R&b
“I fucked up!” in the indomitable words of blur… I sadly didn’t get to watch their epic gig at Wembley last year as I was away covering the Mad Cool festival in Madrid for Clash. But dear readers, the story has a happy ending, as I got to see the indie stalwarts at Lucca Summer Festival in Italy instead where they served up a very similar set to their highly-anticipated London gig.
It’s almost as if the blur gods were taking pity on me with the release of both a film and live album of their iconic set in London where the likes of sleaford mods and Paul Weller supported. The documentary ‘Blur: To The End’ is a feature-length documentary chronicling the band’s comeback.
For those who weren’t able to attend or for those who wanted a cheeky throwback to watching the gig that night, ‘blur Live at Wembley Stadium’ is an exhilarating celebration of the band’s barnstorming gig on the Sunday night.
Fusing together a heady sense of nostalgia with a deep dive into their 90’s playbook coupled with tracks from the fantastic ‘The Ballad Of Darren’, one of the band’s most visceral and emotive albums to date, the new live album is a joyous collection of blur’s career-spanning songs.
The band have reimagined some of their most-loved tracks like ‘Popscene’ which is played at a slightly slower tempo giving it a more leisurely feel as is ‘Girls & Boys’ which is a slightly more languid version that still packs a punch. In contrast, ‘There’s No Other Way’ feels frenzied and menacing with Graham Coxon letting rip from the first notes of the opening riff.
As expected, the sold-out crowd went wild for ‘Parklife’ and especially so with the appearance of everyone’s favourite cockney Phil Daniels whose delivery of ‘John’s got brewer’s droop / He gets intimidated by the dirty pigeons’ which combined with Damon’s cries of ‘Oi, Oi, Oi’ is a truly special moment. ‘What’s normal anyway?!” was the question asked between Albarn and Daniels referencing Phil’s character Jimmy in ‘Quadrophenia’.
Whilst by large, the show is raucous and high octane, there are moments of pure emotion. In particular with the achingly-beautiful ‘Westway’, where frontman Damon Albarn sunk to his needs after touchingly being taken over by emotion as he performs his love letter to London. He is contemplative during ‘End of A Century’ thanks to singing lines like ‘the mind gets dirty as you get closer to 30’ which still sounds as vital as ever despite being almost 30 years old. Blur have matured and evolved, but it doesn’t feel outdated. ‘Country House’ feels more edgy than the original with Damon practically spitting out the opening lines in a ferocious manner declaring that he doesn’t ‘even know the words’ and ‘doesn’t care!’
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Without a doubt, blur are a tour de force and are consummate professionals, but there’s a tremendous sense of raw authenticity throughout this record with Damon slightly stumbling over the lyrics with a cry of ‘What the fuck?!’, but he and the band pull it back with aplomb as the song draws to a close ‘He’s on, he’s on, he’s on it!’ couldn’t be any more apt!
There’s also a slightly rueful misstep on ‘Tender’ which is still beautiful and is elevated even further with vocal additions from the London Gospel Choir. Checking in with the crowd, Damon says ‘I hope we lifted your spirits’ and without a doubt they did. Set closer orchestral closer ‘The Universal’ was sublime as was ‘The Narcissist’ one of Blur’s most outstanding tracks from ‘The Ballad Of Darren’.
Damon declared that “we’ve been waiting for this moment all our lives, and it’s lovely to share it with you all. Without you, none of this is possible.” Their comeback gigs and their resurgence evidently means the world to them.
blur well and truly took their ‘moment’ and delivered an euphoric performance which was moving, mesmerising and marvellous all at the same time. Suddenly, it doesn’t matter that I wasn’t there on the night as the album is a masterclass of their impressive back catalogue and their significance as not just icons of music, but as pioneers of one of the most popular cultural movements of all time.
8/10
Words: Emma Harrison // @emmahwriter
