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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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BLUR
Hyde Park, London
July 2nd 2009 |
| I
do wonder how many retired rock musicians have been
rudely awakened from various forms of bucolic bliss
by the knowledge that their hard earned investments,
savings and pension plans have shrunk to an alarming
degree over the past six months or so. It certainly
must have had something to do with the giddy number
of reunions that have taken place this year and
particularly those that seemed the most unlikely:
the comeback of Brit Pop art-school idols Blur
tops the list. In case you’ve forgotten, Blur
were the middle-class darlings of a musical movement
broadly embraced by the chattering classes, and
positively hugged by British New Labour prime minister
Tony Blair, who for a short while couldn’t
be seen enough in the company of young rock and
rollers. Artfully arty Blur were the counterpoint
to the brash and braggartly Oasis with whom they
famously went head to head, and sort of won. But
for all their increasing commercial success, the
band imploded in the very early twenty-first century
with the departure of guitarist Graham
Coxon, whose relationship with singer and composer
Damon Albarn was widely considered to be irretrievable.
Albarn became a regular polymath: Gorillaz;
The
Good, the Bad and the Queen; an opera about
a monkey and various excursions into world music.
Coxon, who had embarked on some advanced drinking
studies, dried up and reinvented himself as an acclaimed
solo performer. Drummer David Rowntree pursued his
interest in politics and has stood unsuccessfully
for the British Parliament as a Labour Party candidate.
And bassist Alex James moved to the Cotswolds, made
cheese
and became something of a pundit. And then –
in the teeth of the worst recession in living memory,
they announced they would reform, originally only
for a single concert in Hyde Park. This in turn
became two concerts, then a tour, a very purchasable
‘best of’ album, and a headliner at
Glastonbury, which has, as they say, gone down in
legend. |
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| And
the Hyde Park gig is worthy of a minor place in
history too, if only for the number of junior Morgans
in attendance, they being of an age to remember
Blur properly first time round. Well, not entirely,
and I’m sure, Serge, you don’t need
me to rehearse those “but you were too young
to really appreciate them …” arguments
which seem to delight the youth so much. Anyway
the more adventurous of them is almost at the front
of the stage, the slightly older one in a more mature
midway position, whilst the Photographer and your
Reviewer (particularly following their Bruce Springsteen
experiences) chose the spacious area at the back.
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sound is astonishingly excellent. The view dependant
on numerous large video screens. The tea hot and
satisfying (how rock and roll does it get?). And
our neighbours are those slightly older Blur fans
in their late twenties and early thirties who’ve
come along with their youngsters to enjoy an evening
out, although not without taking the appropriate
precautions. |
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| No-one
is disappointed by a career-spanning set that sounds
remarkably up to date, and has, along with Blur’s
characteristic chirpy English music hall interludes,
a surprisingly hard-edged feel. |
| Albarn
is hoarse, talkative and visibly excited. Coxon
demonstrates that the plaudits he has earned are
more than deserved, and occasionally excels himself.
The rhythm section play with a refreshing looseness,
now and then suggesting that they might have been
introduced only minutes before the show. But the
overall effect is absolutely compelling, and a wonderful
treat on a sunny, warm, early July evening. |
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| So
with a family of critics to hand we later played
‘what was the best song in the set’.
The boy swithered, captured by the physical response
to second song ‘Girls and boys’ (the
earth shook, as they say): ‘Honest, we were
so close to the front, that when they started, it
really all kicked off and everyone went bonkers’.
The girl was on stronger ground, and eventually
we all agreed that the critical choice was the song
that ended the main set, ‘This is a low’.
If you listen to nothing else by Blur you should
hear this wonderfully sensitive song, about weather
forecasts (well, I’m sure it’s a metaphor
really, but let’s not go into that). Coxon’s
guitar playing was outstanding. However, I would
also have to call out the soulful spiritual ‘Tender’,
which provoked a very jolly and largely tuneful
sing-along, demonstrating that love really is the
greatest thing. And it would be rude not to mention
Phil Daniels, who I’m sure some readers will
remember as the actor who played the protagonist
in the film of the Who’s Quadrophenia. He
also provided the original narration to Blur’s
Parklife. After a dewy-eyed Albarn had told the
story of writing the song in a flat very close to
where we stood, Daniels burst onto the stage to
announce, to the surprise of many, ‘You can
stick your post and your franking machine and all
that other rubbish I have to go abaahht with and
shove 'em right up your arse!’. I’ll
leave it up to you film buffs to work that one out.
- Nick Morgan (photographs by Kate) |
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