Once a band becomes less of a well-kept secret, the fans look for another that's more exclusive The same goes for pubs. Sue, a jewellery designer who sells her wares at Camden Market, has been coming to the Mixer for two years. "It used to be good, but now we're sick of little girls coming every night in the hope of seeing Damon They stand out a mile, anyway You can see they've made an effort, not like the regulars Everyone's getting into Blur now, and it pisses me off. In a parallel of the perverse whims of indie fandom, the Good Mixer backlash has started. It's all good advertising," says Mr Hurley.But if he is happy to see the Mixer become a fan mecca, others are not. No stars in, but almost everybody looks as if they could be next month's big thing, and almost every conversation concerns where a particular friend's band is playing on a particular night.While the pub is not yet a full-blown tourist attraction, Good Mixer T-shirts are on sale at the bar, and, since the Brits, which confirmed Blur's regal status in British pop, it has been receiving fan mail addressed to the band, and phone calls from girls asking if Damon is there, please "We don't mind that.

A few vinyl discs hang on the walls, but no gold ones."It's got that down-at-heel feel to it, and a brilliant juke-box," says Steve, 29, from Islington. This down-at-heel feel is, says Mr Hurley, the secret of the Mixer's appeal. "It's one of the few pubs in Camden that hasn't been done up. Almost all the others go for the lunchtime business crowd, so they're brassy and varnished, with big lights. We just plod on the way we are."Tonight, the Mixer is populated with young Damon-out-of-Blur and Carrie- out-of-Sham-poo lookalikes, who have spent hours getting their hair to look that bad, and tens of pounds in Oxfam on their couture. Otherwise, it doesn't show any signs of modernisation since the days when Madness still wore baggy trousers. Welcome to Blurland, a theme pub which couldn't be more perfect if it had been designed this way.

It's a replica of the pub in Quadrophenia, the mod film starring Phil Daniels (who later starred in Blur's song, "Parklife") There is a Twilight Zone pinball game and Sky TV. "We'd read a lot about the Good Mixer in music mags and gossip columns," says Robert, "and as we were visiting Camden we thought we might as well see what all the fuss is about. You do feel a bit like a groupie coming here, though."As I walked into the Good Mixer (allegedly named after a cement mixer left in the cellar when the pub was rebuilt after the Second World War) for the first time, the opening chords of the Kinks' "Dedicated Follower of Fashion" were clanging from the jukebox The Jam, Blurand Elastica were next. To Lester Hurley, who runs the Good Mixer with his father, they are a friendly crowd of lager drinkers who never cause any trouble, excepting the time when Oasis were thrown out for harassing Blur guitarist Graeme Coxon.Coxon goes to the Mixer, as cool people call it, for a game of pool between award ceremonies Others go there in the hope of spotting him. Eighteen-year- old students Robert Murrow and Sarah Crutchley describe themselves as "pilgrims from Bournemouth". Breaking into the Rock Shrines chart at the moment is the Good Mixer in Camden, north London It's the pub where Madness used to go. Mark Knopfler would drop in for a pint when visiting his gran down the road.

Now, the Good Mixer is the headquarters of a gang of rock groups who were barely heard of and/or barely in existence before 1994, but are now among the most fashionable names in the business: Blur, Elas-tica, Menswear, Shampoo, Sleeper and the rest of the line-up of the recent Britpop Now BBC special. To you and me, they are the jet-setting indie aristocracy, usually to be found in swimming pools full of champagne and supermodels. YOU'VE trodden in something unpleasant while crossing Abbey Road barefoot. You've scratched "Come Back, Lizard King" on the tombstone of some Parisian with the misfortune of being interred near Jim Morrison in Pere Lachaise. You've had a pizza in the Bad Ass Cafe in Dublin where Sinead O'Connor used to waitress. And you've bought a T-shirt from Zipperhead in Philadelphia because it's mentioned in a song by the Dead Milkmen Or maybe you haven't. But there are some places that the self-respecting rock obsessive, if that's not a contradiction in terms, will always find time to visit. With a supporting cast that is a virtual Who's Who of UK luvviedom, including Kate Winslet, Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman, Imogen Stubbs, Hugh Laurie and Harriet Walter.Research: Janice McGinley & Lisa Allardice.

Now filming in "England's West Country".Sense and Sensibility (1996) Columbia Tri-Star The one they're all waiting for Directed by Ang Lee (The Wedding Banquet) Adapted by (!) and starring Emma Thompson. Directed by Douglas McGrath (screenwriter of Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway). Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Greta Scacchi, Juliet Stevenson, Jeremy Northam. Hollywood adaptation of Emma - closer to Beverly Hills 90210 Release date: 20 Oct.Emma (1996) Miramax. Starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, with support from Alison Steadman, Benjamin Whitrow, Susannah Harker, Julia Sawalha and Polly Maberly The BBC's big hope for the autumn, in six parts Starts next Sunday.Clueless (1995) Directed by Amy Heckerling (of Look Who's Talking fame) Starring Alicia Silverstone.