Damon Albarn by Martin Roach

Author:Martin Roach [Martin Roach and David Nolan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784187910
Publisher: John Blake Publishing
Published: 2015-10-09T16:00:00+00:00

Damon felt that Blur were ideal for the arena stages as he told NME: “We made the step up at Mile End, that was the best gig we’ve ever done. These shows will be like that, except they’re indoors so it won’t rain. We feel quite comfortable in those venues, they seem quite intimate to us.” The stage set itself was an amusement arcade right from one of the seaside venues they had just played, complete with flashing lights, silver disco balls, and neon decorations. During ‘The Universal’, a giant Prozac tablet was lowered from the ceiling and opened to shower the audience with thousands of fake tiny pills. To coincide with the resurgence of easy listening, Blur were supported by an unnamed MOR orchestra (whose members changed each night) who played fantastic cover versions of songs by Pulp, Oasis and Supergrass amongst others. With the fuller stage personnel, the renditions of mostly Parklife and Great Escape material were impressively accurate. Damon took to the bigger stage with consummate ease, using all his acting abilities to provide pure theatre to match the musical excellence. The best night was reserved for Wembley Arena’s last show, when they were joined on stage by Ken Livingstone for ‘Ernold Same’ and Phil Daniels for (yet another) last-ever performance of ‘Parklife’, where both he and Damon dressed up in full pantomime regalia for that added Christmas feel.

The mellower band was now living more healthy lives on tour and this showed in their vibrant performances. A vegetarian Damon was into jogging, and all of them except Alex were taught Tae Kwon Do before each gig. Alex saved his energy for the bottle of champagne he sipped on stage at each show. Also, the band rule of ‘no drinks thirty minutes before a show’ was now firmly established. Blur also seemed much more mature personally, as Damon told Melody Maker: “It’s that sense of everything being normal and levelling out that’s changed us. I used to spend so much time thinking the whole world revolved around me, that I was destined for great things, but not anymore.” He publicly declared that he regretted things he had said about Suede and felt they were under-rated and mistreated by the press. Even his normally arrogant statements were now injected with a dash of humour. “By 1999 we will be the most important band in the world … and also the moon. And maybe Mars.” Despite this far more laid back approach, the new Blur couldn’t always be on their best behaviour – one top London hotel banned them after riotous, drunken behaviour left one guest fuming. “Nobody in the place knew who they were and they were just scruffy and noisy.”

This arena tour confirmed that Blur were now mega-stars in the UK, capable of filling the nation’s biggest sheds and playing a two-hour set full of classics. The presence of both the teenage front rows to the thirty- and forty-somethings at the back – and the spread of reviews

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