In the spring of 1994, Blur set out on a UK tour to promote the newly released Parklife, which was the turning point in their recording career and catapulted them to superstardom. While a few of the songs from the album had been played live since late 1993, this was the first time most of the album was played live on a regular basis, making up the bulk of the set list. The tour dates are below (available recordings are in bold font):
May 1994:
10th - Rock City, Nottingham, UK
11th - Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, UK
12th - University, Bristol, UK
13th - De Montfort University, Leicester, UK
15th - University, Hull, UK
16th - Plaza, Glasgow, UK
17th - Queens’ Hall, Edinburgh, UK
18th - Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK
19th - Academy, Manchester, UK
21st - Octagon, Sheffield, UK
23rd - Event Centre, Brighton, UK
24th - University, Reading, UK
26th - Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London, UK
27th - Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, UK
28th - Guildhall, Southampton, UK
31st - Town and Country Club, Leeds, UK
June 1994:
1st - Civic Center, Aylesbury, UK
About half of the known recordings are readily available. The typical set list was:
Lot 105
Sunday Sunday
Jubilee
Tracy Jacks
Girls & Boys
She's So High
London Loves
Trouble In The Message Centre
Chemical World
To The End
Advert
Popscene
End Of A Century
Parklife
There's No Other Way
For Tomorrow
Bank Holiday
This Is A Low
The big surprises, of course, are London Loves (which would be dropped after this tour) and Trouble in the Message Centre (which would be played regularly until the end of the year, making its final appearance in Toronto in early 1995 (a show I will review soon).
A great tour in support of a great album...if you have any other recordings from it (Glasgow, Reading, Brighton, Manchester, of the 2nd Shepherd's Bush gig are known to exist), please contact me privately.
how come all the english gigs are listed as "uk" instead of england, yet one of the scottish gigs is listed as scotland? and you've spelt edinburgh wrong. are these spelling/continuity errors also in the book?
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing out those errors, they've been fixed!
ReplyDeleteHi Sledge here from the Blur forum...the 31st gig at the Town And Country Club wasnt London..it was Leeds, I was there! and lost my 21st birthday watch in the mosh...(good idea putting it on lol!) but it was my first gig...didnt realise it would be so crazy, it was a brilliant show, filmed for Mtv, but the sound was awful when shown on Tv, an early Sandbag job maybe...;)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the correction. I got London from the official gig list a while back, so glad to make this correction! It will be corrected in the next edition of Black Book as well (see, that's why reader feedback is so good! :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the memories, I always love reading recollections of gigs...nice jab at SandBag, too :-)
The Bold type doesn't work well at all on my screen; is it just me? I can barely tell the difference between the gigs that recordings are available for and those that aren't.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, it is kind of piss poor, innit? I'll italicize them, too!
ReplyDeleteI was a the Rock City gig. I remember Sleeper were the support with the drummer doing him best Keith Moon impression. The main thing i remember from the Blur gig was Damon jumping into the crowd and climbing on the sound system stacks whilst singing. Can't remember much else about the gig. Superb gig though...Tracy Jacks will always be my personal fav
ReplyDelete^Anonymous #2, great memories of the Rock City gig, thanks for sharing! First show of the tour, too...how did they sound? In full stride already?
ReplyDeleteI was at the Manchester gig. Awesome. They had payed previously in the Smaller Academy 2 with the Modern Life stage set. I remember Damon pummeling someone at the front with an inflatable hammer for most of the gig.
ReplyDeleteThe post says that recordings are available. Does anyone know where I could get hold of any of Blurs Manchester gigs as I attended them all from the one at the Boardwalk (I think).
Thanks and thanks for an amazing site .
Which years? I have a few of their Manchester shows from over the years (all of the available ones, at least!)
ReplyDelete