Blur - 100 gigs you should have been at (NME)

This week NME features reviews of a 100 famous gigs. 

NME this week featured the top 100 gigs you should have been at. Seems pretty random to me, but Blur appear twice: with Suede at #63 at Town&Country Club, London, July 23, 1992 - and at #12 with, of course, Hyde Park, London, July 2-3, 2009.

Pic of the day - beautiful drawing of the boys

SUEDE/BLUR - TOWN & COUNTRY CLUB, LONDON, July 23, 1992

"We're so fucking shit you might as well go home now. This could be the worst gig you've ever seen." So said Damon Albarn as a ridiculously pissed Blur - having spent the afternoon drinking in Camden - took the stage for the charity Gimme Shelter gig in their 'Modern Life is Rubbish' phase.
They proceeded to deliver either the best or worst (depending who you ask) set ot their career, barely able to see their own instruments, falling over and trying to shoulder a speaker stack off the stage. It was as punk as Britpop would ever get, but in its aftermath, Food Records gave them a month to clean up or they'd be dropped. And out of the wreckage, immaculate rising supposrt act Suede, shimmied gloriously into the big time, having utterly outstaged the headliners. The first Battle of Britpop was on...

Town and Country Club - 1992

BLUR - HYDE PARK, LONDON, July 2-3, 2009

They may not have been the final shows of their ecstatically received 2009 reunion tour, but Blur's two night at Hyde Park were arguably their pinnacle as a live band, and if they're on/off studio potterings never come to a new album, it's how they should be remembered: with Damon rolling around the stage in wild, punk-rock paroxysms, an esqusitely chosen, cereer-spanning setlist, and Alex James with one foot on the monitor and a cigarette drooping from his lips, as though the noughties, cheesemaking and the TV talent show judging had never happened. It was pure nostalgia, obviously, but after six years away, that hardly mattered. A timely reminder that not everything about Britpop was bollocks.

Blur finished Hyde Park on a high note

Wonder who is No. 1 ? And I've decided to postpone the "Caption Contest" postings till later this week, so stay tuned for more blurry news, fun and caption contest excitement.