Sean The label were in a rush and they didn’t want to wait, so they convinced the band to use a cardboard cut-out of me [in the video for Let’s Dance]. It did hurt a little bit. It was like the label saying, “Well, he’s so miserable anyway and he’s not smiling and he’s so quiet that he might as well have been a cardboard cut-out.” That’s what it felt like to me. I LOVED this book! It tells the ‘story’ of British pop music from 96-06 starting with the explosion of the spice girls in 1996. As someone who was 10 in 96 and an avid pop fan throughout the late 90s this was a brilliant read. Lots of insight from producers, band members, journalists (eg smash hits, totp magazine( it flows right up to the emergence of pop idol, X factor etc and how that changed the world of pop music , as does streaming and the closure of high st record stores. Mark Beaumont If you see the indie versus pop thing as a bit of a battle, which to some degree it was, it woke the pop world up to the potential of what could be done with the internet. Over time, they certainly weaponised that. Neil Tennant (!) Reach For The Stars, my debut book, was released in March 2023. An oral history of UK pop between 1996 and 2006, it features over 100 interviews with the great and good of that vibrant pop period, including popstars, producers, songwriters, video directors, PRs, journalists, etc etc and so forth. People seemed to like it, which is nice… Beyond the stories of fame, fortune and turning up to the CD:UK studios still pissed from the night before, Reach… finds itself in some pretty dark places. The music industry was far less monitored than it is now, with conversations about mental health, racism and misogyny barely audible within the four walls of the music industry, let alone in the tabloids.

My book — Michael Cragg

All of this shiny, happy, factory-formed pop was catnip to critics who saw music loved by children, girls, gay men, and large amounts of the population, as inferior. Something to be grown out of." In short: Great read for anyone interested in the late 90s/ early 2000s pop industry in the UK - whether this is because you're a fan of the music or want to find out more about how the industry worked. (Though I imagine it's a lot less enjoyable if you don't know the bands: LOTS of names.)

New to the Quill

Brian Higgins is the British mega-producer who, along with Miranda Cooper and the rest of his Kent-based pop factory Xenomania, was the brains behind some of the most celebrated, most innovative and frankly best pop tunes of the past two decades: Girls Aloud’s Biology, The Promise and the aforesaid Sound of the Underground; Sugababes’ Round Round and Hole in the Head; Rachel Stevens’ highly underrated album, Come and Get It – acommercial failure, but so good it landed on The Guardian ​ ’s list of 1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die. The list of contributors, made up of performers, producers, moguls and journos, will be mostly familiar to anyone with a passing interest in this topic, to the degree that you’re left with an impression of just how small the British scene is. Fun to see Alex Needham (Chart Music podcast) and Peter Robinson (Popjustice). If I were to quibble, I’d say I’d have preferred less channel 5 talking heads and more analysis but I’m not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Using the arrival of the Spice Girls as a jumping-off point, this fascinating new narrative will explore, celebrate and contextualise the thus-far-uncharted period of British pop that flourished between 1996 and 2006. A double-denim-loving time before the glare of social media and the accession of streaming. From Girl Power to Girls Aloud (and all the glorious points in between), the definitive study of British pop music at the turn of the millennium, told by everyone who was there. It was extremely hard on us and our families. They were equally thrust into the spotlight with no idea of how to deal with any of it. We were told we were the fattest band in pop countless times so we made a point of eating numerous bars of chocolate and fast food in defiance. We had a No1 and were the most famous band in the country but we were all pretty broke and I was still paying off my student debt.

Michael Cragg

The enigmatic singer, dancer and actor, who has died aged 46, was cheekily self-aware about the mechanics of his industry But these attempts to reach fans where they are may not be enough. Michael Cragg is author of the forthcoming Reach for the Stars: 1996-2006 – Fame, Fallout and Pop’s Final Party, which details the Brits coronations and disappointments of Y2K pop acts such as Steps. “Award shows need that sense of collective hysteria,” he said. “You could watch a funny acceptance speech on TikTok, but I’m not convinced that makes a solid connection between the Brits and the viewer. It’s just more content.” I was moving into my teenage years when the Spice Girls started, and so Iwas trying to work out who Iwas. But Iwas also trying to sort of hide who Iwas, and it was too revealing to talk about pop music. It was too revealing to say that you were afan of Girls Aloud, even, when they first started. And so Iwouldn’t.” Even at uni, Cragg would pretend to like Radiohead (“I kind of did… for abit”), while he was working out his sexuality and identity. ​ “I didn’t really talk about [pop music] – Ididn’t say that Iliked it.” When reading this book, you're likely to vanish down a YouTube wormhole, revisiting forgotten gems or favourite songs from the likes of A1, Billie Piper, Sugababes and Steps, or discovering that the music of certain groups still sounds awful more than twenty years later (Atomic Kitten...) I should note that it's not exhaustive, which is OK as the book is long enough without going into even further detail. The focus is on Britain, with occasional references to Irish groups popular in Britain, but not much context outside of this, or else we would certainly be hearing about Aqua, who were massively popular. Perhaps the British band Scooch could have had a mention, as they did moderately well in the early 2000s. I would've appreciated a little more about B*Witched, as the way I remember it, they were almost as popular as the Spice Girls. Regarding the Spices, the chapter would've have more appeal if I hadn't recently read Melanie C's memoir, which more or less covers the same territory.Arguably the best possible combination of writer and subject since Jesus wrote the Bible.' -- Stuart Heritage, Guardian writer Music journalist Michael Cragg, who interviewed key players from 1996-2006 for his new book Reach for the Stars, said: “Nearly everyone I spoke to go misty-eyed.”

Gender inequality and outdated voting metrics: are the Brit

An outstanding catalogue of oral testimonies from major and minor players in UK pop in the decade before the financial crash.' -- New StatesmanBut it wasn’t like I didn’t feel it every time someone was shouting my name in a northern accent. I had to ride the storm and I’m so thankful the second wave of my music happened. Described in 7 Heaven as “a bit of thinker”, he was often the one who cared about the band’s perception. After the excellent, disco-tinged Don’t Stop Movin’ earned them a slither of credibility – helped by Cattermole, McIntosh and Jon Lee being arrested for smoking weed in central London, leading to copious “Spliff Club 7” headlines – it was Cattermole, realising the chance the band had to move beyond DayGlo kid-friendly pop, who pushed for the follow-up single to be equally as exciting. He didn’t get his way.

Reach for the Stars: charting British pop’s golden era Reach for the Stars: charting British pop’s golden era

However, somewhere around the chapter covering Blue, I started to get the feeling that the narrative was incredibly repetitive. Although I appreciate that Cragg wanted to cover the length and breadth of his subject - the fact that most of these bands split after several years meant that all the chapters ended similarly. Although some of these chapters did include some intriguing titbits; such as Blue being in New York during 9/11 and the swift production of the S Club 7 movie, there were few memorable moments. I thought the smaller chapters covering the rise of Garage music and the anecdotes about being hungover on kids' TV could've been cut completely. The exception to this rule is the chapter on Sugababes; an act that the author clearly has a love for and could've probably written an entire book about. Sean We had a lot of moments when we really did get on but there were bits of testosterone and bits of friction here and there. Just lads living together trying to find their feet. It wasn’t always great but we did have some laughs.Ritchie Neville I turned up and it was a media circus. There was press there and a Spice Girls tribute band performing. I was in this queue just going, “What the hell is this?” Mark Beaumont (writer for Melody Maker and NME) It was the first show of strength of the internet because the Brits were the establishment stronghold and here was Belle and Sebastian using the weight of their fanbase to break the stranglehold of pop. I think it was the first high-profile example of the internet being used to shift culture. Ritchie I personally harbour no ill-will to J or Abs. I would want nothing more than to hear that they’re happily getting on with their lives. J was quite a domineering character and he wanted things done his way. He was willing to get that point across in a physical way sometimes. Vivid moments in your life reduced to long forgotten anecdotes. Historical events reduced to kitsch. And things that you had considered appalling have now been reappraised as cultural milestones by people two decades younger than you.