Blur

Not a fan myself* but they're doing Newcastle Academy as a warm up. Great opportunity for anyone who's into them.

Thur 25 Jun: Blur – Preview Show Britpop heroes Blur play a preview gig at O2 Academy Newcastle as a warm up to their highly anticipated shows at Glastonbury and London's Hyde Park. It's been over 10 years since the band played Newcastle and can't wait to play to their fans again. Buy tickets Maximum of 2 tickets per person

*with the exception of Song 2.

i'm doing wolverhampton.

be good to see them in a (comparatively) small venue

set list from wolves

she's so high girls & boys tracy jacks there's no other way jubilee badhead beetlebum out of time trimm trabb coffee & tv tender country house oily water chemical world sunday sunday parklife end of the century to the end this is a low ______________

popscene advert song 2 _______________ for tomorrow the universal

the crowd gave them a standing ovation just for coming on stage, the reaction was mental. & for things like song 2/ popscene etc it looked like the whole floor was going up & down as the whole crowd was moshing, looked really cool from the balcony

damon swapped his shoes with someone fairll early on as his "were too slippy on the stage" & did the usual dive into the crowd towards the end

the whole gig was being recorded for a documentary, so there will be quality footage available

I really don't understand why there's been so much fuss about this: there's so little that's redeemable from "Britpop", including Blur, a band who peaked - what? - at least 15 years ago. Coxon has always been wildly overrated; James lapsed into self-parody years ago; the drummer's a fucking GINGER; and even though Albarn's made some interesting records since, he still can't be forgiven for all that endless Essex boy would-be hoolie "Chelsea-supporting" mockney bullshit. Can he???!?

Obviously, the various New Order tours over the last decade+ have been about nostalgia as much as anything else, but at least there's some genuine longevity and discernible influence in what they did in the 80s.....Blur just sound like student disco pap circa 1995. I was a student then, and I still find it quite embarrassing.

Or have I missed something?

I was walking past Manchester Polly Union one night years ago.

"Why don't you come in here?" asked the doorman. "Blur are playing but hardly anyone's turned up because of the weather, you can come in for free if you want."

"Fuck off" I said, and continued to walk through the warm Manchester drizzle.

There were half a dozen or so really good bands from Liverpool in the mid-late 90's, but they got overshadowed by 'Blurasis' somewhat.

But today even Oasis are too high-brow for todays media.

This is a Low The Universal (L)

absolute garbage!

Comedy/novelty band if you ask me.

hate em more than oasis!

http://neworderinfoweb.piczo.com

PETER COATES'S BELATED REDEMPTION wrote: I really don't understand why there's been so much fuss about this: there's so little that's redeemable from "Britpop", including Blur, a band who peaked - what? - at least 15 years ago. Coxon has always been wildly overrated; James lapsed into self-parody years ago; the drummer's a fucking GINGER; and even though Albarn's made some interesting records since, he still can't be forgiven for all that endless Essex boy would-be hoolie "Chelsea-supporting" mockney bullshit. Can he???!?

Obviously, the various New Order tours over the last decade+ have been about nostalgia as much as anything else, but at least there's some genuine longevity and discernible influence in what they did in the 80s.....Blur just sound like student disco pap circa 1995. I was a student then, and I still find it quite embarrassing.

Or have I missed something?

Once again, you are spot on. Or we're both missing something. Dated stooodent disco fodder. No more, no less.

i like them. really like some of their songs. was never a mad fan but saw them a few times live and they were great gigs. i think damon's genuinely inventive and talented, despite being a smug get. and yeah, i have fond memories of the era. sorry.

or maybe they're just a boy band for girls who don't like boy bands.

GlasVegas wrote:

PETER COATES'S BELATED REDEMPTION wrote: I really don't understand why there's been so much fuss about this: there's so little that's redeemable from "Britpop", including Blur, a band who peaked - what? - at least 15 years ago. Coxon has always been wildly overrated; James lapsed into self-parody years ago; the drummer's a fucking GINGER; and even though Albarn's made some interesting records since, he still can't be forgiven for all that endless Essex boy would-be hoolie "Chelsea-supporting" mockney bullshit. Can he???!?

Obviously, the various New Order tours over the last decade+ have been about nostalgia as much as anything else, but at least there's some genuine longevity and discernible influence in what they did in the 80s.....Blur just sound like student disco pap circa 1995. I was a student then, and I still find it quite embarrassing.

Or have I missed something?

Once again, you are spot on. Or we're both missing something. Dated stooodent disco fodder. No more, no less.

if you are basing it all on parklife (& it's singles), which you appear to be, then yes, you are both missing something

define peaked frads - do you mean in the charts/ tabloids? you certainly can't mean musically

they developed the sound a long way from brit pop & the songs have a huge range of sounds/feels from wonderfully understated introspection to everything including the kitchen sink over the top madness

this is a low, to the end, tender & the universal are worlds away from the mockney pop of girls & boys, parklife & charmless man

as disparate as advert, popscene & song two are from more experimental stuff like trimm trabb, oily water & no distance left to run

it does seem rather like you are pigeonholing & generalising hugely.

Nah, I agree they were fun at the time, and I'll definitely grant you "Popscene" as a truly great single (for me, also their peak). Saw them a number of times, including at a bizarre all-day thingy at Keele Uni circa-1990 (maybe even pre-'She's So High'?) where true to form they were all hilariously pissed out of their tiny trees. Their set at Glastonbury in 1994 remains one of my festival favourites, too.

Just don't think they've dated well at all. And as for the later post-'Britpop' stuff you refer to....as ever, some great singles but not much else. The near-hysterical response to their return is much like the continued popularity of Oasis: unfathomable. The only explanation I can come up with is that, compared to many of the charisma-free fuckwits that populate the charts and the music columns at the minute, it is possible to feel some affection for them.

Beyond that, I'm flummoxed. It's not that they're selling-out gigs and so forth (hardly surprising really); more the air of "thank golly--goodness they're back!!". I hadn't noticed that anyone missed them, to be honest....

Unlike most comebacks I'm guessing they've managed to tap into a very large pool of fans who were too young to see them the first time round and this in part explains the hysteria that Martin refers too. Good work on doing that. I just don't get the music. And I was never refering to Parklife, Country House etc. That would be like judging New Order on Blue Monday. I own/have owned all the albums. Just. Don't. Get. It.

Loved Alex James' book though. What a monumentally self-obsessed arsehole of a man he is. Admits to being a thoroughly 'orrible human being for best part of a decade and seems to think, with hindsight, that it was actually quite funny and completely acceptable. I last saw him in the 'Simon Cowell' role on that Indie X Factor thingy on Channel 4. Sums him up really.

Liked stuff like The Universal and later that one where the video is set on an aircraft carrier.. Out Of Time was it? Was never a big fan of stuff like Song 2. Have never really missed em

Didn't Albarn slag off Barney's lyrical capabilities once? Probably had a bit of a point in certain cases TBH.

Just watching them on Glasto now. Fucking crap.

That idiot Jo Whiley has just said that it's brilliant though.

apparently, she's employed to say how good the festival is and how every band is great. I too was surprised to find out she's not an impartial observer zut alors

I find Blur a mixed bag. They did some good songs (which I thought were GREAT at the time). But I dont think theyve done many classics. And having just watched them on Glasto it does nothing to make me dig the old albus out for another listen.

Theyre like Madness without the charm. Obvious melodies, with shout along choruses. I liked Ambulance, Out Of Time, This Is A Low, The Universal and Sing (from Trainspotting soundtrack) but now dont really lie Parkife, Girls n Boys, Charmless Man, Theres No Other Way or Song 2.

just caught them doing doing the universal, haven't seen the rest of their set yet. is that what they finished with?

i thought it was fantastic. and that's me sitting on my settee in my living room with a cat allergy making me irritable and snotty. it's pretty epic anyway - the horns, the strings, the lyrics - but with the kind of energy and emotion you'd get in a crowd like that on a night like this, it's no wonder it went down a storm.

and they looked cool as fuck.

so there.

Ally wrote: I have mixed opinions on the live reunion but if they come out with a new single or something that had some musical merit then that would validate it slightly. If they're just cashing in on some festival slots and then returning to being estranged then that's a bit piss poor. I'd be surprised if Albarn was doing that as he hardly needs the money shirey?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/13/blur-interview

So what, I wonder, happens now? Will there be a new Blur record? "We'll see how we feel at the end of the summer. I've no doubt we could make a fantastic record together. It'd be very interesting."

There is one thing, though. No end of once-classic groups have tried it, and their track records aren't great. Albarn squints into the sunlight, and utters something that captures both Blur's singularity and part of the reason he is still here: "I'm not interested in other people's track records."

Jeffari-al-Texani wrote:

bloodynora wrote: making me irritable and snotty.

so there.

that'll make you horny...

no, phone calls get her going, especially mystery ones.

I just wanted to say I saw SEYMOUR (pre-Blur band with all the members i think), at I think the Powerhaus in Islington as a support band for someone shite, and Damon comically doing a stage dive into a small crowd that politely moved aside.

Blur...

With time passed, parklife, is the only one I still fancy.

Well, it was by... 1994? By the time I was living in Kosice. Five record shops for 230,000 inhabitants... Tiny record shops... I found parklife on a shelve someday. 600 fucking Sk! I used to earn 6,000 to give you an idea (and 6,000 was a lot of money in those days). The man behind the desk told me he had not had an ear on it yet... so that he asked me to leave him time to record it on tape!!! Back from the hairdresser, the cd was mine. 600 Sk!

I never saw this record anywhere else in this town. The local radios did not use to air it... I was the only one to have it, to listen to it...

Back to France, Bluromania was at its climax, you could see walls of parklife in record stores - another story in brief.

I saw them in Paris during the great escape tour. There were so many young girls that I felt like an old pervert amongst them. End of the love story.

Burt Reynolds wrote: no, phone calls get her going, especially mystery ones.

if this is a reference to the garstang anonymous phone sex scandal of '96, it was never proved that was me.

bloodynora wrote: just caught them doing doing the universal, haven't seen the rest of their set yet. is that what they finished with?

i thought it was fantastic. and that's me sitting on my settee in my living room with a cat allergy making me irritable and snotty. it's pretty epic anyway - the horns, the strings, the lyrics - but with the kind of energy and emotion you'd get in a crowd like that on a night like this, it's no wonder it went down a storm.

and they looked cool as fuck.

so there.

was exactly the same set as when saw them in wolves last week

Bleeeeeuuuurggggghhh!

Cocks!

Damon Allbran is the new Sting and I claim my five pounds of flesh.