Who’ll Lead the Next British Invasion?

As 1994 drew to a close, who was on top of the British album chart?

Re-meet the Beatles, with the newly released collection of BBC radio sessions.

Fitting.

The past year has seen British pop drawing ever more hungrily on its own past in search of inspiration, with bands such as Blur and Oasis achieving success with albums that owe an obvious debt to John, Paul, George and Ringo and the bands that followed them in the first big British pop invasion.

Well, with rock in recent years having been dominated by American acts, no wonder British youth is turning to past glories for a boost.

And at the dawn of 1995, there may actually be an opening for home-grown rock here. The tragic end of Nirvana seems to have brought a temporary conclusion, at least symbolically, to the period in which it seemed that everything new and important was coming from America.

There’s an optimistic mood that perhaps a band like Oasis or Elastica or the returned Stone Roses can reassert British prominence in rock--and even reopen the door to America.

Where the American bands Offspring and Green Day have turned punk energy into cash on the U.S. charts, British acts are also harking back to the old pogo days, though so far the so-called new wave of new wave--headed by the likes of Elastica and Echobelly--has generated considerably more column inches in the press than sales in the record stores.

Both of those bands take inspiration from the 1978-81 post-punk era rather than from punk itself, and both have successfully translated critical acclaim into some record sales and live success, while back-to-basics hard-core punk revivalists such as SMASH and These Animal Men have struggled in spite of much media exposure.

Despite the fact the three of its four members are female, Elastica has frequently been compared to Wire, while Echobelly is a multiracial, melodic, guitar-pop band that often seems like a kind of politically conscious, Smiths-influenced Blondie.

Drugstore is another hugely promising band that makes particularly good use of new wave influences. The London-based trio, fronted by Brazilian singer-bassist Isabel Monteiro, writes superb, darkly romantic songs somewhat reminiscent of the Jesus and Mary Chain’s. Its keenest fans include Evan Dando, who insisted that Drugstore open shows by his band the Lemonheads on its last tour of Britain. With considerable college radio play already and U.S. dates due in the new year, a major breakthrough on both sides of the Atlantic looks distinctly possible.

Certainly there are some areas--rap, primarily--where British talent is scarce. The incendiary polemics of the Anglo-Asian band Fun-Da-Mental and the youthful energy and idealism of Credit to the Nation are two notable exceptions.

But cross-fertilization between genres produces some exciting hybrids in Britain, where media and audiences are more prone to crossing between styles than in America. It was here, after all, that the indie-dance crossover of the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays thrived; and as the Roses return (albeit with a surprisingly rocking album), that crossover zone between alternative rock and dance is producing some of Britain’s most refreshing new music.

One prime example is Portishead, the Bristol duo whose debut “Dummy,” a record reminiscent of a more sinister and understated Bjork, was voted album of the year in Melody Maker’s annual critics’ poll.

Another is Laika (fronted by American expatriate Margaret Fiedler), whose “Silver Apples of the Moon” album is a heady fusion of ambient dance, dub and breathless rap spiced with bursts of noise. That album was a main attraction when Rick Rubin’s American Recordings company recently bought the rights to release the Too Pure indie label’s product in the U.S. If Laika or any of its labelmates matches the impact of one of Too Pure’s early discoveries, PJ Harvey, then Rubin will have a real bargain.

Here are a few observations and predictions by a variety of people on the British music scene:

* Marijne van der Vlugt, who’s about to quit her job as an MTV Europe veejay in order to concentrate on Salad, the much-acclaimed indie-rock band she fronts, comments: “I think PJ Harvey will do really, really well this year. She’s got this new album coming out in February, and I think this time she’ll be big in America as well. I think Elastica will do really well too, and so will Portishead.”

* Salad guitarist Paul Kennedy adds, “The Beatles really opened up the American charts for everyone who followed, and if Blur and Oasis made it big (in the U.S.) then the same could happen again.”

* Radio 1 deejay Steve Lamacq, whose “Evening Session” show has become one of Britain’s premier means of exposure for all kinds of alternative music, also backs Portishead and Utah Saints--a Leeds-based dance-rock crossover duo that’s enjoyed a series of British hit singles with tracks prominently featuring samples taken from improbable sources such as Eurythmics, Kate Bush, the Human League and even Slayer.

“I think Utah Saints might have a huge hit over there--I know they’re pushing the guitars up for the Americans,” said Lama. “We can’t export rap music over there, but we can do something quite mellow, taking the love for soul music from America then blending it with the mellow vibe that’s going on here. Portishead could be the ones to do that.”

* Perhaps, however, the last word should go to a survivor of the heady days of 1964. Legendary BBC deejay John Peel sounds a note of caution: “I listen to some of the bands who are defiantly retro, like Blur, Suede and Oasis, and . . . I hear so much of the past in it. I don’t hate them for it, but it doesn’t excite me. Then there are new British bands who I do really like; bands who seem to me to be producing punk rock in one form or another, like Elastica.

“There will never be another Beatles. At the time of the Beatles there was just pop music, whereas now there are so many sub-divisions; and American radio is so conservative.

“I’d love to give you a list of five British bands who are going to be huge in America in a year’s time. But as with anything, it’ll just be question of whether people are being heard.”