Backstage at the Cool Britannia festival earlier this month, David Heartfield and Jack Gray are explaining why the moment is right for a 90s revival. But they would say that, wouldn’t they? They are the promoter and the booking agent of Cool Britannia, a two-day event in the grounds of Knebworth House that offers nostalgic punters a cornucopia of musical delights from 20 years ago. There’s a dance tent with PAs from Rozalla, Urban Cookie Collective and Alison Limerick, among others, but the main stage skews distinctly towards Britpop: Ocean Colour Scene, Cast, Dodgy, Toploader, the Lightning Seeds and something called Britpop Classical, an alt-rock equivalent of those tours where an orchestra belts out old dance hits to an audience of ageing ravers, complete with Phil Daniels reprising his monologue from Blur’s Parklife.
As we speak, Space are on stage. They have visibly been on an intriguing journey since the mainstream spotlight left them – they now have a keyboard player in a Crass T-shirt and a bass player who looks like he is moonlighting from a death metal act called something like Mildewed Crucifix – but the audience are lapping up their 90s hits: Avenging Angels, Female of the Species, Neighbourhood.
Heartfield’s and Gray’s argument about a 90s revival is, in fact, a convincing one. They used to run Rewind, the 80s nostalgia festival that grew from a one-off 2009 show in Henley-on-Thames into a global brand, with three annual UK festivals and franchises in South Africa, Thailand and the UAE. But two years ago, Heartfield sold Rewind – for £30m – convinced that the 80s revival phenomenon had reached its peak and the 90s was the new growth area. The 80s market is saturated, says Heartfield: “It’s at every sports ground, the end of every pier.” And the core audience is getting on a bit. When Rewind started, punters were in their 40s. “They’ve procreated, the kids are a bit older and they’ve reached that point where there’s more of a tendency to look back,” he adds. But now they are 10 years older and beginning to suffer from what he calls “festival burnout syndrome”. “The physical desire to go out and rave it up isn’t as strong. They probably don’t want to camp as much – however many theme bars, luxury loos and glamping areas you put in, there’s still an element of roughing it.”
For more read the full of article at The Guardian
