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?

From a Torrent to a Trickle

Well, I think I've reached the time I knew would eventually come...the number and breadth of new Blur live recordings coming in to me has now, for the most part, stopped. For the last 6-7 years, I've been able to hunt down and acquire (and share out, mostly) dozens of newly unearthed recordings. Even within the last 3 years or so I've been able to discover the existence, and in most cases, obtain copies of, rare and unheard tapes. But it seems like I may have finally hit the wall, so to speak, and the supply has simply dried up.

I actually still know people who have many recordings, and a couple of them, who I consider friends, are doing me huge favors by working to get me copies. I'm waiting on those, and to my two friends I'm very grateful. But I also know (or know of) many other people scattered around the globe with another 20-40 tapes who simply can't be reached or aren't interested in sharing. And of course, I know of the existence of many more tapes, but not necessarily who has them.

I'm still working busily on the next Blur book, which I think will be really great and a huge upgrade/improvement on the first one, in terms of size, content, information, and format. The reason for this second book is because, while finishing and publishing the first one, I was still getting loads of new tapes, and in total there are more than 50 new shows/sources/recordings added to the second book. It makes sense to offer fans even more information, not to mentions the numerous corrections/additions, etc that resulted from more careful listening and fact-finding. However, unless I can bring in another serious haul of that size, I don't think it would make sense to update and add on to the book for a long time after the second one, if ever.

I'm not upset or angry at this situation, I want to make that clear and I hope no one misconstrues what I've written as such. I'm so happy to have been able to work on this and it only deepens my love for Blur and their music. The only emotion, other than joy, that this hobby/project of mine brings me, is a slight sadness that there are so many more amazing recordings from Blur on stage that we may simply never be able to hear, whether the tapes don't exist, are lost, damaged, or hidden away in someone's closet who does not want to share them. Blur played over 600 concerts between 1989 and 2009, and my collection, which I believe to be the largest in the world, has slightly over 200 distinct shows in it. So 33% of Blur's concert history is available on tape, while a whopping 66% is still out there, waiting to be discovered, listened to, enjoyed, analyzed, studied, dissected...

Have no worries! I will not be giving up collecting Blur...I'll always be on the hunt for new tapes and recordings and, unless instructed by the donors of said tapes, I will share what I can with all of you, my fellow Blur fans, time permitting. I'm a busy guy with a wife, 4 kids, a full-time job, and a VERY busy and fulfilling life, so I do the best I can with this site, the Facebook page, and the Twitter page, and I apologize if it frustrates you that I can't update as frequently as I'd like...it frustrates me, too! But I will continue to update here with new and (hopefully) interesting articles, photos, recordings, etc, and I hope you'll stick around and continue to engage in discussions and comments, feedback and suggestions, anecdotes and memories...perhaps the best thing about this entire endeavor are all of the great people I've met, online and in real life.

And of course, I have to say it, but if you have any Blur live recordings, I'd love to hear about them and swap for a copy...I'd love to add them to my personal collection, as well as my digital archive and the book project. I'd, of course, give you credit in the book and would honor whatever wishes you had for the tape in regards to circulating it or not. Feel free to contact me via email (find the address in my profile to the right of this page) to discuss this.

Keep checking back here, there'll always be some new stuff posted as I find the time to do it...cheers!

Blur songs for springtime

With beautiful spring weather (finally) here in New England, and of course elsewhere in the world, what are your favorite Blur "Springtime" songs? What songs fit perfectly with this time of year and this weather?

Fool's Day...one year later

A year later, what are your thoughts on Fool's Day? I personally love the song. Is it one of Blur's best? No, of course not. But it's still catchy and enjoyable and was such a surprise and an unexpected treat that listening to it makes me feel really good.

What do you think?

HERE'S the link to the song.

My next Blur book...title change?

I posed this question on the Facebook and Twitter pages, but I've been mulling over whether or not to change the title for my next Blur book. On one hand, I feel like the title is established and would help with exposure for the new book. On the other hand, since it is expanded and includes some new material (in the way of ticket stubs, passes, etc), it could be considered a different beast and thus may benefit from a new title.

What do you think?

SHOW: Cotton Club, Atlanta, Georgia March 17, 1997

Here's a show from Blur's spring US Tour in 1997, performing the brand new self-titled album in America for the first time on these dates. This is the complete show, which is somewhat rare to find (most sources cut off before or during the encores). Enjoy!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FNAHN7PD

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?

Back at it in March!

Whew! I know I hardly updated this site at all in February...I was busy working on my own musical project, which I released on March 1.

Now that that's finished, I intend to get back to devoting myself to this here site and updating it with info and goodies for all of you loyal readers. So stay tuned!

SHOW: 86th St., Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 5/8/92

Here is the only other show that exists from Blur's 1992 American Tour (the other one is HERE).

ENJOY!


http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1NECBXDP

I Need *YOU*

(SPECIAL THANKS to my friend Michael C. for customizing the above photo for me!)

I'm hard at work on the manuscript for the expanded next version of the book and working hard at getting a proper publisher. In the meantime, I'm awaiting a couple more batches of recordings from friends, but I'm always in need of more material to make the book and entire archiving project as detailed and complete as possible.

Everyone who reads this blog, the Facebook or Twitter pages, or my book, and has contacted me to donate recordings, ticket scans, etc, has been incredible and I appreciate and thank you for your kindness and generosity with the utmost in wholehearted sincerity.

With that being said, I'm making one last push over the next few months to compile as much as I can before I begin really flogging this around to different publishers (some of whom have already expressed interest). So...

...if you have ANY live recordings (see list below) that are on the list, or even if they aren't, and would be willing to donate/trade a copy to me for inclusion in the book, please contact me, it would be HUGELY appreciated. Some of these I am awaiting copies of, but the rest I'm still trying to get a hold of.

The same goes for any scans of ticket stubs to Blur concerts you've attended.

Your name will go in the back of the book on a special "THANK YOU" section that already has loads of names on it.

The list of KNOWN recordings (if you have these or any other, please contact me):

3/30/90 Falcon, Camden, London
5/16/90 Sir George Robey, London
5/19/93 Dolce Vita, Lausanne, Switzerland
5/23/93 Washington Heights, Reading
5/29/93 University, Manchester
8/7/93 Estádio José Bento Pessoa, Figueira da Foz, Portugal
11/3/93 Dynamo, Zurich, Switzerland
4/24/94 Casemates, Mons, Belgium
5/16/94 Plaza, Glasgow
5/23/94 Event Centre, Brighton, England
5/24/94 University, Reading, England
6/25/94 Old Trout, Windsor. England
7/9/94 Lummen Festival, Belgium
7/30/94 T in the Park Festival, Scotland
9/19/94 Masquerade, Atlanta
9/24/94 The Palace, Los Angeles
9/25/94 The Fillmore, San Francisco
7/7/95 Les Eurockeenes Festival, Belfort, France
10/25/94 La Bataclan, Paris, France
11/1/94 Christiana, Copenhagen, Denmark
6/10/95 Sonoria Festival, Milan, Italy
10/3/95 Metro, Chicago
11/9/95 NHK Hall, Tokyo, Japan
11/28/95 SECC, Glasgow, Scotland
12/11/95 SECC, Glasgow, Scotland
1/26/96 Moe’s, Seattle
2/26/96 Aqualung, Madrid (full show)
3/13/96 Teatro Tenda, Florence, Italy
3/18/96 Capitol, Hannover, Germany
1/27/97 Town and Country Club, Leeds, England
2/15/97 Divan du Monde, Paris, France
4/10/97 Grosse Freiheit, Hamburg, Germany
4/11/97 Arena, Berlin, Germany
5/14/97 Sports Hall, Cesena, Italy
5/26/97 Budokan, Tokyo, Japan
6/10/97 Electric Factory, Philadelphia
6/18/97 Showbox, Seattle
6/22/97 Ogden Theatre, Denver
6/26/97 Riviera, Chicago
6/27/97 Clutch Cargos, Detroit
8/8/97 Sudoeste Festival, Herdade da Casa Branca, Odemira, Portugal
8/14/97 Water Festival, Sweden
9/13/97 Orpheum, Boston (w/soundcheck)
10/14/97 County Bowl, Santa Barbara, California
11/8/97 MBK Hall, Bangkok
1/30/99 Depot Studios, London
3/30/99 Roseland Ballroom, NYC
4/1/99 Mayan Theatre, LA
6/20/99 Heineken Music Festival, Imola, Italy
7/31/99 Fuji Rock Festival, Japan (full show)
8/26/99 Goldsmiths College, London
11/18/99 Metrolpolitan Theatre, Mexico City (full show)
11/21/99 Credit Card Hall, Sao Paulo, Brazil (full show)
11/23/99 Metropolitan, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
6/16/03 Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles
6/19/03 Roseland Theatre, Portland
6/20/03 Showbox, Seattle
6/21/03 Vogue Theatre, Vancouver, Canada
7/23/03 Metropolis, Montreal, Canada
7/24/03 Theatre of the Living Arts, Philadelphia
7/26/03 Tabernacle, Atlanta
10/13/03 Circus, Stockholm (full show)
11/9/03 Gasometer, Vienna, Austria
11/22/03 Barrowlands, Glasow
7/12/09 T in the Park Festival, Scotland (full show)

Any correspondence with me will be kept confidential, and again, beforehand, I offer everyone a big...

THANK YOU!

Archiving has begun!

For the last couple of weeks, I've begun working on archiving all of my live Blur shows to lossless digital for storage. I've done from 1989 up to about halfway through 1994. It got me thinking, do I really need all of the physical CD copies now? I'm leaning toward *YES* since I want to have a physical back-up in case, God forbid, I have any computer issues.

What do you think?

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!