
The shameless age of Britpop in ‘the wildest year of the 90s’
From Word In Your Ear by Mark Ellen, David Hepworth and Alex Gold
April 8, 2026 · 1h 7m · Episode 896
About this episode
Dominic Mohan shares his insider perspective on Britpop and the cultural landscape of the 1990s in this humorous podcast episode.
Dominic Mohan saw Britpop on the inside from the showbiz desk of the Sun in the days when it sold 4.5m copies, a series of heated memories recorded in ‘1996: My Backstage Pass to the Wildest Year of Britain’s Wildest Decade’, a lost age of hedonism, stupidity, drunkenness and creativity. He makes a compelling case in this very funny and colourful podcast which stumbles into … … the advice David Hepworth gave him when he was 16 … Euro 96 and headlines you couldn’t run now … how the deaths of Kurt Cobain and John Smith changed the picture … doorstepping Phil Collins’ ex-wife … the wreath for Noel Gallagher “the fat dancer from Take That” sent to the Sun … Cool Britannia and that brief love affair between music and politics … on the dancefloor at the Labour Conference with Mo Mowlam, John Prescott and Chris Evans … Knebworth 1996, the perfect marriage of alternative music and club culture with a £250,000 bar bill … the debt Pulp, Oasis and Blur owe Ray Davies - “less the Godfather of Britpop, more a concerned uncle” … is it hard to identify a new zeitgeist when people don’t congregate as much? … the…
People in this episode
Hosts: Mark Ellen, Alex Gold, David Hepworth
Guest: Dominic Mohan
Topics covered
- Britpop
- 1990s culture
- music history
- celebrity
- media
- politics
- nostalgia
Keywords
- Britpop
- Dominic Mohan
- 1996
- Knebworth
- Euro 96
- celebrity culture
- music politics
- nostalgia
- media
- hegemony
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: the Sun
Books & works: 1996: My Backstage Pass to the Wildest Year of Britain’s Wildest Decade
Places: Britain, Britpop
More episodes of Word In Your Ear
- Dave Balfe remembers the Teardrops, Blur and a very big house in the country · June 12, 2026 · 52 min
- Star Ratings - do we love/hate/need them? Five-star debate here! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ · June 11, 2026 · 38 min
- Brian Epstein & the Beatles - what he did and what he hid · June 9, 2026 · 30 min
- Are we nearing Beatles Overload? plus the rock star with the most children (41!) · June 8, 2026 · 49 min
- The glorious story of Funk from James Brown to Off The Wall · June 3, 2026 · 43 min
- Leo Sayer has met everyone – rock legends, sport superstars, future presidents … · June 2, 2026 · 33 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Word In Your Ear podcast page.