"Surely the most important British band of the '90s were Oasis?"

ugh, no. I never could see the appeal of Oasis. Well, actually I could see the appeal writ large: take the most obvious, banal, football-chant-singalong aspects of the Beatles (ignore all of the interesting stuff that made them possibly the most inventive band ever) and flog them to death. The same song over and over and over again. Oasis were totally witless chancers who got lucky. They're now like the UK's equivalent of, say, France's Johnny Hallyday: a parochial, backwards-looking phenomenon that must be utterly baffling to anyone not from there.

I remember Catherine Wheel. Funny you should have mentioned them. They were quite obscure in the UK - they came out of the fuzzy indie guitar "shoegazing" scene. If you liked Catherine Wheel but never heard My Bloody Valentine, then you should definitely check out My Bloody Valentine: they were/are true originals. The only people I know of today who even approach the sound that MBV got are an American band called The Goslings, who I think are from San Francisco.

For me, the 1990s in the UK were defined by trip-hop stuff: Portishead, Tricky, and Massive Attack. With the occasional bit of drum'n'bass such as Photek.

A lot of that Britpop stuff from around then hasn't aged well, although I think some of Blur's stuff and Elastica's stuff still stands up.

But I think my favourite 1990s UK rock album, which I suspect people on this forum would probably like a lot if they haven't already heard it is "Bring It On" by Gomez. Their first album, and the only good thing they've done. It's like they squeezed all their ideas onto that one record and had nothing else to say afterwards. It's basically a blues rock album, but it's a lot more than that: a lot of psychedelic influences and some beautiful countryish harmonies. The production and arrangements are terrific. It's like electric jug-band pop.

Oh, and I also quite liked the Super Furry Animals 90s stuff too. They're a Welsh band who mix up a lot of 1970s psych and glam-rock influences with flourishes from acid house and punk. Again, true originals.