WANTED: Have you seen these bands? We track down the magnificent six (Oasis, Manics, Radiohead, Elastica, Suede, and Supergrass).
A world tour in the wake of the second Number One album in 1996 kept the beautiful ones on the road until last December. Since then, they've been back in the Top 10 with B-sides compilation "Sci-fi Lullabies" and have contributed to the Noël Coward tribute album - "Poor Little Rich Girl", definitely the high point of "Twentieth Century Blues".
Now hard at work on the successor to "Coming Up", The Maker can exclusively reveal that the band have demoed 18 new songs with three different producers. Neil Codling had joined the band halfway through the making of "Coming Up", but shared songwriting credits with Brett on "Starcrazy" and standout "The Chemistry Between Us", as well as a handful of B-sides. Obviously, this time around, he has been involved from the beginning and the final album is likely to be weighted much more towards him than its predecessor. Although it was initially thought that they would record in Thailand, the band will now go into a west London studio in early August, with an as-yet-unnamed producer who's on a "shortlist of one", with the aim of releasing a record early in 1999, possibly in January or February.
Those who have heard the new songs describe them as "hard, modern and groove-oriented" - think the chic of mid-period Roxy Music with balls. It's fair to say that "Poor Little Rich Girl" and B-side "Europe is Our Playground" (co-written by bass player Matt Osman) are pretty good pointers to the sound of New Suede - and The Maker has had an exclusive sneak preview of one track. "She's In Fashion" - perhaps the quintessential Suede song title - is an elegant, soaring epic with the kind of supremely addictive chorus that welds itself instantly to your brain and will, no doubt, soon be causing the same kind of hysteria that "Trash" and "Metal Mickey" did before it.
Typed in by Ain.