This may give you a flavour of the times.......

Flannel are Brighton ‘agitpoppers’ – musicians and political activists intent on blurring the line between performance and protest. In keeping with that, three of their gigs have been cancelled by the police, who view their music as incitement. Brighton police have also accused them of attracting “anarchists, drug users and an undesirable element” to their gigs, local pub licensees have been threatened with the loss of their licences if they book the band. Index on Censorship.

In the Issue of Index on Censorship, a compilation CD was given away with it which featured Flannel, Ian Dury, Fela Kuti and a group of jailed Tibetan singing nuns!

And the music?

Flannel look like a bunch of tip rats, or rejects from Dodgy perhaps, ... Anarcho pranksters, they manage - by and large - to avoid po-faced sloganeering, and the band's pop-punk sound is definitely agreeable ..... 'Phreak' works best as an example of their semi-rapped vocal attack, and thanks to their ability to raise a smile, Flannel ultimately succeed. Rock and Reel , Spring 1998

As the New Labour glizty nightmare Millennium celebrations at the Dome were being planned, we decided to send this inocuous tune, the organisers to see if we could play there on Millennium Eve.

We were masquerading as a bunch of scientists who had formed a band. Flannel as you have never seen them before! In the event, it didn't happen but we managed to play in September instead. Here's what happened then:

Here was the only time we managed to enter the top ten, at the same time as the Sex Pistols, Frankie goes to Hollywood and Wings. We even managed to pip the Stones and Richard Wagner!

Oasis get the Flannel treatment: