Mansun/ Attack of the Grey Lantern

Mansun
Attack of the Grey Lantern
(EMI)

In 1997 Mansun dropped £25,000 in five pound notes on Liverpool Street Station, the money sailing in the wind as businessmen scrambled to fill their pockets. The band, meanwhile, filmed the whole spectacle for their new single. It was called ‘Tax Loss’.
Entertainingly mental stunts aside, Mansun will be best remembered as one of the more imaginative Britpop bands, taking in elements of Bowie, but also psychedelic prog rock, punk and surrealism. From androgynous singer Paul Draper downwards, the band were effectively whoever they felt like being on any given day, with a romantic sense of melancholy (and some stupid haircuts) threading it all together.
'Attack of the Grey Lantern' is probably the funniest Mansun album, aiming its sniper fire at a 'Stripper Vicar', the tax system, and on 'Mansun's Only Love Song', the band themselves.
It also gave birth to the group’s biggest hit, 'Wide Open Space', an epic song about fighting paranoia, boosted by a massive chorus and a great science fiction guitar solo.
The band would go on to record their masterpiece in 1998 - a rubiks cube of a rock record called 'Six' - before calling it a day in 2003. If you don't miss them already, it's worth starting now.