91Èȱ¬

The Sounds of the 90s host on her memories from the best decade ever

Sounds of the 90s is a new nostalgia-drenched celebration of the best decade ever, with a new episode appearing weekly on 91Èȱ¬ Sounds. You can hear the latest episodes here

The 90s is a treasure trove for memories. From massive pop culture moments to shockingly bold fashion choices, it remains the decade for bright shades, game-changing pop music and chunky trainers, and the 90s still impacts on culture today

Host Fearne Cotton looks back below on the greatest music, culture, random objects and fuzzy memories from back in the day.

Fearne was a massive pop fan in the 90s. So much so, she only really discovered the joys of Nirvana, grunge, and Britpop in her 20s. “At the time, I was obsessed with the big chunky trainers that [The Spice Girls] wore. That was my complete uniform. My favourite? It changed a lot, but mainly… Sporty.”

That’s not to say she didn’t love a bit of Britpop. “I was not cool enough to have been to an Oasis gig, or to dress like them. But I loved their music,” she says.

As a teenager, she was already presenting TV shows, which led to a few encounters with big pop stars. Quite a few encounters with the lovely Steps, in fact. “They’re a band that I saw literally every week of my life as a teenager, because they came on every Saturday morning kids’ TV show that I presented. Lovely people, but it was a lot!”

Her best celeb memory took place when she first met Britney Spears. “She was 15 and I was 15. I interviewed her a couple of times. There was so much hype about her. She came into the Disney Club, which was a show I presented back in the day. I had to cook her a full English breakfast, and she had to cook me a Louisiana traditional breakfast. In a caravan, in a car park. That actually happened!”

Favourite song: ‘MMMBop’ by Hanson

Favourite band: Hanson, again. Fearne says: “[I was] obsessed. Couldn’t get enough of them. Thought I was gonna marry Taylor. Didn’t happen.”

Favourite music video: ‘Wannabe’ by The Spice Girls. Fearne says: “It’s one of the best videos ever, not just the 90s. Just the fact that you had these new, five powerful, amazing females, with their different looks and their chunky trainers, with Sporty Spice doing backflips across a banquet table. The whole thing was decadent and over the top and I loved it.”

Today, Fearne still finds herself watching 90s films at home with her family. Her son has made her watch 91Èȱ¬ Alone approximately “84 times”, not just at Christmas. “[He] is obsessed.”

She remembers binge-watching 1998 tragic-romance Titanic with her best mate. “We went to the same cinema in Harrow three times [to see it]!”

As for TV, she would tune in every week to watch teen drama Dawson’s Creek, and anyone who interrupted her was in big trouble. “I remember being fixed to the screen, I barely dared to blink. And if my mum came in the room, I’d be like: ‘Shut up!’ I couldn’t miss a word. They spoke a lot. There were a lot of long monologues with complicated words that a teenager couldn’t understand. But I still loved it.”

She also vividly recalls the ritual of getting home from school and sticking the telly on. And post-school TV was pretty brilliant. “You’d get home from school, have a snack, doss around, watch Fresh Prince, which I think was just before Neighbours? The theme tune of Fresh Prince is taking up space that should be there for remembering things like shopping lists and what my kids need to wear to school.”

And of course, if we wanted to see a show or film outside of terrestrial TV, we'd go to a shop to rent a copy! "Me and my mate used to go to our local video rental and, as a treat, rent out a video of Friends - until we’d literally watched every episode of every series. Imagine that, having to go somewhere to get a rental DVD to watch a show that you want. Such hard work."

Favourite film: Thelma & Louise. Fearne says: “I just love everything about it. Brad Pitt, in this film… Oh my god. Eye-watering.”

Favourite TV show: Live & Kicking. Fearne says: "I was completely infatuated, and still am, with Zoe Ball. That was my whole Saturday. I would get up, make a bowl of cereal, wait for The Racoons to finish, and then crack on with watching Live & Kicking for five hours without moving. And my mum would let me! I used to watch the whole thing til midday. Brilliant."

Who knows, maybe head-sized “portable” devices will make a comeback, but some of Fearne’s favourite 90s things are staying firmly in that decade.

She used to walk around playing tunes on a gigantic discman. “It was almost not portable, but you made it so. You’d have these big headphones and I had a bright yellow discman that I thought was seriously wicked.”

What better fashion accessory to match a discman than some chunky trainers and crimped hair? Fearne had that going on too. “Crimped hair was a big one for me. I had a fringe so I used to have crimped hair and a crimped fringe. My poor hair was absolutely sizzled throughout the whole of the 90s.”

“I’ve got a few horrendous photos of me in the 90s wearing clear jelly shoes that have silver glitter in them and – wait for it – with a heel. With a heel!” You’re forgiven, Fearne – everyone was doing it.

Everything in the 90s was big, both in boldness and stature. “There’s certainly a lot of stuff that doesn’t make sense,” she recalls. “Me and my friends would take a record bag to school, as our school bag. Of course we had zero records in that bag. There was a banana and a school book. A lot of my room was taken up with large technology. I had a TV that was about a metre deep, that I’d watch Blind Date on. And a hi-fi with so many layers! I’m not even sure what every layer did…”

Favourite 90s trend: Sugary snacks. Fearne says: “[It was] crisps galore, fizzy pop, cherryade, limeade. Whatever-ade you wanted. The more processed stuff, the better. We were all eating it. We were not talking about wellbeing or good food. We survived on alphabet-shaped crisps.”

Least favourite 90s trend: Mr Blobby. Fearne says: “I saw him a hell of a lot in the 90s, popping up on Children in Need, just wandering around the 91Èȱ¬, smelling quite bad. That’s what I remember…”

• Listen to Sounds of the 90s with Fearne Cotton