Don't Touch That Dial!

Keep an eye out this coming week for what (I hope!) will be some interesting posts/discussions about live Blur!

SHOW: X96 Festival, Salt Lake City, Utah June 21, 1997

Here's a not so common show from the summer of 1997...Blur at a festival sponsored by Utah radio station X96 FM...enjoy!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AAFELT6J

TOUR REVIEW: US Winter Tour 1996

As promised, following the review of the European Spring 1996 tour, I'll now get into the US Winter tour. For some reason, Blur's touring year of 1996 has always intrigued me and remains one of my favorites. While the performances on the whole were uneven (there is seriously not one gig that is consistently excellent from
beginning to end, although some have more high points than others), it's fascinating in that it's the portrait of a band in transition. Tired of the hoopla of 1995, when they won 4 BRIT awards and released another #1 album to great fanfare, as well as their protracted singles battle with Oasis and the revisionist press backlash in the UK, 1996 finds them on the verge of implosion, forced to play the hits that made them famous while looking toward the reinvention of their next album.

The tour dates were as follows (available recordings are highlighted):

January 1996

25th Commodore, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
26th Moe's, Seattle, Washington
27th La Luna, Portland, Oregon
29th Fillmore West, San Francisco, California
30th Wiltern Theatre, Los Angeles, California

February 1996

1st Mercury Cafe, Denver, Colorado
3rd Trees, Dallas, Texas
4th Liberty Lunch, Austin, Texas
6th Cotton Club, Atlanta, Georgia
7th The Galaxy, St. Louis, Missouri
8th Metro, Chicago, Illinois
10th Roseland Ballroom, New York City, New York
11th Avalon, Boston, Massachusetts
12th Ballroom, Washington DC

As you can see, almost half of the tour is available on recording. I know of the existence of the show at Moe's in Seattle, a complete tape from Portland (the available one is incomplete) and the show at the Cotton Club in Atlanta...I'm currently working on getting copies of them all.

The typical set list was:

Intermission
Popscene
It Could Be You
Charmless Man
Tracy Jacks
End of a Century
To The End
She's So High
Jubilee
Mr. Robinson's Quango
Globe Alone
Advert
Bank Holiday
Supa Shoppa
Country House
Girls & Boys
He Thought Of Cars
Stereotypes
This Is A Low
There's No Other Way
Parklife
The Universal

Interestingly, for the first three shows of this tour, The Great Escape was still being used as the opening number...beginning with the fourth show in San Francisco, it reverted to Intermission, which would remain the opener until the end of the European tour in late March. What's interesting to note is that Entertain Me, which was played during the fall 1995 tours of Europe and Japan, was dropped for this tour, but brought back for the European tour in the Spring. Some gems were thrown in (most notably a rare and only performance of Rednecks at the Dallas show) but overall these shows are notable for the contrast between some brilliant performances and some incredibly lazy ones, often within the same song. Of note was Damon's habit during this period to get very lazy with his vocals, changing lyrics, forgetting them, adlibbing/swearing in the middle of songs, and holding out words to avoid having to finish verses. However, the effect is rather charming...they wanted to blow it all up, but they kept on trying in front of the enthusiastic crowds.

Any show from this tour is a fascinating listen and worth your time. And if you have any of the non-circulating recordings (Atlanta, Portland, Seattle) or any others, please contact me privately!

SHOW: Kilburn National, London October 24, 1991

Here is a *blistering* live set from 1991, with a stunning version of Oily Water as one of the highlights. Great sound quality, and played on my wife's 13th birthday, so it's a little extra-special for me. Enjoy!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ES3O39Z1

Pending recordings

The following recordings are ones I have definitive leads on and should (hopefully) have by the end of the year/early 2010:

Roseland Ballroom, New York City 3/30/99
Goldsmiths College, London 8/26/99
Reading Festival (complete AUD tape) 8/28/99
Leeds Festival 8/29/99
Civic Hall, Wolverhampton 6/24/09
MEN Arena, Manchester 6/26/09
Apollo, Manchester 11/28/03
Barrowlands, Glasgow 11/22/03
University, Manchester 5/29/93
Academy, Manchester 5/19/94
Regent, Ipswich 5/?/94 (need to research date)
Queen's Hall, Bradford 10/4/93
Brussels 10/25/93
Plaza, Glasgow 5/16/94
Camden Falcon, London 3/30/90

Also trying to track down some more, so stay tuned!

SHOW: Avalon, Boston February 11, 1996

Here is Blur's show in Boston from their US Winter Tour of early 1996. Great sound, solid show, great recording. I saw Blur at this same venue in 2003 and it was a great place to see shows (sadly it is now closed). Enjoy!!

http://www.mediafire.com/file/jrgzj1zj1ww/Boston 2-11-96.rar

TOUR REVIEW: European Tour Spring 1996

During the transitionary year of 1996, Blur played a short American tour during January and the first half of February (which I will blog about later) before embarking upon a European tour that began at the end of February and ran until the end of March. The tour dates were as follows (available recordings are in bold)

February 1996

24th Unknown Venue, Lisbon, Portugal
26th Aqualung, Madrid, Spain
27th Arena, Valencia, Spain
28th Zeleste, Barcelona, Spain

March 1996

1st Le Bikini, Toulouse, France
2nd Grenoble, Le Summum, France
4th L'Escall, Nantes, France
5th Olympia, Paris, France
7th Unknown Venue, Geneva, Switzerland
8th Volkshaus, Zurich, Switzerland
10th Messepalast, Vienna, Austria
12th Palalido Memorabilia, Milan, Italy
13th Teatro Tenda, Florence, Italy
14th Vox, Modena, Italy
16th Forum, Nuremberg, Germany
17th Vobi, Frankfurt, Germany
18th Capitol, Hannover, Germany
19th Biskuithalle, Bonn, Germany
20th Brielport, Deinze, Belgium
22nd Paradiso, Amsterdam, Holland
23rd Paradiso, Amsterdam, Holland

The typical set list was:

Intermission
Popscene
It Could Be You
Charmless Man
Tracy Jacks
End Of A Century
Coping
To The End
Entertain Me
Jubilee
Mr. Robinson's Quango
Globe Alone
Advert
Supa Shoppa
Country House
My Sharona
Girls & Boys
He Thought Of Cars
Stereotypes
This Is A Low
There's No Other Way
Parklife
The Universal

There are a number of reasons this tour has always intrigued me, not least of all that it is very poorly documented, both in terms of audio recordings and any video (save for some video of the Madrid gig) and photos, etc. Also, the set list is still focused on The Great Escape, although the shows tended to be played more aggressively and sloppily (if that makes sense). Also, the better performances were of the harder, edgier material from that album, like Entertain Me, He Thought of Cars, Stereotypes...pointing the way to the direction the band would take later in the year as they recorded the about-face that was their 5th album (released in early 1997).

I know that a recording of the Hannover show exists and am working on tracking it down, but otherwise this tour remains rather a mystery, and I always loved trying to solve a puzzle!

SHOW: First Avenue, Minneapolis, Minnesota May 4, 1992

Here is one of only two shows from Blur's legendary (and ill-fated) 1992 US tour...enjoy!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=C2RJ25DA

TRAILER for No Distance Left to Run (January 2010)

My contact (the fellow I was donating material/research to, who is the producer of this film) informed me that it is OK to link to the trailer, so here it is:

Blur: No Distance Left to Run

This is a high quality version...check it out and get excited!!!

SHOW: MTV Studios, London March 6, 2003

Here is the broadcast of Blur's concert on BBC TV. While they played an entire show, this is all that was broadcast and is available. Hopefully sometime soon the entire show will surface, but in the meantime, enjoy!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EA373WKG

Blur: No Distance Left to Run in UK (January 2010)

Blur's carrer-spanning documentary, No Distance Left to Run, is due to be released in cinemas in the UK in January 2010. The trailer can be seen HERE.

Besides being mega excited for the obvious reasons of being a maniacal fan of the band, I'm also excited as I was able to contribute in my own small way to this by donating material and doing some research for the film, so I'm proud, in a way, that I could give back to my favorite band. Plus, it looks like it's going to be bloody marvelous!

SHOW: Roskilde Festival, Denmark June 28, 2003

Here's Blur's show at the Roskilde Festival in 2003. A solid and very enjoyable show in great sound quality. Enjoy!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CYS30AA4