AUDIO: Dublin, August 1, 2013

Here's the audio...enjoy!

Download it HERE (link updated 8/19/13). 

AUDIO: Live at Picnic Afisha, Russia July 13, 2013

Here is the show from last night available for download. Enjoy!

AUDIO: Live at Provinnsirock Festival, Finland June 14, 2013

Here's an upgraded audio rip of the video I posted earlier this week. Thanks to Ville for preparing and sharing this!

http://we.tl/5iTd1YIf2D

Enjoy!

AUDIO: Blur live at Asia-World Arena, Hong Kong, May 6, 2013

Here's a link to Blur's Hong Kong show from last week (link courtesy of Dom on the Blur forums). 

Enjoy!

http://www.4shared.com/zip/irmmYw-2/blur_hong_kong_06-may-2013.html

AUDIO: Blur live at Coachella Festival, Indio, CA April 12, 2013

Here's Blur's headlining set from last night's Coachella Festival, freshly recorded. A rather subdued set to an awful crowd, but the guys give it their best. Link below, let me know what you think or if there are any problems with the download. (the link will be only be active for 2 weeks so grab it ASAP!).

Download link HERE

Enjoy!

Black Book Pre-Order Bonus Compilation Track Listing!

Below is the final tracklisting for the bonus compilation the pre-order customers will be getting! I think it sounds fantastic overall and my friend Tom did a great job mastering and cleaning up the audio. I think those of you who have this coming to you will really enjoy it.

CD1:

1) Beetlebum (Melbourne 11/1/97)
2) She's So High (London 12/9/97)
3) Stereotypes (Dublin 6/22/96)
4) Bad Day (Reading 8/24/91)
5) Explain (Camden 3/30/90)
6) Colin Zeal (Melbourne 11/1/97)
7) Country Sad Ballad Man (Stockholm 4/7/97)
8) London Loves (Sheffield 5/21/94)
9) Movin' On (Toronto 3/13/97)
10) Chemical World (Glasgow 9/3/93)
11) Girls and Boys (Nyon 7/22/94)
12) It Could Be You (Amsterdam 3/22/96)
13) Luminous (Glastonbury 6/28/92)
14) Nite Klub (w/Terry Hall) (Dublin 6/22/96)
15) Topman (London 9/7/95)
16) Far Out (Mile End 6/17/95)
17) Repetition (Glastonbury 6/2798)
18) I'm Just a Killer For Your Love (Glastonbury 6/27/98)
19) Music is My Radar (Dublin 12/8/03)
20) This is a Low (London 12/12/97)

CD2:

1) Ambluance (Milan 5/15/03)
2) Tender (T in the Park 7/12/09)
3) Trailerpark (London 3/15/99)
4) Entertain Me (Hamburg 10/23/95)
5) Battle (London 3/15/99)
6) Colours (Dublin 12/8/03)
7) Fade Away (Hamburg 10/23/95)
8) He Thought of Cars (Boston 2/11/96)
9) Chinese Bombs (Hultsfred 6/15/96)
10) Song 2 (Dublin 6/22/96)
11) Globe Alone (Zurich 3/8/96)
12) Coping (Zurich 3/8/96)
13) Essex Dogs (Glastonbury 6/27/98)
14) You're So Great (Osaka 5/27/97)
15) Look Inside America (Amsterdam 4/29/97)
16) Strange New From Another Star (Tokyo 6/3/97)
17) Black Book (London 7/2/00)
18) The Universal (London 12/12/97)

DOWNLOAD: Blur Demos '93

I was going through my files the other night and found an old cassette I'd digistised ages ago. Included are all of the Parklife demos (including ones not on the Blur 21 box set), as well as rare demos tacked on to the end of Never Clever and Seven Days.  Hope you enjoy!

http://www.sendspace.com/file/limcbd

SHOW: Hyde Park, London, England August 12, 2012

Fresh from my harddrive to your eardrums...enjoy!

http://www.sendspace.com/file/oknyl3

Hyde Park today!

Today is the day of Blur's headlining slot closing out the Olympics closing ceremony concert in Hyde Park. For those who can't be there, it'll be streamed live on Absolute Radio. Blur are set to hit the stage at 9:05pm BST (here in the USA that's 4:05pm EST).

I'm ready to record the stream…afterward, I'll clean it up and post it to share on here so we can all listen to it.

SHOW: Wembley Arena, London December 13, 1995

Here is Blur's final show of 1995 (and their third at Wembley in December 1995). The sound is pristine, and while the band sounds tired at times, this is still one of my favorite shows...a great one to listen to. This complete soundboard version is very rare, so I hope you all like it. Enjoy!

UPDATE: I've reuploaded it due to many requests and the fact that the original MegaUpload link is dead (as is MegaUpload!)

Enjoy!

http://www.sendspace.com/file/qyv8wo

SHOW: Radio 2 In Concert, Maida Vale Studios, London July 31, 2012

Enjoy!

http://www.sendspace.com/file/f1wfss

SHOW: 6 Music Session, Maida Vale Studios, London July 31, 2012

Enjoy!  The Radio 2 Concert will follow shortly...

http://www.sendspace.com/file/8ibiao

SHOW: Avalon, Boston, Massachusetts July 18, 2003

In honor of my seeing Blur live 9 years ago today (yes, this is a semi-vanity posting), here's the recording of the very show. You can hear me holler out a "yeah!" right before Beetlebum starts.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/xdunzu

Enjoy!

SHOW: Reading Festival, England August 28, 1993

By special request, reuploaded (since the old link is dead). Enjoy it this weekend!

http://www.sendspace.com/file/fx7okc

Under the Westway: William Orbit version

William Orbit posted this version of Under the Westway earlier today before pulling it down off of the internet.  Luckily, things don’t disappear fast enough!
The worst part of it is the autotune on Damon’s vocals. The best part are the different lyrics (which are interesting in their own way), the middle section, and Graham’s guitar playing (as always). Have a listen and share your thoughts.

 http://www.mediafire.com/?8n2b9p9tw2771kr

SHOW: 13 Studios Rooftop, London July 2, 2012

Here, by request, is the audio from yesterday's live webcast. Download and listen over and over again:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/5zdoni

Enjoy!

SHOW: Palais Royale, Toronto, Canada April 6, 1999

Here's a show from 1999 promoting the 13 album. Blur only played three American shows that year, and while I've spent the better part of the last 13 years trying to track down the first two shows (New York and Los Angeles...I know people who have the tapes but the email addresses are dead), this final one from Toronto is, to date, the only one that has surfaced.  I hope you enjoy it!

https://rapidshare.com/files/1426329809/Blur_-_Palais_Royale__Toronto_4-6-99.zip

Enjoy this slice of live Blur!

100K

The website hit 100,000 visitors sometime between when I last checked the counter (on Thursday) and just now. 

THANK YOU to all who have visited and continue to visit, and I hope to have thousands more as I will try to pick up the pace adding news, information, music, and more to this site to make it the best Blur fan site I can possibly make it! Not to mentions as book #2 gets closer, I'll keep everyone updated. 

So again, MANY THANKS!

SNEAK PEAK: Under the Westway

From TV earlier this week, here's Damon playing about half of the forthcoming Blur song "Under the Westway" on piano. It's quite beautiful, and I cannot wait to hear it with the full Blur treatment.

Have a listen and let me know what you think!

Blur 21: To the End?

The Blur21 Deluxe 22-disc set

 

The big announcement from Blur yesterday was the release of Blur21, which is a massive 22-disc career retrospective box set containing remastered expanded editions of all of the albums, three DVDs containing live footage (Showtime, Singles Night, etc), discs of rarities and demos, a 45 of Superman, and a book detailing the band's history.  A vinyl box set containing all 7 albums on vinyl will also be released, as well as individual versions of the remastered albums. 

 The Vinyl Box

I've personally already pre-ordered the deluxe 22-disc box set...while I have a lot of the rare stuff, the demos alone make it worth it to me, as well as the fact that I'd buy anything they released :-).  They can be pre-ordered at Amazon.co.uk, although I've noticed the price has TRIPLED in just the 24 hours since I ordered it...it's a limited edition so my advice is, if you're interested, pre-order ASAP!

This raises an interesting question, though. Many fans believe this is just a nice release and that we can still expect a new album and tour from Blur, but to me this screams "wrapping up the career." Bands don't typically release career retrospective sets where they empty out (just about) everything from the vaults. In addition, Damon has stated in numerous interviews since the Brits award in February that the Hyde Park Olympics gig will be the last show ever, Under the Westway will be "a nice little coda" for the band, and that he can still make music with Graham but not "the other two."  It all adds up, in my mind, to a nice and graceful farewell for Blur after this August's shows.

And honestly, I'm not only happy with that, but I actually hope it is the case. With as good as the vibe and the momentum was in 2009, if they couldn't make new music then, I just don't see how they will now. The overall mood within the band seems to be rather down, at least judging from recent interviews with them (individually, of course), and after the excitement of the Brits award performance and the promise of big announcements in terms of shows and releases, we got nothing until last night. Of course, the news of the Blur21 release is very welcome, but offering no *NEW* music, instead packaging up all of the old stuff...well, I see this as a nice exclamation point at the end of the Blur story as the curtain gracefully and classily (is that a word?) draws to a close and we all move on.

What say you?