This is a low down

Southend Cliffs Pavillion
June 21

Having sold 130,000 tickets for two giant gigs in London’s Hyde Park (the biggest in their history), Messrs Albarn, Coxon, James and Rowntree have wisely embarked on a series of warm-up shows. Two recent tiny gigs for friends, family and competition winners aside, tonight is the first "proper gig” to feature all four original members for a decade.
While the Parklife beer mats and reissued Great Escape-era t-shirts at the merch stall point toward a nostalgia-fest, Blur appear to have got back together with the best of intentions. And their songbook stands up better than you might have expected. This may have a lot to do with the fact that their best-loved tunes haven’t suffered the indignity of countless stadium-sized renditions – the kind that have, over the years, eroded the impact and potency of everything from ‘Wonderwall’ to ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’.
Morever, the dormant state of the Blur canon has done wonders not only for the band’s appeal but also for their own enthusiasm. Tonight, even songs as downright innocuous and meaningless as ‘She’s So High’ and ‘There’s No Other Way’ are unleashed with unbridled effervescence, giving their throwaway lines the sort of desperate urgency that can only come from a band genuinely enthralled with the thrill of live performance.
As Blur gallop toward their most fondly-remembered tunes, the intoxicating atmosphere intensifies. Beloved album tracks such as the Reginald Perrin-themed ‘Tracy Jacks’ and ‘Jubilee’ provide the early highlights, while punked-up versions of ‘Advert’, ‘Popscene’ and ‘Song 2’ are dispatched with Ramones-like velocity. Even the greatly-maligned ‘Country House’ and relative obscurities ‘Oily Water’ and ‘Essex Dogs’ are greeted like the second coming (of Britpop).
Two moments, though, are truly transcendent. ‘Beetlebum’, a song which somehow manages to distill all the best bits from the White Album into one track, is more moving than ever. And the most poignant part of the night arrives during ‘Tender’, when a mid-song breakdown gives rise to terrace-like participation from the floor, in which the song’s most stirring lyric (“Love’s the greatest thing… that we have”) is reverberated back toward the stage.
Colm Russell

MEN Arena, Manchester
June 26

Up until tonight, all of the shows on Blur’s reunion tour have been club dates, but this gig at the cavernous MEN Arena is the first in the band’s run of major comeback shows – they headline Glastonbury on Sunday night, then play two huge gigs at Hyde Park, before heading on to T In The Park and Oxegen.
As expected, the group’s transition to massive arena and outdoors shows goes very smoothly. Blur never particularly had a problem with large-scale performances, given that their catalogue is filled with 24-carat pop gems. Not many bands could get away with playing one of the best singles of the ’90s as the second song in their set, but that’s when Blur kick into ‘Girls & Boys’.
Predictably, the audience goes berserk, and it really is joyous to see a brilliant group performing a landmark track with such flair. Indeed, the quartet seem completely reinvigorated, and are clearly getting huge enjoyment from playing together once again. Graham Coxon, especially, looks happier and more relaxed onstage than I’ve ever seen him.
They perform all of their big hits, and the highlights come thick and fast: the communal singalong during ‘Tender’; a riotous ‘Country House’; an exquisite ‘To The End’; and a euphoric ‘Parklife’, which features a grinning Phil Daniels on lead vocals. Throughout, Damon Albarn is in energetic form, bouncing up and down, reeling around the stage, and even launching himself into the crowd during a rip-roaring ‘Popscene’.
A number of the songs now feature subtle contributions from a trio of backing vocalists, giving the likes of ‘Beetlebum’, ‘Chemical World’ and ‘For Tomorrow’ a wonderfully soulful feel. What makes Blur such a unique group is the sheer diversity of their output (virtually unparelled in modern rock), and fans will be pleased to note that they also give an airing to some of their more experimental material.
‘Trimm Trabb’, from 13, is deliciously dark and hynoptic, but the Modern Life Is Rubbish track ‘Oily Water’ is one of the highlights of the evening. It starts out as a slice of eerie psychedelia, before Graham unleashes a sustained blast of My Bloody Valentine-style guitar noise, whilst Damon adds to the din courtesy of a blaring megaphone.
Closing with a triumphant ‘The Universal’, it’s a pleasure to note that – to paraphrase the group’s art-rock antecedents Talking Heads – everything is the same as it ever was in Blur’s world: this is music that engages the mind as well as touching the heart.
Those planning to see them at Oxegen are in for one hell of a treat.
Paul Nolan