‘Obviously, we’ve been waiting for this moment all of our lives,’ Blur’s jubilant frontman Damon Albarn declared shortly after kicking off their first night at Wembley.
These weren’t hollow words to rev up the 90,000-strong crowd. Damon, who at various points through the two-hour-long set swiveled his hips, jumped for joy and rushed out to the front row, really meant it.
More than 30 years after the release of their debut album, the Britpop rockers were headlining the football stadium for the very first time. While some members have pursued considerably less rockstar pursuits in the intervening years – bassist Alex James a farmer and cheesemaker and drummer Dave Rowntree a former Norfolk Labour councillor – the group were match fit.
This was despite fears the Wembley dates could be called off after Blur were forced to cancel a recent French festival date due to Dave suffering a knee injury. But he didn’t miss a beat. Guitarist Graham Coxon’s performance, too, was a masterstroke of musicianship.
The gig kicked off with new single St Charles Square before the foursome launched into their classic hits like Coffee and TV and Under the Westway. By far the biggest singalong was to Parklife – one of the defining songs of the Britpop era when it was released in 1994.
For good measure, Phil Daniels popped out of a workman’s tent on stage to perform his vocals. Sending the Eastenders actor off after a riotous performance, Damon joked: ‘You’ve got to go to bed now. Night Night.’
It wasn’t Damon’s only wry aside during the set. At one point, the singer jokingly recoiled after noticing the sea of concert-goers sporting Darren masks. Darren, you see, was the band’s former bodyguard and lends his name to their upcoming album, The Ballad of Darren. ‘It’s like a nightmare I had as a kid,’ Damon deadpanned, before getting into the action himself and adorning a mask.
Now all in their 50s, Damon also couldn’t resist quipping: ‘There’s something vaguely hilarious about seeing old men throwing themselves sound the stage.’ But it’s never a musician’s age that’s the issue – see also recent performances by septuagenarians Billy Joel, 74, Sir Elton John, 76, and Bruce Springsteen, 73. What can affect a gig is being jaded by decades in the brutal music industry. Blur didn’t show the slightest hint of that.
After performing Song 2 and This Is A Low, the encore continued to roll out the crowdpleasers. Girls & Boys and a spinetingling Tender, maximised by vocals from the London Community Gospel choir, before calling it a night with The Narcissist and a euphoric The Universal.
I’m loathe to say the O word, but here goes: Why waste our breath wondering if the Gallagher brothers will bury the hatchet? Blur may have been Oasis’ biggest rivals in a feud that defined the 90s. But now there’s really no competition.
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