Suede’s album “Coming Up” laughed in the faces of everyone who believed that they would be lost following the exit of guitar hero Bernard Butler
“Is it all over for ‘The Best New Band In Britain’?” This was the question that greeted everyone who picked up the July 30th, 1994 issue of UK music magazine Melody Maker. The band in question was Suede, hailed as The Best New Band In Britain on the cover of the same publication’s April 1992 issue, two weeks ahead of the release of their debut single “The Drowners”.
It’s fair to say that journalist Steve Sutherland was significantly more impressed by the London quartet – fronted by flamboyant vocalist Brett Anderson and gifted guitarist Bernard Butler “This is the premier prima donna band we’ve been praying for,” he gushed. “The sons of Bowie’s camp little brothers, Suede are already the future all the rest will be forced to reckon with. Their demo tape is better than any album likely to be released this year.”
Their self-titled debut album, released on March 29th, 1993, became the fastest-selling debut album in the UK in almost a decade, debuted at number one on the UK albums chart, and won the 1993 Mercury Music Prize. As if that were not enough, the album would, in time, be heralded as the foundation stone for a whole new scene, BritPop.
Suede’s classic 1996 album, “Coming Up”, is being reissued for its 30th anniversary across a number of formats including a 5CD set, an exclusive blu-ray audio with Dolby Atmos Mix and an exclusive vinyl featuring Steven Wilson’s new 2026 stereo mix.
The band’s first album recorded without Bernard Butler, “Coming Up” featured a new look Suede line up as Brett Anderson (singing), Mat Osman (bass) and Simon Gilbert (drums) were joined by Neil Codling (keyboards/guitar) and Richard Oakes (guitar).
The album was a critical and commercial success. It was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and reached number one in the UK album charts and all five singles – ‘Trash’, ‘Beautiful Ones’, ‘Saturday Night’, ‘Lazy’ and ‘Filmstar’ all reached the top 10 in the singles chart in the UK.
Expectations then were sky high for the Londoners’ second album, “Dog Man Star“. But on May 25th 1994, three months into the recording of the album at Master Rock studios, Bernard Butler took a two day break to get married, without inviting any of his bandmates, which didn’t bode well. Butler returned to the Kilburn recording facility 48 hours later, packed up his guitars, and drove away, exiting the group without a word of farewell to his bandmates.
Somewhat ironically, the band’s final release with Butler in the band, was a non-album single titled “Stay Together”.
The “Coming Up” 5CD deluxe set is widely available and features the original mix on CD 1, Steven Wilson’s new mix on CD 2, non-album tracks on CDs 3 and 4 and “Coming Up at the BBC” (previously a vinyl-only RSD release) on CD 5. Exclusive to this 5CD set is new sleeve notes by music journalist Miranda Sawyer. This comes in seven-inch packaging.
