Coming Soon: My Review of "The Life of Blur"

I just got in the mail today my free copy of the new Blur biography, "The Life of Blur" by Martin Power (thank you, Omnibus Press!). They sent it to me complimentary because I promised to read it and write up a thorough review and post it here on my website as well as on the Blur forums. So, that being said, I intend to start the book tomorrow and as soon as I finish, I'll write up my review and share it with all of you. So stay tuned!

Tokyo Rocks Festival Cancelled

The Tokyo Rocks Festival in Japan that Blur was due to appear at in May has been cancelled...

http://louderthanwar.com/tokyo-rocks-2013-cancelled/

This is unfortunate for the band's Japanese fans, who are known as being amongst the most rabid and fanatical of all of their fans, especially judging from multiple bootleg recordings and videos of shows. They also seem to bring the best and wildest side of Blur out, so this is really too bad.

It's still unclear why this was cancelled...what do you think? Any ideas or info why?

(And NO, this is not an April Fool's post! I posted this same news item on my Facebook and Twitter pages yesterday...this is legit!)

It Starts Today!

The first Blur concert of the year kicks off today in Mexico at El Plaza Condesa, followed by the first festival of the year tomorrow (also in Mexico).

Keep checking here for up-to-the-date info: set lists, photos, etc, and feel free to share your own info!

So Far, Unanimous Praise for Black Book (2nd Edition)!

I've been truly humbled and flattered by the response to my newest book, Black Book: The Live History of Blur (2nd Edition). I'd like to share the feedback I've gotten, not only as a (small) feather in my cap (I can't resist!), but also to hopefully persuade anyone sitting on the fence that this book is worth getting if you're a Blur fan, BritPop fan, music fan, or whatever.

Some of the reviews for the book since it's release in December 2012:

"Got it tonight. Absolutely brilliant! I've been listening to the CDs and reading about the concerts - using the book like a mega set of liner notes. There are some priceless rareties here for sure, but the selections made are better because the author truly knows what he's talking talking about. I've got a stack of live CDs from hunting around Record fairs in the 90s, and this book is going to give them a new lease of life! Thank you"

"Got mine on Saturday. A joy to read. A real labour of love isn't it? It's great that there is a book like this out there. Well done"

"Got it in the mail today. Read a few entries and I'm really impressed. The concert reviews are super in-depth. Thanks for your hard work!"

"Just got mine from Amazon UK, and it's coming with me on a business trip next week so I'll have plenty time to get into it on the flight! It looks great Drew!"

"I loved it! Real page-turner. Great insight to B-Roads was a bonus."

"Mine arrived yesterday and it's awesome!"

"Mine arrived this morning, had a quick glance and it looks very purty you should be very proud"

"Got mine this morning, just about to go through it. Thanks so much, looks great!"

"I am completely stunned by the amount of information in this book and the scene-by-scene review of B-Roads is wonderful. Thank you for giving us a glimpse into the great mystery! This book is an ABSOLUTE MUST HAVE for hardcore Blur fans. Such a great read and research tool. Thank you so much for your effort, it's greatly appreciated!"   

And so far, all 5-Star reviews on Amazon:

Amazon.co.uk reviews
Amazon.com reviews

So if you've got the book, I'd love to hear your feedback, good or bad (and if it's good, I'd appreciate it if you reviewed it on Amazon, your website, anywhere...and share the link, please!).

And if you don't have the book yet, isn't this enough to make you want to go out and get it? :-) 

 

Black Book Pre-Order: IT IS HERE!

WHAT'S NEW IN BLACK BOOK 2nd EDITION: > Newly rearranged format and sections, breaking the live history into touring "eras" instead of years to better track their onstage progression alongside their musical evolution in the studio > Nearly 100 new concerts reviewed and written up, fleshing out their live history even more than the first book from 2009 > Corrections and revisions to many entires from the first book as further research has brought new information to light > Updated, corrected, and expanded tour date history > Updated, corrected, and expanded song live performance list > A collection of scans/photos of Blur concert ticket stubs throughout their history, from 1990 to 2012 > A "thank you" section acknowledging and thanking everyone who kindly helped out with this project (whether sending in recordings or scans of their tickets) > The FIRST EVER review of B-Roads, the lost Great Escape film from 1995/96, detailed and reviewed for the first time ANYWHERE If you can't wait until December to order the book, I'm running a pre-order special that will run from October 15 to November 15, 2012 PRE-ORDER SPECIAL: BLACK BOOKS 1&2 > Both editions of Black Book together for US $30 BLACK BOOK 2 > The new 2012 2nd Edition of Black Book for US $20 Everyone who pre-orders either one of these between October 15 and November 15 will get their copies of the book signed by me, as well as a live compilation I'm putting together (I haven't decided if it will be on CDR or download yet, I'll announced that as the release date gets closer). After November 15, 2012, I will not accept any more pre-orders...sorry, but since this is 100% a one-man operation (ie, I'm doing everything by myself!), I just can't handle it. TO PRE-ORDER: I'm accepting payment through PayPal (this way I can keep track of the orders): PLEASE ORDER USING THE BUTTONS BELOW AND INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION: -Your name -Your mailing address -Your email address -Which book package you're ordering Please allow 3-5 days for orders to arrive after December 19 for US orders, and 1-2 weeks for the rest (give or take a few days since it will be close to the Christmas holiday season, which always delays the post). If you have any additional questions about the book, the pre-order, or anything else, please feel free to contact me at dkathans@comcast.net IF YOU HAVE ANY RECORDINGS OR TICKET SCANS YOU'D LIKE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE BOOK, PLEASE HAVE THEM IN TO ME NO LATER THAN OCTOBER 31, 2012!! Thanks in advance for your patience with me! :)

It Could Be You (reviewing the book…)

If you have Black Book and have enjoyed it, why not write a review for it on Amazon? The feedback helps me out to know what everyone likes/dislikes, and it helps the ranking on Amazon. This is my way of asking nicely (pretty please?) :)

Black Book 2 preorder details coming soon…

In about a week and half (probably right after the Labor Day holiday here in the US), I'll have full details for the preorder for the book. The only question is how many copies to limit the bonus stuff to (depends on the demand…need to get an idea of how many people are interested?).

Blur 2012

Currently my favorite photo of the band.

Today's Blur Announcement

THE NEWS: Blur will be doing 2 live broadcasts on July 31. A session on BBC Music 6 with Steve Lamacq and an hour-long gig on Jo Whiley's show on Radio 2.  Tickets can be won for the Whiley gig, and for the rest of us who won't be in London, we can listen (and in my case, record the audio!) live.

There you go!

Almost Here

Under The Westway - July 2

In keeping with what they did yesterday, this was posted by the official Blur Twitter account this morning:

My guess: these are two songs for a single to be released July 2.

And there's a countdown ticker to July 2 on the official site (www.blur.co.uk)

An exciting summer ahead!

The Puritan - July 2

This morning, the official Blur Facebook and Twitter pages have been teasing with "#thepuritan 2nd July 7:45 pm BST" and this photo:

Reckon we're getting a single release? That's my guess...what's yours?

This is going to be an exciting summer!

Another New Blur Song - "The Puritan"

Last night Damon performed at the POEM 2012 event in London, and debuted another new Blur song (on acoustic guitar) along with a coupleo of song's from his "Dr. Dee" album.  The title is purported to be "The Puritan."

Link to the video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zpRDUCF60Y&feature=youtube_gdata_player

So what do you think? Comment below with your opinion!

It's Windy There...

(Scan courtesy of James948 from the Blur forum)

Normally I'm against graffiti but this is different. Was this ugly or offensive? No. To fans or casual listeners, it was meaningful. And to everyone else, it was really inoffensive. Read this and check out the video by the crew who did the restoration a couple of months ago (see post below) and decide for yourself.

Keep up the fight!

It Could Be You!

If anyone has stuff for the book, I'm caught up enough that it'd be a good time to send it. Live tapes, ticket stub scans, etc. Feel free to email or PM me if you'd like to help out and as always, thanks in advance!

I'm also working on trying to get a proper publisher for the book...it'll be coming out either way, so stay tuned for updates!

Book Pre-Order: Gauging Interest

Who would be interested in pre-ordering the book if I set the release for sometime in November/December of this year? Perhaps with a bonus inventive included? (I'm mulling this last bit over...).

Let me know here in the comments, on the Facebook page, or on Twitter what your thoughts are.

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!

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?

It's Windy There...

...and the View's So Nice.

Charming little video below featuring (and shared by) some intrepid fellow members of the Blur forums. Worth the view...well done, guys, and better luck next time!

Archiving!

I had mentioned a while ago in an old post that, along with collecting audio and working on my books, I also intended to archive Blur's live audio, for preservation purposes as well as ease of use. After not having done much in the last several months, I spent some time today transferring more CDR audio to my hard drive and converting it to lossless flac format. As of right now, I'm about halfway through the 1995 audio, so by the end of the weekend, 1989-1995 should be completed. The crazy thing is, when I look at my boxes of Blur live CDs, I'm not even close to being halfway done, which gives you an idea of how much more they toured, especially in 1997, 1999, and 2003! Still, not only has it been fun revisiting all the stuff, but once completed, this will make it easier for me to access audio, go back and get info from shows, relisten to it, and also share some more with you, my fellow fans!