Britpop's Second Coming

2012 looks set to be a massive year for British music, particularly those musicians who were part of the Britpop scene in the 1990's. So could we be seeing the signs of a Britpop revival?

Last week, NME announced that Noel Gallagher would receive the award for 'Godlike Genius' at this year's NME awards. Now, the chief has a chance to show the world just how much he "pushes boundaries" due to the imminent release of the first track from his forthcoming collaborative album with Amorphous Androgynous.
The song, entitled 'Shoot A Hole In The Sun', will be released as the B-Side to his imminent single 'Dream On'.
So what can we expect from this collaboration? Not a lot of specifics have been given regarding it, other than Noel stating that some of it is "fucking far out". We can speculate regarding this track though.
Noel previously worked with Amorphous Androgynous on a remix of his Oasis track 'Falling Down', which was featured as a B-Side to that single. Given that the title is 'Shoot A Hole In The Sun' (a lyric from Noel's second third solo single, 'If I Had A Gun...'), we can assume that the track is simply a remix of that song.
If this is the case, Noel may have already given us a sneak peak at the song in the video clip for his single 'If I Had A Gun...'. Towards the end of the video (4:05 onwards), you can hear a different version of 'If I Had A Gun...' playing in the background. Could this be the new song?

Official music video for 'If I Had A Gun...' by Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds

In addition to this, Liam Gallagher's band Beady Eye have hinted at releasing an album at some stage in 2012. The facts surrounding this are vague, however.

Meanwhile, fellow Britpop giants Blur are awakening from their slumber. Having made their last appearance together in 2009, the band have now revealed that they will be performing at the Brit Awards 2012 as they receive the 'Outstanding Contribution To Music' award.

Bassist Alex James, who revealed that the band would play the event, also hinted that the band would record new music together at some stage. However, he did dismiss the possibility of another Blur album.

And Blur front man Damon Albarn and guitarist Graham Coxon were recently announced as being the special guests at this year's pre-Brit Awards fundraiser gig for War Child.

In addition to all the Blur goings on, Graham Coxon is currently preparing to embark on a tour in April to support his eighth solo studio album. The album, entitled 'A+E', is set to be released on April 2 and will see Coxon embarking on his most interactive tour to date. For the UK tour, Coxon has asked local bands to submit their tracks to him via his website and those tracks will be made available to visitors of his site. Fans will then vote in a poll and Coxon will make the winner his support act.

But is all of this enough to cause a Britpop revival? How likely is it to actually happen?

Well let's also not forget that 2012 is also the year that legendary band The Stone Roses make their long awaited return. Although not truly part of the Britpop scene, their second album caused them to get lumped in as part of the scene. And their return, along with the return of The Happy Mondays, will certainly be one reason for interest to return to the British music scene. And with such attention on British music, it seems perfectly possible that 2012 will see the second coming of Britpop.