BACK IN 1994, THAT NASCENT YEAR THAT PROMPTED COOL BRITANNIA, THE UK SEEMED TO BE RIDING A HEDONISTIC HIGH NOT SEEN SINCE THE MID-1960S.
Oasis sang about cigarettes and alcohol; celebrities, models and pop stars were photographed falling out of London’s Met Bar. Danny Boyle made a film about heroin which had a poster and soundtrack CD that no bedroom belonging to someone aged between 15 and 25 could be without. But amid the tequila slammers, retro trainers and Trainspotting was a very different kind of song; one that climaxed arguably the most venerated album of the era.
“This Is A Low”, the penultimate track on Blur’s Parklife, was four minutes of quintessential Englishness bedding down, unforgettably, with pathos. The lyrical subject matter that frontman Damon Albarn chose was the Shipping Forecast.
“Hit traffic on the Dogger bank/Up the Thames to find a taxi rank/Sail
