One of the most overlooked groups in British music history. They produced some of the most perfect songs and were the soundtrack of the 90s, as much as Blur, Oasis, Pulp, The Verve etc. Sarah Cracknell is a goddess!
For me Saint Etienne are one of the most baffling cases ever. I remember in 92, when they came up, they had great tunes with huge commercial appeal, glowing reviews, a charismatic and gorgeous singer, could be as camp as Pulp, as pop as the Pet Shop Boys, as exquisite as the Auteurs; released great solid albums with no weak songs, had a world of their own with a so enticing retro chic, but somehow they never got the success they deserved. Sure they were popular, but never really "made it". It's so unfair when you see some of the C-rate indie and Britpop derivatives that were charting really big at the time.
True. I'm in the States and they are fantastic. As strong a body of anyone or group in the last 30 years. The bonus disc of Continental is unbelievably good.
Please, the 80s was full of acts who barely got any of the success they deserved while over-charting and over-playing all the utter shit like slagdonna, cure, bon jovi, pill collins, minogue, houston, turner, madness, sting, paul weller and his bands, dexys midnight scummers, etc. Saint Etienne did well enough to chart some albums where they did and singles too. It's not true they don't have some weak songs-they do, like 'The Avenue' and I wouldn't buy their albums, but they've more right to be chart-bound then virtually everything back then. Only a few things like Dubstar and Ace Of Base and Tasmin Archer managed to matter, beyond 80s quality acts still working.
@@waynedarronwalls6468 Then she must be singing about YOU as you're CLEARLY in a bad way if you proclaim the shitty, crappy, twatty, dumb-as-fuck, embarrassing none-entities of nonsense called The Cure (and boy would they and we ever need one!) were "NOT SHIT". I like the 'were' bit, though, makes it sound like they're FINALLY gone, though that was a few decades too late). Otherwise I may have answered you could be on to something: "they're WERE NOT SHIT, they ARE STILL SHIT". I got ears and eyes luv, and they're as shit as Spamhead Ballet, Bon Jovial and Wet Wet Wetter are. Oh and all the Beatles shitpop wannabees and boyband losers that followed. All the crappy girls too! But what this has all got to do with Saint Etienne I'll never know, but then again, it's all irrelevant is as irrelevant does as what the Cure have to do with music in the first place (like Madogga the vile) I'll never know, nor the rest of the world.
The 90s, I started them as a little boy and ended them a man. We had hopes, dreams, the world was genuinely a kinder more caring place. The millennium hadn't happened and the world was our oyster. No Internet, no mobile phones, no social media. The last decade of innocence, the music was incredible. My heart breaks when I think what kind of world my teenage daughter lives in now
"the world was genuinely a kinder more caring place." Except it wasn't. It had the same petty cruelness it has now, yet was generally less understanding and tolerant of people's differences. It was a great time to be young, but you're viewing it through rose-tinted glasses.
Right, the difference was nobody had to think too hard about anything because it was all out of sight, out of mind, and "our side" could do whatever they liked on the world stage while pretending there'd never be any consequences. Now the consequences are arriving and people pine for the exact world that brought them about 🙃
I loved listening to this when I visited the UK years ago, on the bus watching all the scenery go by, Saint Etienne just really fit the whole trip, fond memories....
I reckon there was too much great music in the 90s and the brilliance of Saint Etienne escaped - in a way - public eye. Every single of theirs destroys the very best of pop/indie today. Such a wonderful band !
Too much great music???!!! A decade where c/rap exploded everywhere, while howling, caterwauling bags Pariah Carey and Celine Dion shrieked your ears off with their banal shit, while equally shit where the vile boyband muppet puppets Take Crap, New Kids, N-Sick, Westlife, Bollockzone, while tuneless embarrassing hags like Sheryl Crow thought they were doing something 'new' for women. Bjork was unfathomable, Alannis Morisette didn't start singing properly till her 'in' phase was over, and even Tori Amos makes no fucking sense with her weirdo fairytale thesaurus book of high-prenetious pontification, though she sings lovely. The poncy Suede, loathsome Beatles-knock off Oasis, embarrassing Blurb, disgusting Peter Andre, and then bimbo slagland girlband plague of Spice Girl/Eternal/All Saints bad crap, while the 'indie' ones like forgettable Sleeper/Elastica were no better, just disappared mercifully swifter. Rap continued to suck, soul lost itself in stripped down pop garbage, and equally badly, all the no hopers from the 80s like slagdonna the vile, minogue, estefan, turner, sting, weller, collins, houston, the jacksons carried on too, adding worse to an already unendurable mess. This following the wonderful 80s was too much to bear, but here and there a few decent things managed to breathe, if still not quite in the 80s league. But even all this paled slightly against the even more noxious offshoots once the decade turned, though they now simply added to the mix, as most of this 90s rubbish didn't go anywhere, just carried on-like plagues do. "Too much great music"?! If that wasn't so horrendously wrong and offensive, it'd be almost ha ha! Almost...
As a teenager, I always longed for a Sarah Cracknell-type who would tell me she was on my side, that's for sure! 😂 I know for a fact that I wasn't the only teenage boy in the 90s who had a crush on her - but she was a genuinely lovely person too
The early 90s was THE best time to be alive in global history, but it all turned to shit overnight between 94 + 95; britpop, Spice Slags, Alcopops sold to Minors, Ladettes and general underclass yob orientation was the mainstream norm by then ! Hey, people thought there was something wrong with you in the late 90s if you were a teen boy who wasn't interested in being 'hard ' !
glad someone else realizes the reality of the 90s ! I get pissed off when Seal, Cathy Dennis and acid house are associated with Spice Slags, Oasis, Friends, etc !
Never seen this video. Anyways, one of many songs that make me feel sad when I hear them, because I see so much of the innocence that was in our hearts, still at that time. Almost hauntig sound.
So true. I remember that optimism surrounding the new wave of music at that time (before it was labelled by a journalist) coming out of London and the North. It was briefly a magical time to be young and obsessed with alternative music and fashion as most people I knew at the time were.
Japan edition 'You're In A Bad Way' Collette, 1998 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Y6VRwwKWJq8.html BADなあなた～YOU'RE IN A BAD WAY～ ＜Wild Mix＞ Kei-Tee, 1994 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zT7wVjeUyKw.html You're In A Bad Way (Japanese Cover on Ukulele) - Owen AKA, 2020 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-F4SKK7Y--Ik.html You're in a Bad Way [Recorded Live at the Train Bar in Tokyo, Japan] (Channel 15 News Give Me... Katfish, 2019 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5ucyOkkJimg.html
Such an evocative song. And I’d never seen this video but it works perfectly. Truly truly one of the most perfect pop songs ever. They should have been so successful but I’m sort of glad they weren’t. Love the three of em.
Always LOVED this song. Used to play it over and over.... Haven't heard it in a long time. Found myself repeatedly bellowing "lose yourself in London" this morning in that funny voice for some weird reason. Completely out of nowhere. Decided to look for the video. Man, it's been a long time. Love the video. Was a big fan of Saint. Etienne in the 90s.
I love this band. I am a rock and roll guy, but I just love Saint Etienne and I have almost all their CD's. Interesting, irrelevant fact about Sarah Cracknell, the singer: her dad was Stanley Kubrick's assistant director and right-hand man for many years. She was born during the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and they considered using her for the Star Child, but they could not make it work.
That big strange blue object in the background is what was once called a telephone, or phone for short. They were not actually that big, but did not fit in your pocket. All they did was facilitate spoken communication over a distance, and nothing more.
The irony is that many people of age you assume would not know what it is are actually very much interested in old technology and could give you a run for your money in that aspect, actually explaining how it worked. But yeah, keep shaming non-existent "lost" generation, just as your parents did to yours. The circle keeps spinning.
Rediscovered this song by chance, neighbour used to play it when I was about 7-8, by chance happened upon it while at a cafe ! Video clip is hilarious...
Wow, this takes me right back! I loved this song from St Etienne when I first heard it playing on the radio way back in 1993, around the time it first came out as a single in the shops (and the charts), and listening to it now, l STILL love it! Love the 1960's-themed video too!
waooowww the keyboards is in vintage Vangelis territory (for exemple... in the end of the song)... good ...good those guys knows really well how to mixes very different sources of influences... bravo
Like many I missed their music at the time as I was a little young to find it but I found Dubstar several years later and they very much remind me of them . Both great bands.
