LIVE REVIEW: BLUR @ O2 ACADEMY NEWCASTLE
Reunions are nothing new. In recent years we’ve seen The Sex Pistols, Led Zeppelin, The Verve and Take That put their squabbles aside for one last payday and the opportunity to close the door on persistent will they/won’t they rumours. To varying degrees of success, a host of once reknowned bands have strapped guitars back over their increasing pot-bellies in a bid to recapture the vigour of their youth and remind the world what made them so significant in the first place.
For all the comebacks, though, few have been as hotly anticipated as that of Blur. The Smiths and The Stone Roses aside, few bands have captured the mood of a generation as succinctly as Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree in the mid-nineties. Alongside future rivals Oasis, they dragged indie from the bedrooms of introspective teenage boys to the dancefloors and football terraces of every town and city in the country. Picking up where Madchester left off, they helped make British guitar bands cool again, kickstarting a wave of popularity not seen since the heyday of The Beatles, The Kinks and The Rolling Stones.
Now, 15 years after Parklife ignited the fuse of Britpop, Blur are back. A warm-up for their eagerly awaited Glastonbury and Hyde Park gigs, their appearance at the O2 Academy Newcastle is a fine opportunity to road-test a set laden with hits from their first six albums. Opening with early single ‘She’s So High’, they quickly move into a breathtaking rendition of ‘Girls And Boys’, its overwhelming bass riff whipping the crowd into a frenzy that doesn’t subside through an hour and a half of genuine Britrock classics. When the unexpected encores of ‘Popscene’, ‘Advert’ and ‘Song 2′ have brought proceedings to a close, we’re overcome by an overwhelming sense of having been witness to something very special indeed.
For all the faults of The Great Escape and the Graham Coxon-free Think Tank, Blur remain arguably the finest band of their era. As we head for home, news begins to filter through that several thousand miles away Michael Jackson has died in LA. We’ll never forget where we were. (TR)
The full setlist:
She’s So High
Girls And Boys
Tracy Jacks
There’s No Other Way
Jubilee
Badhead
Beetlebum
Out Of Time
Trimm Trab
Coffee And TV
Tender
Country House
Oily Water
Chemical World
Sunday Sunday
Parklife
End Of A Century
To The End
Popscene
Advert
Song 2
For Tomorrow
The Universal
