Does Mars Need Britpop?
Published June 05, 2003
British Beagle 2 probe builders seem to think so:
- In six months, the British interplanetary probe Beagle 2 will touch down on Mars and announce its arrival by playing nine digitized notes of a Blur song.
The song was previously released as "Beagle 2" on the B-side to "No Distance Left to Run" in 1999. Earlier that year, the band had got together with Colin Pillinger, the head of the space exploration project, the first European-sponsored venture of its kind.
"Colin had this great idea but no money," says Blur drummer Dave Rowntree, "but we thought, 'We could play the first gig on Mars!' So we talked the project up to the point where the money was made available. Our song's not really any major contribution to science."
....But how will Blur be received up there? "We're not expecting to find anything more than bacterial life on Mars," Rowntree says, "so I imagine they'll like heavy metal." [Rolling Stone]
- Does Mars Need Britpop?
- Published: June 05, 2003
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- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: News
- Writer: Eric Olsen
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Comments
Thanks Mars for the inside view!
Wouldn't "Bugman" have been more apt? ("Space is the place. . .")
So if British streets are filled with massive tripods incinerating everything in sight with their heat-rays, we'll know who to blame.






I was prepared to give a personal feel to this comment ("um... nah, I don't need any BritPop, thanks!")
I've actually been following the story of the Beagle 2 with a bit of interest, this post is a nice little morsel regarding it. Dave's remarks about Colin's finances don't surprise me, the project has miniscule funding, so this was good of the Blur guys to offer their services for the first Mars-a-palooza.
Thanks for the post!