Blur at Hyde Park
Blur – Hyde Park – 2/3 July 2009
Support from Vampire Weekend, Amadou & Mariam, Florence and the Machine, Deerhoof
Words by Steve Hall / Photos by Gumball Betty
If you haven’t heard about the summer’s big reunion then you’ve clearly been living in some sort of swine-flu quarantine chamber. Which may be sensible but then you missed out on one of Hyde Park’s finest residencies since…well, the previous weekend.
Blur put aside their differences, lost the tweed caps and cartoon avatars and rolled on stage on a hazy dust cloud evening like they’d never left. I say rolled, there was nothing laconic in this performance – it was bounce and energy and emotion on a level that was impressive given that they’d thrilled Glastonbury not a week earlier.
The ability of this band to project itself directly into the nerve centre of the crowd is its match-winner and the contrast with Vampire Weekend, who preceded them onstage, shows just how far some of the latest crop have to go. Damon wears his heart on his sleeve (Fred Perry – what else?) and he works with Graham’s supremely sharp yet effortless guitar antics to turn songs like Tender, probably not the best song they ever wrote, into lighter-waving anthems.
The presence of some of Parklife and Think Tank’s more cleansing, introspective moments balanced beautifully with the jumping bean pop of Boys and Girls and some of the band’s prodigal knockabouts such as She’s So High. Hardly anyone will have left disappointed – a set with all the hits and some of the better album tracks performed like the late-noughties never happened. And maybe that says something. Sure there are great acts today, but on offer here are uniquely deft mood switches and the rare willingness to wander far from their own conventions to reach the audience on a different level.
The crowd themselves were a mix of thirtysomethings that didn’t want to let go of their heroes, who clung on every word, and those who just liked the idea of a nice pop concert. Arguably a £40 Hyde Park sell-out gives you more of the latter and the numerous bottle-throwing battles and progressive lack of involvement the further back in the catalogue the band went maybe says something about that. But the evening was one for anyone who wanted to believe again in the sheer earnest endeavour of BritPop’s most consistent and adventurous band. They brought it back. Woo Hoo.
