ゴールディはUKのフェスティバルで「何でも見たわ、ダーリン」と言う

If you’ve spent any time doomscrolling in the last year or so, it’s highly likely you’ll have come across archive photos dragged up from the golden era of Britpop. It might have been Robbie Williams, post-Take That departure, missing a tooth and seemingly spangled at Glastonbury. It might have been Sadie Frost and bestie Kate Moss mooching about Primrose Hill in vintage Galliano. It might have been longtime rivals Liam Gallagher and Damon Albarn of Blur battling it out on the football pitch. And maybe it was legendary jungle musician Goldie, decked out in Stüssy, leaving a party alongside Björk. It was a mad time when all corners of culture clashed together in a haze of cigarettes and alcohol (plus plenty of class As) and, by his own admission, Goldie went hard – so hard that by the time the 00s rolled around he skipped town for Thailand, where he now lives a pretty clean life.

“If I hadn’t done that, I’d have become one of those dead rockstars,” he tells me over Zoom, dialling in from his home in Asia. “Or a dead breakbeat star for that matter.” While he’s all about ice baths and yoga over getting fucked up these days, he’s reliving the halycon days of the mid-90s in a new campaign by Burberry which celebrates the first Britpop movement and heralds the arrival of Britpop Summer 2.0 – which makes sense since jangly guitar pop is all over the radio, kids are dressing like they’re with the band, and Oasis are definitely (maybe?) reuniting for a bunch of shows that sold out in record time in just a few weeks.

Goldie has had a longstanding relationship with Burberry, first seeing its distinctive Nova Check springing up on dancefloors across Britain as the ecstasy-fuelled rave movement took over the nation. “But back then you’d nick it, or you’d have it nicked off you” he laughs. “The kids who wore Burberry in the rave, it was almost like piracy, worn from a pirates perspective. Burberry was all about the high end of society, so seeing the ravers wear it was cool as fuck. It was this clash of anti-establishment and establishment, which is a really important part of British culture,” he adds.

Of course, this isn’t Goldie’s first rodeo when it comes to fashion. A bonafide streetwear icon before that was even a thing, at one point during our interview he picks up his phone and takes me down to his walk-in wardrobe to see pieces from his archive – jammed full of vintage Stüssy, adidas Spezial, early Evisu, and loads, loads more. He’s also walked runways for Alexander McQueen, Versace, and, more recently, Louis Vuitton while Virgil Abloh was at its helm – the iconoclastic designer was a big fan of Goldie’s Metalheadz label’s output and the two became good friends. “He was a genius,” he says of Abloh. The two often talked about entering fashion in a Trojan horse and shaking it up from the inside, using it as a tool to shape culture beyond the clothes. “It’s something I see in Daniel [Lee] too,” he says. “Just this kid from Bradford who’s come in, got his head down and grafted.

As the campaign launches, Goldie talks mad 90s festival moments, early memories of Burberry, and more on Virgin Abloh.

So first of all, how did the collaboration with Burberry come about?

Goldie: Well, it was a bit of a labour of love for my agency who’ve had me waiting in the wings for a while. You know, I’m a child of the 90s, a product of the 90s. And me taking a massive hiatus out of the UK was something I needed to do because the lifestyle I lived in the 90s and 00s was catching up with me. I needed a change, because I was gonna end up one of these dead rockstars, or a dead breakbeat star for that matter. But my name had apparently come up a few times – if you’re talking about the 90s, as Burberry is with this campaign, I was there, I lived it. If the cap fits I’m gonna wear it, you know? (laughs).

What are your memories of Burberry back in the 90s? It’s a really different brand now…

Goldie: Well, you’d nick it for a start (laughs). You’d either get it nicked off your back or you’d nick it. It is quite strange and surreal, because it’s something that was very intrinsic to the rave scene and rave culture. The kids who wore Burberry in the rave, it was almost like piracy, worn from a pirates perspective. It was like they’d taken something from the establishment almost. Back then we had all the Fila and Sergio Tacchini coming in, and it was the only big British brand, alongside Dr Martens I suppose, but that was more associated with punk. Burberry was all about the high end of society, so seeing the ravers wear it was cool as fuck. It was this clash of anti-establishment and establishment, which is a really important part of British culture.

Yeah it’s super interesting that Burberry largely turned its back on the Nova Check in the 00s for this reason, and now it’s really embracing it, working with Palace, artists like you, young kids, exploring its place in pop and subculture instead of just marketing it to the high end.

Goldie: Totally. I mean just look at the Dapper Dan story. We were wearing that fake Gucci out in New York in the 80s, you know. And now these guys [at the big brands] are scratching their heads, like, well, what? Why aren’t we working with these people? Because these big establishments are realising that the culture and counterculture are so effective.

I find it fascinating that for my own daughter, who’s 13, she and all her friends are into everything 90s. I guess when I was in the 90s, we were talking about the 60s and the Beatles and Twiggy and, you know, Captain Beefheart and Cream and the Stones. But I think it’s even larger than that. I had many conversations with my dear friend Virgil Abloh before we did our Metalheadz collaboration where he said, ‘You haven’t even felt the ripples of what’s going to happen with it,’ and he was right. I think it’s so important culturally because it was pre-internet, and now, there really is so little in the way of culture and counterculture. And I think the kids are lamenting that they don’t really have a big, real-life scene like that and Daniel, who’s come from Bradford and got his head down and grafted, has been very clever to channel all of that and really celebrate what made the 90s great.

Virgil and I used to talk about how we were entering this Trojanic state… You get out behind enemy lines, and you attack from inside – Goldie

And Virgil. I’m reading Robin Givhan’s new book about him at the moment and it’s even more evident how ahead of the curve he was. There are definitely parallels to what he did at Vuitton and what Daniel is doing at Burberry.

Goldie: Definitely. Virgil and I used to talk about how we were entering this Trojanic state. And what I mean by that is that you’re in a kind of Trojan horse, entering these mega-established places. You get out behind enemy lines, and you attack from inside. You change the culture. Virgil used to say ‘I’m working for a suitcase company, but inside the suitcase, there’s culture’. With Burberry it’s rave culture and the Britpop movement.

People say subculture is dead, but it’s proliferating on the internet and platforms like TikTok, which is not surprising given how UK nightlife has been completely decimated in the last few years, and how skint we all are.

Goldie: Yeah, it’s kind of like we were the last of the Mohicans I guess, before the internet – or at least when you could turn it off and go out, when the culture still existed outside.

What makes fashion interesting for me is its intersection with music and film and art and all these things, and I think that’s why the 90s still have Gen Z in a chokehold because it was this mad mix-up. Like indie stars playing football with jungle and breakbeat artists, the YBAs, all hanging out together.

Goldie: And Britain more than any other place is so about that. I came back from New York where I’d been getting into graffiti in 1991 and went to my first Rage night. And it was so diverse. Black, white, Asian, kids with grills, kids in inside-out Burberry bombers, Jasper Conran suits, Vivienne Westwood, sportswear, all just dancing on podiums from all different backgrounds. Rave really brought everyone together and the DJ became the new rock star. But then it went a bit silly with the super-DJs, and I think recently it’s gone a bit more back to basics with the likes of Nia Archives really taking it back to the music.

Okay, on to your own style. You’re all over a new generation’s Pinterest boards and up and down Instagram posted as a style icon. Do you still have all your stuff from the 90s? Are there any holy grail pieces you could never part with?

Goldie: It scares me! Those photos are absurd, me like the big I am, looking like ‘Don’t fuck with me’. It’s me and my grinch face and Noel [Gallagher]’s eyebrows, you can’t beat that collaboration (laughs).

But the clothes… I have so many. I could never part with my House of Couture navy blue dreadlock jumper. All my pre-91 Stüssy is holy grail stuff, like the Barsity Tribe jackets. Some early Evisu jeans, and the early cycling tops they made were insane. My Hilfiger stuff from the first wave. Second wave forget it. Loads of early Spezial, the original corduroy tracksuits that Gary Aspden did. Things I regret not having now… My pink Puma States, which were a size too small but I still wore them. They gave me mad blisters, absolutely killed me, but I still wore them. An Australian Kangaroo tracksuit, which is what the B Boys wore in Wolverhampton. So much stuff I don’t know where it’s gone, but I still have loads.

My wife kills me, because I’ve had to rebuild the wardrobe downstairs. And when we moved to Thailand I even got rid of seven or eight bin bags. I donated a lot to the Burmese camps, which felt like the right thing to do. Literally, it’s taken me like six months to do it, but I refined all the clobber down to the collectibles only, and I finally got all of my stuff in one place. The ironic thing is now I live here I live in white t-shirts and a pair of Stüssy shorts. I’ve gone into the James Dean era of my life (laughs).

Brands can be pretty bad at keeping archives when they first start – have any of the ones you mentioned tapped you to come look at yours?

Goldie: Oh yeah, the guys at Stüssy were gobsmacked. They started making some of the stuff I showed them, which was cool. They remade the Oakley collaboration. And they’ve done the rayon shirts with the orchids all over them, they’re pretty rare, the originals. There’s loads of stuff that’s worth its weight in gold that you can’t get any more. All the Burberry checked bombers are like gold dust. I don’t think you’d find them now. The hardcore collectors have got them in private archives or they’re loaned out only for costume in films.

I’ve seen everything, darling. Seriously, British festivals bring out the worst in British people – Goldie

And the Burberry campaign – it’s all centred around the big British festival. What’s the maddest thing you’ve ever seen happen at a festival? 

Goldie: I can’t even say it. People shagging in the woods and shagging in trees. People taking dumps in the worst places, all those who can’t help themselves. I mean, you can’t really mess with the British. We’re British, the British experience is pretty crazy. I’ve seen everything, darling. Seriously, British festivals bring out the worst in British people (laughs).

Okay, say you were curating your own fantasy festival. Who would you have headlining?

Goldie: God, it would be Noel (Gallagher) I think, Fatboy Slim, Carl Cox, Grooverider, and Doug Scott. Five headliners. I’m happy with that. It’s my festival!

You last walked in a fashion show for Virgil at Vuitton in 2022. Can we expect to see you back on the runway anytime soon?

Goldie: Yeah but before that I did Alexander McQueen’s second show, Lee’s show. I remember it was in King’s Cross. Absolutely mad show, loved that. I walked for Evisu when they did their first show in England. I did Versace. And then Virgil’s Amen Break, which I still think is one of the greatest short films on fashion meeting culture in three different decades. It’s so clever. I actually still have all the notes Virgil gave to me for each of the collections. He wrote them out by hand. And Amen Break was such a special thing because it felt like recognition for what I had achieved within underground British music. It was like passing it on to the next generation.

But listen, I’d love to walk for Burberry because it’s a good fit. And I think it’s been a while. I’ve always liked Daniel, always loved what he’s doing. It has to be right. And I think that you look at Lee, and what Lee did, and all these early interviews, just being so anti-fucking-establishment, like, I like the slightly punk element to what this this little thing is, because I think in every raver is a small punk waiting to get out. Yeah, yeah, inherent of our parenthood. I grew up on the Stranglers, Public Image Limited, the Pistols, Aswad, UB40, it’s all in there. I’m standing on the shoulders of giants, and it’s nice to see [British music history] recognised in a story like this one.

Click through the gallery above for a closer look at Burberry’s festival campaign.

If you’ve spent any time doomscrolling in the last year or so, it’s highly likely you’ll have come across archive photos dragged up from the golden era of Britpop. It might have been Robbie Williams, post-Take That departure, missing a tooth and seemingly spangled at Glastonbury. It might have been Sadie Frost and bestie Kate Moss mooching about Primrose Hill in vintage Galliano. It might have been longtime rivals Liam Gallagher and Damon Albarn of Blur battling it out on the football pitch. And maybe it was legendary jungle musician Goldie, decked out in Stüssy, leaving a party alongside Björk. It was a mad time when all corners of culture clashed together in a haze of cigarettes and alcohol (plus plenty of class As) and, by his own admission, Goldie went hard – so hard that by the time the 00s rolled around he skipped town for Thailand, where he now lives a pretty clean life.

“If I hadn’t done that, I’d have become one of those dead rockstars,” he tells me over Zoom, dialling in from his home in Asia. “Or a dead breakbeat star for that matter.” While he’s all about ice baths and yoga over getting fucked up these days, he’s reliving the halycon days of the mid-90s in a new campaign by Burberry which celebrates the first Britpop movement and heralds the arrival of Britpop Summer 2.0 – which makes sense since jangly guitar pop is all over the radio, kids are dressing like they’re with the band, and Oasis are definitely (maybe?) reuniting for a bunch of shows that sold out in record time in just a few weeks.

Goldie has had a longstanding relationship with Burberry, first seeing its distinctive Nova Check springing up on dancefloors across Britain as the ecstasy-fuelled rave movement took over the nation. “But back then you’d nick it, or you’d have it nicked off you” he laughs. “The kids who wore Burberry in the rave, it was almost like piracy, worn from a pirates perspective. Burberry was all about the high end of society, so seeing the ravers wear it was cool as fuck. It was this clash of anti-establishment and establishment, which is a really important part of British culture,” he adds.

Of course, this isn’t Goldie’s first rodeo when it comes to fashion. A bonafide streetwear icon before that was even a thing, at one point during our interview he picks up his phone and takes me down to his walk-in wardrobe to see pieces from his archive – jammed full of vintage Stüssy, adidas Spezial, early Evisu, and loads, loads more. He’s also walked runways for Alexander McQueen, Versace, and, more recently, Louis Vuitton while Virgil Abloh was at its helm – the iconoclastic designer was a big fan of Goldie’s Metalheadz label’s output and the two became good friends. “He was a genius,” he says of Abloh. The two often talked about entering fashion in a Trojan horse and shaking it up from the inside, using it as a tool to shape culture beyond the clothes. “It’s something I see in Daniel [Lee] too,” he says. “Just this kid from Bradford who’s come in, got his head down and grafted.

As the campaign launches, Goldie talks mad 90s festival moments, early memories of Burberry, and more on Virgin Abloh.

So first of all, how did the collaboration with Burberry come about?

Goldie: Well, it was a bit of a labour of love for my agency who’ve had me waiting in the wings for a while. You know, I’m a child of the 90s, a product of the 90s. And me taking a massive hiatus out of the UK was something I needed to do because the lifestyle I lived in the 90s and 00s was catching up with me. I needed a change, because I was gonna end up one of these dead rockstars, or a dead breakbeat star for that matter. But my name had apparently come up a few times – if you’re talking about the 90s, as Burberry is with this campaign, I was there, I lived it. If the cap fits I’m gonna wear it, you know? (laughs).

What are your memories of Burberry back in the 90s? It’s a really different brand now…

Goldie: Well, you’d nick it for a start (laughs). You’d either get it nicked off your back or you’d nick it. It is quite strange and surreal, because it’s something that was very intrinsic to the rave scene and rave culture. The kids who wore Burberry in the rave, it was almost like piracy, worn from a pirates perspective. It was like they’d taken something from the establishment almost. Back then we had all the Fila and Sergio Tacchini coming in, and it was the only big British brand, alongside Dr Martens I suppose, but that was more associated with punk. Burberry was all about the high end of society, so seeing the ravers wear it was cool as fuck. It was this clash of anti-establishment and establishment, which is a really important part of British culture.

Yeah it’s super interesting that Burberry largely turned its back on the Nova Check in the 00s for this reason, and now it’s really embracing it, working with Palace, artists like you, young kids, exploring its place in pop and subculture instead of just marketing it to the high end.

Goldie: Totally. I mean just look at the Dapper Dan story. We were wearing that fake Gucci out in New York in the 80s, you know. And now these guys [at the big brands] are scratching their heads, like, well, what? Why aren’t we working with these people? Because these big establishments are realising that the culture and counterculture are so effective.

I find it fascinating that for my own daughter, who’s 13, she and all her friends are into everything 90s. I guess when I was in the 90s, we were talking about the 60s and the Beatles and Twiggy and, you know, Captain Beefheart and Cream and the Stones. But I think it’s even larger than that. I had many conversations with my dear friend Virgil Abloh before we did our Metalheadz collaboration where he said, ‘You haven’t even felt the ripples of what’s going to happen with it,’ and he was right. I think it’s so important culturally because it was pre-internet, and now, there really is so little in the way of culture and counterculture. And I think the kids are lamenting that they don’t really have a big, real-life scene like that and Daniel, who’s come from Bradford and got his head down and grafted, has been very clever to channel all of that and really celebrate what made the 90s great.

Virgil and I used to talk about how we were entering this Trojanic state… You get out behind enemy lines, and you attack from inside – Goldie

And Virgil. I’m reading Robin Givhan’s new book about him at the moment and it’s even more evident how ahead of the curve he was. There are definitely parallels to what he did at Vuitton and what Daniel is doing at Burberry.

Goldie: Definitely. Virgil and I used to talk about how we were entering this Trojanic state. And what I mean by that is that you’re in a kind of Trojan horse, entering these mega-established places. You get out behind enemy lines, and you attack from inside. You change the culture. Virgil used to say ‘I’m working for a suitcase company, but inside the suitcase, there’s culture’. With Burberry it’s rave culture and the Britpop movement.

People say subculture is dead, but it’s proliferating on the internet and platforms like TikTok, which is not surprising given how UK nightlife has been completely decimated in the last few years, and how skint we all are.

Goldie: Yeah, it’s kind of like we were the last of the Mohicans I guess, before the internet – or at least when you could turn it off and go out, when the culture still existed outside.

What makes fashion interesting for me is its intersection with music and film and art and all these things, and I think that’s why the 90s still have Gen Z in a chokehold because it was this mad mix-up. Like indie stars playing football with jungle and breakbeat artists, the YBAs, all hanging out together.

Goldie: And Britain more than any other place is so about that. I came back from New York where I’d been getting into graffiti in 1991 and went to my first Rage night. And it was so diverse. Black, white, Asian, kids with grills, kids in inside-out Burberry bombers, Jasper Conran suits, Vivienne Westwood, sportswear, all just dancing on podiums from all different backgrounds. Rave really brought everyone together and the DJ became the new rock star. But then it went a bit silly with the super-DJs, and I think recently it’s gone a bit more back to basics with the likes of Nia Archives really taking it back to the music.

Okay, on to your own style. You’re all over a new generation’s Pinterest boards and up and down Instagram posted as a style icon. Do you still have all your stuff from the 90s? Are there any holy grail pieces you could never part with?

Goldie: It scares me! Those photos are absurd, me like the big I am, looking like ‘Don’t fuck with me’. It’s me and my grinch face and Noel [Gallagher]’s eyebrows, you can’t beat that collaboration (laughs).

But the clothes… I have so many. I could never part with my House of Couture navy blue dreadlock jumper. All my pre-91 Stüssy is holy grail stuff, like the Barsity Tribe jackets. Some early Evisu jeans, and the early cycling tops they made were insane. My Hilfiger stuff from the first wave. Second wave forget it. Loads of early Spezial, the original corduroy tracksuits that Gary Aspden did. Things I regret not having now… My pink Puma States, which were a size too small but I still wore them. They gave me mad blisters, absolutely killed me, but I still wore them. An Australian Kangaroo tracksuit, which is what the B Boys wore in Wolverhampton. So much stuff I don’t know where it’s gone, but I still have loads.

My wife kills me, because I’ve had to rebuild the wardrobe downstairs. And when we moved to Thailand I even got rid of seven or eight bin bags. I donated a lot to the Burmese camps, which felt like the right thing to do. Literally, it’s taken me like six months to do it, but I refined all the clobber down to the collectibles only, and I finally got all of my stuff in one place. The ironic thing is now I live here I live in white t-shirts and a pair of Stüssy shorts. I’ve gone into the James Dean era of my life (laughs).

Brands can be pretty bad at keeping archives when they first start – have any of the ones you mentioned tapped you to come look at yours?

Goldie: Oh yeah, the guys at Stüssy were gobsmacked. They started making some of the stuff I showed them, which was cool. They remade the Oakley collaboration. And they’ve done the rayon shirts with the orchids all over them, they’re pretty rare, the originals. There’s loads of stuff that’s worth its weight in gold that you can’t get any more. All the Burberry checked bombers are like gold dust. I don’t think you’d find them now. The hardcore collectors have got them in private archives or they’re loaned out only for costume in films.

I’ve seen everything, darling. Seriously, British festivals bring out the worst in British people – Goldie

And the Burberry campaign – it’s all centred around the big British festival. What’s the maddest thing you’ve ever seen happen at a festival? 

Goldie: I can’t even say it. People shagging in the woods and shagging in trees. People taking dumps in the worst places, all those who can’t help themselves. I mean, you can’t really mess with the British. We’re British, the British experience is pretty crazy. I’ve seen everything, darling. Seriously, British festivals bring out the worst in British people (laughs).

Okay, say you were curating your own fantasy festival. Who would you have headlining?

Goldie: God, it would be Noel (Gallagher) I think, Fatboy Slim, Carl Cox, Grooverider, and Doug Scott. Five headliners. I’m happy with that. It’s my festival!

You last walked in a fashion show for Virgil at Vuitton in 2022. Can we expect to see you back on the runway anytime soon?

Goldie: Yeah but before that I did Alexander McQueen’s second show, Lee’s show. I remember it was in King’s Cross. Absolutely mad show, loved that. I walked for Evisu when they did their first show in England. I did Versace. And then Virgil’s Amen Break, which I still think is one of the greatest short films on fashion meeting culture in three different decades. It’s so clever. I actually still have all the notes Virgil gave to me for each of the collections. He wrote them out by hand. And Amen Break was such a special thing because it felt like recognition for what I had achieved within underground British music. It was like passing it on to the next generation.

But listen, I’d love to walk for Burberry because it’s a good fit. And I think it’s been a while. I’ve always liked Daniel, always loved what he’s doing. It has to be right. And I think that you look at Lee, and what Lee did, and all these early interviews, just being so anti-fucking-establishment, like, I like the slightly punk element to what this this little thing is, because I think in every raver is a small punk waiting to get out. Yeah, yeah, inherent of our parenthood. I grew up on the Stranglers, Public Image Limited, the Pistols, Aswad, UB40, it’s all in there. I’m standing on the shoulders of giants, and it’s nice to see [British music history] recognised in a story like this one.

Click through the gallery above for a closer look at Burberry’s festival campaign.