But! This is History. Or rather, this is Hobart Paving — a gentle look back at the Britpop years. It's something of a received opinion these days that Britpop was a mad delusion that we all suffered under for a few years, and now we can look back and laugh at our awful taste. Like similar opinions about the 1980s and 1970s, this is a short-sighted dismissal of an era; sure there was plenty of rubbish about, but there was also greatness. And this site is an attempt to document that, especially some of the bands and songs that either have been forgotten, or never managed to make it big in the first place.

My definition of Britpop is rather broad, even compassing some bands that aren't British, but I hope you'll find my choices interesting. For the most part, I'll be concentrating on singles, but there'll probably be a few albums covered along the way, as well as concerts, magazines, radio, and other gubbins that seem appropriate. I probably won't be putting MP3s up, but if a song is out-of-print and difficult to obtain, I might put a copy online. Otherwise, each entry will have links and suggestions for where you can get the song.

And having got all that out of the way, let's begin…