BLUR - 2023 LIVE

[bugman]

They've done new music at every tour they've done. I'll be amazed if there isn't any.

they didnt. remember 2009?

[bugman]

They've done new music at every tour they've done. I'll be amazed if there isn't any.

Don't think they did in 2009, did they? Under The Westway in 2012 (largely forgotten). Did they ever play Fool's Day live?

never (so its shame!)

[rich]

I met Dave briefly at his Rough Trade signing the other week and asked him about whether blur had recorded any new material.
No, he said.
I said I'd heard that the band had even recorded a new album last year.
Definitely not, he replied.

I asked about warm up shows and Dave said, probably - we always do them.
Any details?
Not yet, but he was pretty sure there'd be a Colchester gig.

I put a strong case for including Fools Day in the set list - it's such a great song, and you've never performed it.
He was adamant they wouldn't do it.
Why not?
It's not a hit. We're only going to be doing the hits on this tour...

[essex-dogs]

I put a strong case for including Fools Day in the set list - it's such a great song, and you've never performed it.
He was adamant they wouldn't do it.
Why not?
It's not a hit. We're only going to be doing the hits on this tour...

"On this tour" like the others weren't all about the hits already :p

The 2009 reunion was essentially "singles only" being performed. The 2012/2013 tour was cool, there were a few surprises, I'll give that, but yet 70% was just singles. The 2015 tour was to promote The Magic Whip, so they performed magic whip songs... and singles. There are some few songs such as "This Is A Low" and "Trimm Trabb" which were not proper singles but I believe it's almost common sense they are treated as such.

And I understand the whole "we're playing Wembley, we must do the hits and try to squeeze in one or two surprises" thing, but I still feel a bit let down. They are posting lots of throwback memories (those photos of the self-titled recording process come to mind immediately) but it seems like we might not ever get songs like Chinese Bombs, Look Inside America, Movin' On, Theme From Retro or whatever live. We didn't have "On Your Own" and "M.O.R", it's just the household "Beetlebum + Song 2" combo. (Yeah I'll give them a pass for "Death Of A Party" in 2009 and "Country Sad Ballad Man" in 2015)

I always see things on the Internet such as "ohh what a big fan of 'Modern Life Is Rubbish' Graham is" or "his favorite song of the album is Resigned", which was never performed live. Not to mention other gems such as "Pressure On Julian", "Starshaped"... man what's going on? Like, doesn't Graham want to play these songs live? I know I would love to if I were him. Of course it's impossible for me, an outsider, to really understand how they feel about those songs. I feel Graham is the biggest Blur fan out of the four, he's always mentioning songs like "Down", which I believe Damon for instance has little recollection of. I'm not judging Damon for the "Yuko and Hiro" lyrics cheat paper on the floor in the Japanese performances in 2014, I'm saying I wouldn't be surprised if Graham told me he could still sing any of those songs by heart, in a blink of an eye.

So even though I have "Think Tank" in my top3 Blur favorite albums, I still think Graham is the whole essence of the band - hell, HE was the one who glued a whole frickin album together in 2015! I don't know, I think recycling hits would feel so uninteresting if I were him. What happened to them performing "Mellow Song", "Stranger News From Another Star" in those 2009 rehearsals? They always say "oh we gotta relearn the songs" like dog come one. You relearn it, practice the whole discography in studio and keep the whole fun to yourselves, reheating the same setlist every year for fans. I know they're mostly playing festival gigs this year, that plays a part in that too. But I don't know, I just feel let down with that. I almost feel bad for wanting to hear songs like "Mr Robinson's Quango" or anything off of "Think Tank" or "Leisure", I feel it's almost like I'm a criminal for that.

Everything I say, I say with respect. I love Blur, don't get me wrong. I could be completely wrong about everything and they could tell me to f# off. I would respect that, I really know nothing, it's not my place to say anything. Alex could be Blur's biggest fan, Graham could be the one who decides what to play live, I don't know, all I'm saying is I simply can't know what happens between them when they get together. I'm sure they get along well and their friendship can be stronger than ever, that they can travel the world and more fans (specially young fans) finally have the opportunity to see them live for the first time. It's great they have this chance and that it comes from an actual place of love they built together, I really admire them for that. But regarding the actual setlist choices or whether or not specific songs could trigger bad memories, indifference or something else, I only feel a bit "meh". As a fan I really wanted to see them going nuts. I hope the warm-up gigs give them that chance, but even with that, if you take some warm-up gigs they did, it was essentially copies of the setlist I've already discussed here, it's just the whole intimate vibe of it that differs. What happened to "let's play only b-sides tonight" like the 99 gig? Isn't it something that crosses their mind maybe?

[northernmonkey]

Considering they are playing huge venues, I can understand them not playing the likes of Fools Day, great song but there are few people at any of the gigs of that size who would even know it. I am expecting a similar setlist approach to the gigs since 2009 and beyond. For Blur album tracks could be classed as the hits. Songs like This is a Low, Sing, Bad Head, Trimm Trabb etc are well known but haven’t been singles. And playing the hits doesn’t mean no new songs, UTW slotted in so well to the gigs/festivals they did in 2012/13 but there was a lot of hype and promotion in the short time of release to actual playing it live. It’s possible they could slot a couple of new releases in, similar to 2012 but unless they have studio time booked already for early in the year, who knows. I do hope that this isn’t one big Blur nostalgia trip as TMW documentary gave the impression Blur were a proper recording band again and the majority of this positivity came from Damon. I guess we are likely to hear plenty more in the coming months.

[jonathas]

As soon as they revealed it was Wembley I guessed it would be another hits show, which is why I didn't buy a ticket - seen enough of those. Am sure the show will be great though.

[dougharrison]

As soon as they revealed it was Wembley I guessed it would be another hits show, which is why I didn't buy a ticket - seen enough of those. Am sure the show will be great though.

Yep, I passed on Wembley too, been there (as a Spurs fan admittedly), done that (seen a fair few post-reunion shows). With the volume of Blur side projects releasing new music in Q1 I thought it unlikely we would get much more than an ep, but then I didn't think Blur would play this summer after Cracker Island was announced, so I could be wrong.

That being said, I actually think that after such a long break, a hits set is the right thing to do, a bit anecdotal, but if you'll indulge me, last time I was at Hyde Park I was next to a man and his perhaps pre-teenage daughter, who as the set list drew on kept excitedly asking her dad when are they going to play 'The British Gas song'. That girl (if it's OK to still assume gender) is probably now a young woman, and there's a good few thousand people going to these shows who have only been alive for the release of one Blur album. As much as 2 hours of deep cuts and b sides is exactly what I would love to see, there's a whole generation (or two) that have pretty much missed out on Blur getting a chance to see them live. Feels a bit too close to gatekeeping to hope for an encore that's a 15 minute reinterpretation of Badgeman Brown.

Despite passing on Wembley, I did pick up tickets for the Normandy show and Dublin, two locations I haven't been before a chance to enjoy some time with Blur friends from back in the 90s and some newer covid-era pals, reasonably cheap tickets (very much in relative terms here to the £150 golden circle) and as a bonus The Waeve in Dublin too.

Feels unlikely to me that Blur are going to get together too often in the future and I'm not sure there will be much new material further down the pipeline. In general, I think I'm more likely to just look at small warm up shows or interesting places/festivals in the future, but I appreciate I'm in a privileged position of having seen them plenty of times before, I'm also in the UK, which means I'm likely to be relatively close for small shows at short notice. Most people aren't in this position, and if they want to play Wembley, which clearly they are excited to do, well there's so many people, they have to do what is right for most and that's going to mean a set list built around the woo hoo song and the British Gas song.

[dougharrison]

As a further thought, the heavy use of 90s photos and content through official social media, gig promotion and Damon's (slightly out of character) comments about playing the hits again all pointed in this direction imho. But Blur being Blur, the prospect of them doing something unexpected isn't impossible.

If it's a 25 song setlist I expect about 22 to be 'hits' (so including the likes of TIAL, TT and Ghost Shop) maybe 3 deep cuts.

[aldamasta]

I’d love to go to the Colchester gig, or any warmup really. That’s the biggest goal as a fan I think, seeing them in a tiny venue where they might feel like playing a deep cut. But I have to settle for Wembley as an American having to plan ahead — which of course isn’t a bad thing! Maybe they’ll do a special small show in the week before wembley.

Thanks for reporting back on that, rich. I’m not gonna trust what the blur lads say about new music until we’re further removed from their 3 “side project” albums. And playing “the hits”… cmon, with Spotify nowadays more fans know more deep cuts than probably ever before, or at least have better access to them. If they did Caramel, Young and Lovely, Advert, and Sing in Hyde park 2012 we should at least get a similar number of lesser known songs… one would hope.

[dougharrison]

I’d love to go to the Colchester gig, or any warmup really. That’s the biggest goal as a fan I think, seeing them in a tiny venue where they might feel like playing a deep cut. But I have to settle for Wembley as an American having to plan ahead — which of course isn’t a bad thing! Maybe they’ll do a special small show in the week before wembley.

Thanks for reporting back on that, rich. I’m not gonna trust what the blur lads say about new music until we’re further removed from their 3 “side project” albums. And playing “the hits”… cmon, with Spotify nowadays more fans know more deep cuts than probably ever before, or at least have better access to them. If they did Caramel, Young and Lovely, Advert, and Sing in Hyde park 2012 we should at least get a similar number of lesser known songs… one would hope.

I think the chances of a warm up so close to Wembley is unlikely, I think Primavera is the first announced gig and as a festival headline set, I would expect small shows to be before that, rather than after.

[aldamasta]

Yeah I thought the same. Probably some May shows. They’re going to be in full tour mode around Wembley time, so my hope is a long shot. Funnily enough I might be abroad in May, but couldn’t possibly justify two trips to the UK for blur in one year

[dougharrison]

Yeah, it's definitely not a cheap trip for sure! Given its almost Feb, my guess is 3-5 shows something like May 20th - 28th. Of course this is nothing more than guesswork on my part.

[aldamasta]

Based on the dates announced thus far, that’s a fairly safe bet I’d say. Only things that could complicate warmups would be Gorillaz/the Waeve gigs and whether or not they announce new music imo.

[aldamasta]

In Dave’s Reddit AMA on /r/music yesterday, he told a fan “We’ll definitely play Mexico again, don’t worry!” — more promising signs for a world tour!

It was also sweet to see Dave say his favorite record right now is The Waeve.

[Redneck]

I've just found out I have to go to my in-laws' 50th wedding anniversary mid-May (12th-14th); it's overseas so you can pretty much guarantee that'll be when the warmup gigs are. Mark your calendars!

I'm glad they're playing Primavera (aka the best festival in the world) as it means I won't have to go to Wembley for my Blur 2023 fix.

If you're curious about Primavera and are going/thinking of going, and want some expert tips from someone who's been every year since 2009, feel free to ask questions and I'll try to give details.