Yeah, it's basically two songs that was any good* And the lead singer hasn't exactly aged like a fine wine, but the Riverboat Song is still good.
And Gene, their albums are like bike. The right number is always one more. BTW, their small venue gig in Lancaster (I'm assuming Newport and Southampton too) was glorious. Do go in the Roundhouse if there are tickets left.
* like Dodgy, like Space, and yes, like Sleeper and 90% of all the bands you really remember - I listened to the Cast first album recently. I used to have it on loop back in 1997, it's just bollocks.
This is the only bit of this article that made me bristle, but I do wonder if I was unduly influenced by the large poster of them adorning the kitchen wall in my student house.
Discussing nostalgia and opening with a reference to Christopher Nolan and the Odyssey, I feel we should join the dots: the main theme of the original epic poem is homecoming (Greek "nostos") and, implicitly, the pain (Greek "algos") and desire for returning home. The "pain of homecoming" is what underpins the Odyssey - "nostalgia" in its most literal sense.
Once again I feel better for reading this. It is so easy to fall into the trap of the good old days and also easy to feel somewhat uneasy about the present. Personally I have cut my intake of news to a minimum and I treat myself to real books . I do like to wallow in who done it books but mix it up with non fiction. I’m going to go out in my garden forget about the woes of the world and get my hands dirty and my back aching. You have a really great talent for hitting the bloody nail on the head. Keep going.
I am also cutting back on news. I am just overwhelmed by information. Sitting down to read a book is so calming. It’s not escapism, it is essential for mental health.
For my mental health I also read a book, but a particular one, Factfulness by Hans Rosling. I good reminder of the progress made in so many ways over the decades, and that the news is bad because it reports what happens fast, not the progress that happens slowly and steadily.
One of the things I like about this blog is that I can never predict what Ian will choose to focus on each week. I was expecting a delve into the fallout of Ceuta or something similarly news related, but find it really refreshes my brain to read about a subject that I hadn't previously given much thought to.
Once again a really good read. I think some of the attraction of nostalgia tends to be that mainly through ignorance, life seems a lot simpler when you are younger and some of the constraints of reality have yet to be experienced. As life goes on you find yourself with responsibility you don't particularly want, and find out that not everything goes the way you hoped or expected. People you love die, parents age and become frail, and often your own health deteriorates.
I personally don't tend to look back at the past with a disproportionate sense of fondness, as I know that it wasn't all smooth sailing back then, and I understand myself much better now. However if I could cherry pick, I would very much like to go back to a time when we could afford public services, were stil in the EU, and gig tickets were affordable.
Superb piece Ian…..👏🏻 I get so frustrated when my 85 year old mother harps on about how the world is all going to hell and things were better in the past….You came out of WWII I remind her….The horror experienced by millions world wide was far worse than what is happening now, so why the fuck would we want to go back to a seemingly cosy 40/50s way of life?
I was also born during WW2 . I don’t agree that things were necessarily better in the past . I choose to remember those parts of it that were pleasurable . How anyone could believe that WW1 and WW2 were an improvement upon the present puzzles me . And let’s not think about the atrocities committed by colonialists over centuries …..
“we forget Dodgy, Ocean Colour Scene, Space and Kula Shaker. That which was great comes to define an era. That which was average fades from memory, as if it never existed”
Get to fuck with that. Dodgy were musical titans, and I’ll fight any man and any two of his followers over a chest who says otherwise.
If I ever get too nostalgic about the 90's, I just remember 'Dancing in the Moonlight' by Toploader. Sorts me out.
By the by, i wobbled on a post about The Odyssey the other day - definitely a school of thought that people aren't just after nostalgia, but big shared events and occasions.
I mean I'm a vinyl junkie but worth noting that cassette tape album sales (arguably more nostalgic) reached 164,000 units sold in 2025, representing a 53% year-on-year boom!
Now that you mention it, nostalgia really is a drug, isn't it? You can use it to help treat problems in society, and you can use it recreationally to make life more pleasant and more fun. But overdosing isn't healthy, and dependence on it can really fuck you up.
Nostalgia in moderation can help make the present and future
Deployed in free exchanges with younger folk, of all ages, it can inform a healthy broadening of perspectives, without necessarily longing for a return to the so called “good old days”
And never mind the hordes of Ocean Colour Scene fans, some of us, even though we were in our 30’s during the Britpop era, quite liked Dodgy and Kula Shaker
It’s obviously self evident that the absolute best era of music was between 1975 and 1988, before we started a family 😜
Nostalgia... don't get me started... The 60s was, OBVIOUSLY, the best decade! :-)
Actually, when it comes to music - even though I have a "soft spot" for the 60s - I've managed to find stuff I enjoy in most of the subsequent decades:
- 1970s - I went all snobby, and only listened to Zappa/Jazz Rock
- Welcome To The Pleasure Dome - FGTH, 1985(ish), is one of my all-time fav. albums
- Kula Shaker got a mention. Yay! What? You weren't a fan? Just stuck Tattva on. Brilliant.
- And right now, Raye & Olivia Dean.
- OK, I confess the next gig I'm going to is Hejira, playing Joni Mitchell's jazzy period stuff. So, yeah, nostalgia. But they are brilliant. Go see them if you have a chance.
Anyway, back to nostalgia. I don't care what anyone says... there are good decades and bad ones. For instance, I doubt anyone who lived through WWII, looks back on the 40s with a great deal of yearning.
And... I have a simple response to anyone claiming "their decade" is the best. Just watch a few of the old TOTP episodes from the 70s, 80s & 90s. Oh dear!
P.S. A great, fun column. Nice to get away from politics for a bit. But... sorry...
The fascists wanting to take us back to the 50s, makes me laugh. What? When we had council houses, trade union membership at 40%, and a slate of nationalised industries. Bring it on! Let's hope we get the Water Industry back soon. What a shit-show. Literally!
Good stuff this, but I predict a hoard of disgruntled Ocean Colour Scene fans trampling to the comments soon 😂
And rightly bloody so.
Yeah, it's basically two songs that was any good* And the lead singer hasn't exactly aged like a fine wine, but the Riverboat Song is still good.
And Gene, their albums are like bike. The right number is always one more. BTW, their small venue gig in Lancaster (I'm assuming Newport and Southampton too) was glorious. Do go in the Roundhouse if there are tickets left.
* like Dodgy, like Space, and yes, like Sleeper and 90% of all the bands you really remember - I listened to the Cast first album recently. I used to have it on loop back in 1997, it's just bollocks.
Yes. And by naming those 4, Ian seems to have completely forgotten the Wannadies. And rightly bloody so.
Walkaway bollocks... sheeeeeeeeeeeeeet
This is the only bit of this article that made me bristle, but I do wonder if I was unduly influenced by the large poster of them adorning the kitchen wall in my student house.
Yes, the OCS fans are Marchin’ Already! In fairness, that album wasn’t very good, but Moseley Shoals was.
I agree they weren’t as good as Oasis, Pulp, The Verve and Blur — and nothing surpasses Radiohead.
I've got both OCS and Kula Shaker cds somewhere in my preposterous collection. (I am a squirrel).
The fact that I can't lay hands on them though does reflect my level of interest, all these years later.
Probably. Can't expect them to stay quiet, no profit in peace after all
Discussing nostalgia and opening with a reference to Christopher Nolan and the Odyssey, I feel we should join the dots: the main theme of the original epic poem is homecoming (Greek "nostos") and, implicitly, the pain (Greek "algos") and desire for returning home. The "pain of homecoming" is what underpins the Odyssey - "nostalgia" in its most literal sense.
Well said 👍🏻
Once again I feel better for reading this. It is so easy to fall into the trap of the good old days and also easy to feel somewhat uneasy about the present. Personally I have cut my intake of news to a minimum and I treat myself to real books . I do like to wallow in who done it books but mix it up with non fiction. I’m going to go out in my garden forget about the woes of the world and get my hands dirty and my back aching. You have a really great talent for hitting the bloody nail on the head. Keep going.
I am also cutting back on news. I am just overwhelmed by information. Sitting down to read a book is so calming. It’s not escapism, it is essential for mental health.
For my mental health I also read a book, but a particular one, Factfulness by Hans Rosling. I good reminder of the progress made in so many ways over the decades, and that the news is bad because it reports what happens fast, not the progress that happens slowly and steadily.
A brilliant and necessary book, that. It's so refreshing.
The book that helped me most was “Fluke” by Brian Klass. Very carpe diem.
I will check that out
I, too, feel good about myself for breaking the news addiction.
There is no amount of attention that I might pay that will change anything, so I "walk away".
My only worry is that for some the reality is they can’t walk away but I know what you mean.
One of the things I like about this blog is that I can never predict what Ian will choose to focus on each week. I was expecting a delve into the fallout of Ceuta or something similarly news related, but find it really refreshes my brain to read about a subject that I hadn't previously given much thought to.
Once again a really good read. I think some of the attraction of nostalgia tends to be that mainly through ignorance, life seems a lot simpler when you are younger and some of the constraints of reality have yet to be experienced. As life goes on you find yourself with responsibility you don't particularly want, and find out that not everything goes the way you hoped or expected. People you love die, parents age and become frail, and often your own health deteriorates.
I personally don't tend to look back at the past with a disproportionate sense of fondness, as I know that it wasn't all smooth sailing back then, and I understand myself much better now. However if I could cherry pick, I would very much like to go back to a time when we could afford public services, were stil in the EU, and gig tickets were affordable.
👍🏻
Superb piece Ian…..👏🏻 I get so frustrated when my 85 year old mother harps on about how the world is all going to hell and things were better in the past….You came out of WWII I remind her….The horror experienced by millions world wide was far worse than what is happening now, so why the fuck would we want to go back to a seemingly cosy 40/50s way of life?
I was also born during WW2 . I don’t agree that things were necessarily better in the past . I choose to remember those parts of it that were pleasurable . How anyone could believe that WW1 and WW2 were an improvement upon the present puzzles me . And let’s not think about the atrocities committed by colonialists over centuries …..
I’ll have to come back to this. My eyes moved over the words but my brain was just repeating ‘He put Dodgy in the bad list!’
“we forget Dodgy, Ocean Colour Scene, Space and Kula Shaker. That which was great comes to define an era. That which was average fades from memory, as if it never existed”
Get to fuck with that. Dodgy were musical titans, and I’ll fight any man and any two of his followers over a chest who says otherwise.
That’s good enough for me
I was born in 1946 and well remember living under the shadow of the bomb. A lot of paranoia in popular culture.
If I ever get too nostalgic about the 90's, I just remember 'Dancing in the Moonlight' by Toploader. Sorts me out.
By the by, i wobbled on a post about The Odyssey the other day - definitely a school of thought that people aren't just after nostalgia, but big shared events and occasions.
https://ambientsoulmusicclub.substack.com/p/the-big-ticket-summer
(Sorry, know it's poor form on linking to your own stuff in comments...)
I am all for linking my own work on other peoples sites.
I mean I'm a vinyl junkie but worth noting that cassette tape album sales (arguably more nostalgic) reached 164,000 units sold in 2025, representing a 53% year-on-year boom!
Now that you mention it, nostalgia really is a drug, isn't it? You can use it to help treat problems in society, and you can use it recreationally to make life more pleasant and more fun. But overdosing isn't healthy, and dependence on it can really fuck you up.
What a brilliant essay! You have connected so many dots for me!
Remember when people scoffed at the first horseless carriages way back when?
And Dave, what will your kids and grandkids say about the ‘roarin’ 2020’s?
I am very old but I don’t remember that.
What’s wrong with Ocean Colour Scene and Kula Shaker? Very limited oeuvre, I’ll grant you, but still very catchy…
Saying something is average and forgettable over decades is not saying there is anything wrong with it.
Love this- the way you use Nolan as the hook, the way you write, bits of data thrown in too. Hats off
Nostalgia in moderation can help make the present and future
Deployed in free exchanges with younger folk, of all ages, it can inform a healthy broadening of perspectives, without necessarily longing for a return to the so called “good old days”
And never mind the hordes of Ocean Colour Scene fans, some of us, even though we were in our 30’s during the Britpop era, quite liked Dodgy and Kula Shaker
It’s obviously self evident that the absolute best era of music was between 1975 and 1988, before we started a family 😜
Nostalgia... don't get me started... The 60s was, OBVIOUSLY, the best decade! :-)
Actually, when it comes to music - even though I have a "soft spot" for the 60s - I've managed to find stuff I enjoy in most of the subsequent decades:
- 1970s - I went all snobby, and only listened to Zappa/Jazz Rock
- Welcome To The Pleasure Dome - FGTH, 1985(ish), is one of my all-time fav. albums
- Kula Shaker got a mention. Yay! What? You weren't a fan? Just stuck Tattva on. Brilliant.
- And right now, Raye & Olivia Dean.
- OK, I confess the next gig I'm going to is Hejira, playing Joni Mitchell's jazzy period stuff. So, yeah, nostalgia. But they are brilliant. Go see them if you have a chance.
Anyway, back to nostalgia. I don't care what anyone says... there are good decades and bad ones. For instance, I doubt anyone who lived through WWII, looks back on the 40s with a great deal of yearning.
And... I have a simple response to anyone claiming "their decade" is the best. Just watch a few of the old TOTP episodes from the 70s, 80s & 90s. Oh dear!
P.S. A great, fun column. Nice to get away from politics for a bit. But... sorry...
The fascists wanting to take us back to the 50s, makes me laugh. What? When we had council houses, trade union membership at 40%, and a slate of nationalised industries. Bring it on! Let's hope we get the Water Industry back soon. What a shit-show. Literally!