SHOW: University of London Union, London November 11, 1990

Here is an early Blur show from 1990...sound quality is not so great but historical importance rules the day here. A very early pre-release version of There's No Other Way with a different arrangement. Enjoy and leave some comments!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YVGF6H74

UPDATE: New download link for Blur at Wembley Arena 12/13/95

It was brought to my attention the link for this show was dead, so I've updated it (go HERE)...let me know any other shows you try to download that have dead links (it's all related to the level of activity...if no one downloads for 60 days, they kill the link).

And follow this page on Facebook and Twitter to get more updates!

SHOW: Apollo, Manchester, England November 28, 2003

Here is a show from Blur's UK Winter Tour of 2003 to go along with this article. This was sent to me by the taper and will be included in the second edition of Black Book. Decent sound and a pretty good show...I hope you enjoy this!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2R1IP2KA

SHOW: Paleo Festival, Nyon, Switzerland July 22, 1994

Here is a great show from Blur's festival summer of 1994, in keeping with yesterday's article. Great sound and playing on this one...enjoy!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FYSD0KMD

TOUR REVIEW: Festival Summer of 1994

As they did nearly every summer of their career, Blur toured during the summer of 1994 playing mainly festivals. Only, for the first time in their career, 1994 saw them as the headliner, playing in front of massive crowds due to the massive and overarching popularity of Parklife and its singles. The high point was the massive and legendary performance at Glastonbury (see HERE and HERE).

For the summer, Blur played the following festivals (available recordings are in bold):

June 1994:

25th - Old Trout, Windsor, UK
26th - Glastonbury Festival, UK

July 1994:

7th - Sonoria Festival, Milan, Italy
10th - Dour Music Festival, Belgium
20th - Quart Festival, Kristiansand, Norway
22nd - Paléo Festival, Nyon, Switzerland
30th - T In The Park Festival, Glasgow, UK
31st - Feile Festival, Ireland

August 1994:

11th - Hultsfred Festival, Sweden
14th - Marktrock Festival, Belgium
18th - PopKomm Festival, Cologne, Germany

Of the known recordings, all are available except for the Old Trout, Windsor show (which was a warm-up for Glasto) and the T in the Park show, both of which I am trying to track down. It'd be great if we could get copies of the other shows to fill out the summer's shows (if you have any recordings, please contact me privately). No surprises in the set lists, which all followed the same basic pattern:

Lot 105
Sunday Sunday
Jubilee
Tracy Jacks
Magic America
End Of A Century
For Tomorrow
Chemical World
There's No Other Way
To The End
Advert
Parklife
Girls & Boys
Bank Holiday
This Is A Low

The Hultsfred show had the band adding in a Swedish song called "The Frog Song" which is quite humorous to hear (I'll try to post it at a later date), while we all know about the legend of Glastonbury where they ended the show with an epic This is a Low as the sun was setting. When listening to these shows, you can hear how heady it all was for the band, as the crowd response is absolutely insane...it's a constant wall of cheering and singing along. Another thing to note, however, are Damon's rather annoying mockney stylings anytime he talks to the crowd between songs. All part of the image of the day, for sure, but it does get grating to listen to. But it's the music that counts, and these shows are some great ones, played with visceral energy and abandon, but still very tight and focused (download and listen to the Glastonbury show linked to above to hear it in pristine soundboard quality).


As an aside, this will be the last post for a while (2-3 weeks, probably) apart from maybe a show or two, while I undergo and recover from some minor surgery...but I'll still check in to banter back and forth in the comments section, so please leave comments and feedback!

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