B-Roads

[Liese]

I am not saying that B-Roads shouldn't be released. But sometimes things can be lurid. My reasoning is that Graham apparently was not in a good place when TGE was being toured.

I don't really recall anything in the press about this at the time. Since then I have read the book 'The Last Party' by John Harris (2003) and it describes the circumstances around the Bournemouth (International Centre) show. Journalists from Q Magazine were taken to one side by Damon and politely asked not to publish anything about Graham's behaviour. This involved severe drunkenness and depression, leading to violent outbursts.

I have to sympathise with Graham because they had of course been touring (including UK, USA, Europe, Japan and back to the UK again) since late summer. They were also doing TV and recording promos etc for new singles like 'The Universal'. And in music fans eyes they were losing ground to Oasis in the 'Britpop war'. All in all, a stressful time - remember Damon's subdued appearance on 'TFI Friday' when Oasis were about to sweep the BRIT Awards in early 1996.

The incident I recall at the gig was off-key, and a bit un-nerving to see. This was 8/12/95 at Newcastle-upon-Tyne Arena, two days after the Bournemouth incident. My copy of 'The Black Book' is the 2009 one, which doesn't have a review of either show. There is a review of the final date of the tour at Wembley Arena a few days later, on which Mr. Magpie notes that 'the band sounds a little tired'.

Quite hard to imagine, these days, that such things went unreported and you still had some space for privacy or discretion. It's not that long ago, after all.

[Pavlich]

It's definitely interesting. Back in those days you had Pavement breaking up and a week or so later, in a gig review, did you find out. As soon as someone says something tarty on social media you're already in strife these days.

You can imagine the embarrassment a sensitive soul like Coxon would have with these being broadcast so easily online. An alcoholic and someone with clear anger issues not being able to hide behind censorship is scary. Back then, a label could threaten magazines with no more interviews or exclusives... these days that's irrelevant, and labels clamour for any sort of press. That's not to mention individuals uploading things to Instagram or spreading chat via forums like this. It's sort a blessing, I guess.

In some ways, it might even suck for us the audience these days. Less and less bands debut new songs live because they end up online, any sort of outburst or risqué chat... these things have gone.

[Mallard No. 22]

Pavlich + Liese - yes, it would probably be much harder now to maintain discreteness. Certainly on occasions where the media and/or public are present. Mobile phones capturing everything, and transmitting it instantly via social media.

I suspect that Damon (& the band) had a good relationship with the Q Magazine journalists. Thus a gentlemanly agreement would keep the worst negativity out of the article. In turn, there would be little for the tabloids to pick up on. And as a fairly unassuming guy, Graham was of less interest to e.g. The Sun compared to e.g. Liam and Noel.

I think that's a great point Mallard. Those days around the mid-90s included some dark times of course. It might be definable sections or scenes as you suggest or simply an all pervading sense of 'ugh!' that they all felt towards it, that saw it binned permanently.

Yes, probably an all-pervading sense of 'ugh!' as you say.

Mallard, your story was quite fascinating. Things like that make me appreciate how wonderful seeing them live last year was. Of course there are dozens of gigs I wish I could go back in time to see, but I'm not sure anything could beat the atmosphere of seeing the band in the highest of spirits.

The band were faultless on the gig I refer to. It was remarkable seeing a band like Blur in such a big set-up with light/stage show etc. In comparison to the standard indie gig in a town hall or uni campus.

My hazy memory recalls that an off-key incident occurred, as Damon and Graham conferred with each other between songs. Maybe if a recording of that show does exist, it would confirm what exactly happened.

[dparrott]

Is it ALL bad? Can't some of it be edited to just show the better things? If it's just posted online, the length doesn't matter.

[rich]

I expect management don't trust anyone to do it properly/cant be arsed/have other fish to fry...
or - as I said before - take their duty of care seriously...

[Mallard No. 22]

yes, rich, I think you are right.

[rob_graves]

Yeah just edit out the nasty/embarrassing bits and post it. Would love to see the live concerts.

[dougharrison]

Yeah just edit out the nasty/embarrassing bits and post it. Would love to see the live concerts.

Think you have already seen the live concert footage in B Roads. Arguably you have seen it without all the nasty/embarrassing/weird bits too! The whole thing, assuming what I saw was a "final cut" is a bizarre affair, prior to seeing it I felt much like you guys, but honestly Drew's review/analysis in his book is pretty much bang on the money. I know it's always interesting to see and hear things that are 'long lost' but you would file this alongside the 3 takes of Rednecks and 14m30 version of She's So High pretty quickly. Even the bits that aren't nasty/embarrassing about band members look very dated now.

[MrMagpie]

Yeah just edit out the nasty/embarrassing bits and post it. Would love to see the live concerts.

Think you have already seen the live concert footage in B Roads. Arguably you have seen it without all the nasty/embarrassing/weird bits too! The whole thing, assuming what I saw was a "final cut" is a bizarre affair, prior to seeing it I felt much like you guys, but honestly Drew's review/analysis in his book is pretty much bang on the money. I know it's always interesting to see and hear things that are 'long lost' but you would file this alongside the 3 takes of Rednecks and 14m30 version of She's So High pretty quickly. Even the bits that aren't nasty/embarrassing about band members look very dated now.

^agreed. I have been privy to finally seeing and/or hearing long-lost bits from many of my favorite bands that absolutely lived up to the hype and mystique around them. B-Roads wasn't one of them. If anything, it's quite depressing and only confirms why the band have sat on it.

As Doug said (shameless plug), my synopsis of it in the 2nd book is basically more enjoyable that watching the actual film in a lot of ways!

[rob_graves]

Post that synopsis here then!

[MrMagpie]

Post that synopsis here then!

Not to be a dink, but it's one of the selling points of the book...granted, it came out almost 4 years ago now (can't believe it's been that long!) but that would kind of be killing my own marketing, no?

Although if someone else were to do so, I have no control over that.

[Mark72]

I was just about to reply with "buy the book then "

[MrMagpie]

I was just about to reply with "buy the book then "

[rob_graves]

Post that synopsis here then!

Not to be a dink, but it's one of the selling points of the book...granted, it came out almost 4 years ago now (can't believe it's been that long!) but that would kind of be killing my own marketing, no?

Although if someone else were to do so, I have no control over that.

Right. Let's all make sure you make your cash off having seen it.

[dougharrison]

Post that synopsis here then!

Not to be a dink, but it's one of the selling points of the book...granted, it came out almost 4 years ago now (can't believe it's been that long!) but that would kind of be killing my own marketing, no?

Although if someone else were to do so, I have no control over that.

Right. Let's all make sure you make your cash off having seen it.

Firstly I think Mr M would be keen to argue that he wants to "make his cash" off the back of several hundred hours of writing and countless more time gone in to tracking down and listening to bootlegs, rather than merely trying to cash in on being fortunate enough to see it.

Secondly Maggers has hardly thrown a Lars Ulrich about his work being distributed for nothing online.

Thirdly screenshots of the film were available online over FB once upon a time, the impression I get is that Blur management yanked the chain on that pretty quickly so a) it's clear those in authority still really don't want this in the public domain and b) what is out there (a small handful of copies, Mr Magpie's review) is probably all that is out there - I assume if the old FB photos had been saved by anyone they would have resurfaced by now.