Suede - The Wild Ones

JUL 01 1994 · 12:00

Suede - The Wild Ones (1994) Director: Howard Greenhalgh Era: Britpop Ascendancy (1994) - Peak of the UK alternative rock movement; Suede's second album Dog Man Star era, defined by cinematic ambition, lush orchestration, and inter-band transition An essential document of mid-period Suede and the more sombre, orchestral strand of Britpop aesthetics. The video is notable as a high-cost Dartmoor location production helmed by one of the most prominent British music video directors of the era, arriving at an inflection point in both the band's history and the broader Britpop movement. Its quantitative metrics, elevated warmth, high saturation, fast cutting against a slow ballad, encode a specific aesthetic tension that rewards formal analysis. Tier 1 archival status warranted. Context: Released 7 November 1994 as the second single from Dog Man Star, an album widely regarded as one of Britpop's darkest and most ambitious statements, 'The Wild Ones' arrived amid significant internal band upheaval, with guitarist Bernard Butler having departed before the album's release. The video's remote Dartmoor setting visually externalises the song's themes of romantic dissolution and desperate yearning. Suede had been labelled 'Best New Band in Britain' by Melody Maker in 1992 and their debut had become the fastest-selling UK debut album in nearly a decade; by the time of this single, they occupied a paradoxical position, critically elevated yet personally fractured, that the video's bleak grandeur eloquently captures. The song peaked at number 18 on the UK Singles Chart. Director notes: The video for 'The Wild Ones' was filmed on location in Dartmoor, Devon, UK. It was one of Suede's few large-budget productions, documented as costing £150,000. Greenhalgh was connected to the band through the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards in New York, where he won Best Video for Soundgarden's 'Black Hole Sun'. The production was notoriously gruelling for those involved, with band members and models spending approximately 15 hours in a Volkswagen Camper Van on the moors. The shoot also marked the first on-screen appearance of the band's incoming guitarist.