'Yorkshire always punched above its weight in Britpop so it's an honour to bring The Britpop Show here'
During his career, music journalist Marc Burrows has interviewed some of Britpop’s biggest stars. Now, he’s on the road talking about them and reflecting on an iconic era for music.
“I was 13 in 1994 when Britpop kicked off and 18 when it finally died out, so that era is absolutely imprinted on me. It shaped who I am,” says the comic, author and musician. His The Britpop Show, coming to Yorkshire this week, unpicks the rivalries, hype, personalities and music that defined the 90s era, 30 years on from the Blur vs Oasis chart battle.
“I wanted to look at why that music and those people caught imaginations in that specific moment, and what we can learn from that. It’s an idea I’ve had for a while, and as all of my favourite albums started to turn 30, and Blur, then Pulp then Oasis got back together it felt like it was finally time to do it,” says Burrows of the show. “The Britpop era still defines how we think about music and identity, and people really care about it.”
Yorkshire always punched well above its weight in Britpop, he says.
"Sheffield doesn't just have a Britpop band. Sheffield has THE Britpop band. Pulp formed there in 1979, when Jarvis Cocker was fifteen, and spent the best part of seventeen years being almost famous before Different Class came out in 1995 and changed everything.
"'Common People' isn't just the best Britpop single, it's one of the greatest pop songs ever written. Throw in the Arctic Monkeys and Sheffield has produced the defining guitar band of two separate generations.
"Leeds is proper indie heartland, and produced the Wedding Present, one of the most important bands of the late '80s and early '90s, releasing a single every month of 1992 and getting all twelve into the top 30, which is a record that will probably never be broken.
"Leeds also had the Duchess of York, a legendary venue where just about everyone played on the way up. It sits in the middle of that Yorkshire corridor that produced Pulp, the Kaiser Chiefs, Embrace, and the Cribs. It’s an honour to bring the show to Yorkshire.”
Directed by Dec Munro, Burrows’ show blends comedy, cultural commentary and nostalgia to remember Britpop and explore its legacy.
"The real legacy of Britpop isn’t the music – although the best of it is still glorious,” he reflects. “It’s the attitude. The sheer brass neck of it all. That refusal to be told you can’t do something because of where you’re from or what you sound like.
"There was this insistence that working-class culture, and that’s very much my background, wasn’t something to be patronised or pitied, but celebrated and elevated. That message feels relevant in 2026 because it’s slipped away since 1996….There’s something beautifully punk rock about bands who blagged their way to world domination through sheer force of will.”
- The Britpop Show will be at Sheffield Plate on April 25, and The Glee, Leeds on April 26 and Hull Truck on May 8.