Blur's guitarist Graham Coxon has revealed the band's hit album Parklife wasn't the celebration of Englishness some people thought.
In an interview with The Guardian, he said: "A lot of people thought it was a celebration of Englishness, but it was actually very sarcastic. The Parklife single wasn't about the working class, it was about the park class: dustbin men, pigeons, joggers – things we saw every day on the way to the studio [Maison Rouge in Fulham]."
Parklife, the third studio album by Blur, released in April 1994, returned the band to prominence in the UK after their previous album Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993) flopped. Its four hit singles: Girls & Boys, End of a Century, Parklife and To the End helped make it certified quadruple platinum seller.
It went on to define the Britpop scene, but Coxon said: "There were songs on the album we were excited about, but I was surprised it got so many awards. One or two would have been all right."
The reunited rock act recently adopted an unusual way of premiering their new songs, performing them in a live show via Twitter.
The quartet sent a link to a live stream as they performed from a balcony at a secret location to unveil the first of the songs Under The Westway.
The band, who last reunited for gigs in 2009 before their Brit Awards performance earlier this year, have been working on at least two new tracks as they prepare for a headline show next month.
The group - fronted by Damon Albarn, who has gone on to set up numerous side projects including Gorillaz - will be performing in Hyde Park next month in a show to coincide with the Olympic closing ceremony.