1998 Glastonbury warm up shows bootlegs

[ricj]

I was recently listening to the Glastonbury 1998 show which is a very important one for me. In the pre-internet age, I was a pretty casual Blur fan up to that point and had no means to witness a live gig without attending one (I do remember seeing the Showtime VHS in HMV but evidently wasn't quite a big enough fan to want to spend my hard earned pocket money on it). But after taping the Glasto show off the telly and watching it endlessly, I quickly became the massive fan I remain to this day. I absolutely love that show and it contains the all time best ever version of The Universal in my opinion.

Also, looking back on it now with the benefit of 24 years of history, one might argue that that show was the last Blur gig of the 'classic', 'full time', fully focused' era of the band. After that, despite still having the 13 era to come, Damon had begun to grow the seeds of the Gorillaz 'side project' and live shows took a slightly different direction with the end of proper touring and the seeds of discontentment were growing into the eventual split and end of the band as we knew it. Something it never recovered from.

But apologies for the massive preamble - In a very long winded way, I was wondering if any reasonable quality bootlegs exist of the Glastonbury warm up shows and if so, how I could get hold of them? 1998 was a strange year in the (then relatively short) history of the band as it was the first year they didn't really do anything much (with the obvious exception of Glastonbury) which makes those shows a real oddity to me.

Massive thanks in advance to anyone who owns one and might be willing to share.

[Mallard No. 22]

I'm afraid I can't help with recordings of the Glastonbury warm-up shows, but I take your point about the Glasto show being the last one of the "classic, full-time, fully-focused era" of the band.

As you suggest, the two subsequent albums and the 'Music Is My Radar' single were perhaps more experimental and less-commercial, and the band members were diversifying into other projects as well as Blur.

[lumaka]

I was wondering if any reasonable quality bootlegs exist of the Glastonbury warm up shows and if so, how I could get hold of them?

Bootlegs of at least two of these three shows exist (Birmingham and Bath), you can read the descriptions in Drew Athan's "Black Book" (he mentions them also in his blog, below) but I've never seen them shared anywhere.

http://blurliveaudioarchiveproject.blog ... -1998.html

[jeffnottingham]

I would love to hear the Bath 1998 one, that was my first ever gig! (aged 18, just passed my driving test, drove my Mini from Swindon with 4 mates, Idlewild supporting, couldn't believe I had to pay £2 for a glass of Cresta lemonade. Brilliant night!

[Redneck]

I was at the Reading and Birmingham gigs - apart from the person I went with, I've never met anyone else that was at the Reading gig, and it barely seems to register as ever happening. And on the occasions when I'm in Reading, walking past the tiny venue makes me even doubt it happened (easily the second smallest Blur gig I've seen with the Wolverhampton gig in 2015 being the smallest), but it definitely did.

From memory, I'd already got tickets to Birmingham when Reading was announced, otherwise I wouldn't have gone to both (I went to Birmingham with my Mum and some family friends who drove us up and back).

Both were excellent. Reading had an impromptu version of Commercial Break, as well as Won't Do It. Either I arrived late, or there wasn't any support band.

There was also a young girl outside who had been ID'd and not allowed in, and was yelling at the bouncers that she really was 18 and to let her in.

[John_d]

I would agree that 1997 and 1998 was possibly the pinnacle of Blur as a live band. So tight, so aggressive. They had played so many gigs around that time, very focused on furthering their career. I also recorded that Glastonbury performance wand watched it a lot. The Popscene performance is magnificent. I remember being so disappointed with the recorded version of Trailerpark. William Orbit murdered that one!

I suppose their greatest ever show is understood to be either Hyde Park 2009, Glastonbury 2009 or Hyde Park 2012. These sets obvs have the songs from 13, which elevates them.

I have seen Gorillaz many times since 2001 (in quite a variety of places - Edinburgh, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Berlin, Barcelona) and they're a different thing but equally as impressive at this point, imo.

None of this answers your bootleg question, sorry!

[ricj]

Really interesting memories thanks! Can you remember anything about the actual set? What did you think when you heard Trailerpark/SouthPark for the first time? I've always been interested to hear what he might've ad-libbed in the verses for those shows. Obviously at Glastonbury he seemed to be referencing that in a very abstract way during the first verse but as for the second verse, who knows!?

[Redneck]

Really interesting memories thanks! Can you remember anything about the actual set? What did you think when you heard Trailerpark/SouthPark for the first time? I've always been interested to hear what he might've ad-libbed in the verses for those shows. Obviously at Glastonbury he seemed to be referencing that in a very abstract way during the first verse but as for the second verse, who knows!?

The Reading gig was incredibly hot - it's a small venue and the walls were dripping with condensation. After seeing Blur so many times, my mind's gone totally blank on the specifics for the set, but apart from the one-offs I mentioned, the surprise song for that run was Repetition. There is a setlist, and it more or less corresponds to what I remember. However, I was surprised to see they debuted Essex Dogs there, as I'd forgotten about that entirely. When Damon introduced Trailerpark, he definitely mentioned something about it being made for the South Park album (which came out later that year), and the 'Freestyle forty-five' bit was really prominent. I also remember thinking that the end section was really heavy and that the drumming was fantastic, but the album version is very limp by comparison.

From memory, the Birmingham gig was more frenetic and Blur were much more engaged, but that may just be because Idlewild were insanely energetic as the support act* and because I had a better view.

I wish I could remember more - if anything jogs my memory I'll add it in. But I'll also say that I am impressed with my youthful stamina of going to two Blur gigs in two different parts of the country on two weeknights in a row! (I actually did three in a row because I also went to the final gig of the 1997 tour at Brighton six months earlier, but that's a whole other story).

*I haven't listened to them for ages but everything I've heard since that first album is so incredibly boring that I cannot believe it's the same band.

[John_d]

Really interesting memories thanks! Can you remember anything about the actual set? What did you think when you heard Trailerpark/SouthPark for the first time? I've always been interested to hear what he might've ad-libbed in the verses for those shows. Obviously at Glastonbury he seemed to be referencing that in a very abstract way during the first verse but as for the second verse, who knows!?

From memory, the Birmingham gig was more frenetic and Blur were much more engaged, but that may just be because Idlewild were insanely energetic as the support act* and because I had a better view.

*I haven't listened to them for ages but everything I've heard since that first album is so incredibly boring that I cannot believe it's the same band.

Idlewild seemed to want to transition into an REM-esque mature act, but weren't capable of writing the more MOR but nevertheless melodic and huge songs. I still like the first 2 albums but would agree there's a huge drop in fun thereafter. "The Remote Part" seems to be held out as their best work, they do gigs where they play it in full etc, which I don't understand at all.

[jonathas]

100 Broken Windows was a really brilliant album - I think the R.E.M stuff mainly started because Idlewild really broke out in America when that album was released. They had a lot of airplay and toured with Pearl Jam and stuff, so I think it really started to feel possible that they could big there (rather than here) - which was obviously a very unusual and tantalising prospect. I think there's some good stuff on The Remote Part, but I think they lacked the almighty self-confidence you need to translate your music into arena-ready rock. Which is no bad thing.