noel gallagher was an early champion of the band, inviting them to support at oasis' historic knebworth concerts, but from the outset of their career, kula shaker polarised uk media opinion. this arguably stemmed from age old british preconceptions about class and race. not only were they white youngsters singing about krishna in sanskrit, they were seen as coming from privileged middle class backgrounds. speaking in an interview in 2016, mills says "when i was in private schools, they called me 'common', and when i was in state schools they called me 'posh'. it made me very cynical about all these labels." at the height of britpop, and 'lad culture', music publications like "melody maker", "select", and "nme" often focused on the class angle and ridiculed kula's fascination with indian culture. mills commented in 2016: "the musical styles on "k" are mainstream now. [in 1996] people didn't know how to understand it or where to place it, so all that was left to do was deride it."