Blur
Hyde Park, London
Damon Albarn, Alex James, Graham Coxon and Dave Rowntree have always been blessed with impeccable timing. An earlier incarnation of their band, Seymour, metamorphosed into chartbusters Blur just as the art school Britpop of Brett Anderson’s Suede and Jarvis Cocker’s Pulp threatened to be, well, pulped, by the juggernaut “wonderwall” of sound produced by “Beatles tribute band” Oasis.
Their timing did not let them down on this occasion. This reunion gig, announced six months ago, was always going to be this summer’s hottest ticket, but who could have predicted that it would take place on the hottest day of the year so far? Possibly award-winning cheese producer and Blur bass player Alex James, who bestrode the stage clad looking as cockily cool as ever, but certainly not front man Albarn whose gratitude – “To do nothing for so long and then come back to this” – was unmistakably genuine.
As plastic beer bottles rained down on a surprisingly young crowd – only the grandstand remained empty and who could sit still on a day like today? – whose members had travelled from as far as Europe, Canada and even Australia, Blur ran on stage just after 8pm (except James, who strolled on clad in a balck silk cut) to “She’s So High”. This was the first in a catalogue of hits, as befits a band who have produced nothing new in the decade since they last performed together. However, on this song and the hits that followed, Coxon’s guitar sounded a note of menace that was never in evidence on their studio recordings. The feedback Coxon pulled from his instrument at the end of Beetlebum sounded too angry for a summer’s day in the park.
Hit followed hit. “Tender”, “End of the Century”, “Tracy Jacks” and a sing-along version of Country House were all present and correct. After a surprisingly mournful “Sunday Sunday”, Albarn cued “Parklife” – a song “written while I lay beneath a tree in Hyde Park”. Actor Phil Daniels, who also appeared on the record, walked out to deliver the introduction from Quadrophenia. “You can take that mail, that franking machine and all the other rubbish I have to deal with and shove it right up your arse.” In a time of recession Daniels sounded less like a man who has simply had enough of a dead-end job and more like a dangerous sociopath.
At the end of the song Albarn was serious for a moment, reminding us of the two million who marched to this very spot to protest against the Iraq war. Then hits resumed, including and a surprisingly fresh “Girls and Boys”. The crowd responded to the latter as though they had just been presented with their freedom after a long period of incarceration. And boy was it good to have them back. More than any other band of the era, there is something uniquely British about Blur, which puts them right up there with the Kinks and Madness.
Coxon played a blinder on “Trimm Trabb and “Coffee and TV”, while “Tender” slices through the party atmosphere to pierce the faithful heart of the audience.
The anthemic “Song 2” turned Hyde Park into the world’s largest mosh pit, before the band wound things with a scorching “Universal”. It was a blast, the gig of the year and Albarn, at 41, remains the cutest thing in pop music. The question is where now for Blur now? There’s only really one answer to satisfy this night’s crowd. Back into the studio, lads.
Cary Gee
