When Mogwai put the “Blur: Are Shite” T-shirt on sale

In the mid-nineties when i Mogwai were formed in Glasgow, Scotland, on Britpop and the spell of ‘Cool Britannia’ they were at their peak. THE Mogwai they were light years away from that culture, as recalled by the group’s frontman Stuart Braithwaite in an interview with the British newspaper The Times: “It was a disposable culture, where people were so obsessed with the next new thing that bands were discarded. It was as if the music was a joke.” His bandmate supports him and gives him support in his thoughts Barry Burns who also adds a touch of national pride: “People say British. But in reality they mean English. Scotland didn’t feel part of Britpop, culturally it always felt closer to America. We listened to Television more than the Kinks.”

Among the exponents of Britpopa band was disliked Stuart Braithwaite more than the others, i Blur. In the autobiography published in 2022 ‘Spaceships Over Glasgow: Mogwai And Misspent Youth’the now 49-year-old Braithwaite wrote: “You could say they represented the antithesis of what we considered positive in the music world. Their anti-American English nationalism also bothered us, as did their fake Cockney accents.”

In 1999, when the two bands performed at the same edition of the Scottish festival T in The Park the Mogwai they decided to take the opportunity to sell t-shirts with the writing “Blur: Are Shite”. Braithwaite told NME magazine notebooks at the time: “We’ve decided to declare our dislike for one of the weakest bands on the planet by putting these t-shirts on sale. The interesting thing about the t-shirt is that it’s a dictionary definition. Blur: Are Shite. That’s a fact and if there are any legal problems, I’ll go to court, as I studied music, so I can prove that they suck.”

Years later, in his autobiography, he acknowledged that the action was not very elegant: “It was a really childish gesture, but I honestly didn’t think anyone would notice. But they did. Anyone who didn’t know my somewhat caustic humor probably thought I was some kind of evil psychopath. Blur were (and are) far from my favorite band, but it wasn’t worth it for all the fuss that followed. For weeks the pages of letters to the editor of the music press were full of furious Britpop fans, horrified at the audacity of anyone who dared criticize their idols. I remember my mother telling me that we shouldn’t feel like we had to speak badly of other bands because people appreciated our music for what it was. She was right, of course, but I was too young and naive to understand it.”

Unlike what happened with the ‘bitter’ enemies Oasisi Blur they chose to stay out of the controversy. The guitarist of Blur, Graham Coxonwas a fan of the Mogwai. In 2015, when a fan on Twitter asked him: “Do you think Mogwai sucks?”, the guitarist replied: “Absolutely not, far from it.” Comforted by hindsight, Stuart Braithwaite he now says: “I’m not entirely sure it was worth it, as much fun as it was at the time. After all, who really cares what the Mogwai think of Blur?”