The A to Z of Suede
Introduction
You didn’t need this. But you clicked.
One letter, one entry. No backstory. No soft lighting. Just Suede, sliced and filed for your post-romantic inspection. You already know this band cracked something open. You’re just here to sift through the pieces. Twenty-six entries. Still twitching.
A – Anderson, Brett
Lead singer. Lyrical addict. Voice like a drama school sneer. Still chasing the next fix.
B – Butler, Bernard
Guitarist and detonator. Played like he was scoring a breakdown. Wrote the best bits. Then left.
C – Codling, Neil
Keyboards, harmonies, cheekbones. Arrived mid-crisis, changed everything, barely spoke.
D – Dog Man Star
A scorched cathedral of an album. Written in friction, recorded in silence. Their most Suede record by miles.
E – Ed Buller
Producer. Claimed to understand the noise. Argued with Butler until the sound bled.
F – Frischmann, Justine
Co-founder, early escapee. Left behind two things: a flat in UCL and a trail of brilliant fallout.
G – Gilbert, Simon
Drummer since day one. No nonsense, no spotlight. Just the cold mechanics of staying in time.
H – Head Music
Glossy, hollow, chemically optimistic. Topped the charts while the band frayed beneath the sleeves.
I – It Starts and Ends with You
Comeback single, 2013. Polished. Controlled. Loud enough to prove a point.
J – Joyce, Mike
Ex-Smith. Said no in 1990. Worried he’d make them sound like the past. He was right.
K – Killing of a Flash Boy
B-side. Feral. Fan favourite. Should’ve been the single. But then it wouldn’t be legend.
L – Lee, Alex
Multi-instrumentalist mop-up man. Joined for album five. Survived it.
M – Mat Osman
Bassist and strategist. Unshakeable. The only one who never flinched.
N – Nude Records
Backed them when no one else would. Collapsed just in time to ruin everything.
O – Oakes, Richard
Joined at 17. Co-wrote Coming Up. Carried a legacy no teenager should.
P – Pantomime Horse
Track two, debut album. Grotesque, baroque, somehow sexy. No one else would’ve tried it.
Q – Q Awards
They gave Suede Best New Act. Then turned on them. Then came back. Predictable.
R – Reunion
Started as a one-off. Turned into four new albums. All better than they had to be.
S – Suede (Debut Album)
The one that started the noise. Bedroom politics and velvet threat. Won the Mercury. Deserved it.
T – Trash
Beautiful losers, glittered up and defiant. The Coming Up manifesto.
U – University College London
Where it began. A flat, a girl, a tape. That’s all it took.
V – Victoria Segal
Said what needed saying: Suede were for the alienated. That’s why they mattered.
W – We Are the Pigs
Lead single, 1994. Menacing. Unmarketable. Perfect.
X – X (Working Title)
Early name for Autofiction. No explanation. Just instinct.
Y – “Young guitar player needed...”
The NME ad that found Butler. The first chord in a long, loud fallout.
Z – Zeitgeist
In ’93, Suede were it. By the time Britpop caught up, they’d already left the building.
That’s It. Time to Get Back to the Music
Twenty-six cuts. All healed funny. Go play a Suede record. Loud.
