What was England like in late 1998/early 1999?

[breaksinthedayforyou]

Interested to know.

I am a late 90s baby and can't believe that was now over 25 years ago

One of my earliest memories is going into Woolworths in Poplar. I was in a buggy and remember feeling cold

It randomly occurred to me that 1998, my birth year, is going to sound ancient to my own grandchildren/great grandchildren. Much like my great grandmother shocking my mum years ago by being born 'in the 1800s' 😃

I got married in 97. It cost a lot more than two grand! I was living in a flat in South London with my dh. There was a drug dealer downstairs and goths in the next flat.

Exactly Doctor.

Some people are absolute fannies. It's amazing how weak people have become in such a short space of time.

Did you have one of those reverse charge cards ? I used to know the number by heart

Late 1998 / early 1999 - I was early 20s, seems about right that average Mnetter's age is in the 40s. I was at uni and it was all about socialising, getting pished, learning how to cook / live away from home. There were no politics at uni like there is nowadays where things get cancelled.

There was LGBT, but T stood for transsexual, not transgender. Changing sex from M to F or the other way round. The Pride flag was just that, rainbow colours, not with the left chevrons / triangles, encroaching on some of the flag. Pride itself was about music and lifestyle. Now it's just politics, to the point that my gay friends no longer go because the fun has been sapped out of it.

Politics in general was more in the background than like now in the foreground. A lot already said about the positivity of Labour being in power in 1998 which lasted until the Iraq war, then they threw it all away. If Labour wins in 2024, there won't be the same positivity around it, again because how toxic politics have become.

Music in1998 was post-Britpop. It was more about big beat, look up Fat Boy Slim, Bentley Rhythm Ace, Chemical Brothers. There was also something called UK garage which was RnB music, quite soulful most of the time but with a dance beat. This genre ran from about 1997 until 2001/2, and it was everywhere!

Lots of debate in this thread about the internet. For me, 1999 was the magic year. I went on summer camps every year from early 90s, made new friends and we would exchange postal addresses. Except starting in 1999, we all exchanged email addresses instead. Like day and night, 1999 was the year. Before 1999, there was internet but it wasn't main stream. The World Wide Web (the bit where everything starts with "www") was invented around 1991/2, so that became the internet as we know it today. Before 1991, hardly anyone had it. Broadband, wher eyou no longer needed to use a dial-up modem took over in the early or mid 2000s.

Most of the big tech firms around now were around and well established in 1998. M icrosoft, Apple, Samsung, Philips, Dell, Sony. Amazon and eBay were around but only just starting out. Nokia was a massive brand for mobiles in 1998, even more so than Samsung and Apple in this age.

Contraversial topic, but hardly anyone was overweight in 1998. Now it's two-thirds of the population and that includes me!

@TrickorTreacle indeed you could never have bought anything in a size 18 in a standard high street retailer. I wasn't anything like that size ( sadly now bigger than that) but i think if you were over a 16 it was Evans for you.

90's was perfection in so many ways! Oh to relive my teens again

Pubs and clubs were great and you could get in them being a bit younger than you have to be now. However, they were filled with cigarette smoke!
Internet was dial up- so a whole new world was out there but we were not tied to it like we are now.
No Kindles - only lovely, real books!
Popular drinks - Bacardi Breezers, Metz, Hooch and Diamond White.
Everything was far less politically correct.
Holidays booked at a travel agents - no Trip Advisor or Bookings.com!
Music played on CDS.
Scrunchies.
Texting using numbers.
It was fab!

Does anyone remember minus-2p baked beans at Tesco?

I don't remember that but I do remember the beans price war that led to it. Before Aldi and Lidl came on the scene there were a couple of super-discount chains – Kwik Save and Shoprite and maybe a couple of others, I think it depended what part of the country you were in. When Aldi arrived in the UK they started selling beans at 8p as a publicity stunt. Kwik Save responded with 7p beans and it ended up with Shoprite offering beans for 2p.

There was Netto for a bit. I remember my dad coming back with bargains including massive bucket sized tubs of fruits of the forest flavour yoghurt.

We moved house mid 97 and it was still house details on sheets from the estate agents and looking in the local paper on Wednesday which was house supplement day. Rightmove was formed in 2000.

Yes, I agree with this. Why just England OP? Do Scotland and Wales not count ?

I was in the lower sixth in 1999 and very awkward/nerdy. Teenagers then were far less polished - teenage girls now all seem to be able to do professional level make-up. Everyone in my sixth form wore jeans and t shirts/jumpers and not much makeup in evidence. I didn’t get a mobile until the following year, so a lot of time was spent waiting for people to ring on the landline. We didn’t have the Internet at home then either - i don’t think it had become widespread yet. I had a group of similarly nerdy, mostly male friends and we used to get the bus into town and hang out in the shopping centre. We’d browse in HMV and Sam Goody (remember that?) then get lunch in the Food Court. Happy days!

Ahh "going down town" the premier teenage activity of the mid to late nineties.

We could get a whole days entertainment for the price of a bus fare and a McDonalds meal deal.

I just thought of something else - Disney!

1998 was the tale end of their renaissance decade. Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Lion King. Toy Story, Mulan were all pretty recent at the time and I remember it was a bit of a chase to get the VHS tapes for them.

Don’t forget Moscow Mule and Two Dogs which was the same as Hooch but not as nice!

Agreed with most of what you say but I knew 2 overweight women (friends of friends), probably a size 16 but compared to my size 10 and my other friends they were overweight, not that we passed judgment. They used to complain about their weight (but not diet). We all went clubbing together.

Yes to pinafore dresses over T-shirts.

Morgan (de toi) was the popular shop for clubbing or night out wear along with Kookai, Jane Norman, Faith, Ravel and Karen Millen if you had money. We knew an Australian woman who’d moved to London and she couldn’t get over how cheap Morgan was compared to in Australia. I worked in Kensington where the Kookai shop had an upstairs area with seconds and sample pieces, all cheaper. There was a clubbing stall in Camden Market to get clubbing gear and one in Seven Dials too.

Brick phones. Enough to keep in touch with mates but no incriminating photos.
Loads of high steet clothes shops, oasis, warehouse, Morgan etc. Now it's just primark and h&m.
Probably far too much drinking and drugs, my son and his mates aren't interested which isn't a bad thing. Why go out in the evening (cold, expensive) when you can come home to a fully stocked fridge and chat to your mates while gaming.

It was around this time I got my first set of hair straighteners.. Babyliss and you had to pour water in the front like a kettle, needless to say they were crap!!

On the plus side Garage raves were at there peak!

I think I had a mobile phone in the late 1990s. I think it came free with my student Barclaycard.

It was teal, had a plastic antenna and weighed a ton.

I can't remember if you could get ringtones then but I remember my first ringtone was the theme music from Sex and the City

Yeah. I miss that.

Student discos were the best. One second it was something a bit grunge like Marcy Playground or Hole, then some dance like Faithless and Chemicsl Brothers, some Green Day and Offspring followed by an Alanis Morrisette singalong, Barbie Girl, Horny, Horny, Horny, the theme tune from Dawson's Creek, Tubthumping and Men In Black

We were not cool

I still can't resist Whigfield and Never Ever by All Saints.

We all loved the spice girls who were in their hey day and were devastated Geri left!
There was massive pressure on girls to be thin and anorexia was around a lot
We dressed pretty much like gen z dresses now
There were no smart phones - if you were out with friends and agreed a time to be home by you had to use a pay phone to call parents to ask for permission to stay out longer
You had to use an a-z to navigate London as no google maps!

Fantastic ring tone!