Blur's 96 European tour

After the turbulent year 1995 (Brit awards, The Great Escape, so called Battle of Britpop with Oasis) the band let down their world tour with a tour leg in Europe. The four band members had retourned from the US and played mainly the stuff from their Britpop-ish albums. But there was a clear change from old times: Graham was tired of the touring and music buisness and started heavy drinking. He wore baggy clothes and had big interest in alternative and lo-fi sounds from the sounds (such as Pavement) Damon started to rethink is point of views, too. This is clearly to see because Blur played the tour with a very heavy sound and started to record heavy like b-sides for their singes (like Tame). The fruits of the work with new styles and inspirations were tunes like Song 2 and Chinese Bombs , which were premiered in late 1996. This spring tour was propably the last big tour with Blur as poster boy Britpop group. The support group of this tour was The Rentals, a group formed by then Weezer bass player Matt Sharp. Please note that all the other gigs in Europe from this year are listed too, just to make it complete.

Tour dates:

• Sancremo Music Festival, Sanremo, ITA, 20.2.
• Coliseu dos Recreios, Lisbon, PRT, 24.2.
• La Riviera, Madrid, ESP, 26.2.
• Arena, Valencia, ESP, 27.2.
• Zeleste, Barcelona, ESP, 28.2.
• Le Bikini, Ramonville-Saint-Agne, FRA, 1.3.
• Summum, Grenoble, FRA, 2.3.
• L'Escall, Nantes, FRA, 4.3.
• Olympia, Paris, FRA, 5.3.
• Palladium, Genf, CHE, 7.3.
• Volkshaus, Zürich, CHE, 8.3.
• Messepalast, Wien, AUT, 10.3.
• Palalido, Milan, ITA, 12.3.
• Teatro Tenda, Florence, ITA, 13.3.
• Vox Club, Nonantola, ITA, 14.3.
• Forum, Nürnberg, GER, 16.3.
• Vobi (aka Volksbildungszentrum), Frankfurth, GER, 17.3.
• Capitol, Hannover, GER, 18.3.
• Biskuithalle, Bonn, GER, 19.3.
• Brielpoort, Deinze, BEL, 20.3.
• Paradiso, Amsterdam, NLD, 22.3.

The none-tour gigs later in the year were:

• Hultafred Festival, SWE, 15.6.
• RDS Showgrounds, Dublin, IRE, 22.6.
• Ruisrock, FIN, 30.6.
• Midtfyns Festival, DNK, 4.7.
• Doctor Music Festival, ESP, 13.7.
• Laugardalshöll, Reykjavik, ISL, 8.9.

Stuff, TV and radio shows:

There are several TV and radio snippets from the time. Blur played their single Stereotypes on Channel 4s TFI Friday on 16th February. The also done a acoustic performance of this song for Tele 5 program while the touring in spain. Blur also done playback shows for The Universal and Girls & Boys for TMC 2s Help and Roxy Bar program. on 13th March, just before their gig in Florence. Blur also done a appearance at Taratata (link) and Nulle Part Ailleurs.

Blur at Iitalian TV, 13th March.                                                                                                                                       Graham with Matt Sharp 

Ticket for the gig in Lisabon

                                                                                                                                                    Graham at TFI Friday

                                                            Blur on the Spanish TV