After the insane amount of touring Blur did up to and including 1997 (where the entire year was literally spent on the road), Blur took it easy in 1998. Their headlining slot at the Glastonbury festival was the only major gig of the year. To prep for it, they played three low-key warm-up shows (one of which was a fan-club only show). The tour dates (if you want to call it a tour!) are below. The available recordings are highlighted:June 1998:
23rd - Alley Cat, Reading, UK
24th - Q Club, Birmingham, UK (fan-club only show)
25th - Pavilion, Bath, UK
27th - Glastonbury Festival, UK
Recordings of every show apart from the first one in Reading are in hand and offer fascinating listening. (Damon and Graham also made an appearance at the Meltdown Festival in London in July, playing a set with Silver Apples...a recording of this also exists and is superb, even though it's not technically a Blur show).
The interesting thing is the set list they used for these shows...a real weirdo of a running order:
Girls & Boys
On Your Own
Beetlebum
End Of A Century
Country Sad Ballad Man
South Park (aka Freestyle aka Trailerpark)
Popscene
M.O.R.
There's No Other Way
Repetition
I'm Just A Killer For Your Love
Coping
For Tomorrow
This Is A Low
Parklife
The Universal
Death Of A Party
Essex Dogs
Song 2
So many strange things about the set, including Girls and Boys and On Your Own as openers, the revival of Repetition (which seems such an odd and random choice...the only previous live recordings are from the early 1990s Leisure-era shows), the live debut of Trailerpark (under a couple of working names, a year before it would appear on 13), and the first ever live performances of Essex Dogs. Now, while this is a great song (in my opinion, at least...I know many fans don't care for it at all), it was a rather strange choice to introduce into the set as an encore, especially at Glastonbury! However, it seems to have gone down really well, judging from the recordings.
An interesting thing to note is that the tapes of the Bath and Birmingham shows sound like the small club shows they were, with lots of intimate and humorous exchanges with the crowds. The band sound like they're having a blast and the crowd sounds like a non-stop party, just how you'd want a gig to be. By the time they get to Glastonbury, the band are constantly worrying about the crush of the crowd at the front and the abysmal weather conditions for the poor festival-goers (1998's festival was very muddy, wet, and unsanitary). They even stopped a song in the middle and threatened to leave the stage if things didn't settle down in front (during Country Sad Ballad Man). According to many accounts I've read, Blur were so appalled by the conditions of the festival that they vowed never to perform there again (and they didn't...until 2009, of course)!
All in all, even though the number of shows they played is quite small, they offer fascinating listening and act as a bridge between the headiness and success of touring the Blur album and the experimental era of 13.
By the way, if anyone has a copy of the Reading show, please contact me privately!
"Bath and Birmingham shows sound like the small club shows they were"
ReplyDeleteBath Pavillion holds 1400 people. Relatively small for Blur, admittedly, but nowhere near small club size. It's testament to Blur - and considering the lack of activity by mid-98 - that the gig, and the subsequent Glasto set, were so successful. The rumour floating around Bath back then was of a true small club show at The Moles Club, which would have been amazing - but the (much) larger audience was apparently chosen to make sure tracks like South Park were going to be received well enough. Moles Club is, as I'm sure the anoraks out there will remeber, the venue for the live recording of Day Upon Day from the There's No Other Way 12".
Thanks for the info, I wasn't sure how big the Pavilion was! I knew the Q Club in Birmingham is quite small, though! :-)
ReplyDeleteMoles Club would have been mad with how small it is! Didn't Alex bloody Damon's nose at the 1990 show where they recorded the Day Upon Day you mention because it was so small when Alex spun around with his bass, the headstock got Damon in the face? Remember reading that somewhere...
I was at the Q Club gig. It was a fantastic show with not more than a few hundred fans in the old Methodist church. Blur were on top form -- playing the same set they played at Glastonbury a couple of nights later. I'd love to hear a recording of the Q club gig if there is one available -- is it on the net anywhere?
ReplyDeleteQue Club my favourite gig of all time...then saw them at Glastonbury two days later, possibly my second fave gig, despite the pissing rain! would love a vid from the que!!
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