1996 was the year that, in terms of age, I became an adult, although we all know that still hasn't actually happened yet in most ways. It was the year I sat my A levels, the year I started university, the year I had some money that wasn't just pocket money.
When I received my grant money (it was lucky timing that I managed to get a grant to cover my costs and not need to rely on loans like anyone that came after me) I allowed myself £38 a week, almost half went on bus fares and most of the rest on free periods wandering around Middlesbrough's record shops.
Back then I had a choice of HMV and two independents, Playback and Alan Fearnley's. Playback was pretty small, but a great source for cheap CD singles and albums I could take a chance on for a fiver. Alan Fearnley's was more vinyl-oriented but still got plenty of bargains. There was many a time where I'd spend a full hour browsing and walk up to the counter with only a 50p CD single!
My source of hearing new music had to change too, in terms of rock and metal I had been introduced to loads of new music by videoing Raw Power/Noisy Mothers overnight, but when that was axed I was reliant on free CDs with Kerrang and, starting with the December 96 issue, Metal Hammer.
That covered new rock and metal bands but I also got new indie/rock sounds from gigs, mostly from the weekly indie night at Middlesbrough Arena, doubling my tally of 10 gigs in 1995 to 20 in 1996:
19/01/96 Shed 7, Soda (@Middlesbrough Arena)
02/02/96 Cecil, Bullyrag (@Middlesbrough Arena)
06/02/96 Honeycrack, Schtum (@Middlesbrough Cornerhouse)
23/02/96 Perfume, Cooper, 1941 (@Middlesbrough Arena)
08/03/96 Sultans, Mansun (@Middlesbrough Arena)
05/04/96 Bis, Kenickie (@Middlesbrough Arena)
30/04/96 60ft Dolls (@Middlesbrough Cornerhouse)
03/05/96 Inaura, Helter Skelter (@Middlesbrough Arena)
24/05/96 Manic Street Preachers, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci (@Middlesbrough Town Hall)
24/05/96 Sneaker Pimps (@Middlesbrough Arena)
28/06/96 Octopus, Geneva (@Middlesbrough Arena)
02/08/96 Senser, Agent Provocateur (@Middlesbrough Arena)
04/10/96 Kenickie, Gold Blade (@Middlesbrough Arena)
11/10/96 Salad, Brassy (@Middlesbrough Arena)
25/10/96 Urusei Yatsura, Eska (@Middlesbrough Arena)
01/11/96 Catatonia, Diggers, Big Leaves (@Middlesbrough Arena)
08/11/96 Symposium, Speedy (@Middlesbrough Arena)
05/12/96 Northside (@Middlesbrough Arena)
06/12/96 3 Colours Red, Symposium (@Middlesbrough Arena)
13/12/96 Rachel Stamp, Circus (@Middlesbrough Arena)
Between finishing my A levels and starting university, in the summer of 96 I had the longest holiday from education I'd ever had and it resulted in a prolific year in terms of making my own music. Over the year there were 2 albums and 2 EPs from my pop-punk band Spraypaint (then called Marvin), an album by my industrial band Uranium, 4 albums by me and my brother's band Pyf Belly Machine, 2 EPs by the masters of the sub-minute classic The Personnel and a few odds and sods including an anarcho-punk album going under the name of Land Army.
The best Spraypaint songs can be found here with virtually all of them apart from the first 3 being from 1996 (the first 3 being 1995). Bad singing, fizzing guitars and bubbling Senseless Things basslines were the order of the day.
There was also a bizarre appearance by Pyf Belly Machine on a benefit tape alongside a handful of anarcho-punk bands and some bands we'd actually heard of. Our song just happened to be a cover of Blame it on the Boogie we'd recorded the previous year, which was an interesting choice amid the "proper" bands, but can be found on the Spraypaint link above.
But the most important development was the creation of my first metal band, Oakenshield (later to become Beneath Utopia). A mini-album recorded when I really should have been revising for my A levels and a full album a few months later saw a prolific start. Initial Bolt Thrower influences dominated, but other favourites of the time such as Fear Factory also crept into the mix. If you're intrigued you can find the results in the discography here as Oakenshield and Something to Fear. They're not amazing but they're also not bad for a 17/18 year old writing metal for the first time.
The best Spraypaint songs can be found here with virtually all of them apart from the first 3 being from 1996 (the first 3 being 1995). Bad singing, fizzing guitars and bubbling Senseless Things basslines were the order of the day.
There was also a bizarre appearance by Pyf Belly Machine on a benefit tape alongside a handful of anarcho-punk bands and some bands we'd actually heard of. Our song just happened to be a cover of Blame it on the Boogie we'd recorded the previous year, which was an interesting choice amid the "proper" bands, but can be found on the Spraypaint link above.
But the most important development was the creation of my first metal band, Oakenshield (later to become Beneath Utopia). A mini-album recorded when I really should have been revising for my A levels and a full album a few months later saw a prolific start. Initial Bolt Thrower influences dominated, but other favourites of the time such as Fear Factory also crept into the mix. If you're intrigued you can find the results in the discography here as Oakenshield and Something to Fear. They're not amazing but they're also not bad for a 17/18 year old writing metal for the first time.
It might sound strange to some but 1996 is probably the year where I start to consider albums as being "new". So Roots, Great Southern Trendkill, Load, Everything Must Go etc. they're not albums that formed my love of a band, they're NEW ones. And yes, I do know that they're now 23 years old. And quite a few of those albums were a little bit disappointing compared to what came before. Pearl Jam, Bush, Soundgarden, Sepultura, Pantera, Metallica, Rage Against the Machine - all released albums in 1996 that were good, but weren't up to the high standards that they'd set previously. But other bands moved in to stake their claim.
As far as this chart goes, Cradle of Filth, Feeder and Bal-Sagoth took some prominent places and due to my extra spending money some bands I was now able to take a chance on like Floodgate, Gravity Kills and Pist.on appeared from nowhere. But the Manics took the honours with their triumphant return from the disappearance of Richey Edwards. It could have been the end, but with a complete reinvention and the sentiment that "Everything Must Go" they returned from the brink in a blaze of hits and awards.
As far as this chart goes, Cradle of Filth, Feeder and Bal-Sagoth took some prominent places and due to my extra spending money some bands I was now able to take a chance on like Floodgate, Gravity Kills and Pist.on appeared from nowhere. But the Manics took the honours with their triumphant return from the disappearance of Richey Edwards. It could have been the end, but with a complete reinvention and the sentiment that "Everything Must Go" they returned from the brink in a blaze of hits and awards.
The honourable mentions for bands that made the shortlist this time but don't feature in the final 75 are Cathedral, Will Haven, Bluetones, Arch Enemy, Kerbdog, Darkthrone, Pearl Jam, Placebo and Bush.
1. Manic Street Preachers - A Design For Life
2. Cradle of Filth - Queen of Winter, Throned
3. Feeder - Descend
4. Cradle of Filth - Funeral in Carpathia
5. Soundgarden - Burden in my Hand
6. Lightning Seeds - Three Lions
7. Cradle of Filth - Dusk and Her Embrace
8. Bal-Sagoth - The Splendour of a Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath the Blazon of the Hyperborean Empire
9. China Drum - Can't Stop These Things
10. Manic Street Preachers - Enola/Alone
11. Babylon Zoo - The Boy With the X-Ray Eyes
12. Republica - Ready To Go
13. Suede - Trash
14. Manic Street Preachers - No Surface All Feeling
15. Soundgarden - Pretty Noose
16. 60ft Dolls - Pig Valentine
17. Republica - Drop Dead Gorgeous
18. Gravity Kills - Enough
19. Bal-Sagoth - Starfire Burning Upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule
20. Shed 7 - Getting Better
21. China Drum - Wuthering Heights
22. Manic Street Preachers - Australia
23. Pantera - Suicide Note Pt. II
24. Bal-Sagoth - As the Vortex Illumines the Crystalline Walls of Kor-Avul-Thaa
25. Korn - Good God
26. Cradle of Filth - Malice Through the Looking Glass
27. Metallica - Ain't My Bitch
28. Pist.on - Grey Flap
29. Cecil - No Excuses
30. Honeycrack - Sitting at Home
31. Manic Street Preachers - The Girl Who Wanted to be God
32. Catatonia - Bleed
33. Manic Street Preachers - Everything Must Go
34. Cradle of Filth - The Forest Whispers My Name
35. Suede - Beautiful Ones
36. Shed 7 - Where Have You Been Tonight?
37. Cradle of Filth - Heaven Torn Asunder
38. Feeder - Sweet 16
39. Feeder - Shade
40. Manic Street Preachers - Small Black Flowers That Grow in the Sky
41. Sepultura - Roots Bloody Roots
42. Napalm Death - Greed Killing
43. Dark Funeral - When Angels Forever Die
44. Manic Street Preachers - Sepia
45. Rage Against the Machine - People of the Sun
46. Rage Against the Machine - Bulls on Parade
47. Feeder - Stereo World
48. Marilyn Manson - The Beautiful People
49. China Drum - Fall Into Place
50. Babylon Zoo - Spaceman
51. Marilyn Manson - The Reflecting God
52. Metallica - King Nothing
53. Metallica - Bleeding Me
54. Type O Negative - My Girlfriend's Girlfriend
55. Honeycrack - Go Away
56. Kula Shaker - Hey Dude
57. Bal-Sagoth - To Dethrone the Witch-Queen of Mytos K'unn (The Legend of the Battle of Blackhelm Vale)
58. Bal-Sagoth - In the Raven-Haunted Forests of Darkenhold, Where the Shadows Reign and the Hues of Sunlight Never Dance
59. 60ft Dolls - Stay
60. Manic Street Preachers - Interiors (Song for Willem de Kooning)
61. Shed 7 - On Standby
62. Soundgarden - Blow Up the Outside World
63. Floodgate - Till My Soil
64. The Blood Divine - Aureole
65. Ash - Lose Control
66. Feeder - World Asleep
67. Bal-Sagoth - And Lo, When the Imperium Marches Against Gul-Kothoth, Then Dark Sorceries Shall Enshroud the Citadel of the Obsidian Crown
68. My Dying Bride - For You
69. Metallica - The Outlaw Torn
70. My Dying Bride - A Kiss To Remember
71. Ocean Colour Scene - The Riverboat Song
72. The Divine Comedy - Becoming More Like Alfie
73. Samael - Jupiterian Vibe
74. Honeycrack - I Hate Myself & Everybody Else
75. Napalm Death - My Own Worst Enemy
