I have just seen some footage of Blur at the Coachella festival in the States. They are performing Boys and Girls and we can see that Damon is looking stroppy and fed up. No one is singing along or dancing. He points the microphone to the crowd at the chorus – silence. He says from the stage “we are never coming here again, so you might as well enjoy it!”. He stares and shakes his head rather than sing, while the band chugs along. It’s a difficult watch.
It brought to my mind an experience in Woking back in the mid-80s. It was a “Search for a Star!” local talent show at the Council hall. It was actually more entertaining than it sounds. It takes guts to perform live and no-one gave the performers a hard time. Until this one act came on. The single most ridiculous performer I think I have ever seen. He was a small, rat-like young man of about 20 with a porcelain-white, hairless torso framed by an unbuttoned ruffled pink shirt. His shiny red satin trousers sported a golden belt buckle that was the size of a child’s head. He came on to “It’s not Unusual”, repeatedly thrusting his tiny pelvis towards the front row, as if he was the sexiest man alive. He didn’t have a good singing voice and he kept a terrified-looking rictus smile throughout. After about 10 excruciating minutes, he left to zero applause. Zero. The audience had collectively become sick of him and were chatting. This didn’t bother “Englebert” in the least. He thought he had nailed it.
We all know this was Moosey.
sounds like Jarrow Elvis.
Looks like Parrotface Davis.
Not sure many in the US know Girls and Boys. They all know Song 2
Blur get namechecked in this report about Grimes set, during which someone pressed both Play and Fast Forward.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-68816031
Anyhow, take it away, Mr Albran:
Song 2 had a better reaction – which might have been due to its popularity online.
Introducing the song, Damon said: “This song has been so good to us.
“But I did get shown a TikTok of it being kind of performed by a vacuum cleaner which is you know…. It is humbling and inspiring at the same time.”
And here it is:
That isn’t really very good, so here’s Song 2 played on some old computer hardware.
I saw Blur at the F1 in Abu Dhabi a few years back. I like Blur but have no interest in the racing. He started off in a bit of a strop at that as well but settled down after a bit. It didn’t really feel like the sort of place they should have been playing really.
The ego has landed.
Now, BC how many acts can you remember with such wonderfully vivid detail? Clearly he was charisma personified.
I don’t remember the performer’s name, so he might be a bit light the charisma side of things.
It was a very memorable night! I remember it being a bit of a last-minute decision to go – we just walked past, saw the poster, and decided to go in.
It was presented by David (?) Lodge, a big man who was often seen playing policemen and the like in comedies of the 60s and 70s. He was also in the cast of Spike Milligan’s Q TV series – which is where I knew him from.
About halfway through this dreadful show, he announced a special guest. David Jason! This was at the height of his Del Boy Trotter fame and they did a brief sketch, which included “you plonker!” – this brought the house down. Honestly, there wasn’t anyone much bigger in terms of fame in those days and I was buzzing for days afterwards.
I’ve just watched the video. Damon seems to be getting mardy with the crowd not getting excited whilst Blur phone in a performance of a song the crowd are not familiar with.
It seemed to me that his ire should be directed at the band’s agent, not the audience. In any event, having accepted the gig, it’s the band’s job to win over people who, it being a festival, probably aren’t there to see them.
I like Albarn’s music in it’s various incarnations, but both this incident and his snide remarks about Taylor Swft having collaborative creative partners ( pot / kettle) aren’t endearing.
Blur surely don’t need the cash. Don’t go to the desert and play to bored Americans who don’t even know your songs.
In fairness blur had a popular set at Coachella in 2013 and Gorillaz have done well there. I was watching an interview with Conan O’Brien last week and he said the worst thing a guest could do on a talk show is say “well this is going well” or similar to the audience, if things are not going well. The performer shouldn’t point out that the audience is not being entertained.
He’s a very interesting cat on record, and Gorillaz live look to be an entertaining spectacle. But I’ve never felt him to be much of a natural performer in anything larger than an arena with a partisan crowd.
I think he’s too “clever” to really buy into the lion-tamer aspect of a big festival crowd. His musical avoidance of anything too ‘populist’ gives everything some aspect of irony. So when it’s not naturally going over well he doesn’t have that same ‘show must go on’ pretence that the best performers have.
Some great footage of The Good The Bad & The Queen over the years is notable for him trying to get crowd back n’ forth where the songs either aren’t well known enough, or don’t carry the melodic or emotional weight he feels they do. (Brilliant records though.)
Besides which, and this is as a non-UK resident, my understanding of Blur’s big stadium spectacles of the modern era is that the subtext is that Blur is a British institution, the friendship of Damon/Graham, the on-again off-again status of the band.. None of which I’d imagine would translate to a US audience. Song 2, sure, but I would’ve have thought Girls and Boys would be pretty far off the radar in the US even in the 90s?
This Guardian review of the festival makes interesting spreading, even if is the view of one person.
https://amp.theguardian.com/music/2024/apr/15/coachella-women-acts-doja-cat-lana-del-rey-kesha
Firstly, it seems that Gwen Stefani was successful in getting the audience to join in with chorus of I’m Just a Girl during No Doubts set. Secondly, if most young people were there to see really strong ( and glamorous) stage performers like Doja Cat, Sabrina Carpenter and Ice Spice, then Blur’s slightly careworn Indie Dad routine is going to have its work cut out.
I’m always impressed by performers who blame the audience.
You are Stewart Lee and I claim my bag of crisps..
This is the first two-line Afterword t-shirt ever:
“I’m always impressed by performers who blame the audience.”
“You are Stewart Lee and I claim my bag of crisps.”
(It’s comments like these that form the cultural bedrock, or cornerstone if you will, of everything the Afterword stands for and gets so resoundingly right. Comments like these – not these actual comments.)
I once saw an elderly, extraordinarily eccentric performer at an open mic night do what seemed like a random series of chords on a maltuned guitar over which he rambled some sort of collection of words with no apparent connection while people stared determinedly into their pints until he’d finished. I think he may have just got up because performers got a complimentary drink. There was an absolute silence once he’d finished. I still remember what I assume was the chorus, which involved Two Starlings Hatching a Plot.
We all know this was Colin Harper.
Unlikely; he’s barely out of short trousers.
I was at the first Madstock where Morrissey was the main support. It did not go well. He wasn’t helped by being put on right after Ian Dury & The Blockheads and right before Madness. I felt sorry for him for quite a while.