Ten years in tune!
On March 16th 1995, The Raft was born. It was launched to the sound of a million investment bankers getting prematurely excited about the rise of the internet. It was one of the first music sites to give comprehensive news on bands that you loved and really cared about. Seminal artists such as The Chemical Bothers, Massive Attack and The Verve shaped the music landscape forever. For the first time in the 90s, British music was back on the map after a long hiatus last seen by the likes of Duran Duran and Wham.
Bizarrely the launch coincided with the mysterious disappearance of Manic Street Preachers genius ‘Richie Edwards’. He has still not been found today but sightings continue to come in from people all over the world. His car was found abandoned on the motorway and the police at the time believed that Richie had taken his own life as he had been suffering from mental problems leading up to the disappearance. The fact that he taken out a large chunk of money may have suggested otherwise and to this day, the band pay in royalties and his family refuse to believe that he has gone for good.
The site has had several face lifts over the years keeping up with the latest technology and designs. (did you know that the original page took over 10 minutes to download!! Broadband was a mere sparkle in a modems’ eye. Back in the day, the Raft was not a comprehensive site as it is today. It essentially represented those new bands that were high in kudos and higher in defining genres. It’s sister sites Popgoss took care of the Popworld while Eden was the mother of all the grown up artists like George Michael, Genesis and Roxy Music. 4 years ago the 3 sites became 1 under the banner of The Raft.
So what other stories have happened in the last 10 years that we have covered on The Raft?! Well luckily with rock and popstars there’s never any shortage of news!
Around the time the raft was born – grunge had just died, British music was once again standing up to be counted and bands were coming out of the woodwork faster than Liam Gallagher could swing punches at photographers. There was one act that was doing it’s own thing amongst all this upheaval of guitars and attitude – The Chemical Brothers were (as they still are today!) the patrons of dance music in a whirlwind of brash indie bands. The Raft has fostered a close relationship with Tom and Ed over the past ten years – and it’s still going strong. Only last year we filmed a world exclusive interview with the pair on the subject of their brand new studio album Push The Button (2005).
Another big story as The raft was launching was the media fuelled feud between Oasis and Blur culminating in a race to Number 1 (Incidentally Blur won it with Country House although to be fair Oasis headlined Knebworth twice in 96 showing off their enormous live potential!)
1996 saw the entire world dominated by 5 girls known as Sporty, Posh, Scary, Ginger and Baby. They were also known as Mel C, Mel B, Geri, Emma Bunton and Victoria . Oh and perhaps even more well known as The Spice Girls! The Girls racked up over 40 million album sales in about 2 years and toured the world totally dominating every corner! The year of Trainspotting, Cool Britannia and TFI Friday – ’96 was a real vintage year. Although like most things, you don’t appreciate the quality until it’s gone. Now The Raft is one year old, and it’s cooing and gurgling and smiling and beginning to grow teeth!
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About Petrol Records
About Petrol Records
