For everyone that's been wondering what I thought of the Blur concert from a few weeks ago; here's an email that I've been circulating to family and friends:
Got there really early, too early in hindsight. The original time given for doors was 2:30 but then that got changed to noon as I think the promoters, BT London Live, got stressed about the amount of people coming and didn't want to have a huge crush, or everyone coming at the same time (i imagine). We got there around 1 and there were probably 50-100 people there already. My first concern was making sure I'd get a spot at the front as I didn't want to go to all this trouble to just be in the back or middle of 80,000 people watching it on a screen. At this point, there was loads of room up front. The venue was set up so there was a main stage at the front and then sort of a front area for the crowd which was partially separated from the rest of the audience by a large hole with barriers and security. I'm guessing, but I think they did this to have some sort of control over the crowd and to make sure people wouldn't get crushed and stuff. I'd heard that it's too overwhelming to be all the way up front and you lose your shoes, people piss on you, and you can't enjoy the concert from up there. So me and Sumeera basically picked a spot which was in the middle of the front section. In hindsight, this was not one of those concerts where people lose their shoes and all the rest of it. It was very well organized. There were all kinds of food options, lovely toilets with sinks, loads of places to get merchandise, etc. all over the place.
So once we scoped out where we wanted to sit/stand, we walked back up to the front/back of the venue (maybe a quarter of a mile away?) and went to Cadbury Village, prayed, went to the bog, and got food (some very nice vegan, organic Mexican burgers). After that there was a looong wait watching the Olympics in the sun until Bombay Bicycle Club came on. They were alright actually but I can't be bothered to get into most new music. They were on for about 45 mins then there was a half hour break before New Order took to the stage. We were both quite excited to see them, I think Sumeera wanted to see them more than Blur, however their performance was quite underwhelming, at least at the beginning. They're crazy old first of all and show/act it (unlike The Specials who played after them). They also played a selection of odd songs to start off their set including some song I'd never heard of, ever, and Crystal. They had some good visuals though which made things interesting. Things got even more interesting when they started playing the hits which were nicely reworked so you didn't quite know what song they were playing until a minute or two into the actual song.
After that it was The Specials who were great. I noticed quite a lot of Specials fans in the crowd actually. I'm guessing it's b/c they recently had their 30 year anniversary tour so they had some buzz about them. Everyone was really into it. I didn't even like The Specials that much before this concert but they put on such a good performance with loads of energy, they looked smart, and you could actually tell what was being sung. BTW the sound at this place was brilliant. It wasn't too loud at all and didn't distort or anything. The screens were also sweet. They were in HD, and you felt like you were all the way at the front of the stage looking at the band right in front of you, they were that good.
The Specials played for something like an hour then they showed some of the Closing Ceremony of the Olympics and split the screen when the Parklife bit started (at the CC) with a massive Blur logo. The band came out behind this 3D replica of the Westway motorway (which is actually on the way to the tube from Z-Man's!) which looked crazy.
I dunno, it's gonna be hard for me to explain how great the concert was, words cannot do it justice. They started off with four tracks off Parklife and place was going insane! It seemed like everyone knew the words and everyone was totally into it bouncing around and dancing. It was amazing. They brought on this Syrian bloke who did the Oud for Out of Time and Phil Daniels and Harry Enfield came on for Parklife (that was one of many highlights for me). I just felt so, I don't know what, listening to all these wicked tracks being placed out live in front of me by my favourite band by what will probably be the last time (I know that sounds a bit bent but you get the idea). The time just flew by. At the end there was a massive encore and after the last track, The Universal, Damon just stood there looking out at the crowd pumping his chest where his heart was and almost crying. Unfortunately, it looked like he was saying goodbye to me (and no, I didn't cry, Z-Man asked me that).
I do not regret coming one bit. I will never forget that concert.
The end.
Links
- Blur only made £300 from the Hyde Park gig so they're trying to make some money now by selling all of these live recordings plus extras of the concert
- Setlist
- Pictures
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