As Blur bossed the 90s, and Damon Albarn’s bouncy songs about Englishness came to exemplify Britpop, Graham Coxon could usually be found scowling at the back of the band’s group shots. Coxon’s MO as their guitarist often involved lobbing “anti-solos” into the machinery, the band’s sceptical counterweight.
The two had met at school in Colchester, Essex, decamping to art college in London where they found themselves at the centre of two creative movements: the Goldsmiths’ art set that would become the YBAs, and the bands who would spearhead a new sound. One glance at the music press back then would have revealed that Coxon, bespectacled, sharp and into American music as much as the Kinks, was not always thrilled at his band’s direction of travel.
