A new awakening for Britpop star
She was the intellectual who became Britpop’s enduring sex symbol. And this week Sleeper’s Louise Wener is back on stage in Warwickshire. She talks to Post Life
Louise has mixed feelings about Britpop. While it was the last, great British guitar movement, the tinsel soon became tawdry.
And while there was a sense of excitement and derring-do, beneath the gloss were darker realities.
“It was the last time that everybody was quite so tribal about their music. That’s changed with the way music is accessed now. But I do think we are needlessly reverential about that time because there was a lot of darkness to it. The drugs part of Britpop was endemic and it was also quite an insecure time too. Everyone was hugely competitive and there was widespread paranoia. There was this bright and breezy Britpop image that was almost cartoonish, but there was a darkness below that not everyone observed.”
It was that darkness that Louise didn’t miss during her quiet years with paper and pen. Only occasionally would she hanker for a microphone and the lure of a crowd.
“For a while, I’d go and see a gig and get quite emotional and a bit maudlin and I couldn’t work out why. Then I figured it out. I’d be thinking about the process; about the band soundchecking or remembering the interior of a dressing room and so on. So going to gigs was like going back to school and seeing that the pegs on which you hang your coats are actually quite small. I’d been removed utterly from that life in all sorts of ways.”
The return of Sleeper – and the warmth with which they’ve been greeted – means Wener and her band can enjoy the best of both worlds.
“The band is very different now. We do bits and pieces with Sleeper that fit in with our regular lives. It’s not like it was when we were in our 20s; it’s not all-consuming, it doesn’t dominate every part of our life.”
She’s still writing and there’ll be more literature and music from her. There’ll be more gigs, too. “The reunion feels like a gift. We get to go back to it and engage. It’s thrilling.”
But she’s under a form of scrutiny that didn’t exist when she was singing to 70,000 fans – from her children.
“The kids are old enough to know what Andy and I are doing. They are quite impressed to see the stage and recognise there’s something quite cool going on – but they are slightly mortified when we step out and start to play.”
“But that’s how it’s supposed to be, isn’t it. Our job as parents is to embarrass them, it’s great.”
SLEEPER play Camper Calling on Sunday, the last day of the three-day festival. Other acts taking to the stage at Ragley Hall include Skunk Anansie, The Fratellis, Ash, The Feeling, Artful Dodger, Tony Christie, Lucy Spraggan, Eliza and the Bear, Beans on Toast, The Real Thing and The Christians.