Suede

Suede took glam rock and post-punk and made something at once seedy and grand, and in the early 1990s they were the most talked-about group in British music. They began in London in 1989, when singer Brett Anderson, who had met Justine Frischmann at University College London, teamed up with his childhood friend, bassist Mat Osman. They rehearsed with Roxy Music, The Smiths, David Bowie and The Cure for company, then found nineteen-year-old guitarist Bernard Butler through an NME advert.

Melody Maker billed them the best new band in Britain in 1992, and their 1993 debut, Suede, reached number one, the fastest-selling first album in nearly a decade, and won the Mercury Music Prize. Butler left during the fraught making of Dog Man Star, replaced by Richard Oakes; a commercial disappointment then, it is now celebrated as one of rock's great albums. Coming Up (1996), the first with keyboardist Neil Codling, produced five top ten singles and remains their best seller. They split after A New Morning in 2002, reunited in 2010, and have since released Bloodsports, Night Thoughts, The Blue Hour, Autofiction and Antidepressants (2025).