 | | Best known as the lead singer with the popular Brit-pop group Ocean Colour Scene, Simon Fowler was born on May 25, 1965 in Birmingham, England, where his father worked as a policeman. |
 | | A bright new noise in U.K. alternative rock in the '90s and into the new millennium, Stereophonics are comprised of vocalist/guitarist Kelly Jones, bassist Richard Jones, and drummer Stuart Cable (until the latter's replacement by Javier Weyler). |
 | | British alt-rock outfit Beady Eye formed in 2009, several months after the rivalry between Oasis siblings Liam and Noel Gallagher reached a boiling point at a summer festival, resulting in Noel's departure and the band's dissolution. |
 | | Falling between the energetic pop/rock of mod revival and the psychedelic experimentations of Traffic, Ocean Colour Scene came to be one of the leading bands of the traditionalist, post-Oasis British rock of the mid-'90s. |
 | | Named after the iconic central Manchester soul club, local Oldham act Twisted Wheel comprised guitarist and lead vocalist Jonny Brown, bassist Richard Lees, and drummer Adam Clarke. |
 | | Bassist, lyricist, and occasional lead singer with the long-running U.K. rock band Manic Street Preachers, Nicky Wire has long been known for his willingness to provoke an audience with the turn of a phrase, and after years of displaying this talent with the Manics, he's launched a solo career to give him a more direct line to both his listeners and his muse. |
 | | Shack formed out of the ashes of the Pale Fountains, cult favorites led by Liverpudlian brothers Michael and John Head. |
 | | In addition to a flourishing solo career, John Power had the distinction of being a member of two iconic British bands of the 1980s and '90s, the La's and Cast. |
 | | The frontman for one of the most revered British bands of the 1980s and '90s, Ian Brown symbolized the arrogant cocksureness of his mouthpiece, the Stone Roses. |
 | | The London-based alt country/roots rock group UnAmerican consists of singer/songwriter Steve McEwan, bassist Peter Clarke, guitarist Matthew Crozer, and drummer Tim Bye. |
 | | As one of the most traditional guitar bands to emerge during the Brit-pop era of the mid-'90s, Cast has weathered negative criticism from certain quarters of the media, who labeled them as mere revivalists. |
 | | Along with Cast, Ocean Colour Scene, Kula Shaker, and Embrace, Travis was one of the most prominent British trad rock bands in the mid- to late '90s. |
 | | I Am Kloot is an oddball pop trio based in Manchester, England, that consists of vocalist/guitarist John Bramwell, drummer Andy Hargreaves, and guitarist/bassist Pete Jobson. |
 | | Named for the Skip James song "22-20 Blues," the 22-20s hail from Lincolnshire, England, and mix blues, rock, folk, and country influences into a sound that got the quartet noticed early in its career. |
 | | Britpop band Shed Seven officially formed in York, England in 1991, although frontman Rick Witter, guitarist Paul Banks, bassist Tom Gladwin and drummer Alan Leach first began collaborating in bands while still in their teens. |
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 | | With their first records, Ride created a unique wall of sound that relied on massive, trembling distortion in the vein of My Bloody Valentine but with a simpler, more direct melodic approach. |
 | | Glasgow, Scotland's Superstar play updated power-pop like their old friends Teenage Fanclub, but singer/guitarist Joe McAlinden's classical upbringing means that strings and some brass appear. |
 | | The Diggers are a post-Brit-pop power-pop band distinguished by their low-key approach. Where their contemporaries played fast-and-loose, they were soft and gentle, which limited the audience for their 1997 debut album, Mount Everest. |
 | | Francis Healy is the frontman and main songwriter of Travis, one of the most successful Britpop groups of the late ‘90s and early 2000s. |
 | | By reviving the swirling, guitar-heavy sounds of late-'60s psychedelia and infusing it with George Harrison's Indian mysticism and spirituality, Kula Shaker became one of the most popular British bands of the immediate post-Brit-pop era. |
 | | Gomez are a five-piece British act consisting of Ben Ottewell (vocals, guitar), Tom Gray (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Paul Blackburn (bass, guitar), Olly Peacock (drums), and Ian Ball (vocals, guitar, harmonica). |
 | | The Bees (known as "A Band of Bees" in America, owing to a rights conflict over their name) started out as the duo of Paul Butler and Aaron Fletcher, both of whom hailed from the Isle of Wight. |
 | | Oasis shot from obscurity to stardom in 1994, becoming one of Britain's most popular and critically acclaimed bands of the decade in the process. |
 | | The lead singer of the Brit-pop band Oasis, Liam Gallagher -- along with his older brother and Oasis bandmate Noel -- was one of the most well-known pop artists of the 1990s . |
 | | Rising from the ashes of the legendary British post-punk unit Joy Division, the enigmatic New Order triumphed over tragedy to emerge as one of the most influential and acclaimed bands of the 1980s; embracing the electronic textures and disco rhythms of the underground club culture many years in advance of its contemporaries, the group's pioneering fusion of new wave aesthetics and dance music successfully bridged the gap between the two worlds, creating a distinctively thoughtful and oblique brand of synth pop appealing equally to the mind, body, and soul. |
 | | For many years, the Charlatans UK were perceived as the also-rans of Madchester, the group that didn't capture the zeitgeist like the Stone Roses or the band that failed to match the mad genre-bending of the Happy Mondays. |
 | | Tim Burgess inherited Mick Jagger's rock & roll swagger and big lips before Oasis' Liam Gallagher became famous for them. |
 | | As the leader of the Jam, Paul Weller fronted the most popular British band of the punk era, influencing legions of English rockers ranging from his mod revival contemporaries to the Smiths in the '80s and Oasis in the '90s. |
 | | Following in the footsteps of Oasis and the Verve, Embrace became a minor pop sensation in post-Brit-pop Britain in the late '90s. |
 | | Meshing '60s-styled guitar pop with an understated '80s dance beat, the Stone Roses defined the British guitar pop scene of the late '80s and early '90s. |
 | | The big-mouthed/well-coifed frontman of Liverpool's Echo & the Bunnymen, Ian McCulloch got his start with Pete Wylie and Julian Cope as the Crucial Three. |
 | | Following the breakup of the seminal British post-punk outfit Swell Maps, frontman Nikki Sudden embarked on a solo career, then concurrently formed a new band called the Jacobites. |
 | | Inspired by the raw power of the Stooges and the glam rock excess of the New York Dolls, Birmingham, England, native Dave Kusworth formed his first band (TV Eye) at the age of 16. |
 | | Radiohead were one of the few alternative bands of the early '90s to draw heavily from the grandiose arena rock that characterized U2's early albums. |
 | | As the lead singer of the Smiths, arguably the most important indie band in Britain during the '80s, Morrissey's theatrical crooning and literate, poetic lyrics -- filled with romantic angst, social alienation, and cutting wit -- connected powerfully with a legion of similarly sensitive, disaffected youth. |
 | | The Smiths were the definitive British indie rock band of the '80s, marking the end of synth-driven new wave and the beginning of the guitar rock that dominated English rock into the '90s. |
 | | Irish quartet Hal is made up of brothers Paul (vocals/guitar) and Dave Allen (vocals/bass), drummer Paul Hogan, and keyboardist Stephen O'Brien. |
 | | Named for a halloween costume based on an Edgar Allan Poe short story, Poe gained a contract with Atlantic during the boom of female singer/songwriters during the mid-'90s. |
 | | Combining the melodic jangle of post-Smiths indie guitar pop with the lilting, trance-inducing sonic textures of late-'80s dream pop and adding a slight Celtic tint, the Cranberries became one of the more successful groups to emerge from the pre-Brit-pop U. |
 | | Little Barrie is a London-based trio whose sound is an exciting blend of hard rock, blues, soul, and funk that calls to mind classic bands of the '60s like Traffic and Cream, and whose loose and groovy earthiness earns it a place near the front of the jam band class. |
 | | Soon after they formed in 2008, London’s enigmatic trio Factory Floor garnered comparisons to post-punk and industrial greats like Joy Division and Throbbing Gristle. |
 | | The collaboration of two generations of dark British electronic/industrial musicians, Carter Tutti Void features Throbbing Gristle's Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni Tutti, and Nik Void of Factory Floor. |
 | | The group the Basement took their name from a line in Bob Dylan's song "Subterranean Homesick Blues," which should give listeners a clue to their influences -- the band puts their greatest emphasis on their songwriting, and mix up folk, pop, and country sounds with a tuneful, organic approach. |
 | | Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos) was one of several female singer/songwriters who combined the stark lyrical attack of alternative rock with a distinctly '70s musical approach, creating music that fell between the orchestrated meditations of Kate Bush and the stripped-down poetics of Joni Mitchell. |
 | | At the forefront of the mid-'90s mod revival, Ocean Colour Scene guitarist and regular Paul Weller cohort Steve Cradock took center stage for the first time in 20 years after launching a belated solo career. |
 | | The Bees (known as "A Band of Bees" in America, owing to a rights conflict over their name) started out as the duo of Paul Butler and Aaron Fletcher, both of whom hailed from the Isle of Wight. |
 | | Often compared to Coldplay and Travis, Turin Brakes were an English, folk-inspired duo that hailed from Balham, London. |
 | | Emerging at the height of Brit-pop, Reef had little in common with their British peers -- instead of sounding like an amaglam of the Beatles, the Jam and Stone Roses, they were indebted to the Stones and the Black Crowes -- but through constant touring, as well as being featured in a television commercial for Sony's Minidisc player, they managed to cultivate a large fan-base which expanded significantly with the release of their second album, Glow. |
 | | Dodgy never was taken seriously. Then again, they never wanted to be taken seriously. As the clowns of Brit-pop, Dodgy carved out a niche with their infectious, goofy punk-pop that alternately sounded like the early Who and the Stone Roses. |
