SOMETHING PROMPTED BY ONE OF YESTERDAY'S SONGS...

At the height of Britpop, the tabloids couldn't get enough of the Damon Albarn/Justinne Frischmann relationship. There are more than a few out there who think that her band Elastica would have been a bunch of nonentities if hadn't been for the connection (pardon the pun) with Blur. Personally, I think the run of four singles they had from 1993-1995, as well as the self-titled debut album from 1995 have dated quite well, and are well worth a listen every now and again even all these years on.

They ended up with three of their singles making the UK Top Twenty, the most successful of which was this:-

mp3 : Elastica - Waking Up

OK, the tune is a blatant rip-off of No More Heroes by The Stranglers, just as earlier hit Connection had an identical tune to that of Three Girl Rhumba by Wire. But they weren't the first band in the world to commit such an offence, nor would they be the last.

Waking Up got to #13 in early 1995, but was in many ways their last hurrah. The band were making the most of their success by constantly gigging in the UK, Europe and USA in 1995 and 1996. By the time they returned to the studio in late 96, they had lost one of their original members, had all fallen out with one another at one point or other and more or less stopped functioning as a group. It took the best part of four years for new material to emerge, by which time interest in all things Britpop had waned and their former fanbase had moved on.

Still, they were good in their heyday.

Here's yer b-sides:-

mp3 : Elastica - Gloria *
mp3 : Elastica - Car Wash
mp3 : Elastica - Brighton Rock

* taken from a John Peel show in 1994

Incidentally, did you know that Justine Frischmann was one of the co-writers of this chart hit a few years back:-

mp3 : M.I.A. - Galang

Happy Listening