Blur performed a special gig at the BBC Radio Theatre for Radio 2 last night (July 18) – debuting new song ‘Barbaric’, showcasing their new album ‘The Ballad Of Darren‘ and inviting Phil Daniels on-stage for ‘Parklife’. Check out photos, footage and the setlist below.
Following on from playing to 90,000 fans per night at their two massive Wembley Stadium shows last week, the Britpop heroes returned to the capital to perform a much more intimate show for just 300 lucky competition winners and media. NME were in attendance, as DJ Jo Whiley told the audience that hundreds of thousands applied for tickets.
The majority of the show was broadcast live on BBC Radio 2, as well as being made available on iPlayer with a televised broadcast to follow later this month.
Taking to the stage, the band opened with new album single ‘St. Charles Square’, before frontman Damon Albarn pelted the front rows with water as he led the band into a punky rendition of ‘Popscene’.
The likes of Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Dermot O’Leary, comedian Josh Widdicombe and guitarist Graham Coxon‘s THE WAEVE bandmate and partner Rose Elinor Dougall were in attendance as the band performed a run of classics and favourites including ‘Beetlebum’, ‘Villa Rosie’
and ‘Coffee & TV’. A highlight followed with ‘Out of Time’, and Albarn thanking the BBC for having them “in this beautiful space and time”.
“We’re gonna play a couple of new songs,” he then told the audience introducing ‘Russian Strings’. “Don’t worry – they’re not shit. Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
Albarn invaded the crowd once more for a spritely outing of classic single ‘Girls & Boys’, before actor Phil Daniels joined the band on stage to perform his iconic verse from ‘Parklife’ – with the frontman joking that long ago, the song would have been played on Radio One.
After a well-received delivery of recent single ‘The Narcissist’, the band then closed their first set with the soulful ‘This Is A Low’. The encore wasn’t broadcast, but featured the lively future single ‘Barbaric’, alongside ‘End Of A Century’ and ‘The Universal’. It is not known if these songs will be featured in the upcoming televised broadcast.
Blur’s setlist was:
‘St. Charles Square’
‘Popscene’
‘Beetlebum’
‘Villa Rosie’
‘Coffee & TV’
‘Out of Time’
‘Russian Strings’
‘Girls & Boys’
‘Parklife’ (with Phil Daniels)
‘Advert’
‘Tender’
‘The Narcissist’
‘This Is a Low’
Encore:
‘Barbaric’ (Live debut)
‘End of a Century’
‘The Universal’
Blur: Radio 2 In Concert alongside the compilation Blur at the BBC will be broadcast on Saturday July 29 on BBC Two. Blur: Radio 2 In Concert is now available on BBC Sounds and iPlayer.
The band release their long-awaited ninth album ‘The Ballad Of Darren’ on Friday (July 21). In a four-star review, NME wrote: “Unlike many of their peers, there has never been a timelessness to a Blur album – that’s a good thing. When you listen to ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish’ now, you can feel disdain for the culture that surrounded them, or the raw confusion of heartbreak on 1999’s ‘13’; they have a way of transporting you to a precise moment or emotion.
“It’s why ‘The Ballad of Darren’ is so memorable and touching: you can feel it, everything, in every line sung or note played. Speaking to NME last week, Rowntree says that when they were recording, ‘everything we tried, worked’, and that ‘magic was in the air’. It is keenly felt here; may it never fade away.”
The indie veterans will be performing ‘The Ballad Of Darren’ in full at a special livestreamed gig at London’s Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith on Tuesday July 25, before a run of European festival dates before appearances in Asia and South America. Visit here for tickets and more information.