The piece I wrote in the paper Evening Standard yesterday prompted a bit of a debate in these quarters - how very gratifying. Blur were the (British) band of the Nineties, I contended, judging by their triumphant Glasto performance. Not necessarily my personal favourite, but the band who best sum up that decade, who most captured its essence. My arguments, broadly, were threefold:

a) Damon Albarn's songwriting, coupled with the input of Coxon (who prompted that mid-career change of direction) and Alex James (try and imagine Girls and Boys without his bassline), spanned a huge melodic and thematic range.
b) The anticipated the national mood better than any other band of the age, pre-empting Cool Britannia, then ditching it just as it was getting a bit nauseating, and transected with art, fashion and politics.
c) Their first single, She's So High, came out in 1990, and their last before Graham Coxon was ejected was Music in My Radar in 2000, which gives them a decade-long hit-making presence that please the pedant in me.

Who makes a credible alternative? Radiohead have the greater emotional pull, sold more records and were still more envelope-pushing - but did they capture the public imagination in the same way? Oasis did get the national mood - but I'm not sure anything post Definitely Maybe is still worth listening to. Massive Attack pretty much created a whole new genre. Or Take That? The Spice Girls?

Over to you...