"We wish you peace, said Tony Blair as the clock struck 8pm. It was New Year's Eve 1999, a Friday night, and I was on the banks of the Thames. Britain's fresh-faced prime minister only two years into the job was giving a gimmick called The British Airways London Eye its first spin. The Eye was physically unremarkable and harrowingly slow, but it didn't matter because it only had a five-year lease."
"Earlier that evening I'd popped a CD into the stereo The Writing's on the Wall, by a young group called Destiny's Child and bish-bosh-bashed a snack by a new telly chef called Jamie Oliver. On the tube on my way there I'd read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and wondered if there would be a film adaptation. The 90s had been absolutely fabulous and the 2000s were going to be amazing."
On New Year's Eve 1999 Tony Blair wished peace as the London Eye made its inaugural, slow rotation on the Thames. The narrator and friends experienced late-90s optimism, enjoying Destiny's Child, TV chefs, and Harry Potter while anticipating the 2000s. The scene featured Soho loft parties, new food trends like cappuccino, pesto and hummus, and a Concorde fly-past scented by J'Adore. Fashion blended leather coats, boot-cut trousers, chokers and designer bags, channeling film and TV influences. The mood combined youthful innocence, sensory-rich celebration, and confidence in public figures at the millennium cusp.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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