MEANWHILE, IN THE REAL WORLD...

EVERYTHING ELSE THAT HAPPENED IN 1999

HEADLINES Music festival Woodstock ’99 is plagued by controversy, including riots and assaults… The ill-fated Millennium Dome opens in London at a cost of £789million… The Euro currency launched… Bruce Dickinson rejoins Iron

Maiden.

MOVIES

The Matrix appears – the first (and best) of the Keanu Reeves-starring sci-fi action trilogy… American Pie is a box-office hit… David Fincher’s head-fucking black comedy Fight Club is released… Lo-fi horror The Blair Witch Project shows you can make a hit movie on a micro budget.

tv

Epic Mafia tale and Best TV Series Ever Made (Possibly) The Sopranos makes its debut… Queer As Folk hits UK TV screens… Brilliant cartoon show Futurama launches as The Simpsons in the 31st century… The League Of Gentlemen becomes one of the most warped things ever shown on British TV.

charts

Britney Spears’ …Baby One More Time is the UK’s best-selling song… Limp Bizkit seal nu metal’s status as the biggest musical movement of the late 90s, when their second album, Significant Other, sells almost 700,000 copies to go to Number One in the US charts.

hero

Napster founders Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker – the men who revolutionised the music industry with their ground-breaking file-sharing service.

VILLAIN

Napster founders Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker, who killed the music industry with their ground-breaking file-sharing service (especially if your name is Lars Ulrich).

RIP

Ex-Megadeth drummer Gar Samuelson (liver problem)… Gorgoroth’s Grim (drug overdose).

Wtf?

The Millennium Bug – a media-fuelled nightmare scenario in which all computers would crash at the stroke of midnight on January 1, 2000, and the world would end. Spoiler: it didn’t.