heaven forbid that the Gallagher's receive any constructive criticism. They sell papers and magazines, generate views and clicks in the hundreds of thousands.

Albarn has gone on to prove his creative skills in numerous guises, including his magnificent work with Gorillaz. He is a pure artist, always creating, taking in influences, taking chances. Damon's animated band guise have now released 8 exciting and eclectic studio albums with an incredible array of guests. Albarn has also released 2 solo albums and numerous collaborations. He cannot sit still for long.

Noel has also continued to write a prolific rate. By his own admission, Be Here Now and the truly appalling follow up Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants (which should have been an EP) were not up to scratch. However by 2002 he was back writing sky scraping anthems like Little By Little and Stop Crying Your Heart Out. Even Liam was producing the lovely and under-rated Songbird as Oasis, lifted by the arrivals of Andy Bell and Gem Archer into the band, hit another run of form.

Over time, Albarn would find himself returning to Blur. Producing the stunning Under the Westway single in 2012 and then surprising everyone with the magnificent The Ballad of Darren album in 2023. Albarn, as an artist and writer, is getting better with every year that passes. 

Of course, 2025 is all about the return of Oasis. Liam's post Oasis career has delivered nothing of note. Beady Eye never took flight, and while his solo career saw him play to huge crowds, that was largely down to him playing Oasis songs. The more Oasis songs he played, the bigger the crowds. His own material with an army of writers was like dot to dot songwriting for him - exceptionally bland. 

Noel has produced some good stuff. His eponymous High Flying Birds debut album in 2011 had some gems that would have been amazing for Oasis - Everybody's On The Run, If I Had A Gun and the stunning AKA...What A Life.  I'm a big fan of Noel's 2017 Who Built The Moon? album with David Holmes on production duties, while Dead In The Water is as good as anything he wrote with Oasis. 

Thankfully, water has passed under the bridge since August 1995. Noel and Damon have long since made up, performing live together for the Teenage Cancer Trust in 2013 (see video below) and generally being increasingly positive about each others music and talent in interviews.

In the end, it wasn’t Blur or Oasis. It was Blur and Oasis. It was about the energy, the ego(s), the arrogance and the music. And like all good battles, the fallout was just as interesting as the fight.

My own conclusion - Oasis set out to be bigger rather than better. For a couple of years they were bigger and better, but the Knebworth comedown hit them hard. 

Very arguably, over time, Damon Albarn has proved to be the most talented British artist of the last 30-years. His body of work is beautifully eclectic and his ability to find a melancholic melody is impeccable.

That said, there are not many songwriters that bring people together like Noel Gallagher. The elder Gallagher brother has written an incredible collection of songs that can be sung on terraces, at weddings, funerals and when people (and cities) are at their lowest and need a lift.

Thirty years on, lets just enjoy the fact that both have produced such fantastic bodies of work and that they continue to create and play live.