11 August 2023
Britpop champs BLUR had another reunion tour in mind for a while,
but frontman Damon Albarn had one condition before doing it. “I want
to come back only after writing some new music.”
And that’s what exactly happened. Three weeks ago
album #9, named THE BALLAD OF DARREN came out.
NME said: “Their brilliance continues. The band’s joyous reunion only gets more emotional
with this tear-jerking, soaring epic. ‘The Ballad of Darren’ is so memorable and touching.”
TUTV said: “Lots of slow ones, lots of reflective musings, lots of romantic ballads (including Darren‘s one), lots of melancholia. They only rock out on the punked-up St. Charles Square.
To be honest, a surprisingly intimate record but it grows on you slowly but surely.”
And as promised, the 4 big friends started to tour earlier this year. Not day-to-day, but at
a selection of festivals and some special Blur events in their home country, like their two sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium in London last month (a total of 160.000 people).
Last Monday the four down-to-earth stars stopped in Belgium to entertain 15.000 (a sort
of club gig for them, I suppose) delirious fans, girls and boys, old and young, at Lokerse Festival. And we all had a smashing night. Screaming, jumping, applauding, drinking and going nuts for 90 minutes. Live music showed its magical powers again, making people HAPPY. The set included all their knockouts from the past, some lesser-known ones and
a couple of new songs.
One of the many orgastic moments came, of course,
with Song 2. The massive-all-together WOO-HOO chant
caused total euphoria. Glorious!!
It went like this.
I’m still buzzing today, 3 days later. WOO-HOO. Thank you BLUR.
SETLIST
1. St. Charles Square
2. There’s No Other Way
3. Popscene
4. Tracy Jacks
5. Beetlebum
6. Trimm Trabb
7. Villa Rosie
8. Coffee & TV
9. End of a Century
10. Country House
11. Parklife
12. To the End
13. Barbaric
14. Girls & Boys
15. Song 2
16. This Is a Low
17. Tender
18. The Narcissist
19. The Universal
NEW ALBUM
.
(Live photos by Turn Up The Volume)