The Tears track Refugee came on the radio when I was at work last week. It is very good. So good that I had one of those rare musical moments, where I had to stop what I was doing, turn it up louder, and listen to the entire track. You don't get many moments like that any more. Looking forward to buying the album. Brett was always a big Morrissey fan, and Suede where a great live band,

their early releases were very strong, and the b sides were strong also. But they failed to capitalise on it - butler thought he was a guitar god (i saw him live and can confirm that he is his own biggest fan!) and brett's battle with addiction (enough said). But i did hear the comparisons and initially agreed.

The new Tears single is great. Very catchy. How refreshing to have some one express a little bit of solidarity with refugees. The current atmosphere of hatred being whipped up towards gypsies and asylum seekers is scary. Back in 92, 93 Suede were very exciting and did indeed arouse comparison with the Smiths. The Drowners especially is a single I remember with huge affection. It all went pair-shaped of course with that difficult second album and Bernard walking out - it does have some great tracks though. Brett was the target of a wonderfully catty remark from El Moz, due to his adoration of Bowie: his biggest regret is not being Angie Bowie - LOL!

There were alot of comparisons to the Smiths. So much so that Brett Anderson thought he was as quotable as ol' Moz. Time proved they weren't anything but a passing band of promise that had failed.
Oh well.

suede is #3 in terms of 80s/90s brit pop for me, smiths/moz obviously being #1 and pulp being #2. suede were a great band, even though they did have a lot of boring songs. but remember, morrissey liked them enough to cover "my insatiable one."

I saw the tears in edinburgh and it was probably the closest feeling to actually seeing MoZ and Marr on stage together. There is just a special chemistry that some musicians have and they have certainly got it. Anderson likes to be challenged ny butler into writing creative music and the tears new album is my most eagerly anyticipated of the year so far. You can just look at the butler/anderson tracks in suede compared to the non butler/anderson tracks and make up your own mind! With the exception of half-a-dozen post A&B songs suede were average.

However, I would have reservations about seeing Moz and Marr together, without being the smiths. Although, A&B show how it could work!

ok this has nothing to do with this news item but this UK metro paper, is that the same free metro paper that you can get in most cities with an underground system (ex paris, montreal, New York, Stockholm etc)? it has the same name but a different layout. or did they just steal the whole idea including the name?

And Sci-Fi Lullabies is extraordinary.

Coming Up was one of the best albums of the nineties and that was without Butler.
It was also their most successful album.
A New Morning was criminally underated and ignored by the public and the music press.
I listen to it more than the first two albums

Another thing, in a Mojo article in June 1998, Bernard Butler was picking his favourite songs, one of which was "How Soon Is Now".
He said "It's funny how there two camps, the Johnny Marr fans and then there were committed Morrissey fans, the kind who still buy his records ...must be a sad bunch"
Never liked him much after that.

Therefore I'd be a lot happier if Suede, post 1994, got back together instead of this Tears stuff.

I can remember buying the issue of Melody Maker that featured Suede on the front cover...before they had even released a record. I didn't believe that any band could be so good that they deserved to grace the front page of one of the biggest selling music magazines in the country based only the strength of their live performances.

The article itself, as I remember, was typical Brett...lot's of Morrissey/Bowie affectations but charming despite or because of it. I thought they looked astonishing...effeminate yet defiantly masculine, other-worldly yet clearly British. I was intrigued.

When "The Drowners" was released I bought it on 12"...I actually played the b-side first by mistake. I couldn't quite believe what I had heard so I took the needle off the vinyl and returned it to the start before listening all the way through again. I was frightened to play "The Drowners" itself because I didn't think it could live up to the b-sides. "My Insatiable One" and "To The Birds" were simply head and shoulders above anything I had heard for a long time.

I needn't have worried..."The Drowners" was even better than the b-sides. Glam, punk, indie...Bowie, The Smiths, the Pistols...I could hear all of this but still couldn't say that I had heard anything like them before.

As important as the songs was the fact that the artwork was just breathtaking...a naked female form, bodypainted to look like some sort of decadent 1920's gangster. Utterly brilliant.

What followed was a glorious stream of classic British pop music...flying in the face of K**t Cobain and his odious ilk Suede reeked of glamour, style, verve, grace and style.

"Metal Mickey", "Animal Lover", "So Young" and the debut album "Suede" were all as close to pop perfection as any group had managed since the demise of The Smiths. There influences were obvious but they themselves rose above them to create something uniquely their own.

When "Stay Together" was released on Valentine Day 1994 it marked the transformation of Suede from indie classics to bona fide pop stars. That record was epic, magnificent and bold. No other group would have dared to release anything like it at that time. No other band could have released anything like it. Suede were it for me at that point. They were close to becoming a band to stand side by side with The Smiths...for me, they may even at that point have gone on to surpass them.

"Dog Man Star" and the departure of Bernard Butler in less than happy circumstances...heroin, believing your own hype...lazyness...the next couple of years took their toll on this band I loved so much.

The album itself is a masterpiece...I know Butler hates it, hates the production, but for me it is the great lost album of the 90's. It is gothic, haunting, melancholy...but at the same time it contains moments of pure pop. The highlight for me is the operatic "Still Life" which remains to this day my favourite song...not just by Suede but by anyone.

Britpop offered Suede mainstream success which they gleefully took..."Coming Up" was the best of all the Britpop "classics", easily in a different league to "Parklife" "Definitely Maybe" and "Different Class". 5 hit singles, a glorious tour, media saturation, more great artwork and a clutch of superb b-sides. The world was theirs...could they take it?

No is the answer. "Head Music" while playing home to some lovely singles, especially the divine "She's in Fashiion", just wasn't what it needed to be. It neither matched nor bettered "Coming Up" and the band looked destined for the pop dumpster along with all the other "Britpoppers".

"A New Morning" was a much better album than "Head Music" but their time had been and gone...the world wasn't listening. A few of us were...I genuinely love that album, alongside "Dog Man Star" it is my favourite.

So...a band who could have been the best? Maybe, and I think history will judge them kindly.

For now we have "The Tears".

I love Suede but they really fell off after Head Music. A New Morning was crap. Best album: Dog Man Star.

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