Blur live in France- Eurockéennes Festival Photo Gallery

Blur played a live show on the Grande Scène Stage in Belfort, France on the evening of 7th July as part of their continuing 2013 World Tour. The show was part of one the Eurockéennes Festival, one of France's biggest annual musical events.

One might think that Blur are newcomers to France, but Blur are no stranger to the country- Damon Albarn and the band played in the Eurockéennes Festival exactly 18 years ago on 7th July 1995.

French band 'Skip The Use' performed a cover of Blur's famous "Song 2" at the festival. 

User Cold War kid from the official Blur forums describes the France Eurocks show:

"I was a the concert they played in France, the day before yesterday. It was great, Damon obviously had a very good time. He played the outro of Coffee & TV for a really long time and talked a lot in French. I don't know what happened before the gig but Graham Coxon was in very bad mood. Or was it just because his guitar was out of tune during tender?

The crowd in the first 15 rows were packed... It was pretty intense. I still can't believe that those very young kids and many small girls made it to the end without fainting. I had to step back a little bit after Country House/Parklife. But apparently people were very quiet in the back.

The setlist was perfect. Many people complain here about the lack of originality in the setlist, but when you are in the crowd, you just want them to play 'Parklife', 'Tender' or 'Song 2' so that the crowd can go berserk and not 'Trailer Park' or 'Battery' in you leg. I don't think it would work well in festivals and blur should save them if one day they play proper gigs again. It was fantastic to see them again and can not wait for the next time."

Fans could be heard saying "J'adore Blur!" in the front row during 'Parklife' 

Blur's Eurocks concert received generally positive reviews from both devoted fans and many local journalists. Many fans were "overjoyed" to be able to watch Blur live after the long wait. Afan commented: "I found the concert Blur quite magical, I was expecting something dusty but it was electrifying and joyful."

Photos and Images- Blur at Eurockéennes 

See more photos from a comprehensive album HERE.

Setlist - Blur live at Eurockéennes Festival 2013

   (Theme From Retro)
   Girls & Boys
   Popscene
   There's No Other Way
   Beetlebum
   Out Of Time
   Trimm Trabb
   Caramel
   Coffee & TV
   Tender
   Country House
   Parklife
   End Of A Century
   This Is A Low

Encore:
   Under The Westway
   For Tomorrow (Visit To Primrose Hill Extended)
   The Universal
   Song 2

Video - Watch highlights from Blur live in Eurocks 

Enjoy a selection of fan footages from the gig and watch hits including 'Coffee and TV', 'Song 2', 'Country House' , 'Parklife' and more being performed.










French band Skip The Use' also performed a special rendition of Blur's biggest hit in America, 'Song 2'. The song was covered using a mix of French and English lyrics and featured the same tune and signature guitar riff as the original. Watch it below:



To find out more about the day of the festival, click HERE. Alternatively for those fluent in French, read a local review HERE.

Blur launched a new digital tour diary on their website to mark the commencement of the tour. Fans around the world are invited to create a scrapbook of memories from their 2013 tour. As quoted in the description, fans can add their memories by signing in to the site with Facebook. They are then given access to an exclusive 10% discount code, redeemable at the Blur store.

Alternatively, anything tagged with the appropriate gig hashtag on Twitter, tumblr, YouTube, Instagram and Soundcloud will automatically feed into the site, as each gig is unlocked throughout the year. Each gig is assigned a unique hashtag, which can be found on the site’s hashtag map.

The band will be heading to Russia tomorrow for a show in the Afisha Picnik festival on July 13th 2013. Don't forget to stay tuned and see more tour pictures on the fantastic Blur tour diary. 

Blur Tour 2013 - Full dates and rundown  HERE
Blur @ Coachella- video and image gallery HERE 

Blur confirmed for Mexico HERE

Blur Europe Tour News  HERE

Order the new Blur: Parklife (Live at Hyde Park CD / DVD) HERE

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Chronicles of a Blur Fan -Mexico Gig Review & pictures 2013

This is Part I of II – a two part series from BlurBalls all about Blur’s 5-day visit to Mexico City, where they played a gig in El Plaza Condesa (March 15^th 2013) and then in the huge Vive Latino Festival (March 16^th 2013).

For this part, Mirja García writes about her meeting with Blur and reviews the El Plaza Condesa concert.

Author’s Foreword: Hello Blur fans! This is my 5-day summary of my Blur experience in Mexico (Part II here). First and foremost, I will try to keep it fun and short because I don't want to bore you with words. So, I thought the best idea was for my review of Blur at Mexico to be divided into a "Blur Chronicle" by days. 

I hope you can enjoy my review, experience with meeting Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon and the rest of Blur, and some pictures I took with the band.

Day 1: Wednesday, March 13^th 2013 

I had contacted someone few days ago and he was totally nice by picking me up after work, so afterwards we headed to the airport and arrived at 6pm. we really thought Blur would arrive at this day, but sadly it didn't happen. The Blur team, crew and staff arrived this day and told us they were arriving next day at midnight (24 hours). However, the day was worth it as I got to meet other Blur fans, which was so nice because I have never met any other Blur fans before!  I left the airport at 10pm.

Day 2: Thursday, March 14^th 2013 

I had expected Blur to arrive in Mexico the day before, so my original plan was to spend this day trying to look for them at the hotel or something. It wasn't that way (as they didn’t arrive yesterday), so a few fans and I planned to head right to the airport again. They HAD to arrive this day! I got there at 6pm- apparently Blur should have arrived at 6:30 or 00:00 hrs (Friday midnight).

It was 8pm, and we had one last hope left. One bloke told us they had arrived one day ago. We all tried hard to hold onto our instincts and hope that they will arrive soon. 11:42pm came, and anxiety started eating us alive. At 00:00 hrs, the same bloke stood in front of us and quietly told us "Just do not scream and try to be calm”. Hearing that made me nervous and relieved- the moment I had been dreaming of for probably for more than 11 years was about to really happen.

The first member of Blur who came out was Dave Rowntree. And then I just lost it and became very excited when I saw Graham Coxon coming out of the plane. I didn't see Alex James and Damon Albarn walking out because of Graham, who of course got freaked out and said he needed to smoke first. 

Then I went to Alex; I was so very nervous and he said to me "How are you darling? Are you alright?" Alex signed my magazine and had a smile upon his face.  

And then, there was on my right side came Damon Albarn himself. I got there and he started to sign things. Since I am a small person, it was hard for him to see me and I had to try and get his full attention. Finally, he saw me, and I asked him if I could hug him. Damon nodded, and then I asked for a picture. Right away, he looked at me with his typically deep eyes and a smiley expression, and said: "Oh, I have to stop".

I felt like dying right there on the spot, and what Damon said made me laugh. I told him "Yeah..." and both of us posed for the camera but Blur’s security guard waved her hand in front of our faces and said: "You, everybody, can't take pictures of the inside".

Both Damon and I didn’t care about what the security guard said; Damon was such a saint because he stopped for a very long time, posing with me for pictures. A friend also wanted some photos with Damon but it was too late, he had to go. Damon was very nice that day to all the fans. I have to admit I was scared about meeting him. Because I was worried about making a fool of myself or making the Blur boys upset. My fear turned out to be far from reality – Damon and the band were amazing!

          

At this point, I had to leave. But before I got a chance to leave, Dave (such a lovely man) spoke to me and asked, "How are you?” However at this point, I was so nervous that I didn't quite catch the question. All I said back was "What?" He repeated his question, and I told him "To be honest, I'm dying and going to heaven right now!" Funnily, he replied "Oh, don't you die" and then gave me a big hug.

All that was nice, but I had one thing left to do before I left- I had to catch up with Graham Coxon! Someone told me that he was outside, so I finally found him. He made me lot more nervous than Damon did, but in the end I got another hug and he signed my ‘A+E’ album. He was quiet surprised about seeing my copy of ‘A+E’ and smiled when he saw it. As Blur left on two separate vans, the fans and I gave them a goodbye by singing the chorus of ‘Tender’: "Oh my baby...Oh my baby…Oh my…" It was definitely one of the best four days of my life!

Top: With Graham Coxon
Bottom: Signed copy of Graham Coxon's eight solo album 'A+E'

Day 3: Friday, March 15^th 2013

Review – El Plaza Condesa Concert

I woke up early just to get to the line for the Blur Mexico warm up show and to be right in first row. This day was mostly for waiting for the Blur gig. We knew where they were staying, so we planned that we will visit them later. It was nice as I could speak to lots more fans like me- there were two girls named Carmen and Lizzy who have the most best-looking pictures taken with Blur. They are such nice people; all the Blur fans are. I ended up being so friendly with the fans (shout outs to Michelle, Oscar, Brenda, Scarlett and of course Carmen and Lizzy), I started considering them as part of my “family”!

We waited two hours for the show to begin in the Plaza, and then some people at the gig started playing Gorillaz music. I wonder if Damon heard it because everyone, including me, started singing out loud. The gig turned out, of course, to be the best gig of my entire life!

The popular "Gramon Inspires Me" sign 

I sang along to each song; I jumped, I smiled. I tried to hold Damon's hand each time he got close to us. I brought with me a "GRAMON INSPIRES ME" sign, and the first member of Blur to see it was Graham. When he saw it, he gave me a beautiful, naughty and embarrassed smile, and then laughed. The second person to see it was Damon- he smiled with an "Oh Dear" expression and turned to look at Graham knowingly. Alex also seemed amused and surprised by my sign. Then one of the blonde trumpet players tried to read the letters, and both Liz and I can read his lips: “GRAMON”. I held it up for a bit more; he laughed, pointed out my sign and called on his other trumpet-playing mate. I think my sign was very popular – it definitely made people laugh.

I enjoyed each song during El Plaza Condesa. During the gig, my camera’s battery died; this proved to be both a good and bad thing. I hated the fact that I could not record the Blur show in HD (which would have looked amazing) but loved the fact that I could enjoy the show and screamed as much as I wanted. Every song was my favorite- I was very surprised when they opened the gig with ‘Popscene’. When ‘There's No Other Way’ came on, it caught me by surprise. ‘Caramel’ was very gorgeous and well played. The encore was marvelous too.

When ‘The Universal’ came, I couldn't hold back the tears anymore because I knew it was going to be the last song. I wanted to make the Blur show go on forever. On a happier note, I managed to get Graham Coxon’s guitar pick at the end of the show- it was the best feeling in the world to touch his guitar pick. 

After the first ever Blur show of 2013, and after watching Blur in my home Mexico for the first time in 10 years, I went to sleep with a smile upon my face.

Written by Mirja García

(@MirjaLolita on Twitter)

Read Part II