Reach for the Stars: 1996–2006: Fame, Fallout and Pop’s Final Party: A Times Summer Read 2023

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Music journalist Michael Cragg, who interviewed key players from 1996-2006 for his new book Reach for the Stars, said: “Nearly everyone I spoke to go misty-eyed.” But it wasn’t like I didn’t feel it every time someone was shouting my name in a northern accent. I had to ride the storm and I’m so thankful the second wave of my music happened. Described in 7 Heaven as “a bit of thinker”, he was often the one who cared about the band’s perception. After the excellent, disco-tinged Don’t Stop Movin’ earned them a slither of credibility – helped by Cattermole, McIntosh and Jon Lee being arrested for smoking weed in central London, leading to copious “Spliff Club 7” headlines – it was Cattermole, realising the chance the band had to move beyond DayGlo kid-friendly pop, who pushed for the follow-up single to be equally as exciting. He didn’t get his way. The Brits’ truest form of relevance, said the publicist, may be that “when you see uncertainty around the Brits, you’re watching the anxieties around the music industry play out on stage: how do we break British acts on a global scale? What does diversity, equality and inclusion look like within a label, or in the nomination process? Are pop stars so ‘online’ that they’re scared of doing or saying anything interesting?” A book that does justice to an extraordinarily fertile period for British pop - Michael Cragg's assessment of new millennium bubblegum is top rate storytelling.' -- Bob Stanley

Reach for the Stars: 1996–2006: Fame, Fallout and Pop’s Final Reach for the Stars: 1996–2006: Fame, Fallout and Pop’s Final

So funny and detailed and, most importantly, with such a clear love and understanding of the people in it. (Michael) strikes such an entertaining balance of fan worship and camp detached wit.' -- The Times It still has PR value, though it is less a long-term sales driver than a desired co-sign,” said a publicist for several Brit-winning UK pop acts. “If you win a Brit there is heightened belief within a label that other territories will engage more.” Artists still campaign around the Brits by “building to a crescendo in [their] ongoing release and touring plans that run parallel to the well-known voting window”, they said. Vivid moments in your life reduced to long forgotten anecdotes. Historical events reduced to kitsch. And things that you had considered appalling have now been reappraised as cultural milestones by people two decades younger than you. But these attempts to reach fans where they are may not be enough. Michael Cragg is author of the forthcoming Reach for the Stars: 1996-2006 – Fame, Fallout and Pop’s Final Party, which details the Brits coronations and disappointments of Y2K pop acts such as Steps. “Award shows need that sense of collective hysteria,” he said. “You could watch a funny acceptance speech on TikTok, but I’m not convinced that makes a solid connection between the Brits and the viewer. It’s just more content.” Having written for the likes of The Guardian, Vogue and Popjustice (as well as being a few years older than me), Michael Cragg is in the perfect position to deliver an authoritative tome on this period in pop music, as well as making sense of the pitch battles between the poptivists and the real music bores. In the introduction, he makes the case that:

I didn’t have a great relationship with them because I said Nadine was the best singer. So, obviously the other four hated me. Rather than accept that two competing ideas can both offer up positives and negatives, the pop vs indie debate became a war. Frankly, in book-form at least, it feels like the indie side has had its say. Part of why I wanted to do this book…was to add some extra weight to a hugely important period of UK music that often felt ignored in the stream of chin-stroking think pieces on Britpop, the post-Strokes UK indie resurgence or the post-MySpace Arctic Monkeys chatter. Nobody buys books. No one's going to read this. No one's going to read these sorts of things. They just don't.' -- Louis Walsh I’d been on Irish Popstars in 2001. They had an over-18s limit and I’d just turned 16 at the time. I got disqualified. I went to Scotland to audition. You don’t think you’re going to win these things.

Reach for the Stars: The perils of being a 90s pop star Reach for the Stars: The perils of being a 90s pop star

Neil Tennant (!) Reach For The Stars, my debut book, was released in March 2023. An oral history of UK pop between 1996 and 2006, it features over 100 interviews with the great and good of that vibrant pop period, including popstars, producers, songwriters, video directors, PRs, journalists, etc etc and so forth. People seemed to like it, which is nice… If you're coming to Coles by car, why not take advantage of the 2 hours free parking at Sainsbury's Pioneer Square - just follow the signs for Pioneer Square as you drive into Bicester and park in the multi-storey car park above the supermarket. Come down the travelators, exit Sainsbury's, turn right and follow the pedestrianised walkway to Crown Walk and turn right - and Coles will be right in front of you. You don't need to shop in Sainsbury's to get the free parking! Where to Find Us Using the arrival of the Spice Girls as a jumping-off point, this fascinating new narrative will explore, celebrate and contextualise the thus-far-uncharted period of British pop that flourished between 1996 and 2006. A double-denim-loving time before the glare of social media and the accession of streaming. I had absolutely no doubt we were going to make it. We found out Simon Cowell was a big deal in the industry, drove up to London really early and jumped out on him singing Wannabe along to our tape. The bastions of '00s pop - armed with buoyant, immaculately crafted, carefree anthems - provided entertainment, escapism and fun for millions. It was a heady, chorus-heavy decade - populated by the likes of Steps, S Club 7, Blue, 5ive, Mis-Teeq, Hear'Say, Busted, Girls Aloud, McFly, Craig David and Atomic Kitten, among countless others - yet the music was often dismissed as inauthentic, juvenile, not 'worthy' enough: ultimately, a 'guilty pleasure'. Now, music writer Michael Cragg aims to redress that balance.Mercury made his last public appearance to collect the award for outstanding contribution to British music alongside his Queen bandmates. Looking gaunt, his only words were: “Thank you … goodnight.” He died just under two years later. We know everything about our current crop of pop stars because they begrudgingly have to make TikToks every morning. In Reach for the Stars, Michael delves into the pre-internet pop era, speaks to the people that (just about) survived it and makes some extraordinary discoveries. I can't think why anyone wouldn't love this book.' -- Greg James, radio and TV presenter Adele’s acceptance speech for best album (for 21) was cut off to fit in a live performance from Blur (whose frontman Damon Albarn would, years later, accuse her of being “insecure”). Adele flipped the bird to “the suits, not the fans”, and ITV apologised. A brilliant, celebratory, gossipy history of 90s pop. Great stories and interviews. If that's your era, you'll love it.' -- Richard Osman

Reach for the Stars by Michael Cragg review — were we too

Arguably the best possible combination of writer and subject since Jesus wrote the Bible.' -- Stuart Heritage, Guardian writerPrepare to be left open mouthed...some of the finest secrets from the pop-music landscape of those heady times.' -- Heat I never wanted to be on TV. I was very naive to television. But I think it helped that I was naive. About the Author: Michael Cragg has been writing about pop music for over a decade and has interviewed everyone from Lady Gaga to Lorde, via Little Mix, Shawn Mendes, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry and Britney Spears. He has written for outlets including Vogue, The Guardian, GQ, BBC, The Observer, Popjustice, Dazed and Billboard. During his three years as contributing editor at The Guardian's Guide! newsletter, he interviewed '00s pop luminaries such as Steps, Emma Bunton and Nadine Coyle. He also edits the independent biannual music magazine BEAT. You won't find a more comprehensive and entertaining pop book than this.' -- Jordan Paramor, journalist and author

Reach for the Stars: 1996–2006: Fame, Fallout and Pop’s Final

To have a number one, to be on Top of the Pops, to have artists I was a fan of be fans of my music, it The Guardian review is here . Here’s a nice one from The Observer. Another from The Times , and one from its weekend sister, The Sunday Times . Classic Pop gave it 5/5, which was lovely. I wrote something about it for the Daily Express , while The Mirror ran this extract . Heat did one too . As did The Guardian . I also wrote this piece for The Guardian about how bonkers some of the pop was. Using the oral-history format, Cragg goes beneath the surface of the bubblegum exterior, speaking to hundred's of the key players about the reality of their experiences. Compiled from interviews with popstars, songwriters, producers, choreographers, magazine editors, record-company executives, TV moguls and more, this is a complete behind-the-scenes history of the last great movement in British pop - a technicolour turning-point ripe for re-evaluation, documented here in astonishing, honest and eye-opening detail. It was extremely hard on us and our families. They were equally thrust into the spotlight with no idea of how to deal with any of it. We were told we were the fattest band in pop countless times so we made a point of eating numerous bars of chocolate and fast food in defiance. We had a No1 and were the most famous band in the country but we were all pretty broke and I was still paying off my student debt.In the period covered by his book Reach for the Stars, Cragg said, pop stars wanted to win Brits “because it was a shot at recognition that they weren’t getting elsewhere. It was pop versus indie, and winning offered credibility.” But two decades later, pop is taken seriously by critics and every popstar can reach fans directly online. What is a Brit award worth in 2023? The late nineties to early noughties was the golden era of TV talent shows making sudden pop stars of ordinary people, writes Natasha Wynarczyk. Jones said the BPI “will review our processes for the next event in 2024, as we always do, to make sure we take on board any learnings and ensure our approach is the right one”. You want the Brits to dance like no one’s watching, and to recapture the chaos that made it a must-watch in the 90s