Blur Comeback Complete – Play Live Again After A Decade

Blur announced last year that they were reforming as a four piece after Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon finally decided to put the past, and their differences, behind them. They’re now about to embark on a UK arena tour, starting in Manchester on June 26 and continuing at London’s Hyde Park (July 2-3). With those massive gigs, and the prospect of headlining Glastonbury looming, the lads played a warm-up gig tonight (June 13).

This one-off gig was invite-only and purely for friends and family, and, it would seem, at least one NME journalist. It took place at the East Anglian Railway Museum near Colchester, the site of Blur’s first ever gig when they were playing for a birthday party and still known as ‘Seymour’. How times change.

This gig represented the first time Blur had played live together as a four piece in about a decade, so there would have been some excuse for them being rusty. However, by all accounts, they were nothing of the sort, and banged out a two-hour set which included their biggest hits as well as early tracks specially for long-time fans.

The setlist for the gig, courtesy of the NME:

‘She’s So High’
‘Girls And Boys’
‘Tracy Jacks’
‘There’s No Other Way’
‘Jubilee’
‘Badhead’
‘Beetlebum’
‘Trimm Trabb’
‘Coffee & TV’
‘Tender’
‘Country House’
‘Charmless Man’
‘Colin Zeal’
‘Oily Water’
‘Chemical World’
‘Sunday Sunday’
‘Parklife’
‘End Of A Century’
‘To The End’
‘This Is A Low’
‘Popscene’
‘Advert’
‘Song 2′
‘Out Of Time’
‘Battery In Your Leg’
‘Essex Dogs’
‘For Tomorrow’
‘The Universal’

Last week saw Blur upload videos to their YouTube channel showing them rehearse in preparation for this gig. The video embedded below shows the newly-reformed and clearly re-energized Blur rehearsing Song 2, one of their most famous hits, and one which has seen me almost attacked by my neighbor for playing it very loud at 3am.

Blur are now, without a doubt, back. And they’re looking and sounding fantastic. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so tight and baulked at the asking price for tickets to the M.E.N. Arena show.

[Photo Source: Newscom]