A Concert Memory: Blur live at the Avalon in Boston, July 18, 2003 (with link)

Sorry it's been so dead here as of late...with little to no new Blur activity going on, there's not much to write about on a regular basis! However, I did recently write up a long and detailed review of the time I saw Blur in 2003...it's over on my personal blog and I invite you to check it out HERE. Thanks! 

Also, I am still working (very slowly) on a third and most-likely final edition of Black Book, but not sure yet when the release will be. Stay tuned, though, as it'll be coming eventually.

Damon live at Royale, Boston (June 9, 2014): A Concert Review

As promised, here it is, my review of last night's show...it was fantastic!

http://rnrchemist.blogspot.com/2014/06/damon-albarn-live-at-royale-boston-june.html

TONIGHT: Damon at the Royale, Boston

I posted this on my personal blog and wanted to share it here...I'm going to see Damon tonight in Boston and thought it would be fun to dig up my old reviews from when I saw Blur in 2003 and Gorillaz in 2010, so here they are! I'll post my review of tonight's show later on in the week.

http://rnrchemist.blogspot.com/2014/06/preview-damon-albarn-at-royale-in.html

Set List From Last Night

The first gig of 2013 was last night, and as expected (but still disappointing), it was the same set as last year (apart from bringing There's No Other Way back and dropping The Puritan)

1. Popscene
2. There's No Other Way
3. Girls & Boys
4. Tracy Jacks
5. Jubilee
6. Beetlebum
7. Out of Time
8. Trimm Trabb
9. Caramel
10. Coffee & TV
11. Tender
12. Country House
13. Parklife
14. Song 2
15. Advert
16. End of a Century
17. This Is a Low
18. Encore:
18. Under The Westway
19. For Tomorrow
20. The Universal 
     
    How do you feel about this? Pleased? Disappointed?

TOUR REVIEW: 2012 Summer Tour

Since it's fresh in everyone's mind, having just ended a week ago, and I haven't done one of these tour review posts in a while, I thought this would be the perfect time to wrap up this summer's shows!

Blur surprised all of us when they announced at the Brit Awards in February 2012 that they'd be playing a massive show in London's Hyde Park to close out the 2012 Summer Olympics. Shortly after, they announced a short warm-up tour. The dates for the entire summer are listed below (available recordings in bold):

July 2012:

2nd - 13 Studios Rooftop, London, UK
31st - Maida Vale Studios, London, UK


August 2012:

1st - Winter Gardens, Margate, UK
2nd - 100 Club, London, UK
5th - Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, UK
6th - Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, UK
7th - Pavilion, Plymouth, UK
8th - Smukfest, Skanderborg, Denmark
9th - Way Out Festival, Gothenburg, Sweden
12th - Best of British Olympics Closing Concert, Hyde Park, London, England   


As you can see, nearly every concert is available in some form or other. The Hyde Park show was commercially released and the 100 Club gig will be commercially released in November. A friend taped the second night at Wolves and another friend taped the Way Out West show (both of which I should have to add to the book soon), and I recorded the rooftop, Maida Vale, and Hyde Park broadcasts myself. All we need is the Smukfest show and the entire tour will be available.

The typical set list for the shows was:





   Girls & Boys
   London Loves
   Tracy Jacks
   Jubilee
   Beetlebum
   Coffee & TV
   Out Of Time
   Young & Lovely
   Sunday Sunday
   Country House
   Parklife
   Trimm Trabb
   Caramel
   Popscene
   Advert
   The Puritan
   Song 2
   No Distance Left To Run
   Tender
   This Is A Low

   -ENCORE SECTION-

   Sing
   Under The Westway
   Intermission
   End Of A Century
   For Tomorrow
   The Universal


Bugman, Oily Water, and Colin Zeal were all thrown in a handful of times (but not at every show) throughout the tour.




What was interesting about the tour is that, unlike 2009 where Blur played just the hits (albeit blindingly well), this time around they dug a bit deeper into their catalog. They introduced their two new songs, Under the Westway and The Puritan, playing them at every show (except for Hyde Park, where The Puritan was dropped). The brought Bugman back for the first time since 1999, Young and Lovely for the first time since 1999 (where it had its only time played lived anyway!), No Distance Left to Run for the first time since 2000, and London Loves for the first time since 1994. Additionally, the biggest surprises were the first time Mr. Briggs had been played live since the B-sides gig in 1999 (and before that, 1991) at the Maida Vale gigs, and Caramel, which had never been performed before. Blur went on to play it at every concert of 2012.

As far as the performances themselves, my personal opinion is that they played very tightly and powerfully and seemed to be much more comfortable and at ease with each other onstage, perhaps more so than they had since 1997. While I think the 2009 shows had a bit more fire (for instance, they're never going to top Glastonbury 2009 in any of their latter-day shows...at least, they haven't yet!), the confidence and swagger onstage was more noticeable this go around. In 2009, they seemed to be still getting a bit comfortable again with each other after the long layoff (6 years performing as a band, 9 years as a 4-piece). In 2012, they had that under their belts and were a bit more adventurous with the set list, digging back a bit for deeper album cuts and B-sides. While I would have liked to have seen some old, tired chestnuts retired (Parklife, Sunday Sunday, Jubilee) and perhaps some more rarer cuts, overall I can't fault much at all with the sets or their performances.

And their 2012 Hyde Park gig blows the 2009 gigs (which were still quite good) out of the water.

Whether this is the end of Blur or not remains to be seen. And honestly, as a second tour with no new album, I hope they don't come back again unless they're promoting a new album or at least an EP; I think the damage to the legacy, which they've completely avoided thus far, would be fairly significant were they to do a 3rd  round of shows playing only the old material. But if this is indeed the end (or at least a very long goodbye), they couldn't have gone out any more on top.


(And as always, if you've got tapes of any of the shows listed above, or any Blur tapes, email me privately and we'll work something out so I can add them to the forthcoming book. Thanks!)

It Was 9 Years Ago Today...

...that I saw Blur live in Boston (July 18, 2003).  I wrote up my memories of that incredible concert for 6 Music to (possibly) include in their Blur special, along with the audio they requested of me.  Below is what I wrote about that night, if you'd like to read it:

I was a junior at university in 1999 when I heard they would be playing a show in New York City showcasing their "13" album at the end of March. I lived north of Boston at the time (~4 hour drive to New York) and was all set to go, had tickets, etc but decided at the last minute to not go due to some tough exams I had coming up. I remember thinking "I'll see them later this year when they come back to the US" which of course they never did. Fast forward to 2003 and they played a show in Boston (actually, 9 years ago to this day...July 18, 2003, and I've got a copy of that show on CD, too). I had ordered tickets well in advance and began to panic as they hadn't shown up until 3 days before the show. It was a very hot and humid July evening (much like tonight!) and they played the now defunct Avalon NightClub on Landsdowne St in Boston. After taking the subway into the city, my brother and I walked the rest of the way to the club, got there early, and made our way right to the front of the stage to stand and wait.  The club ended up filling up to capacity, which was nice...I knew Blur had a huge cult following here in the US so it was nice to see so many fans and talk with them. After the opening band (who I don't remember their name), Blur came on and played a stunning show, nearly 2 hours. Standing at the front of the stage, the view was of course great, we got to shake Damon's hands a few times as he came by and the few times he jumped into the crowd, we held him up and carried him back to the stage.  When they came back on for the encore, they were hanging around on the stage before they started and we got to chat with Alex for a minute before they began playing (he was having a cup of tea, complete with saucer, with his bass slung over his shoulder, waiting for the encores to start!). The coolest thing about the show was it was the first time on the 2003 tour they played The Universal. I also remember Damon wearing a sportcoat over his Fred Perry to start the show, but he soaked through it so quickly that he took it off after only a few songs!  After the show, when milling around to leave, I ended up speaking to a fellow from the UK who was there with his wife and he'd actually been a light tech on their 1995 UK tour so had seen them loads and said this was one of the best shows he'd ever seen them do.  By the end we were all very hot and soaked with sweat and walking out into the muggy summer night didn't help, but it was honestly the best concert I've ever been to to this day and I still remember it fondly. I can even hear myself cheering and yelling loudly on the recording I have of it (I was very close to the taper, maybe ~15 ft away from him).

Hyde Park 2009

I just got in the mail the official concert program for the two Hyde Park shows, which is slightly different from the regular 2009 program I already had. Pictures of this new one will be coming soon here and on the Facebook page so check back here to see them soon!

Openers and Closers

Whether you know this or not, opening and closing songs are *very* important to musicians, and have been for years. Whether it's an opera, a musical, a jazz band, a blues band, orchestra, or rock band, the way you start and end a concert can make a huge difference in the mood and direction the performance will take, for both the performer and the audience member. I can attest to this from personal experience, in my years as a trumpet player in a jazz band, an orchestral band, and as a guitarist/singer in my own rock bands over the years. Start a show out with energy and excitement and you can have the crowd eating out of your hand. Start it flat and it can take ages, if ever, for the interaction between crowd and band to warm up. The same goes for ending a show...if you end it with drama, or with excitement, you can send everyone home happy. But an anti-climactic or lackluster finish can leave people with an unresolved feeling in their ears that will color their perception of the entire concert, whether the rest was good or not.

Anyway, sorry for the tangential introduction to this post, but it does lead to a point: how you begin and end a concert is a *HUGE DEAL*!! After listening to loads of live albums, both official and "unofficial," of a variety of bands, I've heard this played out a bunch of times. So, this leads to...

THE BIG QUESTION, THE CRUX OF THIS POST:

What are Blur's best/worst set openers and closers (this is a Blur site, after all!)?

In my humble opinion, the absolute best opener they've ever had is Popscene. While they haven't opened with this since 1993 or so, in my mind it was the best opening song they ever used...it's incredibly energetic and exciting and gets everyone jumping from the get-go. The anticipation during Graham's flanged notes at the beginning before the entire band explodes into the song is just awesome. As far as closing songs, for me it's tied between two: This is a Low and The Universal. Both songs are slower paced, lending themselves to a bit of a gentler, but no less intense, comedown to mark the end of the show, which is no less powerful. However, each song has its distinct mood and effect; This is a Low is brooding and melancholy, burning slowly during the verses and exploding into the choruses...the final build-up to the solo and then the ending leaves everyone emotionally drained and happy. The Universal, on the other hand, while still melancholy in terms of subject matter, has a more triumphant feel, and the singalong chorus is a perfect way to send everyone off into the night on a high.

As far as worst ones? I think the worst opener (not counting instrumentals like Intermission, The Great Escape, Lot 105, The Debt Collector) they've used is Tender, which opened every 1999 show. I love Tender, I think it's a great song, but I think as an opener it's too slow, too quiet, and the effect of the great singalong potential is wasted as the show opener (to see how effective it can truly be when placed correctly in the middle of a set, see the shows from 2003, or especially 2009). As far as closing songs, my least favorite has to be Country House, which closed the main set in 1995/96...it's too cheery but not impactful enough to avoid being anti-climactic. And Song 2, which they used to close the encore sections in many 1997 shows, suffers from the same thing that plagued Tender...improper placement. Placed earlier in the show, it's impact is similar to that of Popscene.

So, what say you? What are you favorite and least favorite opening/closing songs from Blur??

Coulda/woulda/shoulda

Since there have been recent rumblings that Blur may not ever record and/or tour again, it got me thinking, what are some of the Blur gigs you totally could have gone to see but didn't (for whatever various reasons)? We always talk about the great gigs we did see, but what about the "ones that got away?"

For me, I'll forever kick myself for not going to see them in New York City in 1999. They had announced only 3 North American shows in March/April 1999, one in LA, one in New York, and one in Toronto. Being in the Boston area at university at the time, I planned to go to the NYC show...I had tickets waiting for me at the Roseland Ballroom and had bought a bus ticket to get down there and back. However, I had a very important mid-term exam for a chemistry class coming up, and since chemistry was my major, I had to stay put to study and get a good grade on it. I remember my exact thought process was "oh well, next time, I'm sure they'll do a full tour later in the year." Of course, they didn't come back to the US *AT ALL* in 1999, and Graham left the band before they'd make another record and come back to tour. So I did see them on their next tour...four years later in 2003, sans Graham! While that was a great show, I always kick myself for missing the '99 one...to see them all together, playing the 13 album front to back...if I had a time machine, I'd go back and kick 19-yr old Drew's ass and make him go to the show!

What are the gigs you could have gone to, but didn't, and wish you had?

Blur's Greatest Gigs?

Recently, NME published an article listing its "100 Gigs You Should Have Been At." First, a disclaimer...I haven't read the article myself as it seems to be only in the print edition, and I only read the free online edition. However, it has been discussed on the Blur message boards and apparently only two Blur gigs showed up on the list (three, technically, if you count the fact that they were part of the Rollercoaster Tour package in 1992, but NME only singled that show out because of My Bloody Valentine). The two Blur concerts they mentioned were the Gimme Shelter gig from 1992 (available HERE) and the Hyde Park shows from 2009 (commercially available). That started quite a debate on the forums, and I thought I'd expand on it here. So my question to you fellow fans is:


What do you consider to be the greatest Blur gigs ever?

Let me first say that by asking this question, I'm not talking about which are the best shows necessarily. We all know that, for instance, the Iceland show from late 1996 is a great concert because the band was very relaxed and previewed a lot of new material from their upcoming self-titled album. However, it's not one of those LEGENDARY gigs where everyone wishes they had been there, the way, say Woodstock in 1969 is. In my opinion, not only does the NME not have enough Blur gigs on it, but even if we accept they only get two spots, the two NME listed are, in my opinion, far from the ones any of us hardcore fans *should* have been at. So which gigs do I think would have been better choices for this list? Please note that this list is purely subjective and purely my opinion. Furthermore, I could come up with probably over 20 gigs, but I'm going to try and stick to the ones that even casual Blur fans would probably agree would have been ones they'd have loved to have been at.

Reading Festival 1993

Glastonbury 1994

Ally Pally 1994

Mile End 1995

Astoria 1997

B-Sides Show 1999

Singles Night 1999

Glastonbury 2009

That's my list, and I can expand further on my choices if you'd like me to, just ask in the comments. What's your list?

B-Sides Live

One thing we Blur fans know very well is the wealth of material Blur have given us on the b-sides of their singles throughout their career. There are loads of amazing tracks on the b-sides, and you could definitely make at least a couple of album's worth of discs just using the very best songs. Since many of these songs rank as some of the fan's favorites, I thought it'd be interesting to look at how often Blur performed any of their b-sides in concert, and which songs. While the b-sides performed were detailed in Black Book corresponding to whichever show they were played at, this little article will aim to take a more general overview of the b-sides in a live setting.

First, below is a list of all of Blur's b-sides, along with the ones that were actually played live (highlighted in BOLD font):

***NOTE that b-sides that were also album tracks have been removed, as have remixes or alternate versions***

Down
Inertia
Mr Briggs
I'm All Over
Won't Do It
Day Upon Day
Explain
Luminous
Berserk
Uncle Love
Mace
Badgeman Brown
I'm Fine
Garden Central
Headist/Into Another
Hanging Over
Peach
Bone Bag
When The Cows Come Home
Beachcoma
Young & Lovely
Es Scmecht
My Ark
Maggie May
Never Clever
Dizzy
Fried
Shimmer
Long Legged
Mixed Up
Tell Me Tell Me
Daisy Bell
Let's All Go Down The Strand
Magpie
Anniversary Waltz
People In Europe
Peter Panic
Threadneedle Street
Got Yer!
Beard
Supa Shoppa
Theme From An Imaginary Film
Rednecks
Alex's Song
One Born Every Minute
Ultranol
No Monsters In Me
The Man Who Left Himself
Tame
Ludwig
The Horrors
A Song
St. Louis
All Your Life
A Spell For Money
Woodpigeon Song
Dancehall
Bustin' & Dronin'
Get Out of Cities
Polished Stone
Swallows in the Heatwave
All We Want
French Song
So You
Beagle 2
Black Book
7 Days
Money Makes Me Crazy
Tune 2
Don't Be
The Outsider
Morricone

As you can see, the lion's share of the b-sides played come from the early part of Blur's career (pre-1994 and Parklife). Indeed, during this period they played a lot of b-sides live,as many of the b-sides were originally intended as album tracks before being bumped onto the singles. After superstardom in 1994, the b-sides played became more sporadic, and in actuality the list is a bit misleading as the majority of the later b-sides were only played at the legendary one-off B-Sides concert in London in September 1999. Apart from Swallows in the Heatwave and Inertia in 1997 and Fried in 1999, Blur's set has remained devoid of b-sides since 1994 (apart from Supa Shoppa, which was played virtually non-stop during the mad BritPop/Blurmania period of '94-'96). As I recently posted on the official Facebook page, it would be great to hear some b-sides played if/when Blur ever tour again, just to flesh out the set and throw a bone to the longtime fans who know these songs as well, if not better, than any of the singles and album tracks.

To finish up, I'll list my favorite b-sides, in no particular order (if I've forgotten any, I'll add them as I remember). Please share with us your own favorites in the comments section!

My favorite b-sides:

Inertia
Day Upon Day
Won't Do It
Magpie
Headist/Into Another
Luminous
Hanging Over
Young and Lovely
No Monsters in Me
Ultranol
All We Want
All Your Life
Black Book
Morricone
The Outsider
So You
I'm Fine
I'm All Over
Mace
Tame
Polished Stone
Threadneedle Street
Bone Bag
Peach
Explain
My Ark
Mixed Up
The Man Who Left Himself

What a killer album or two those songs could make...better than most bands' album tracks!

CONCERT REVIEW: Meldtown Festival, Festival Hall, London, England July 2, 2000

After the yearlong touring of 1999 to promote 13, culminating in the Singles Night Tour in December, Blur for all intents and purposes took the year 2000 off, both in terms of recording and touring. They were invited to play at that year’s Meltdown Festival, put together in 2000 by Scott Walker. In keeping with the tradition to present more artistically challenging material and eschewing the more commercial material (that is, not playing “the hits”), Blur approached this one-off concert in that spirit and presented a set list that is among the most interesting and unique in their career:

Battle
Tender
Blue Jeans
Trimm Trabb
Country Sad Ballad Man
To the End
Look Inside America
Beetlebum
This is a Low
Death of a Party
No Distance Left to Run
On Your Own
Ernold Same
Black Book

Apart from the surprise of opening the show with Battle, there are a lot of goodies tucked into this show. This would be the final time (to date) Battle, Country Sad Ballad Man, Look Inside America, No Distance Left to Run, and On Your Own would ever be played live. Ernold Same, which had been played as a short instrumental between 1994 and 1996, is here presented as the full album version, complete with Ken Livingstone, who did the narration on The Great Escape, joining the band onstage. In my opinion, however, the real treat at this concert is the final song, Black Book. This is the only time the song was ever played in a live concert setting…at the time it was slated to be the band’s one-off non-album single in 2000, but eventually it was released as the b-side to the eventual Music is My Radar single. Still, it’s really nice to hear it here…it’s not as long as the studio version, but that’s ok.

As far as the performance goes, surprisingly, Blur sound very nervous and tentative throughout the show. There are some mix ups, most notably having to restart Beetlebum after it all falls apart. Luckily, there is some light banter onstage, mainly concerning Damon blaming it all on Alex and the cigarettes he smokes! The more obscure songs, which to me are the best parts of the show, are played with intense concentration and perhaps are not as visceral as more comfortable material like On Your Own or This is a Low, but they’re no less interesting. One thing to note throughout the show is how intimate it all feels. It’s truly one of the more “special” shows to listen to.

One last thing that makes this an historic show in Blur's history is that is was the final concert Graham Coxon played with the band until their Reunion Tour in 2009.

Recordings of this show are pretty easy to get a hold of, but if you're having trouble, and enough people are interested, I could always post it.

CONCERT REVIEWS: Blur in Iceland (and beyond)

In 1996, after finishing off their touring obligations with some festival appearances in the summer (see THIS POST) and debuting a couple of new songs (Song 2, Chinese Bombs), Blur retreated into the studio to continue working on their musical reinvention. During this time Damon became enamored with the country of Iceland, so much so that he invested in a pub there and invited the band up for some recording. During this period, in the fall of 1996, Blur played a one-off show, on September 8, 1996 (the poster is courtesy Bjorn Halldorsson)



The concert was held at the Laugardalsholl in Reykjavik, Iceland on September 8, 1996 and the set list was:

Stereotypes
Tracy Jacks
Charmless Man
It Could Be You
Jubilee
End Of A Century
Beetlebum
Look Inside America
She's So High
Popscene
Globe Alone
Bank Holiday
Supa Shoppa
This Is A Low
Sing
Girls & Boys
Country House
To The End
For Tomorrow
There's No Other Way
Song 2
Parklife
The Universal

That is a great set list! First, they start off with Stereotypes, which is very unusual. The set includes rare (for 1996) performances of Sing, For Tomorrow, and the last Country House for a while. PLUS, two new songs were debuted: the very first live performances of Beetlebum and Look Inside America. Song 2 was also played (Chinese Bombs, debuted during the summer, is absent). Beetlebum sounds tentative but fully formed, although it's the first time Damon ever played guitar onstage and he warns the crowd beforehand! Look Inside America again sounds timid but complete, while Song 2 has slightly different lyrics than the versions from the summer of 1996, but is closer to the final version. A great concert. The anonymity Iceland offered, far from the roving eyes of the UK media, as well as the welcoming nature of the people that Blur found there, let them stretch out both in the studio and onstage to be more daring, and the results, again both on record and stage, were staggering.

This 1996 adventure stands in stark contrast with the show Blur played in Iceland at the same venue in 1997, on August 31, 1997 (poster courtesy of Bjorn again):



It was part of Blur's mini-tour of Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands, and is a much more somber, sloppy concert, supposedly because they found out Princess Diana had died that day. They took to the stage angry, sad, and very, very drunk. The set list was:

Beetlebum
M.O.R.
Movin' On
Stereotypes
Badhead
Country Sad Ballad Man
She's So High
To The End
Popscene
Chinese Bombs
Advert
Coping
Girls & Boys
Death Of A Party
The Universal
Theme From Retro
On Your Own
Parklife
Country House
I'm Just A Killer For Your Love
Song 2

Only the songs in bold font are available on recording. Bjorn and I are working on getting the complete show. Country House was played (surprisingly, it made a brief comeback in August 1997, as evidenced on the available V97 recording, which you can also download HERE). Overall, the band sound subdued, depressed, and bored, as if they want to get the concert over with and get off stage as quickly as possible. Still, it's a fascinating listen, and mediocre Blur is still better than no Blur at all!

The following posts will be the recordings of these two shows for your enjoyment. Please leave feedback!