1997-2010 Closer Than Close The People's History of Pop

Pete Doherty is by far the most important man of our generation,

the most talented writer and poet, because he can teach us that,

you know, life can be a mess, but you have to appreciate those times,

because if you don't appreciate those times, how are you going to appreciate it when something's

glorious or something magical's happening?

MUSIC: Song 2 by Blur

Pop music has chronicled our lives and brought us closer together.

This is its story, told by those who love it the most.

The fans.

SCREAMING

Over the last year,

fans from all over the country have been digging out and sharing with us

some of their most treasured, rare and personal memorabilia.

A home-made tribute.

A special snapshot.

A cheeky biro.

All precious and all with a wonderful story.

We've underlined all the words

that really meant something to us at the time!

They probably don't mean anything now, do they, though?

The rave scene brought people together and gave us smiley culture!

This is my first album, Catch A Fire.

Sister took me down to Woolworths to buy this one.

So, whether you're a fan of grime or indie, synthpop or jazz,

girl bands, prog, or if, like me, you're fond of a bit of dance and hip-hop,

this is about us, the people at the very heart of this thing called pop.

SCREAMING

Tonight we begin in 1997.

As we crossed into the next century, eclecticism ruled and the lines

between all the different musical tribes began to blur.

Technology was ripping up the rule book for us fans, cos the way

we began to interact with our favourite bands changed forever.

SCREAMING

Up until now, us fans have loved bands from afar,

but in this era the gap between fan and band began to close.

It felt like everyone in the same gang.

They just welcomed everyone in and let them all be part of their world, really.

Amy, you could have moaned to her about your boyfriend or

about the guy that you'd got off with that hadn't called you and

she'd be there with you.

We were all really just in awe of her.

-She's incredible.

-I mean, as a live musician, I haven't seen anyone better, to be honest.

-She puts out her hands for a hug. It's like, "God, I'm hugging Adele!"

-HE LAUGHS

It's the time I went from music fan to spreading the word about

the latest new bands on Radio 1 and Top Of The Pops.

So, let's talk about...

..how the internet shook up our record collections.

How we called the shots.

How we got closer to our heroes.

In the late '90s, the internet has truly arrived,

opening up extraordinary horizons of information.

I think we're actually on the cusp of something exhilarating and terrifying.

But this new world was threatened by a calamitous computer

apocalypse that loomed at the end of the century.

Call 0845 601 2000 for your free action pack.

MUSIC: Paranoid Android by Radiohead

The digital age had us thrilled, scared and overloaded in equal measure.

But one band and its devoted fans seemed more attuned to the millennial anxiety,

and one record would capture our deepest fears and feelings.

In 1997, 15-year-old Emily couldn't wait for the UK release of

Radiohead's OK Computer.

Literally couldn't wait.

Really unglamorous peas box.

I've got a CD from Japan.

That's the Japanese one.

I pre-ordered it from HMV and it was, like, something ridiculous

like 30 quid, cos Japanese imports back then were so expensive.

But it just meant I got it a bit earlier.

It hit you. You know, Airbag smacked you in the face.

It was like, "Wow, what's that?"

-Exit Music is, "Oh, my God."

-SHE LAUGHS

# You can laugh... #

I can remember exactly where I was when I first heard it.

I was in a shopping arcade in the middle of Nottingham and I just,

like, had to just lean on the wall.

It sounds really over the top, but it's true!

The crescendo where it builds and his voice just comes up,

it's incredible.

# Now we are one... #

I was a very messed-up teenager.

I stopped going to school.

Then my dad died, which just made everything worse.

And Thom had...you know, there was a depressive slant to his lyrics, without being too overt.

And it was just Thom's portrayal of being an outsider as well

which appealed to me.

With bands like Radiohead, they sort of...you know,

they bring you in and accept you.

# They don't

# They don't speak for us... #

Student Lucy also wanted to be in Radiohead's gang and got her

copy of OK Computer early from Japan too.

But Lucy wanted to pick the right moment to hear it,

which was just after computing class.

I remember sitting listening to it on a sunny day,

having just come out of HTML class at uni, which was ironic,

and it just opening out and there being

a lot of songs I'd heard already that now sounded finished.

And things like Let Down that I'd never heard before,

and The Tourist, and just...

It just opening out and being, "This is their sound now.

"They don't sound like anybody else."

# Let down and hanging around... #

OK Computer in its final glory.

Then of course it starts getting all these amazing reviews, like,

out-of-sight crazy reviews everywhere.

Ten out of ten in the NME,

Uncut, five-star in Q.

Only four in the Guardian, but...

She later says, "In 2017 your grandchildren will still be analysing this,"

or something like that, which is scary.

'Scarily accurate, I would say.

'After OK Computer blew our minds,

'Radiohead were announced as Glastonbury headliners.'

Glastonbury was when they kind of go supernova,

and it's never quite the same after that.

Lucy didn't get tickets to Glastonbury, but young Emily did.

Glastonbury.

It's just the little guide that you got.

Got in. Pretty overwhelmed from the start, like,

"Whoa, there's so many people," and, "This is really terrifying."

# I know a place where the sun hits the sky... #

We just went down on the Saturday morning first thing,

to go and stand on the barrier.

And that's where we stayed all day.

Andy, can you turn on the lights so we can see the people,

-cos we haven't seen them yet.

-CHEERING

Thank you.

Hello.

I was so glad they were finally on,

and Thom was there and he looked beautiful.

And the lighting was really intense and very orange.

# Karma police, arrest this girl... #

I was literally yelling, "Thom!"

Which is on the footage.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

But I remember we were quite dehydrated.

We hadn't eaten, we hadn't moved.

I just went. I just fainted.

Gone, you know.

Obviously they dragged me out.

Then the next thing I remember is waking up lying on a haystack,

with a nurse offering me a Kit Kat, and I could hear Street Spirit

but I couldn't see it.

# Fade out again... #

After Glastonbury, I decided I wanted to see them more.

It was a fantastic experience doing all that.

Travelling the country, getting to see all these exciting cities, meeting all these cool people.

Just to be around people who get it. It was amazing.

CHEERING

Thank you.

After Radiohead,

waves of indie bands appeared each week in the NME and Melody Maker.

The likes of Stereophonics, Embrace and Travis.

The music mags had always told us who and what to like,

but some of us weren't having it any more.

I've seen Travis play live a few times now,

they are a fantastic festival band,

but I was lucky to get to see them at all.

Their second album was roundly trounced by the critics,

and the lads took those harsh words to heart.

They almost considered calling it a day.

That was until 16-year-old superfan Moray Swan got involved.

In 1999, 16-year-old Moray wrote to the music press to express his opinion.

This is a remarkable tale of a fan saving his favourite band.

-So, here we go.

-Here we have the letter.

-SARA GASPS

"The review of the Travis gig, Melody Maker, March 6th

-"pissed me off immensely."

-Yes, Moray!

"Its criticism was based around the fact that Travis write music

"from the heart and express themselves in their music.

-"But I'm sorry. What's so wrong with that?"

-Oh, this is a killer line.

"It's music that lasts, not the image.

"Beethoven and Bach are not remembered for their funky hairstyles.

-"Moray Swan, Aberdeenshire."

-Beautiful.

-So...

SARA CLAPS

I get the message I was trying to write.

I don't think I'd write it the same way just now.

# My inside is outside... #

Travis were now experimenting with a new-fangled website,

a place where lead singer Fran Healy was occasionally available for

a chat, which meant Moray found himself in more direct

contact than you could ever imagine.

Back in 1999, the band actually had a very basic message board.

I'd left a little note and Fran had responded to say,

"Is that Moray that wrote the letter into Melody Maker?"

I was like, "Oh, hi, Fran. Yeah, it is, it's me."

So, he said...

"As a way of saying thank you for what you've done,

"for you taking the time to do that, we're playing Glasgow in October,

"I'll put you down on the access-all-areas.

"Please come along to the show. It would be lovely to meet you and say thanks in person."

-Boom. OK.

-And I just kind of hit the floor.

MUSIC: U16 Girls by Travis

When I went up and introduced myself,

I couldn't get out my name before he went, "Moray!"

And he jumped up.

I got a hug as if it was a long-lost friend.

He was just saying, you know, what the letter had meant to him.

And when he read that, he thought, "There's a chink of light.

"Maybe it doesn't matter what the reviewers say.

"If the people get it, then we'll be OK."

And, yeah, by that point, the fans had got the music,

the people had cottoned on and they just exploded over the summer.

They played Glastonbury, the album had gone to number one.

Yeah, it was huge.

I mean, I was doing Radio 1 Breakfast at the time and we

just played it nonstop.

I mean, it was a massive album.

# Why does it always rain on me?

# Is it because I lied when I was 17? #

-But that is not the end of the story, is it?

-No.

15 years on from when the letter was written in 1999, myself and

my beautiful wife-to-be Paula were getting married in Edinburgh.

Little did I know in the background, Paula,

on very much a long shot, had sent an e-mail into the dark to

the band's management company at the time, saying,

"Hello, I'm Paula. I'm getting married to Moray Swan. Fran knows him.

"It would be lovely if you could play the first dance for us."

I've got goose bumps, that's so nice!

So, she did that about six weeks before the wedding.

So, I was going to ask you what your reaction was,

but you can show me, can't you, cos you've got some footage of it?

Go on, let's see.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

-And there's Fran!

-There he goes.

-Yeah.

-With his marvellous beard.

The only problem that I had,

it was our own personal show from our musical hero and

everybody else got to watch him,

and for at least half the time I'm spinning and looking the wrong way.

# Out in the crowd, you are one in a million

# And I love you so

# Let's watch the flowers grow... #

Moray, it's been nice hearing the whole story.

-Will you let me know what the next instalment is, please?

-Sure. Yeah.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

A story that only happened thanks to Moray and Fran's love of music

and the direct connection digital technology allowed.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

For our kid brothers and sisters, indie was far too serious.

Much more fun was the glitzy chart pop on, well, Radio 1,

and our growing fascination with celebrities.

We wanted to know more and more details about,

and get unprecedented access to, our pop stars' lives.

13-year-old Malcolm was captivated with the stars he saw in magazines.

All this kind of obsession of, like, actually going to see pop stars

and things in the flesh started, because I was a massive Eternal fan.

# Stay, stay... #

And, yeah, these are, like, concert banners.

That was, like, a Kelle from Eternal one.

'When Malcolm's home-made banners weren't getting the attention of

'his favourite member of Eternal, he wrote to her.

'And one day the phone rang.'

I was upstairs and my sister called me and she said,

"Oh, my God, I think Kelle from Eternal's on the phone."

And I was like, "Oh, my God, she got my letter!"

And, yeah, I went downstairs and... yeah, and it was her.

# Ah-h-h-h, do you, do you, do you, do you feel the power? #

I had a chat with her for about, I don't know,

20, 25 minutes or something and it was just, like,

the most bizarre thing, cos that was my first-ever interaction

with any pop star and I was absolutely besotted with Eternal.

This kick-started Malcolm's mission to get closer to the bands

he loved, and there was one perfect place to go.

The Brit Awards was just, like, the ultimate thing growing up.

Everyone watched it, whether they were kind of really into pop music

or not, but no fans kind of at that time had access.

So, Malcolm and his mates hatched an audacious plan - to go where

no fan had gone before.

One of my friends just starts sketching the pass that was,

like, around this guy's neck.

And we thought, "Why not just, like, give it a go and kind of

"try and create one?"

Went to my dad's office and we made these passes.

-So, it was like...it was so basic!

-HE LAUGHS

# I'm a burning effigy of everything I used to be... #

And we went down to the arena and, yeah, we walked in.

# Let me entertain you... #

We watched the entire show and went to the aftershow party.

Whitney Houston was there, the Eurythmics, Cher and, like,

just all these enormous stars, and it was like, "What is going on?

"This is... We're never, ever going to beat this."

-And I was 15 at the time!

-HE LAUGHS

It was just absolutely ridiculous!

I don't know how we got away with doing that.

Malcolm's escapades got him closer to, and later friendly with,

the stars he idolised.

I grew up in, like, real suburbia in Surrey and it was

kind of escaping this world which I found really boring

and plain and stuff,

and just getting on the train and being part of this glitzy world

of, like, showbiz and pop stars and we just wanted to be part of that.

It was just my world, it was just our world.

MUSIC: C'est La Vie by B*Witched.

It wasn't just teenagers trying to escape.

Those of us working nine to five also wanted to lose ourselves in another world.

# God is a DJ... #

Hordes of us were devouring music in the hours when pop fans were

safely tucked up in bed.

And the club nights had to get bigger to cater for us all.

I had an absolute ball at some of these huge nights,

from Bugged Out to Back To Basics.

And as the clubs got bigger and bigger, they got branded.

This is the era of the superclub.

# This is my church... #

Now these clubbing brands were our idols, it was the club nights we now

worshipped, from Cream in Liverpool to Ministry of Sound in London.

And to ensure we got in, we wore our best designer togs - Diesel,

Red or Dead, Patrick Cox loafers - no relation.

Leeds-born Rob was a devoted fan of Gatecrasher,

a club night based in Sheffield.

So much so he created his own Gatecrasher uniforms,

adorned with the club's lion logo.

Less designer store, more pet emporium.

Signature look was the top that I was most renowned for.

As you can see, it's had a bit of wear and tear over the years.

But this is kind of sort of my trademark top that, you know,

I custom-made.

With a "risk of electric shock" warning sign that I pinched off

the back of a drinks machine...

This is the flashing collar that I used to wear with my outfit.

It's actually a dog collar that I bought from a pet shop.

Rob was devoted to Gatecrasher. It became his spiritual home.

I'd gone through a few issues with regards to family moving away,

sort of leaving me, persuading me not to move back to Leeds

with them because I had a job.

I was working in a factory.

I was basically sofa-surfing.

Sometimes I even... I ended up,

you know, having to live out of my car for, you know, a week,

two weeks at a time.

Erm...

But, yeah, you know, it was all about living for the weekend and Gatecrasher.

# You're not alone... #

Rob loved Gatecrasher as much as any superfan loves their band,

and any memento of a great night out was treasured.

Here's a couple of lanyards from the Millennium.

And also from the Summer Sound System events that Gatecrasher held.

One of the projector slides.

This is the front of the cigarette machine.

MUSIC: Kernkraft 400 by Zombie Nation

We were all kind of sort of travelling the length and

breadth of Britain every Saturday, and going and supporting our club.

You think about the tribalism and the culture with football fans,

you know, and it was very much like that.

It was an identity, it was part of who we were.

Without the DJs offering much to mimic fashion-wise,

Rob and his friends with their home-made outfits were starting

a brand-new tribe on the dance floor - the Gatecrasher Kids.

The Gatecrasher Kids were someone that had a unique style.

If it was a lad that had spiked hair, colours in it,

we'd all congregate around the front of the stage and on the railings.

Really, it was kind of sort of the figurepoint of what almost became Gatecrasher's identity.

Rob and his friends noticed more and more clubbers joining their

Crasher Kid tribe, and so did the press.

For me the explosion really was myself and Lee appearing on

the cover of DJ Magazine.

At the time we were actually the first non-DJs to appear on

the front cover of the magazine

so it was an absolutely defining moment.

People were stopping asking for your photos.

We've had to sign front covers of DJ Magazines.

It almost became like a celebrity status.

It was just so weird.

We were just a group of people that went to a nightclub.

At the time, with regards to superclubs and things like that,

people, the crowd, go to see the DJs or the line-up.

People were coming to see us just as much as the DJs

and to experience the venue.

# I need a miracle, I need a miracle. #

It was the biggest influence I've had on my life.

When you look at the core group of friends that I've got,

they've all come from Gatecrasher.

I've got the tattoo on my arm - Gatecrasher's slogan in Spanish.

I definitely think it's defined me

and it's made me the person that I am today.

We played a lot of dance music on Radio 1 in the late '90s

but to get onto the playlist

songs usually had to have a mainstream record label behind them.

Fans of music that hadn't yet been picked up by the record industry

found it hard to hear new tracks.

Carl from Ipswich loved a new, very British sound called UK garage

that was struggling to be heard legally.

The only option was to tune in to pirate radio in his car.

At the time I was working as a chef.

Every two weeks I'd go down to London.

Coming straight in, you're fiddling with the stations.

Pirate radio was king.

You've got stations set up just for UK garage.

One of them would be London Underground.

You'd have ICE FM, you'd have Magic FM.

The music was something else.

They'd be playing all the latest dubs.

It got competitive as well.

Sometimes London Underground's not on and then you'd hear later on in

the week that someone from Deja Vu had gone over to London Underground

and so they're on and they're not on.

The pirates helped the music industry in this country.

Without that, we wouldn't have been where we are today.

The UK garage the pirates were playing was

a combination of the melodies of American house with the

basslines and fast tempo of jungle,

but the DJs would cherry-pick from any genre to keep everyone dancing.

UK garage, it spoke to me.

I loved the soulfulness.

I loved the soulfulness, the R&B tracks.

Some of the UK-garage DJs would listen to an R&B track and

completely sweep it around and you'd think, "Wow, that is good, man!"

# Be sincere

# I'm crazy

# Don't do it. #

As pirate radio was spreading the sound,

UK-garage club nights were popping up all over London

and Carl was at the heart of this new club scene.

This is the famous Twice As Nice.

This was one of the big clubs.

Eight o'clock to 3am in the morning.

I don't know how people got to work.

I don't know how I got to work.

Oh, my God, that was so good.

# Do you really like it? #

UK-garage clubbers dressed up. It was all about looking your best.

Everyone's dressed to the nines.

People wanted to feel good and look good and feel important.

Everything was up class.

If you were wearing trainers you couldn't get it.

Once you got in, you might see celebrities.

But I was down there for the music.

I was always looking at the tune, trying to get the latest tune.

All those times, I wish they could come back.

# Re-rewind, inter selecta. #

Fan power drove UK garage over into the mainstream.

With the sheer amount of people loving it,

it was only a matter of time before it got into the charts

and it was now debuting in the top ten.

Tracks like Artful Dodger's Re-Rewind...

# Making waves, yeah. #

..Shanks & Bigfoot's Sweet Like Chocolate...

# Sweet like chocolate, boy. #

..and Craig David's Fill Me In,

which went straight in at number one.

# All right. #

Craig David was one of the biggest names in UK garage.

He was the sort of figurehead.

If you turned on Top Of The Pops or whatever,

you saw Craig David doing a world tour.

You went, "Oh, my God, he's from Southampton."

# Can you fill me in?

# I think I'll sing it again, I think I'll sing it again. #

Carl felt UK garage was an important moment in black music history.

UK garage was the first time that... we could say that was ours.

Garage was multicultural.

It was a black movement but you had a lot of white players

in there as well, but the main thing was it was British.

# I said, can you fill me in? #

UK garage was a grassroots sound that had snuck up on

the music industry thanks to the sheer enthusiasm of the fans.

Slowly the industry was cottoning on to the power of what we could do

to spread the word about a sound or band.

In the glossy world of music videos, however,

fans were never seen on screen.

But that didn't stop our new-found fascination with filming ourselves,

inspired by Video Nation and our increased access to video cameras.

So, in this sideboard here is where I keep my original

Feeder Just A Day videotape.

TRACK BEGINS

And there I am just standing around in the middle of the video.

Welsh rock band Feeder understood the power of fans and for

the first time ever asked them to be in the video for their 2001 track

Just A Day.

14-year-old Feeder fan Mark heard about the video

in a band newsletter.

So they said, "We want you to put the song on in your bedroom

"and just film yourself just doing whatever."

# Waking up at 12 in my clothes again

# Feel my head explode from a night of gin. #

So one Saturday afternoon I took myself up to my bedroom,

set the video camera up in the corner, got the guitar out,

bounced around the room, sang into the camera.

Put all my details on the cassette, stuck it in a bag,

sent it in the post and didn't really think more of it.

I was off on my paper round one morning and then came back to

my phone and there was a text on there that said,

"I've just seen you on TV."

HE LAUGHS

That just makes me laugh when I see that one.

Just those moves are like...

I can see myself moving like that when I was that age.

Looking back I just think why didn't you move a bit more?

Why didn't you do this, that or the other?

The strange thing is, by watching it I feel like I know all these people,

having never met any of them.

# Your friend, I blame myself. #

When this came out I don't think anyone had done anything

quite like it, which seems like such a simple idea for a video.

2001, pre-YouTube, pre-Myspace, pre any of that.

That didn't exist.

I still feel something, you know, when I see it,

like I saw it for the first time, because it is a part of my history.

'Don't know where that came from.'

Appearing in pop stars' videos wasn't enough.

We now wanted to be part of their lives, their struggle for success,

even to judge who would make it,

and Saturday-night telly was feeding this desire.

For the first time in ages,

whole families were coming together to watch the same music on

a Saturday night, old-fashioned entertainment with a twist,

letting us decide who would win or lose.

It was huge. We all had an emotional stake in the outcome

and it mattered for all sorts of reasons.

Mother and daughter Zoe and Jane had never liked the same singer before

until they both found themselves glued to the screen.

Pop Idol was a new show and it came really for us at the right time,

because my husband had just recently passed away

and I wasn't in a good place at all.

Pop Idol gave me a purpose

whereby it was something to look forward to.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Will was their favourite from the beginning.

There was just something about him.

He didn't take any rubbish from anybody

and I knew that he had a good voice.

It made me want to pick up the phone to vote because I wanted him to win.

I'd never done anything like that before ever.

Will v Gareth was the ultimate talent contest, all decided by us,

so they campaigned election-style to secure our vote.

-NEWSREADER:

-They've got the screaming girls.

They've got their own merchandising.

They've even got their own buses.

Yes, it's Will versus Gareth in the final of Pop Idol,

and with the big day less than a week away,

the attention being focused on these wannabe superstars

is getting more and more intense.

Gareth Gates was initially the favourite to win but no-one

knew the result until nearly 13 million of us

were sat in front of our TVs for the live final.

The winner of Pop Idol...

I remember sitting there thinking,

"Oh, just get on with it. I can't stand this. Just get on!"

Then I just said, "Oh, Gareth's won. He's won. Gareth's won.

"Will's got no chance."

..Will!

SCREAMING AND APPLAUSE

-Really? Pardon?

-Will!

I remember actually shouting up, jumping up, "Yes, yes, yes!"

# I'm going to take this moment. #

After helping him win Pop Idol and buying his single Evergreen

to get him a Christmas number one,

Zoe and Jane then bought tickets to every Will Young gig they could.

We've been all over the place.

He's such a fantastic live vocalist.

It seems to us like he's singing to us.

That's how it makes you feel.

# I think I'd better leave right now

# Before I fall any deeper. #

After helping to create their star,

Zoe and Jane continue to support Will by buying all his merchandise.

Everywhere we've been to, we just buy everything.

T-shirts, programmes, mugs.

-Drink your tea with Will.

-Yeah.

Filling walls and shelves was not enough to sate their appetite,

so they signed up for the Will Weekenders,

mini-breaks with other Will fans.

These are the badges that we used to have.

-Reading was the first one...

-The first one.

..and that was just a mad weekend from beginning to end.

It was everything Will.

The music, quizzes.

-Karaoke.

-Karaoke.

-You name it.

-Raffles.

-Raffles, everything.

That's what we had to eat, look.

Melon, chicken, cheese and coffee with mints.

We have had some wonderful times.

We go everywhere. We really do.

Do everything together, within reason.

Will-wise.

Yes.

# I think I'd better leave right now... #

Without Will, personally, I don't know where I would have been.

I can't say. I just don't know.

I know that it was the best thing that happened to me...

..and I wish Will knew how much he enriches people's lives.

# I think I'd better leave right now. #

Whilst we pushed Will and the other pop idols up the charts in

the early 2000s, not everything at this point was so neatly packaged.

Some of it recalled the raw energy of punk.

# I saw two shadow men on the Vallance Road

# Said they'd pay me for your address

# Oh, I was so bold. #

It's 2002 and a brand-new band explodes onto the scene

that makes everyone at Radio 1 sit up and pay attention.

The buzz around The Libertines reverberated through us all.

They were raw, they were loud, they were sexy, they were cool.

And they prided themselves on being close to their fans

from the very beginning.

Lead singer Pete attracted an especially devoted following.

Yeah, his lyrics are like poetry,

like how he releases music on the internet. No-one else does that.

That's, like, a direct link between me and him,

that he's releasing his music on the internet.

That means so much to me and all the fans,

cos it's as if he's talking to you, straight to you.

No-one else has got that.

I'm on my way now to meet a fan who was there from the very beginning

and quickly found himself at the heart of the Libertines world.

This is their fanzine,

-the one and only fanzine that they released for the fan club...

-OK.

..a newsletter and my membership card as well.

What advantages were there to having this card?

Well, it was supposed to get us into a special fan-club gig, that

didn't happen cos they split up.

-So they managed to get out one fanzine before splitting up?

-Yeah.

So here we go, we've got the Chronicle, the magazine.

"Albion is our vessel.

"Arcadia is our destination and our starting point.

"We needn't have a Classical education or a British passport.

"Only an imagination."

This, when you're 18, it's really cool, isn't it?

-Were you just totally on that ship with them?

-Definitely, yeah.

We're here now in Camden.

It's now called The Assembly Rooms but it used to be The Barfly.

You saw them here, didn't you?

To hear The Libertines live was completely different to

pretty much any other gig I'd been to.

I'd read about gigs by The Clash,

so to see The Libertines live was almost like that.

It was just the four of them on stage,

just kind of banging through the songs.

-You got to know Pete pretty well, didn't you?

-Yeah.

The first time I met him we were sat in the pub and then

Pete Doherty just walks in.

There's literally us and no-one else and my friend went up to him.

She just said to him, "Are you and Carl going to fight tonight?"

What did he say?

He just turned around and said, like,

-"No, I'm going to fight him," and pointed at me.

-Beautiful.

-And this is where the relationship began, a beautiful friendship.

-Yeah.

Do you feel like he just felt like one of the guys, really?

Yeah, definitely.

I mean, that's the way I think he seemed to come across

all throughout. It was almost as if he felt

like one of the fans himself.

-He was a fan of the band...

-Yeah.

-..as much as everyone else.

# They'll never forgive you but they won't let you go... #

You went on to see The Libertines play at quite a...

-well, a more unusual venue, didn't you?

-Yeah.

Let's have a look.

OK, so...

-Oh, where's this?

-This is in Pete's flat in Whitechapel.

OK. Gosh.

GUITAR PLAYS

# I'll never say never

# I'll never say never again... #

Pete would go online and go on the message board and say,

"I'm playing a gig in my flat tonight."

Up until now really, I mean, most bands and artists,

they want to keep their home address completely private so there's

no fans hanging around, nobody knows where they are,

-but here he is, inviting people into his actual home.

-Yeah.

# Bare necessities of mother nature's recipes... #

That's you, isn't it?!

I spotted you. HE LAUGHS

INDISTINCT SPEECH AND LAUGHTER

They just welcomed everyone in,

let them all be part of their world, really.

-It felt like you'd kind of had a look behind the scenes, or...

-Yeah.

They just got everyone involved, got everyone in the same gang.

Don't forget your membership card,

because it might come in handy again, you never know!

You might be able to collect some points on it.

-I'll take it right now.

-HE LAUGHS

MUSIC FADES OUT

Out of that same north-London cool came a star with the voice

of a jazz siren and a connection to her fans that was closer

and deeper than any pop diva.

# You should be stronger than me... #

Uni student Sarah was the same age as Amy

and was smitten from the start.

These are some posters that I was really...I was really thrilled...

And it's double-sided, which I found very exciting.

That... I knew all the numbers!

I knew all the numbers, cos I'd looked at it so much.

# When you walk in the bar and you're dressed like a star... #

Desperate to see her live, Sarah dragged her friends to Amy's

next gig, a jazz festival in Wales.

So, this is...this is a set list, obviously,

from the first gig that I saw her at.

It was a very well-behaved crowd and they were all sat down and

they were all in very neat rows and my friend and I were at the front

and we were singing along,

really dancing, and so she was like, "I love these girls!

"I love these girls!" And everybody else was kind of...

Which must have been, like, really difficult for her, cos she just...

she was like, "Oh, come on! Come on, let's go."

Finally, on the last song, they got dancing and she was like,

"It's too late now, look, we've finished!"

# You don't like players

# That's what you said... #

She was brilliant, she was exactly as you wanted her to be.

She was friendly and she was funny, and then I was like,

"Can I have a picture?"

And then I had two people taking pictures, so I was like,

"I need a picture here and I need a picture here,"

and she was like, "All right!"

And looking back now, I'm like, "Oh, my God, why wasn't I cool?"

I was hysterical, like...

SHE MUMBLES

Sarah connected deeply with Amy's lyrics.

There's that lovely moment on Frank where she talks about going

to this guy's house and she presses all the buzzers and the neighbours

are really cross with her and she just wants to see him, she just wants...

And she knows it's wrong, she knows it's embarrassing,

she knows it's not playing it cool.

And, you know, I did things like that.

# Your neighbours were screaming

# I don't have a key for downstairs

# So I pressed all the buzzers...

# Hoping you wouldn't be there. #

A lot of those pop stars at the time seemed very unobtainable.

Amy, you feel like you could've gone up to her in the pub,

you could've played pool with her, you could've moaned to her

about your boyfriend, or about the guy that you'd got off with

that hadn't called you and she'd be there with you.

# You're so beautiful... #

Artist Sally had been a fan of Amy Winehouse for six years when she

went with her family to a classic Camden haunt for a quiet drink.

This is the Hawley Arms pub and this is where my brother,

my dad and I were sat when we were having a glass of wine,

when Amy suddenly came around this corner.

# Take the box... #

It was one wet Wednesday afternoon and my brother and I had

arranged to meet my dad, who was down from York.

All of a sudden, the music went really loud and it was hurting

my dad's hearing aid.

So my brother went round to ask the bar staff,

"If you could just turn it down."

# I'm a-walkin' in the rain

# Tears are fallin' and I feel a pain... #

Matthew came back and he said, "Oh, my goodness,

"you won't believe who's putting the music on the jukebox, it's Amy Winehouse."

And then she just appeared and she just said,

"Oh, I've been asked if I can turn the music down cos it's

"hurting someone's hearing aid and I just wanted to apologise."

And we were a bit starstruck and then it was like

we'd known her for ages. She was just so friendly.

# My little runaway... #

You can see in the background here there's

a Bowie image that is just behind me, still.

I was explaining that I had a very good relationship with my dad,

like she had with her father, Mitch.

So she said, "Oh, come on, Dave, get up and have a dance with me,"

so she got him up here and, you know, twirled him around

a couple of times, or he twirled her around a couple of times,

and yeah, she was just so personable and very friendly.

# Because I've forgotten all of young love's joy... #

Sally took the opportunity to show Amy photos of the mosaic

portraits she'd been making.

This is a mosaic that I created in 2007 and it was exhibited

in a few different places.

And then it was the one that Amy actually liked the best.

I feel very, very lucky that I got to meet her.

She was just a breath of fresh air.

The Brit and Grammy award-winning singer Amy Winehouse

has died at her home in North London.

# For you I was a flame... #

When she died, I just couldn't believe it.

I just thought, no, actually,

cos that's not the way it's going to go.

She's going to get better.

I just burst into tears. I was really, really upset.

I phoned my dad up and he cried.

It still feels really...

unfair that she's not here.

# We only said goodbye with words

# I died 100 times... #

We loved Amy, and had found out about her through the usual routes,

hearing a song on the radio, promoted by a record label.

But now some of us were bypassing the record industry and using

the internet to hunt out new sounds.

This is the era of accessible stars.

They made themselves accessible to us and we made them

accessible to the world.

In 2005, fans changed how the music industry worked forever.

A band from Sheffield, who first built a following on the internet,

are set to have the fastest-selling debut album

since chart records began.

These fans and thousands more like them have been crucial to

the success of the Arctic Monkeys.

This band, more than any other in the last decade, enjoys

a reputation based on word of mouth.

MUSIC: I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor by Arctic Monkeys

Sheffield Hallam Uni student Omar was one of those responsible

for the change.

This is the one that kicked off all the hype.

First release, it's an unofficial EP,

Five Minutes With Arctic Monkeys.

There's only 1,500 copies of the CD

and vinyl, so they're pretty rare.

I don't get them out very often.

# I don't want to hear you

# Fake tales of San Francisco

# Echo through the air... #

Listen to the songs.

They were urgent, they were catchy, they were...they were fresh,

they were punky and they were just exciting.

You know, it was about just being a lad around that time,

trying to pull girls and failing because of other boys

who had cars and lots of money.

They were songs that we knew about and could relate to.

# All that's left

# Is the proof that love's not only blind but deaf... #

Unsigned band Arctic Monkeys had given out demos at gigs,

but had no idea their songs were being shared online by their fans,

via MySpace and a fan forum.

I literally went online just to find out whatever I could,

got lucky, found the forum, found the link for their website

where all the downloads were and just downloaded them all,

put them on my MP3 player and walked to a friend's house

the next day and said, "You have to listen to this band."

I don't think the band realised at the time, but...

It was already too late, the songs were already out there.

And the buzz started.

There was a sense that there was something important happening,

something exciting, and we were right in the middle of it.

The gigs would sell out stupid quick.

And people already knew the songs,

even though they weren't being released.

# And what a scummy man

# Just give him half a chance

# I bet he'll rob you if he can. #

The only way they could was from the MP3s.

And that was a bit weird.

# I bet that you look good on the dance floor. #

In a couple of months, the whole country knew the word.

They're number one, welcome to the sensational Arctic Monkeys!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

After fans had spread the word for two years, the band were

finally signed in June 2005,

broke sales records with their debut album, and tickets

to the tour off the back of it sold out in under an hour.

I feel proud because they were still our boys, but...

You know they're going to make it and you know they'll be

around and everyone's going to really enjoy their songs.

# I'm so glad they turned us all away, we'll put it down to fate!

# I said a thousand million things

# That I could never say this morning... #

Omar made some lifelong friends from the online forums,

including Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt's mum.

Matt's mum.

She was on the forum, she was under a secret alias,

but word quickly got out who she was.

We'd see her at gigs, she was in the queue, handing out baked goods.

This forum-forged friendship meant Omar got more than

the usual band merchandise.

My friend Lee had a charity auction and he asked me

if I could get any items, so I sent Matt's mum, Jill,

a message saying, "Have you got anything that could be of value?"

She goes, "Yeah, I might have something."

So she gave me Matt's first drum skin,

and he obviously signed it on a bit of duct tape,

and we gave it a nice frame and put it on the auction.

My mum outbid everyone and then just gave it to me.

# I'm so glad they turned us all away, we'll put it down to fate! #

I joked to my mum that she was around when the Beatles

quickly got up and I was around when Arctic Monkeys did.

It was just right place, right time.

Arctic Monkeys fans pioneered a new relationship with our music.

Rather than artist and fan, it was a spectrum where artists

blended with fans in a seamless relationship that can take music

from the toughest of postcodes to the big wide world.

Spawned on pirate radio and blossoming on the streets of

East London, an edgy new sound was about to become the voice

of a generation - grime.

This was young MCs spitting fast and furious rhymes over beats

they'd made in their own bedrooms.

Oi!

MUSIC: Fix Up, Look Sharp by Dizzee Rascal

E3. It's real.

This is, like, the estate I grew up on.

This whole little area.

Canary Wharf, it's kind of like in your face.

On this side, everyone living like, sort of council estates and that.

It's all grimy kind of round here, innit?

Dizzee Rascal took grime from the streets of E3 and onto

the Mercury Awards stage and into the mainstream,

flooding the charts with a fresh crop of musical talent.

# Fix up, look sharp... #

Grime fan Jamal Edwards is a music entrepreneur whose website

has had over 100 million views and is worth over £8 million.

Grime's the reason I'm sitting here right now.

I started off as a fan, as, like, a...looking in on it

and just, like, peeping through the window

to actually filming with the artists that are around today.

# What do you call it, urban? #

But it all started with a canny teenager and his Christmas present.

I first started out filming with my mates and then I remember

I used to go to clubs and try and find the artist.

And when I went there, didn't know them, went up to them,

got my cousin, "Can you ask them to get...? I want to do a little freestyle."

And it's funny, cos when I look back at that, that was eight...

eight, nine years ago, now I do videos with them on a regular basis,

but at first it was just hustling.

SHOUTING AND INDISTINCT LYRICS

The sound that drew him to the clubs talked directly to him.

The reason why I was a fan of grime from the early days,

cos I thought it was something that related to me.

I never really related to, like, American rap, American hip-hop.

I related to something that was in the UK, born in the UK,

and it was just that raw sound and storytelling

that sort of made me just love it.

# Yo, yeah, Skepta!

# Always ready, the black Nigerian's way too heavy

# Every time I open my mouth, blud

# I say a lyric and another MC gets buried. #

It was just about real lyrics and it was also always about the beats

and it was just, like, snappy, it was hard, it was raw.

The moment that transformed Jamal and grime was the arrival of

a new online platform, YouTube, in 2005.

Jamal's videos now had a home accessible to millions,

and his channel, SPTV, was born,

and grime was given a shot in the arm.

YouTube, how it's changed the relationship between artists and

fans, it's made it closer.

So where now you can see what your favourite artists are getting

up to, you only used to hear of it on radio,

see it in the paper and see it on TV

and it was very controlled.

Whereas YouTube is a free, roaming experience.

It's, like, democratic, you can put whatever you want online.

# Knock, knock, what's your answer?

# You're top dog with a bark... #

At his heart, Jamal is still a grime fan.

I never thought I'd be sitting where I'm sitting now...never.

It was just for the love, to be a part of it.

That was my main aim.

Um, and now I am a part of it.

It's like, how do I take it to the next level?

And carry on exporting grime around the world.

# Stress on the brain, complain to the full

# Stress on the brain, complain to the max... #

Experiencing our fandom online

has taken us way beyond what we thought might be possible.

It's deepened the relationship with artists

and taken the most basic of all fan instincts,

to belt out the songs you love,

and made that joy shareable with millions.

18-year-old Katie often posts covers of her favourite pop stars' hits

to show her adoration.

# I wish nothing but the best for you, too... #

She fell for her idol in primary school.

I didn't actually originally know that it was Adele that I was

listening to when I first heard her.

It was in an emotional assembly and wondering who is this voice?

And, I want to know more.

# I heard

# That you're settled down

# That you... #

Her Brit Award performance in 2011...

hit me.

Seeing Adele perform and for the whole room to be still,

it just made me cry.

I could understand her pain behind the words

and I could see the emotion

and hear it in her voice and I think it just touched me.

# Sometimes it lasts in love

# But sometimes it hurts instead. #

Katie started collecting anything to do with her new-found hero

and covered her side of the bedroom she shares with her little sister.

This is my side of the room.

And that's my little sister's side of the room.

She doesn't really have much over there any more.

There is just an agreement that I don't put anything over that side

but I'm OK with that.

I've got a lot of quotes on here.

This one always has stuck out to me since I was about 14.

That's just, like, my life story.

I did this when I was about 15.

I'm not a very good artist.

I can't draw to save my life.

But...

I drew the outline of her Rolling In The Deep look,

so this was, like, the honeycomb hair.

# We could have had it all...

# Rolling in the deep... #

Adele may well be a world-famous pop star

but it's not her celebrity status that Katie's drawn to.

For my generation, to have an idol who is down-to-earth, normal,

that is definitely what appeals to me.

When you're an artist you need to actually be relatable,

not just by your lyrics, not just by your music,

by yourself, and I think she's hit it right on the nail

with being relatable for everyone.

Fellow Adele fans Glenn and Ronan

also decided to post a video of themselves

covering Adele a couple of days before seeing her in concert.

# That you found the one

# And you're married now... #

We knew Adele was coming to Dublin, where we were both living.

We knew she was coming that week

so Glenn said, "Look, we both love Adele's music,

"why don't we do something to mark the occasion?"

And, we posted the video online.

It just took off for whatever reason, it sparked,

and I think overnight it had something like five million views,

which was just insane.

We posted it on the Thursday and the Saturday was when we went to the concert.

OK, so you're at the concert, it's amazing.

Tell us what happens next.

So about three songs from the end of her concert,

we were already just in awe of her.

As a live musician, I haven't seen anyone better, to be honest.

Adele said, "I saw this video during the week of two Irish guys."

At this point I think Glenn grabbed my arm, or vice-versa,

-I'm not sure which.

-What?!

She said, "Their names are Glenn and Ronan.

"I believe they're here in the audience."

We leapt out of our seats, flailing arms.

Everyone looking at us like we're crazy.

She said, "I'd like you guys to come down to the stage now."

At which point Glenn got a tug on the shoulder.

There's a security guard saying, "Follow me."

-Are you ready to relive the magic?

-Yes.

-Sure.

Let's have a look, it's so good.

-ADELE:

-Oh, here they are!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Oh, come on. You can't put it online and meet me in Dublin

and not think I'm going to tell you to come up.

How are you feeling at this point?

-She's one of your idols.

-Absolutely shellshocked.

And then she puts out her hands for a hug. I'm hugging Adele.

Will you sing to them what you put online?

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

I'm saying to Ronan, "Ronan, I don't remember it,

"I don't remember it. Do you remember it?"

What were you saying?

He was very calm.

She set it all up just in the hope that you guys happened to be in the crowd?

Well, we had obviously tweeted out,

but you never know that anyone's going to see that.

We genuinely had no idea when we arrived that she knew we existed,

let alone what she had planned.

There she is just standing back, giving us her stage.

# I've heard...

CROWD SINGS ALONG

# That your dreams came true... #

She loves you guys.

# This is my last night with you... #

I don't think it'll matter how many times we watch it,

there will always be part of us that goes, "That can't have happened."

I mean, it did, and we are so grateful

and it's definitely a highlight in our life so far.

So you've sang for Adele - would you sing for us now, please?

-We'd love to.

-Absolutely.

# I've heard that your dreams came true

# Guess she gave you things

# I didn't give to you

# And I can't keep up with your turning tables

# Under your thumb, I can't breathe

-BOTH:

-# Never mind, I'll find someone like you

# I wish nothing but the best for you...too

# I can't give you the heart you think you gave me

# It's time to say goodbye... #

Over six amazing decades we have loved our pop music,

more than any kind of culture.

We've gone from wide-eyed, star-struck devotees...

John, Paul, George, Ringo. John, Paul, George, Ringo.

..to believing our music was saying something important about the world.

Reggae has done more for race relations in England

than a lot of things.

Being a fan has allowed us to express our identity...

I sat and listened to it at the dining-room table

with my headphones on

and basically changed as a person.

..escape our surroundings...

Northern Soul was a way of life.

I worked in a bacon factory.

It was great to be able to think I've got

a weekend to look forward to.

..explode with unbridled happiness.

Goose bumps...

Still! How does that work?

# Sometimes I feel like

# Throwing my hands up in the air... #

The digital revolution has also been a revolution in our

relationship with our music and the artists who make it.

It's no longer enough just to be a fan.

Today we seem more like pop partners.

By 2010 we had a bewildering but brilliant array of music to

get passionate about.

And we could keep our entire record collections in our pocket.

Now with so much choice about there's a bit of

a danger that true fandom could become a thing of the past.

But the truth is,

the internet brought us even closer to our musical heroes.

The future is looking pretty fun for us fans.

# You got the love You got the love

# You got the love

# You got the love You got the love

# You got the love

# Sometimes I feel like saying, "Lord, I just don't care"

# But you've got the love I need to see me through. #