The herculean task of remembering all the 1990s UK indie band names ever

Back in 2011, I took one of my many trips down Amnesia Lane. A little bit like this one, in fact. I decided to create a list of all the great UK indie bands from the early 1990s. The problem was, I wasn’t an expert at all, and I’d never lived in the UK.

But who needs Wikipedia? I had a whole bunch of friends on Facebook who were all alive at the time. They were also going through more-or-less the same stages of sentimentality and nostalgia. Why not ask them?

A detail from the original Facebook post. I invited friends to nominate their favourite early-1990s UK indie bands. Over the course of several hundred comments, the standard of the nominations deteriorated. Then again, given that Cud came up so early, you could say the entire exercise was a fail from the outset.

So, I opened up the comments on a Facebook post, and together we came up with a list of over 100 bands. 100 is too big a number for what was an obscure moment in musical history.

Besides, many of the bands nominated were not actually indie, UK-based, or active in the early 1990s.

Others were shit so I excluded them with no regrets whatsoever. But, in the interests of scientific objectivity, I am reproducing the entire list here. Perhaps, one day, someone will come up with a more detailed and informative version. Oh, wait.

A screenshot from a 2011 Facebook thread in which users listed UK indie bands from the 1990s.
A screenshot from a 2011 Facebook thread in which users listed UK indie bands from the 1990s. Anonymised to protect the not-so-innocent.
David Prater
David Prater

David Prater is an Australian-born writer, editor and parent. His interests include mince pies, ice hockey and Joy Division.

View his full biography.

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