1990-2002
Arguably, everything that happened in this era was just build up to Dennis Bergkamp’s goal against Newcastle on the 2nd of March, 2002. It’s almost not worth bothering with it all. But I’m going to persevere and tell you about some of the things that happened anyway. I’m nice like that.
Let’s start with music, and two albums that I’m quietly confident you don’t know about, by the same person, that, by happy coincidence, are from the first and last years of this arbitrary period. L’amour est sans pitié and La Vallée des Réputations by Jean Leloup. The first is upbeat and nicely silly, the second (which isn’t available on my streaming service but may be on yours) is quieter and more sombre. Both are great. The lack of a bridge between Quebecois pop music and the British listener means there is a good chance these will have passed you by. Go find them, why don’t you?
And on the subject of music, it’s worth noting that the two finest ‘rock’ songs of all time, Trigger Cut by Pavement and November Rain by Guns N’ Roses, both came out in 1992. Not sure of the significance of this fact. Makes you think though, doesn’t it?
A year earlier, saw the debut of my favourite piece of art from this period, Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.) by Félix Gonzáles-Torres. I was sceptical about conceptual art until I saw this in (I think, New York, possibly Chicago) and was deeply moved by it, carrying a piece of candy in my pocket like a holy relic for days afterward.
From the sublime, etc, to, etc, remember the theme tune to Digimon? The one that had that unexpected Bowie-esque bit in the middle? That was a banger, wasn’t it?
1994 gave us the greatest computer game in history: Puzzle Bobble. It’s that one where you have to shoot little coloured balls at other little coloured balls and if you match three the same colour, they pop. It’s been ripped off a million times but the original is a perfect game. If you have a Switch, you can download it for a couple of quid. I did during the lockdown and got really into it. Like, ‘number nine in the world rankings’ into it. I checked a couple of weeks ago and I had sunk down to number twelve, and that didn’t sit right with me. Anyway, long story short, I’m back up to tenth now.
What else? The ITV Digital monkey, Oi by More Fire Crew, The Quick and The Dead, Sainsbury’s Magazine, the Kang Dynasty arc in The Avengers, that Australian guy getting arrested, the Collins Bird Guide, Iron Monkey, Homogenic, Babylon 5, but mostly, that goal…
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