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30 years on from 1995, Radio 2 is celebrating the year's biggest music, moments, and memories.

In Class of 95, four of the year's defining albums from Pulp, Oasis, Alanis Morissette and Take That are remembered by Radio 2's Jo Whiley, Vernon Kay, Fearne Cotton and Scott Mills.

For more 1995 nostalgia, we take a deep dive into the year's cultural highlights below, including Blur vs Oasis in the Battle of Britpop, Blackburn Rovers vs Manchester United competing for the Premier League crown, debut outings for Friends on Channel 4 and Pierce Brosnan as James Bond, the launch of the game-changing Windows 95, plus many more memorable moments.

Glastonbury’s 1995 headliners comprised Oasis, The Cure and, in a last-minute change, Pulp.

The Sheffield Britpoppers, whose hit Common People was the summer's big indie anthem, were asked to headline the festival with just a week’s notice after The Stone Roses pulled out when guitarist John Squire broke his collarbone. Their 1995 set would go down in history as one of Glastonbury’s most cherished, and later in the year they'd top the UK Album Chart with Different Class, which went on to win the following year's Mercury Music Prize.

Other acts in this iconic year for the festival included Portishead, PJ Harvey, Everything But The Girl, Sleeper, Jeff Buckley, Simple Minds, Elastica and Massive Attack – who headlined the first ever iteration of Glastonbury’s Dance Tent (which would morph into the dance ‘village’ known as Silver Hayes).

In its 25th year and priced at £65 apiece, tickets sold out within ‘just’ four weeks of release – a record for the festival. For comparison, tickets for Glastonbury 2025 sold out in 35 minutes and set you back £378.50 per ticket!

It was such a memorable year that Glastonbury co-organiser Emily Eavis told the 蜜芽传媒’s Sidetracked podcast it was her favourite ever, because "I just finished my GCSEs [and] it was the first year that I was allowed to camp." You can hear the whole conversation on 蜜芽传媒 Sounds.

Elsewhere in music, the so-called 'Battle of Britpop' reached boiling point in August 1995, with Blur's Country House and Oasis' Roll With It released on the same day. Blur secured the coveted No.1 spot, selling 274,000 copies to Oasis' 216,000. Both acts would go on to top the UK Album Chart later in the year with their era-defining releases 'The Great Escape' and '(What's The Story) Morning Glory'.

Three decades on, Blur have recently completed a world tour, while Oasis are soon to embark on their reunion gigs. Meanwhile, in London’s West End, ‘The Battle’, a new play for 2025, charts the bands’ rivalry from that memorable summer.

1995 was a peak year for Britpop, with the likes of Elastica, Suede, Sleeper, Echobelly, and Supergrass among those enjoying chart success and regular TV and radio appearances.

A number of boybands also dominated the music scene of 1995.

East 17 started the year at No.1 with Stay Another Day, Boyzone's debut album Said and Done topped the chart, and America's Backstreet Boys scored their first two UK Top Ten hits with We've Got It Goin' On and I'll Never Break Your Heart.

Boyband stalwarts Take That had a memorable year - they racked up two No.1 singles in Back for Good and Never Forget, taken from their No.1 album Nobody Else. However, the pop world was rocked by Robbie Williams’ shock departure from the group in July 1995, with the remaining members calling it a day the following year, before reuniting in 2005.

While it would be another year before the Spice Girls would usher in a new era of chart success for girl groups, 1995 was a massive year for many of music's top female stars.

Mariah Carey, Annie Lennox, Alison Moyet, and Celine Dion all topped the UK Album Chart. Celine's single Think Twice also spent 7 weeks at No.1 before being knocked off the top spot by Cher, Chrissie Hynde & Neneh Cherry’s Love Can Build A Bridge (with Eric Clapton on guitar) - 1995’s Comic Relief song.

And American girl group, Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, and Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas, aka TLC, secured their first UK Top 10 hit with the ultra-slick Waterfalls, a No.4 hit in August 1995.

The Beatles were back in the charts in 1995 with 'new' material - Free As A Bird was based on an old John Lennon demo and featured on the band's Anthology album, which was also accompanied by a TV series. Michael Jackson, who released the HIStory album this year, claimed the coveted Christmas No.1 with Earth Song.

It was another big year for dance anthems, with Livin' Joy's Dreamer topping the charts in May, a remix of N'Trance's 1993 hit Set You Free reaching No.2 in February, Todd Terry's remix of Everything But The Girl's Missing peaking at No.3 in November. The year also saw Top 5 dance hits from the likes of Baby D, Berri, and The Bucketheads.

The Outhere Brothers' Boom Boom Boom and Don't Stop (Wiggle Wiggle), Gangster’s Paradise by Coolio, Shaggy’s Boombastic, and Cotton Eyed Joe by Swedish group Rednex, were among the year's other memorable No.1 singles.

But 1995 was ultimately Robson & Jerome’s year.

The Soldier Soldier actors, who a certain Simon Cowell turned into pop stars, claimed the top spot in the UK singles chart for an impressive 11 weeks thanks to their double a-side singles Unchained Melody/White Cliffs of Dover, and I Believe/Up on the Roof. So what chance a 30th anniversary reunion in 2025?

Meanwhile, little known singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill entered the UK Album Chart with little fanfare all the way down at No.76 in August 1995. Accompanying single You Oughta Know peaked at No.22 in the same month. Proving to be the ultimate slow-burner, the album would go on to yield four more Top 40 singles over the next year, and eventually spend 11 weeks at No.1, become 1996's best-selling album in the UK. By 2022, it was reported to have sold 33 million copies worldwide, making it one of biggest-selling albums of all-time.

US sitcom Friends had launched in its home country back in 1994, but it wasn't until April 1995 that the hugely popular sitcom debuted on British television thanks to Channel 4. The comedy made stars of Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matt Le Blanc, and Matthew Perry and it wasn’t long before ‘the Rachel’ became the go-to haircut for millions of women around the world.

The theme tune for the show - The Rembrandts' I'll Be There for You - peaked in the UK charts at #3 in September 1995 (behind Michael Jackson's You Are Not Alone and Blur's Country House). It would go on to spend eight weeks in the top ten and 23 weeks in the top 40.

A few years later in 1998, the fourth season finale, 'The One with Ross's Wedding' would be filmed in London, in part an acknowledgement of the popularity of the show in the UK.

The 蜜芽传媒’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was televised in the autumn of 1995, gripping the nation on a Sunday night during its six week run, and making stars of Jennifer Ehle (Elizabeth Bennet) and Colin Firth (Mr Darcy).

A perfect excuse, should we need it, to ‘remind ourselves’ of the show's most memorable scene - Mr Darcy going for a swim in Pemberley lake on a hot summer’s day? Psst – it’s near the end of episode 4 on 蜜芽传媒 iPlayer.

The famous shirt sold for a whopping £25k at auction in March 2024.

Elsewhere in a bumper year for TV, Father Ted and Hollyoaks debuted on Channel 4, Martine McCutcheon joined the cast of EastEnders as Tiffany, while Julie Goodyear's Bet Lynch exited Coronation Street after 25 years. Brookside, meanwhile, was at the height of its popularity when the body under the patio storyline reached its climax, landing the soap its record viewing figures in the process. Soaps were so popular back in 1995, that Channel 4 devoted a whole weekend to celebrating the genre.

Microsoft made one of the most ground-breaking technological revolutions of the 90s in August this year: the release of their new operating system, Windows 95.

Including features such as the 'Start' button, Taskbar, and Internet Explorer, Windows 95 sold itself as an accessible route into computing for the masses by littering pop culture references throughout its marketing campaign (such as including the video for Weezer’s Buddy Holly in the install CD and having Friends stars Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry present the Video Guide).

Windows 95 and Internet Explorer also helped to push the so-called 'World Wide Web' into the mainstream. The Internet had been around since the early 80s, but 1995 saw the launch of sites like Amazon (initially selling books in July 1995), Yahoo (well before Google established itself), eBay, Craigslist, and even Match.com, meaning the earliest internet daters could be celebrating 30 years together this year!

Meanwhile in the world of gaming, Sony’s PlayStation was also released in the US and Europe, and marked a turning point towards CD-based games such as Destruction Derby, Wipeout, Rayman, Tekken, and the third instalment of the FIFA series, FIFA 96.

In September 1995 and in his fourth attempt, Frank Bruno finally achieved his ambition of winning the world title.

Billed as the Empire Strikes Back, 'True Brit' Bruno faced American Oliver McCall at Wembley Stadium and won the WBC world heavyweight boxing championship on points after twelve rounds.

Bruno would be ranked among the ten best heavyweights in the world twelve times over the course of his career, peaking at world number 3 in 1984 but winning the hearts and minds of the British public in the process.

Elsewhere in sport, South Africa hosted and won the Rugby World Cup, Michael Schumacher won the second of his seven Formula One Drivers' championships, Pete Sampras and Stefi Graf triumphed at Wimbledon, and the 49ers won the 29th Super Bowl.

In football, Norway won the Women's World Cup, while there was an unexpected name at the top of the English Premier League...

The 1994-95 Premier League was a thriller, going down to the wire on the final day of the season.

Blackburn Rovers won their first English league title in 81 years, pipping Manchester United to the post by just one single point. Funded by local businessman Jack Walker, under the guidance of manager Kenny Dalglish, and aided by 'SAS partnership' of strikers Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton, it would be the last time a team outside of Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal or Chelsea won the title until Leicester City’s unlikely triumph in 2016.

One of the defining moments of the season came in January 1995, with Manchester United striker Eric Cantona infamously “kung-fu kicking” an abusive Crystal Palace fan. With the Frenchman subsequently given a lengthy suspension, United missed out on the title for the first time since the Premier League launched in 1992 - however they'd reclaim it upon his return the following season.

Discover more about Alex Ferguson's incredible career in these specials, available now on 蜜芽传媒 iPlayer and 蜜芽传媒 Sounds.

While Pride and Prejudice gripped TV viewers, Jane Austen's influence stretched to the big screen in the form of Alicia Silverstone’s hit teen comedy film Clueless. (Very) loosely based on Austen’s 1815 novel Emma, the coming-of-age film perfectly captured the essence of high school and the quest for popularity.

1995 marked Pierce Brosnan’s first outing as James Bond in GoldenEye, a role he would hold until 2002. Its main theme was sung by Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll Tina Turner, although it very nearly didn’t happen after she originally dismissed a "really rough" demo she had been sent by songwriters Bono and The Edge from U2. Earlier in the year, the Irish rockers appeared on the soundtrack to Val Kilmer’s Batman Forever with their hit single Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me.

Pixar’s landmark animation Toy Story premiered in the US in late 1995 as the first feature-length film created entirely with Computer Generated Imagery. It eventually premiered in the UK in March 1996, with Buzz Lightyear becoming the must-have toy the following Christmas.

Elsewhere, Mel Gibson’s Braveheart would go on to be nominated for no less than ten Academy Awards (ultimately scooping five wins, including Best Picture). Also in 1995 Gibson voiced John Smith, the love interest of the title character in Disney's Pocahontas. Both Braveheart and Pocahontas featured in the UK's Top 10 highest grossing movies of the year.

From Braveheart’s William Wallace to Wallace & Gromit; 1995 ended with the third instalment of Aardman Animations’ claymation franchise.

Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave was enjoyed by millions on Christmas Eve on 蜜芽传媒 Two that year, and the animated short achieved the coveted perfect 100% score on film review site Rotten Tomatoes.

The duo's popularity endures three decades on, with their most recent outing, Vengeance Most Fowl, proving to be one of the TV hits of Christmas 2024, enjoyed by an audience of over 16 million. You can catch their re-match with nemesis, and all-time master of disguise, Feathers McGraw right now on 蜜芽传媒 iPlayer.