The English just can’t escape the taint of class

I will be forever fascinated by the way Noel Gallagher of Oasis and Damon Albarn of Blur were presented in a half-remembered documentary on the Britpop years. Albarn, middle-class son of a prominent English artist, turned up in something like a pie-and-eel shop. Gallagher, working-class Manchester Irish, was sitting on what could reasonably be described as a throne. No castle was shown, but such a structure was implied.

It doesn’t matter if the film-maker chose the setting or not. The point is that, in music as in almost everything else, the British (by which I probably mean the English) just can’t escape the taint of class – in that case expressed through ironic juxtaposition. You’re either too posh or you’re too much of a prole.

Recent events concerning The Last Dinner Party, deservedly buzziest band of the year, will disabuse anyone naive enough to believe this conversation is over. Writing in the Time...
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