| Blur |
| Support: N/A Venue: Royal Festival Hall Date: 20/7/00 |
| Kindly reveiwed by Nicola Jenkins |
| After Damon had reinforced the idea that this is the only live date we could expect from Blur this year, the opening spacey noises of 'Battle' could be heard. They then continued to perform a good version of the song, however there were a few first song hic-ups. Graham's guitar work wasn't that clear, and the fact that a technician went running across the back of the stage to fiddle with some wires half way through, could indicate that something wasn't quite right. However, the sound quality during the gig as a whole was pretty good. 'Tender wasn't as entirely emotional as it had been at Webley. However that could be put down to the entirely emotional different atmosphere of the two events. Here, the song sounded very laid back and relaxed. 'Blue Jeans' was a surprize! The fact that it's only been played live several times before is unbelivable! The same thing can be said of 'Look inside America'. After several songs there was the first of two trips back to the 'Parklife' era, 'To The End'. The next memorable moment came in 'Beetlebum'. The track got off to a shaky start, with Graham not doing the backing vocalsan Damon missing the start of the chorus. Moments later Camon looked accross the stage towards Alex, before bursting out laughing and calling a halt to the song. He then called over to Alex saying "It's your fault'. Damon then looked over to Graham and said I suppose we better start again, it was a good job they did because they did a superb rendition of the chart topping single. All this just left one new song 'Black Book'. Relaxed, long and emotional with the gospel choir at the end, the obvious comparision to make is with 'Tender'. It's hard to say when it's in live situation. Though I thought this song made a great end to the night. One thing to note about the gig was the atomosphere. Firstly, the gig was all seated. This left many people with the uncontrollable urge to jump up and dance! This prompted many bizarre head movements and drumming on knees! Also, it is a fairly theatrical venue (although it did have a funky 70's carpet!!!). You would not automatically associate with a band such as Blur. |