Happy birthday Damon!

Today Damon Albarn turns 45. I absolutely love Damon - he's been involved in so many great bands/projects from Blur, Gorillaz to The Good, The Band & The Queen and others beside those three. Honestly I think he is pretty much the most creative and forward thinking British musician of the last 20 years or so (perhaps one of the most creative ever). He's covered so many sounds and styles - Blur have a wide range of genres by anyone's standard covered in their music and yet they're only one facet of this great man's body of work. A true talent. Happy birthday Damon!

Blur's First Television Appearance

I just felt like sharing this. This is a small little bit of history for Blur fans: It's their first appearance on a television show! It's from 1991 (just look at Damon's hair!) on the kids tv show Eggs 'n' Baker which ran from 1988-1993. The song they are performing here is There's No Other Way which was their second ever single. One of my favourites from Leisure too. As it was a kids tv show the performance is lip synched as was practically standard. Obviously the performance on its own merits is nothing special but it is a historic performance!

First impressions - Blur - Starshaped

So last night I watched this for the first time (at long last). It's a one hour film of Blur on tour from 1991-1993. I was looking forward to this seeing as Modern Life Is Rubbish is my favourite Blur album and I also felt that Leisure isn't as awful as they make out either. Its weird I have to say, but interesting. It's very funny in places: especially when Damon goes into the kids ride. The one crticism I had with it though is that the sound wyuality is awful for the live performances. I loved the live footage itself (Coping sounded excellent in particular) but the sound quality could have been better. Never the less it was entertaining and I do want to pick up the DVD for the bonus features (which is more live footage).

Under The Westway/The Puritan CD single

Their new single, this has five tracks. All variations of the same two songs, The Puritan and Under The Westway. I have to admit, I am not the biggest lover of The Puritan at all, but Under The Westway is a beautiful song that is one of Blur's finest moments I think! This cost me £5 in Head, in all seriousness, in Head today I was debating whether or not to go for this or for the Oasis Definitely Maybe and Creation Record Story DVDs which would have totalled £6 for the two. What swung it for me though was that I had heard it would be stocked in Head in limited quantities so I decided to get the single, as the DVD's are much easier to get cheap after all.