Photo: Emma Viola Lilja
"Thank f**k it's stopped raining," smirks Damon Albarn out into a sea of murky mist and howling, sodden fans. As we grin and bare it through the downpour, you can't help but feel that it adds to the sense of occasion. How could you have a more British Summer Time than a damp evening with Blur and a spot of rain? The band have even brought the ice cream.
An ice cream man lining up a tray of 99-ers is hardly standard fare for warming up a crowd before a festival headline set. One could hardly see, say, Muse kicking off a show like this (unless said ice cream man was a robot warlord, or something) - but Blur of course are THE quintessential British band of their time. Now they're back on home turf, and it feels like they've never been away.
Kicking off with The Magic Whip's lead single 'Go Out', the band set the momentum for the evening - this is a band with one foot very much in the present, rather than leaning entirely on the past. And as Albarn steps out to the front rows to hand them their ice cream before bursting into the youthful exuberance of 'There's No Other Way', the joy they find in their existance as a band renewed is clear.
They've played Hyde Park countless times before, and had this just been another show on the reunion lap then it would have seemed a bit stale. It is the addition of The Magic Whip tracks however, that makes Blur such a pleasure to behold. Think Tank, while an understatedly accomplished LP, did sound like a band on the brink of total implosion. But tonight as they bound through 'Lonesome Street', 'Ong Ong' and "a couple of songs for the moshers" in the form of 'I Broadcast' and 'Trouble In The Message Centre', you can see that thread of Blur energy that runs through the newer numbers - albeit with a newfound sense of adventure. This is not 'Blur by numbers' - this is a highly evolved Blur.
The peaks are many - 'Coffee & TV', a stirring outing of 'Out Of Time', and a religious sing-along of 'Tender' to mention a few. The memories that shall endure however, will of course be the pantomime madness of Phil Daniels jumping into 'Parklife' with an "OI OI" and a wink - and the standard feral explosion of 'Song 2'. The sheer abandon ingrained in 'Girls & Boys' still remains to this day, and the enduring grace of 'For Tomorrow' and 'The Universal' are testament to the everlasting relevance of this band.
One can only hope that the good will and compulsion behind The Magic Whip and these shows feeds Blur's momentum to stay on such fine form and not go back into the wilderness for too long. May they always be familiar, they deserve to last, just like the English summer rain.
Blur played:
Go Out
There's No Other Way
Lonesome Street
Badhead
Coffee & TV
Out of Time
Beetlebum
Thought I Was a Spaceman
Trimm Trabb
He Thought of Cars
End of a Century
I Broadcast
Trouble in the Message Centre
Tender
Parklife (with Phil Daniels)
Ong Ong
Song 2
To the End
This Is a Low
Encore:
Stereotypes
Girls & Boys
For Tomorrow
The Universal
