After Lana Del Rey's award, Blur was called on stage to receive their Outstanding Contribution to Music award by Ray Winston. Damon Albarn made a long speech thanking everyone, including producer William Orbit (rumoured to produce their new album) and his crew. Adele was called onto stage by a sunglasses-donned George Michael. She won "Best Album".
Shortly after Adele began to spoke, the host had to interrupt her and cut her short, as Damon's speech was a bit longer than expected. She made a rude gesture and raised her middle finger to the audience, and apparently stormed out of the O2 saying "This is a Low". We think this is quite inappropriate of her, as her awards is much smaller compared to Blur's Outstanding Contribution Award, after all Blur had to work for nearly 20+ years to get to this point- give them some credit!
The stage was lit, the Blur sign sparkled and glowed. Spotlights shone and the music immediately started with Girls and Boys' signature tune blaring out. Dave rocked the drums, and there was a moment when Graham's guitar strap broke, but all went well. Damon's Woo Hoo's were simply powerful.
Blur then started playing their medley. They played all the hits that made them rise to the top of the charts- Girls and Boys, Parklife, Song 2, followed by Tender and finally This is a Low. The music's energy was great, though Damon made small errors on Tender. He jumped up and down, but the crowd didn't sing along for Girls and Boy's "Oh Oh Oh"s.
The highlights were the hits Tender and This is a Low, Damon's personal favourites, which he sang with all his heart. It was emotional and rang out onto the entire stage. Blur also played for the longest set in record for Outstanding Contribution Award - 11 minutes, and a bit more than that! They played:
Comments on youtube and various social networking sites seems to suggest that Blur made Adele cut off her speech - in fact, we think this is bollocks - the shows have time constraints, and Blur were there to perform the LONGEST set, so it's all fair to cut off Adele, who has won many awards already, for the main performances of the night from Blur.
Blur were the guest of honour, they won the award when everyone was waiting anxiously to see if they won. It would be like being the centre of the show, only to be rushed out of your own party. After all, how much effort has Blur put into making music for the world and many times a year do they do this ?
Their publicity, gained from performing the smashing Song 2 (Fifa 98 song) made Blur, Damon Albarn and Woo Hoo trend worldwide on twitter for a long time.
Outstanding gig. Amazing energy and Adele - you were given the boot by the Brits and Blur! Blur had raw emotion, albeit some slip ups, but true fans will simply love the performances, no matter what they were like. And give them a break - it's been a few years since the 2009 reunion gigs, and since then Damon's produced Gorillaz and the others has had solo works/ projects out.
Damon's long speech was nice - this is probably Blur's best bet at gaining publicity again after their long hiatus and side-projects. Now Blur's got new fans, new younger fans, and will be ready if they launch any new record.
In fact, record sales of Blur went up 2700% since last night - yes you read that right - 2700%! It really seems that Blur's getting publicity again, and now even tweens who watched the Brits know about this epic band. Perhaps this is another act to get Blur back to the charts!
Watch the entire set below here, on BlurBalls:
Read all about Blur's rehearsal for Brits HERE, Olympics Gig HERE, new album HERE and check out their newest song HERE and read our REVIEW HERE.
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