With little build up in 2023, blur released their 10th studio album The Ballad of Darren. What did have a lot of buildup and massive fanfare was the band’s return to performing live highlighted by two massive shows at Wembley Stadium on July 8th and 9th. It’s the second of these, the Sunday concert that the band released to a wider audience in 2024 including a 2CD version.
The setlist does a stellar job of capturing most of the band’s highlights with roughly half the tracks coming from 1993’s Modern Life is Rubbish and 94’s mega selling Parklife. The energy gets amped up on a blistering take on the band’s fourth single, “Popscene” with Graham Coxon’s guitar acting as a buzzsaw. One of the finest moments of the concert appears when Damon Albarn sings about heroin that originally flew over most people’s heads on “Beetlebum”, a UK #1 single from their self titled album from the mid 90s. This leads into the atmospheric “Trimm Trabb” that has as crisp guitar line and one of the best vocals from Albarn on the disc before it segues into early album favourite “Villa Rosie”. An emotional take on “Under the Westway” closes out disc one. Sublime.
Since it’s a Sunday gig, the foursome pull out a spirited take on “Sunday Sunday” before performing the song that caused so much controversy for the band, “Country House”. It was the one that amped up the Britpop wars with rivals Oasis but appears here as a throwaway track. Better is the Phil Daniels sung “Parklife” that seems to be in double time as the crowd receives it with bounding enthusiasm. A classy take on “To the End” with bassist Alex James holding down the low end gives the crowd a rest before “Advert” once again amps up the energy. An extended drum intro from Dave Rowntree on “Song 2” follows that sees Albarn later exclaim, “I don’t usually quote James Brown but I FEEL GOOD!”. The main set closes with a take on album track favourite “This Is a Low” that ends in a swirl of feedback.
In the encore, the keyboard riff of “Girls and Boys” blasts in from seemingly out of nowhere before the band pulls out all the punches including a gospel choir for a stadium singalong to one of their finest singles, “Tender”. New song “The Narcissist” fits in nicely with their already legendary classics before the customary closing track, “The Universal” brings it all to an end. After the weekend, Albarn noted that the band were nervous for Saturday’s gig but once that was over and performed well, the band were able to let loose for Sunday night. The live album keeps all it’s flaws in tacked, including Albarn forgetting words and missing cues at times. However, the discs capture the energy on an enthusiastic performance that sounds like an absolute blast for all involved.
8/10
The Light Appears 