Uncommon People: Britpop and Beyond in 20 Songs, with award winning music journalist Miranda Sawyer in conversation with freelance writer Daniel Dylan Wray

As part of the 2024 Farsley Literature Festival we are taking you back to the 90s for an evening at the Old Woollen with 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. Miranda will be interviewed by Daniel Dylan Wray, a freelance writer for The Guardian since 2017, covering music, film, TV, documentary, podcast as well as general interest stories.

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 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 insight, this book offers a backstage pass to all the most interesting bits of Britpop’s Greatest Hits. Forget New Labour, forget earnest trend theories, this book is all about the music, the people and being right there, right now.

‘That tired old phrase ‘if you remember the 90s you probably weren’t there’ does have a ring of truth. Luckily, Miranda Sawyer was both there and has a far better memory than me. Even more fortunately, she writes about those days with great verve, style and acuity. Absolutely indispensable.’ IRVINE WELSH

Miranda Sawyer has written about pop culture for the Observer ever since they hired her to explain why Kurt Cobain’s death was such a big deal in 1993. She has since interviewed everyone from Liam Gallagher to Irvine Welsh. She has also written for the Face, Select, and Smash Hits and won several awards.
The Culture Show’s Music Correspondent since 2007 and a regular on Radio 4, she has made documentaries about the Spice Girls and even co-presented Big Mouth with Tony Parsons in 1996. Her first book Park and Ride explored the British suburbs, her second Out of Time exploded the midlife crisis,
Uncommon People takes us time-travelling back into the heart of 90s pop.

This event is part of the 2024 Farsley Literature Festival. Doors open 7:00pm event starts 8:00pm