Alt-rock veterans Suede still love Hong Kong – and hate Britpop

Brett Anderson and Mat Osman on the band’s 10th album, writing books and music, and putting their egos aside for the ‘weird Suede figurehead’

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Brett Anderson and Mat Osman of Suede performing in 2023. Photo: Getty Images

Karen Cheung

Published: 6:00am, 27 Nov 2024

Hong Kong has always loved Suede – perhaps a bit too much. During the band’s third visit to the city in 1999, thousands of fans had packed the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai, and were in such a fevered state that 100 people fainted and four were injured whilst forcing their way into the venue. At least, that is, if you believe local tabloid The Sun’s report about the event, which has since been fondly reposted on the Suede Hong Kong Fans Community on Facebook.

Suede’s founding members Brett Anderson and Mat Osman, with guitarist Richard Oakes, long-time drummer Simon Gilbert, and keyboardist Neil Codling. Photo: Roger Sargent

In one archival black-and-white photograph posted on the same group, the band is in a mess of black jackets, young and effortlessly dapper against old street signs in Sheung Wan. Suede frontman Brett Anderson still recalls landing in the city back when the airport was at Kai Tak: “You look out the window, and you could see people in the office blocks. It was so close. And then when you’d be walking around the city, the planes would be right above your head. It was sort of modern and exciting and futuristic. It’s always been brilliant in Hong Kong … the fans have been incredible there.”

Mat Osman, Suede’s bassist, says the band has wanted to play Clockenflap festival for years, but the schedules never lined up until now. “For a band who always had this reputation of being very English and very London-based, it was always a real pleasure for us when we came to places and met an audience who weren’t English, for whom we were quite exotic.” He loved playing in Japan, too, but the audience was relatively restrained, kept behind a velvet rope, whereas Hong Kong fans were expressive, throwing their bodies around and singing along. “Hong Kong was the first place that I felt replicated the kind of passion of the crowds that we’d seen in Britain and Europe.”

Mat Osman of Suede playing at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, in 1999. Photo: SCMP Archive

Anderson, Osman and I speak on the phone over two separate calls just before the band returns to the city for their special Saturday set at Clockenflap this weekend at the Central Harbourfront. Osman is calling from Northwest London, while Anderson is at his residence in the English countryside with his family and their dogs. “It’s a bit rubbish and rainy today,” says Anderson. “I always find November quite a struggle, because it’s kind of cold and wet and horrible,” which is making him look forward to being back in Hong Kong’s more agreeable climate.

Suede have sometimes been referred to as Hong Kong’s favourite Britpop band, which may not sound like much of an accolade until you consider that Blur made an entire Hong Kong-themed album in 2015. A music critic recently said there was even a rumour once that Anderson had bought a flat in Whampoa (I didn’t bother verifying it). For my part, I started listening to Suede via a one-time university crush who, in 2013, told me he was wearing leather pants “to see Brett Anderson” that evening. Anderson speculates that the band’s loyal fan base has to do with the energy they bring to each new record. “We never make a record just for the sake of it,” says Anderson. “It’s always got to be the most important record of our career.” Unlike other veteran bands playing to largely ageing crowds, “We seem to be appealing to a whole new generation of fans, and lots of the people coming to the gigs are actually quite young.”

Suede’s ninth studio album, Autofiction, was released in 2022, coming on the heels of Anderson publishing two memoirs, and Osman a novel titled The Ruins; he’s since published another, The Ghost Theatre, in 2023. “I have this really romantic idea about writing,” says Osman. “One of the things I love about it is that you don’t need any stuff, you know? It’s just you and a pen and paper.” But when he writes for a long time, he “gets slightly nuts” talking to imaginary people in his head. “If I’ve been doing that for a couple of months, I’m desperate to get back into the studio or get back on the road. It’s all about the magic that comes from the chemistry of five people together. And this thing emerges that none of you have designed. And I love that. Every now and then you listen back to something in the studio and you’re kind of like, my God, is that ours?”

The cover of Suede’s ninth studio album, Autofiction. Photo: courtesy of Suede

“I thought [autofiction] was a really neat way to describe all art,” says Anderson. “Because all art is partly your own life experiences and partly a stylised version of that. That was quite a powerful way to describe songwriting.”