About Us
Cool Britannia band is based in Brisbane, Queensland playing to mainly ex-pat UK audiences and tours interstate around Australia.
The term 'Cool Britannia' was a name for the period of increased pride in the culture of the United Kingdom throughout the 1990s, inspired by Swinging London from 1960s pop culture. The success of Britpop and musical acts such as Blur, and Oasis led to a renewed feeling of optimism in the United Kingdom following the tumultuous years of the 1970s and 1980s. The name is a pun on the title of the British patriotic song "Rule, Britannia!".
Cool Britannia captures the fun and epitomises the optimism by bringing you a wide repertoire of Britpop classics. The band is built on mutual respect, friendship & love of the music. The fans are amazingly supportive, and add an equal amount of enthusiasm and fun to Cool Britannia's gigs!
We love playing these songs, so as long as the fans sing and dance, we'll play!
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See you at the next gig - Big Love, Cool Britannia.
Our Story
Cool Britannia is a five-piece touring band that formed in late 2019 and is based in Queensland Australia. The band pays homage to the fantastic array of music from the UK 'Britpop' scene in the early 1990s. The great quality of that music is widely considered to be the last era of real 'Rock n rollers'! The band are not trying to look or sound exactly like any one of the amazing original 90s bands. Cool Britannia are a group of dedicated professional musicians who love to perform these magnificent songs from this specific era, to audiences who enjoying singing and dancing to the music.
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Call the Cops!
Meet The Band
Mick founded the band in 2019. He has a deep love of Britpop & Indie music born from his upbringing in 1990s London, when the likes of Oasis, Blur, The Verve, & Stereophonics burst on the scene to finally end the reign of techno & rave music. As well as being a Hilton trained chef & a professional property auctioneer, Mick tours internationally with acclaimed Irish band Sásta, and also is the front man of 10 piece 2tone/Ska band 'The Sunny Coast Rude Boys'. He also gets wicked heartburn after drinking booze.
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Lee (Bondy) hails from Manchester, UK and played with local bands in his teens throughout the North of England. He spent a few years working as a professional musician before going on to study at Salford University in the UK to become a school teacher. Bondy continued to play gigs around the Northwest, enjoying nights out with his mates on the Manchester club scene, particularly The Haçienda, during its heyday in the late 80s and early 90s, where Tony Wilson and the guys from New Order brought us the Happy Mondays, Oasis, and The Stone Roses. It’s fair to say that Britpop and Indie are in his blood! Lee moved to the Middle East in the late 90s, working in Dubai and gigging with a range of bands to expat audiences in hotels and clubs. With his family in tow, Bondy emigrated to Australia in 2007 and settled on the Sunshine Coast. Now as the bassist in Cool Britannia, he loves playing for the fantastic, energetic fans.
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John was born in Sunny Glasgow Scotland, and started his career as a manky wean in the Glasgow tenements. He fell into the last remnants of the MOD revival scene in early eighties listening to The Who, The Jam, Secret Affair, and The Chords. John ended up in sunny Australia where at the tender age of 17, he picked up a pair of drumsticks and never looked back. He's a a Mad Keith Moon fan. Having lived in Sydney for nearly ten years, John spent time with various original bands (a couple great, and some forgettable) . He moved to sunnier Brisbane and hooked up with a fab original band and song writer, spending two years in a Beatles Tribute show, before moving back to NSW and into local cover band scene. John lived in Byron bay for 3 years, meeting and playing with some awesome musicians. Fast forward to Sunny Brisbane again and after reading the add for a drummer for an up and coming Britpop project, John said "all my Christmases came at once, fulfilling a long time desire to perform the best musical movement in decades. What’s come from that is an awesome band, friendships and playing in front of a massively madfurrit crowd".
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Dave spotted the ad for players to join the band while recovering from another riotous night with his original band “Eye on Stone” and immediately though, “Brit Pop? About bloody time!”. Those of you who know Dave might think that a little strange as he’s more often spotted in “Auz Rock” and “Heavy Metal” units, having done session work with members of The Angels and Screaming Jets and shared stages with Australian artists such as Angry Anderson and Jimmy Barnes just to mention a couple.
“Slightly embellished” stories of an after show party and a bottle of Tequila serenading American band “Warrant” on their Australian tour and running into Members of Alice in Chains, Living Colour
and Pantera in his local watering hole in Kings Cross have had other members of the band in stitches.
Reading that, the question could be asked: “So why Brit Pop Dave?” and his answer would probably be, “Why not? F@ck off and get me a cider!” When you came back with his cider he would explain that ANY music with guitars in it is worth a play and “When you see pop bands live, the good ones always sound tougher than their recorded music. I’ll do it like that!”. He has been noticed at gigs putting the “Heavy Metal Horns” up occasionally to ward off evil spirits when Mick isn’t watching, like any good metal head should, and why not? The crowd seems to love it!
Neil: This is a tale of a wee lad from Portsmouth, who was whisked away from the mother England and transported by ship to the colonies! On the journey over he had a glimpse of his dual citizenship life ahead when he won the boat’s talent contest with a spirited rendition of ‘Jake the Peg’ by Rolf Harris. Fast forward a few years (ok, a lot) and he has spent most of his adult life carefully blending into the Australian Psyche, and now jubilantly claims the title of 2nd best Aussie accent in the band. But it is Music where the veil is lifted and Neil reveals his true roots with a career paying tribute to his two biggest loves, British Two tone Ska and Britpop. The former being realized right from the 80’s as keyboardist for Brisbane Ska forefathers The Funaddicts , current Soul/Ska band Fiesta Fiasco and as regular Australia/New Zealand tour keyboardist since 2011 for British Ska legends, Bad Manners (UK) and Roddy Radiation (Specials). After a year living/working back in the UK in the early 90’s when the Madchester sound, and the likes of Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets and the Charlatans, was taking over the airwaves, Neil has been a passionate exponent of the Britpop sound, and now revels in the music making with these other beautiful ruffians, seeing it as his sworn duty to make sure the Oasis guitar sound is balanced with the grooves and chunky organ of the other Britpop legends!