Last Party

<p>'The loveliest - and certainly the most human - book about pop music I've ever read ... A delightful and humane soap opera a real page-turner full of rounded and entirely recognisable characters.'</p><p>Jon Ronson Daily Telegraph</p><p>THE DEFINITIVE HISTORY OF BRITPOP - BLUR OASIS ELASTICA SUEDE & TONY BLAIR</p><p>Beginning in 1994 and closing in the first months of 1998 the UK passed through a cultural moment as distinct and as celebrated as any since the war. Founded on rock music celebrity boom-time economics and fleeting political optimism - this was 'Cool Britannia'. Records sold in their millions a new celebrity elite emerged and Tony Blair's Labour Party found itself at long last returned to government.</p><p>Drawing on interviews from all the major bands - including Oasis Blur Elastica and Suede - from music journalists record executives and those close to government The Last Party charts the rise and fall of the Britpop movement. John Harris was there; and in this gripping new book he argues that the high point of British music's cultural impact also signalled its effective demise - If rock stars were now friends of the government then how could they continue to matter?</p><p>Britpop in numbers: </p><ul> <li>There were an astonishing 2.6 million ticket applications for the Oasis gig at Knebworth in 1996. 1 in 24 of the British public wanted to see them play. In the end the band played to 250000 fans across two nights with a guest list that ran to 7000.</li> <li>'Definitely Maybe' Oasis's debut album went straight to No 1 selling 100000 copies in 4 days and outselling the Three Tenors in second place by a factor of 50%</li> <li>On its first day in the shops Oasis's second album 'What's The Story Morning Glory' was selling at a rate of 2 copies a minute through HMV's London stores.</li> <li>By 1997 Creation Records (which had been founded 12 years earlier with a bank loan of £1000 by an ex-British Rail Clerk Alan McGee) announced a turnover of £36million thanks almost entirely to one band: Oasis.</li> </ul>