Stanley: 'Pre-Britpop bands got selfish'

Bob Stanley has suggested that UK bands in the early 1990s wasted an opportunity to progress British music by being territorial and selfish.

The Saint Etienne star told The Quietus that there was a lot of potential in the "blurring and cross-pollination" of pop and dance music at the start of the decade.

Stanley said: "I think it fizzled out because people got selfish and defended their territories. So, when you had Suede coming out it was all about egos. And Primal Scream to an extent as well, I suppose.

"There wasn't any kinship. I don't know what I imagined it would be like to be in a pop group that was doing quite well, but I thought people would feed off each other, work with each other.

"But it didn't seem to work at that upper end, or at least, not at the indie end. It didn't really feel like a scene."

He added: "I remember seeing Bernard Butler at The Underworld and drunkenly saying, 'We've got to take music forward, we've got it in our control, we're on this level we can do it, make new kinds of music!'

"He obviously thought I was completely bloody mad. And the same thing with Bobby Gillespie - he was just doing one-upmanship on Dexy's lyrics. I don't want that, it's just rubbish.

"We could do something really great, don't try to catch me out on Dexy's lyrics. Obviously, Luke Haines was never going to be part of anybody's scene."