1997

In 1997 Tony Blair led Labour back into government after eighteen years, and IBM's Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov at chess, the first time a computer had done it in a match. The Spice Girls were everywhere, Comet Hale–Bopp swung past the Earth, and the death of The Notorious B.I.G. in Los Angeles cast a long shadow over the spring.

Rock spent the year deciding what came after grunge. Radiohead answered with OK Computer in May, a record that made alternative rock feel properly ambitious, while Foo Fighters' The Colour and the Shape arrived a day earlier and Green Day widened their punk palette on nimrod. Oasis returned with Be Here Now, and Metallica followed their mid-nineties shift with Reload. Heavier corners were busy too: Deftones put out Around the Fur, Rammstein introduced Sehnsucht, Megadeth released Cryptic Writings, and Pantera captured their live force on Official Live: 101 Proof. Sepultura carried on with Blood-Rooted, Faith No More signed off with Album of the Year, and Soundgarden gathered up A-Sides. Queen, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC all raided their archives for compilations and BBC recordings.

The year was one of reunions and goodbyes. The original Black Sabbath line-up got back together, Vince Neil rejoined Mötley Crüe, and Ratt and Suicidal Tendencies reformed. Jane's Addiction came back only to split again, and Soundgarden disbanded. Sepultura had lost Max Cavalera at the end of 1996, which cost them a Big Day Out slot. Corey Taylor took over as Slipknot's singer from Anders Colsefni, and the Mentors' Eldon Hoke was killed by a train.