Introduction

Hello you. Make a cup of tea, put a record on. Welcome to The A to Z of Britpop, your introduction to the bands, music and characters that defined the most exciting genre of the 1990s.

In this article we discuss The Auteurs, critically acclaimed outsiders with a venomous wit and no time for the Britpop boys’ club.

This, as always, is then.

The Auteurs - Origins & era

Formed: 1991, London
Active Years: 1991–1999
Associated Genres: Alternative rock, indie pop, baroque pop, Britpop, neo-glam
Record Labels: Hut Records

How it started

Formed in 1991 by Luke Haines, formerly of The Servants, with bassist Alice Readman and drummer Glenn Collins.

The addition of James Banbury on cello gave their sound a sharp twist, dragging baroque flourishes into grubby indie territory.

They signed to Hut Records after early gigs and a demo tape stirred enough interest.

Debut single “Show Girl” (1993) earned praise from Melody Maker, and their debut album New Wave was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.

Band members

Luke Haines – Vocals, guitar, piano
Alice Readman – Bass
Glenn Collins – Drums
James Banbury – Cello, keyboards
Barny C. Rockford – Drums (later years)

Definitive lyric

"The girls are sick and tired of your blah blah blah"
— Lenny Valentino

Signature sound & style

Snide, sardonic and wilfully arch.

The Auteurs built brittle indie pop with chamber instrumentation and a lyrical bite sharp enough to draw blood. Haines was never interested in toeing the Britpop party line. Where others chased radio hooks, he loaded his with poison.

File under: baroque sleaze with a sneer.

Defining moments

1993’s New Wave put them on the map. But 1994’s Now I’m a Cowboy delivered “Lenny Valentino”, the song that would define their sound and sharpen the knives for everyone else.

They followed it with The Auteurs vs. μ-Ziq, a remix album that baffled most and delighted the few who liked their indie with a side of glitch.

Full album discography

New Wave (1993)
Now I’m a Cowboy (1994)
After Murder Park (1996)
How I Learned to Love the Bootboys (1999)

Essential listening

Lenny Valentino (1994) – A baroque-pop anthem wrapped in sarcasm and self-loathing, perfectly capturing the band's bitter charm.

What the press said

“A malevolent Tiny Tim tossing stink bombs into Britpop's shiny toy shop”
— Louise Wener, The Observer

Where are they now?

Haines went solo, releasing The Oliver Twist Manifesto (2001) and Das Capital (2003), which revisited Auteurs material with a twisted orchestral bent.

He later co-founded Black Box Recorder and wrote Bad Vibes (2009), an unfiltered memoir of the Britpop era that confirmed exactly how much he loathed it.

James Banbury went into electronic projects like Infantjoy and Dadahack.

In 2014, The Auteurs’ full discography was reissued with expanded editions. It reaffirmed their status as one of the scene’s strangest and most literate cult acts.

The Auteurs in a sentence

Too sharp for the charts, too weird for the mainstream, too clever to care.

See you on down the road.

Auteurs (The)