This is a story about regret. Boring people say that there’s no point in having regrets, but without them, how would we ever learn? We’d end up blindly stumbling from one mistake to another, never learning anything, and wondering why we keep missing out.

My regret isn’t massive, but it’s big enough for me to want to ruminate on now.

I was on the Oasis side of the great Britpop divide. I saw Blur as nothing more than a boyband with guitars, whereas Oasis brought the rock n’ roll swagger to the party, hoovering up the coke like it was going out of fashion, getting into fights, and generally acting the way a rock star ought to. With that in mind, isn’t it any wonder that I was an Oasis fan?

And so, come the summer of ‘95, there I was with my copy of Roll With It, jeering at the Blur fans and their inferior Country House. Of course, they were to prove victorious, but that wasn’t the point.

Thing is, I was being a dick. Blur were- and still are- the superior band. Well, it’s subjective but the point is that Blur were by far the most experimental, well-rounded, better educated in the art form, and generally of a better class than Oasis. Yes, the latter rocked, but once the initial fire had died out, they didn’t have much left in the tank. Blur, however, kept going strong, until that inevitable point when Graham had had enough and buggered off to do his own thing.

My sense of regret stems from the fact that I was the perfect age to fully appreciate Blur for what they were. I could have grown up with them being my guiding force for good, and had the warm feelings I have for (What’s The Story) Morning Glory- the feelings that can only come with an album you fall in love with in your teens- for The Great Escape instead; an infinitely more appropriate album. Instead, I was seduced by the rock and roll futility of Oasis.

I suppose if I’ve learned anything from it, it’s that every band should be taken as it’s own identity, and to ignore whatever the NME tells us about fabricated rivalries.

Well, I’ve been doing the latter ever since anyway, so hey ho.