Blur: Classic Or Dud

http://i.clevver.com/fullphoto/216966/500/950/blur-game-poster-1.jpg

Yeah, must be new then, I saw it just last week.

I'm not a gamer so it might well be older.

There's a night of Blur/Britpop on BBC4 tonight, folks.

I like the newest song quite a bit... "Fools Day."

Celebrity chef and journalist Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has been confirmed as a special guest at Harvest, the new food and music festival hosted by Alex James.

Due to take place on the Blur bassist's Cotswolds estate, the event will run from Friday September 9th to Monday September 12th.

A statement on the festival website described Fearnley-Whittingstall as "one of our Harvest heroes" and "an inspiration to the Harvest story".

Further information on the precise nature of the 46-year-old's involvement will be released nearer the time.

The musical line-up for Harvest includes Scottish songwriter KT Tunstall and newcomer Benjamin Francis Leftwich, as well as DJ sets from Gilles Peterson and Jo Whiley.

Tickets for the festival are now available online, priced at £105 for the full weekend.

Alex James is 43.

Would go if Fearnley-Whittingstall was DJing and Whiley was doing the cooking.

yeah, I bet she does a mean barbecue

/sexism

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lud1kkduWQ1qc1ge6o1_400.gif

AWESOME!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WPKXPgMkbc

holy shit

i quite like that

Blur have accepted the invite to headline the Olympics' Closing Ceremony Celebration Concert in Hyde Park on 12th August #blur

Bah, should've been N-Dubz.

https://p.twimg.com/AmIq5hVCMAEDx8R.jpg

I mean I know but that's the poster and they're the supporting acts and it's 1995

Mmmmmmmmm

Wow, the amount of nostalgia for the very recent past expressed in that poster "It's still the 90s! Cool Britannia!" and just... no. I was going to say it makes an improvement on 60s nostalgia or "we won the war" 40s nostalgia but actually, no, it really doesn't.

The song (and I never thought I'd say this about a Blur song) bored me. I say this as a former Blur obsessive so I'm not just hating for the sake of hating. I'm just having to come to accept that even though much of their work holds a deep and special place in my life, I have to add Blur to the long list of bands I used to love, but can no longer bring myself to care much about any more.

It's like every few years, Damon has a bit of a nostalgic, melancholy kind of day, and writes a song about sitting in West London feeling nostalgic and melancholy and he reunites Blur to record it, but the magic is gone because there isn't everything else surrounding them to support those moods - so the song is just kind of... there.

but

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb3iPP-tHdA

(£55.00 Ticket + £6.00 Fees)

Nice to see London 2012 attempting to make a profit.

WCC, yes I know what you mean. The thing with Blur is:

Back when they were extant, they were Damon's number one outlet for all his thoughts, tribulations and personal matters. Alongside the 'everyman' anthems, the private thoughts and personal doubts, bis brances into differnt musical styles, all squeezed out of that Blur nozzle.

Now he has as many outlets as he likes, the 'cartoony' stuff via Gorillaz, the 'srs' via GoodBadQueen, his affectations to 'world' music via his contact list. And the stuff that sounds a bit like Blur via, um, Blur.

I managed to 'obtain' all the Smiths' remasterd tracks, but was really unmoved by hearing them again.

Whereas hearing the J&MC stuff again sent me straight back to Reverie Street.

Yeah, I quite agree. Except all of that stuff was squeezed through the nozzle of those specific four people, some of whom often actively fought his worse tendencies and stamped their own personalities and aesthetics onto the music. And I think that I found that nozzle more interesting than anything inherent about ~Damon~.

The concert's free isn't it?

WCCC mostly OTM. Though I admit to shedding bit of a tear when the boys played To The End on their Glasto reunion, I'm a different person to the teenager who obsessed over their back catalogue and bought all their singles. It's all too easy to feel cynical about their music now I understand the many many points of reference in their music (whereas before I hadn't really heard much by the Kinks, the Specials, Syd Barrett, Pavement or Wire), whereas now it's fairly obvious they were the Harry Potters of Britpop - a carefully arranged conglomeration of past influences, all wrapped up in a nice neat package.

Haven't heard the new song yet, but as WCCC says, there's something unnatural about getting a band together to try and recreate the spirit of something they no longer have. That said, I'd be overjoyed to be able to see them with NO and the Specials at Hyde Park, so...

I haven't heard this new one, I did hear "Bad Day", it's OK as far as it goes. If it was the 'first track heard from the new album' then yes I'd be interested. But at the moment, it's like a series of 'square one on the snakes and ladder board's where what I really want is to be taken up to 63 and fall to 49 and so on.

I got the 'Monkey' Cd for a pound (I think, might have been three) in Fopp a while ago. We (royal we there) were quite interested in seeing the show, but couldn't get tickets. After hearing the album, she said "well, I guess you had to be there, really"...

What's the Monkey CD?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey:_Journey_to_the_West

and the album is pretty shite to be honest ..

for my 40th i got a litho of one of the artworks for the show which is fantastic, but still not been able to listen to the album in one sitting.

The concert's free isn't it?

Closing Ceremony Celebration Concert @ Hyde Park
•12 August, 5.30pm-midnight
•Featuring Blur, The Specials and New Order
•Tickets £55+booking fee
◦on sale to BT customers 9am, Wednesday 22 February
◦on general sale 9am Friday 24 Februaryhttp://www.londonlive.bt.com/

funnily enough, neither did we. (xposT)

Fifty Five Quid? pssh

Then again, for three decent bands.

Still...

£55 is excellent for three bands of that calibre, isn't it? Or am I just used to paying the Australia tax on everything?

I know, it's been a long time since I went to a gig...

But, I've seen Blur a couple times, I've seen New Order, not seen the Specials but the music I know well...

It'd be a braw day out, the girls would love it, etc...

I'll have to try to win some in a comp...

What? I was told it was free but you had to register. I'm not a BT customer so... This seems horribly horribly corporate, but I guess that's the way of the world.

i do wonder though, will there be a constant stream of medal adorned athletes on stage turning it into a "T4 on the Beach" type of affair but with gurning cyclists instead of tv presenters goading the baying masses into a last night of the proms type of insanity ?

yeah probably. i'd almost expect this kidn fo thing from Blur, but the Specials? NEW ORDER? Seems VMOOC.

FUCK YOU BRITAIN

New Order possibly not the best example of a band who are above getting TV presenters on stage to inanely goad the crowd

yes i would be pretty shocked if they allow sports people anywhere near their music OH WAIT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWr3xMhm0ig

We are going!

Last night they were absolutely terrible. Well, Damon specifically, I guess the other guys played the songs pretty well.

The sound was abysmal.

Oh come on. The sound was not so bad. It's Blur, they're fucking terrible now, whatever they used to be.

Damon couldn't really sing live in the old days, so he must be awful now.

That Hyde Park thing is probably just going to be a big gig, right? I'd assume any athlete or politician worth their salt will be at the proper closing ceremony.

Blur were fucking great when I saw them in Hyde Park last time, have a good day out Mark G.

Yes and they were fab at Glasto in '09. Hopefully last night was a slip up.