Trouble in the Message Centre

After stating over the last few weeks that Blur and Gorillaz were most likely finished after this summer, Damon said in an interview yesterday that that's not the case. Head over to my Facebook or Twitter pages for more links to the interviews.

So which is it? I'm getting confused and annoyed by all of this back and forth!

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!

Music is My Radar...but it's not my job

I'll warn you right now that this is not meant to be a cranky post complaining about stuff...I don't want this to sound like me bitching and whining, and I'm willing to concede that sometimes things come across on the Internet or in typed text differently than perhaps they were intended, but I've been getting a bit irritated lately at how some people just expect me to devote all my time to this site and especially to uploading music.  I will say that 99% of fellow fans I've interacted with here, on Facebook or Twitter, email, or the Blur forum (where I'm a mod if you didn't know) have been awesome and very thankful and very friendly and generous in their own ways.  But there are a small handful of people who act as though I'm "not doing my job" because it takes me so long for to upload music here, or in the recent cases, to fix a link that got messed up (see the post below).  I get it that we're all diehard fans, and i am just as obsessive as the next guy.  But I've got a wife, 4 kids, a house, a 50+ hour-a-week job, friends, and a LIFE outside of being a massive Blur fan and running these pages and working on the book. I don't get paid for any of this stuff; I do it because I enjoy doing it and I enjoy making other fans happy, sharing the music and love of Blur, writing about it...it's really a labor of love.  So for the 99% of you who are awesome, keep on coming back and interacting! And for the rest of you, a "thank you" every once and a while would be nice...

FIXED Upload Links for 1997 Show!

See HERE

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!

SHOW: Ziggy's, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA September 22, 1997

Here's a nice little show from the Fall US Tour of 1997...a good sounding audience recording, by special request. Enjoy!

UPDATE 3/18/12: I fixed the links and the files...now the two parts of the show are correct...enjoy!

Part 1: http://www.mediafire.com/?16lh41qppipox6u
Part 2: http://www.mediafire.com/?bafmi34cd9jie39

Black Book v2.0 News

So after giving it a lot of thought and getting some good advice from friends, I'm going to hold back the 2nd Edition of Black Book until this Fall. This is so I can include all of the information on this summer's shows and make the book as complete and current as possible, especially if this turns out to be Blur's last hurrah.

I'm still interested in any recordings or ticket stubs scans you may have to donate to the project and of course I will give you credit...your name will join all the others in the thank you section.

Right now the book is at a whopping 650 pages and will only get more info-packed between now and its release so any contributions are most welcome!

Thanks and feel free to comment/suggest anything here and shoot me an email or private message if you want to contribute anything.

New Gig Dates Trickling In...

As of this morning, more gig dates are trickling in. The latest are two festivals in August so far, one in Sweden and one in Denmark.

Keep checking here and my Facebook and Twitter pages for up-to-the-minute info!

Blur at the Brits!

Head on over to my Facebook page for videos of all 5 songs Blur played earlier tonight at the Brit Awards! Enjoy!

The complete set was:

Girls and Boys
Song 2
Parklife
Tender
This is a Low

Big Blur News of the day!!

Just announced...Blur have accepted the invite to headline the Olympics Closing Ceremony: Best of British concert in Hyde Park this August 12, 2012!

COMPLETE set from tonight's gig:

Here's the complete set from tonight: