TOUR REVIEW: The Sugary Tea UK Tour of Fall 1993

As has been discussed on here, in Black Book, and elsewhere, 1993 was a turning point year for Blur. It was in this year that they harnessed their drunken energy and tightened up their live act, released a classic single (For Tomorrow) and (finally) released their landmark second album, Modern Life is Rubbish. As a touring year, 1993 was surprisingly light for early-era Blur...after a UK tour in the spring, they played some scattered shows in the UK and Europe before returning to proper touring in October.

This tour, called the Sugary Tea tour (after a line in Chemical World) encompassed most of October. The schedule is below, with the known and/or available recordings highlighted:

October 1993:

2nd - Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
3rd - Keele University, Newcastle-under-Lyme, UK
4th - Queen's Hall, Bradford, UK
5th - Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK
7th - Forum, London, UK
8th - Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton, UK
9th - Municipal Hall, Pontypridd, UK
10th - University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
12th - Coventry University, Coventry, UK
13th - University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
14th - South Parade Pier, Portsmouth, UK
15th - University of Essex, Colchester, UK
16th - University of Sussex, Brighton, UK

Unfortunately, I only know of the existence of one recording from this tour, and that is the Bradford show. It would be great to hear more from this tour (if you have any, please contact me privately!). The set list for these shows (based on the Bradford show...if there were changes, I don't know them as the unavailability of recordings doesn't help) was:

Intermission
Popscene
Colin Zeal
Sunday Sunday
She’s So High
Girls and Boys
Come Together
Pressure on Julian
Commercial Break
There’s No Other Way
Chemical World
Coping
Parklife
For Tomorrow
Advert

A pretty standard set list, without too many surprises, although it is interesting that Come Together was still in the set, as it would be dropped by the European tour which began at the end of the month. Also, a pre-release version of Parklife, which was typical for the time, was included near the end of the set.

This is a somewhat "mythical" tour for the band, based mainly on the fact that, besides the cool name it has, there is hardly anything known about it! I do know that Salad were the support band, but beyond that, it remains a mystery, and as such, it is very interesting. It will take more detective work to bring more tapes to light (if they even exist) and to flesh out the picture of this tour.

Photos of Tour Book Uploaded

I'm going to be uploading photos of some Blur memorabilia I have to the official Facebook page for Black Book in order to share with all of you. First up, I'm upoading pictures for the tour programmes I have (so far, not many...Blur ones are hard to find). Pictures of the entire 1994 Parklife Tour Programme have been uploaded to Facebook HERE (and if you're not a fan on this page, you should be! I post lots of news and updates here and it's another nice place to discuss things with fans from all over).

If any of you do have Blur tour programmes and would be willing to trade me for them, let me know, as I collect them.

An announcement...and a Happy Thanksgiving wish!

For all of you eBook readers out there, the Kindle version of Black Book (which will also work on iPads, iPhones, etc) should be available for purchase ($5.99) in a couple of days.

And to everyone out there, Happy Thanksgiving!

SHOW: Reading Festival, England August 24, 1991

Here is Blur's show from the Reading Festival in 1991. This one sounds great, especially for an early show. Very energetic performance, too, warts and all. I've heard from quite a few people that have poor-sounding copies of this, but this one is VERY nice, so I hope you enjoy it. And as always, please leave comments so we can discuss this gig! Enjoy!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VF3I02HX

BREAKING NEWS: Blur to begin recording in January 2011

Straight from the man himself, Damon stated in an interview that Blur met recently and are planning to convene for new recording sessions in January 2011. This is fantastic news and will hopefully lead to a new album or at least an EP. Let's discuss this!! Please comment, what do you think of this?

http://tinyurl.com/26tsn6f

A nice review of Black Book

I just discovered yesterday that an excellent music webpage, The Music Slut, reviewed Black Book a couple of weeks ago. This was totally unsolicited (ie I did not contact them asking for a review...I stumbled across this on the web yesterday totally by accident). You can read the review HERE.

Let me know what you think...agree? Disagree? I want to hear from you whether you like the book, just think it's OK, or hate it with a passion!

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.

SHOW: O2 Academy, Newcastle, England June 25, 2009

Here's Blur's show from Newcastle on their reunion tour of 2009. This is cobbled together from various audience videos of varying quality. In addition, some songs aren't complete...however, this is almost the whole show, and all we have from Newcastle until an audience tape (or a soundboard!) pops up. I still think you'll enjoy it, especially if you were there that night. Enjoy!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DI7FTE2U

SHOW: Gorillaz @ Agannis Arena, Boston, MA October 6, 2010

Here's the recording I made of Gorillaz' show in Boston last week...not the best but not too bad. Hope you enjoy it!

UPDATE: for some reason the old link was dead, so here's the new one:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=I9PQ1443

LINK UPDATED NOVEMBER 18, 2010

UPCOMING SHOW: Gorillaz at Agannis Arena, Boston 10/6/10

I know this isn't Blur, but it's Blur-related...I managed to record the entire Gorillaz show in Boston last week. The sound isn't great but it's not terrible...your typical audience recording from halfway back in a large arena. I'm going to track it and clean it up a bit this weekend and will upload it when I'm done, so stay tuned! (the above picture is a photo I took of my ticket, (C) Drew Athans, 2010)

GIG REVIEW: NME Gimme Shelter Charity Show, Town & Country Club, London, England July 23, 1992

After the disastrous 1992 US tour, Blur returned to the UK bruised, bloody, and bitter. Not making their mood any better was the fact that, while they were away, a new band by the name of Suede had taken the UK scene by storm...by returning rock music to English roots, something Blur had tried (and failed) to do with the release of Popscene prior to leaving for America. Against this backdrop, Blur were clearly not in the best frame of mind when they were invited to participate in the Shelter charity's benefit gig, co-hosted with the NME, entitled Gimme Shelter. On the bill were Blur, Suede, Mega City Four, and 3 1/2 Minutes. Irritated by their lack of success in America and the fact that they were now co-headlining with Suede, Blur began drinking early on the day of the gig. As was recounted in gory detail in 3862 Days, by the time they were due onstage, they were barely able to walk and were in foul moods.

Walking onstage, Damon told the crowd his now famous (infamous?) quote, "We're so shit, you should just fuck off now!" What followed was a gig that was chaotic, sloppy, and wildly exciting. As described in the official biography, the band was barely able to stand and kept crashing into each other and falling to the floor.

The set list was:

Popscene
Come Together
Advert
Colin Zeal
Pressure On Julian
She's So High
Oily Water
Never Clever
Luminous
Sunday Sunday
There's No Other Way
Coping

Of particular interest are two rarely played songs, Never Clever and Luminous, the former being, at the time, the intended follow-up to Popscene (which was scrapped once Popscene flopped in the charts). Also, as you can see, quite a lot of material slated for the second album was debuted for the UK crowd (some had been played earlier in the year) here, such as Advert, Colin Zeal, Pressure on Julian, Sunday Sunday, and Coping.

I've talked to a fellow who was there and he described the gig as "not very good," while other accounts range from it being awful to strangely enthralling. Some people even described it as the best gig they ever saw! (again, referring to accounts in the official bio). One thing that cannot be disputed is that David Balfe and Andy Ross, the heads of Food Records, were so disgusted that they gave Blur a dressing down the following day and threatened to drop them from the label if anything like this ever happened again. Obviously, as it turned out, Blur cleaned their act, tightened up their performances, and went on to become mega stars within 18 months. This can clearly be seen as their nadir, and their most key turning point, both in their attitude and approach to performing, as well as their work ethic.

For years, a recording of this gig has been a Holy Grail of mine (and other collectors) as all we've ever known of it are secondhand accounts and the passages in 3862 Days. I even did a ton of research on this gig for the No Distance Left to Run documentary, tracking down a fellow who was there, a ticket stub, and articles in NME and Melody Maker. But the material I uncovered was unused in the film because the actual recording remained elusive.

Until now.

Here, finally, after many years of searching by me, is the complete gig. I won't describe too much other than you can hear the drunkenness loud and clear, and the gig has its moments of being horrible and being quite good. A long and in-depth analysis will be included in the 2nd edition of Black Book, so until the book is complete and available for you to read, you can make your own opinions on this show.

VERY SPECIAL THANKS goes to Ian Rule, who was kind enough to share this recording with me and who agreed to let it be shared with the rest of the Blur fan community...thanks so much, Ian!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=H1RV13OU

PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS after you've listened to this...I'd love to hear what you all think!

SHOW: BBC Hippodrome, London March 15, 1999

Blur's concert, recorded live by the BBC, on the day the 13 album was released. Fantastic sound and a fantastic performance. Enjoy and carry the music through the weekend, I hope it's good for everyone!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YE81N4L7