For the Blur fans unsure about this EP, but yet who want to hear the live sessions of these cool songs a month before “Parklife” was released or be nostalgic of 1994 all over again, then definitely give Blur’s “Live at the BBC” a try!
Please Click Here to purchase Blur’s “Live at the BBC” from Amazon
BAND: Blur
EP: Live at the BBC
DURATION: 4 Songs (13 Minutes)
DATE RELEASED: August 2, 2019
1. Girls & Boys (Live At The BBC)
2. Jubilee (Live At The BBC)
3. Trouble In the Message (Live At The BBC)
4. Lot 105 (Live At The BBC)
Back in the mid-90’s, many will remember the music genre of “Britpop”, the opposite of what was happening in the United States with the popularity of grunge music.
It was British alternative rock which was championed by “The Big Four” bands such as Oasis, Suede, Pulp and one other band who would be quite successful being in the forefront, and that was Blur (or “blur” if you prefer their name lowercased as seen on their albums).
Many will remember the “The Battle of Britpop” between Blur and Oasis and the popularity of Britpop.
While 1993-1997 would be consider memorable years for Britpop fans, being a music listener who has literally been listening to British rock music, may it be post-punk, New Wave, the Second British Invasion, synth-pop, etc., for me it was just music from another country that I enjoyed, possibly more than the music than what I listened to in the United States.
Teen pop and gangster rap were no doubt becoming stronger in America, but for those of us who listened to alternative rock, bands such as Live, Green Day, Pearl Jam, Sublime, The Smashing Pumpkins, Bush, Weezer, Garbage, Stone Temple Pilots, No Doubt and Foo Fighters were dominating the radio waves.
Personally, I think at this time in my life, I tuned out of MTV (who were barely showing any music videos), starting to tune out of KROQ 106.7 (as the music they were featuring were almost the same music you can hear on regular radio or from your local college radio station) and my commutes were listening to bands with substance, music from other countries (like Japan) or listening to the music I loved from the ’80s.
But Blur, was a band I enjoyed because they were not vying for consistency, they were a band in which music evolved and with each track, you never knew what you were going to get.
Not to say that I was on Blur’s camp vying for them to win over Oasis (as I owned their albums too), but I enjoyed Blur’s music and thought it was intriguing when “Song 2” went popular and everyone expected all their music to be that way. Similar to how many got into The Verve because of “Urban Hymns” to find that big hit song is nothing what the band is about. Just a small part of it.
Blur consisted of singer Damon Albarn (yes the one who went onto reach success post-Blur with the virtual band, Gorillaz), guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree.
While the band had disbanded at one point and other members are doing other projects. The band had reunited, released music or did performances off and on. Their last studio album was “The Magic Whip” in 2015, but don’t be surprised if they reunite and release new music, when you least expect it.
In 2019, to mark the 25th anniversary of Blur’s third studio album “Parklife” (1994) which featured their hit songs “Girls & Boys”, “End of a Century”, “Parklife”, “To the End” and “This is a Low”, Parlophone issued a special four track 10-inch vinyl EP and also released digitally.
While released to the masses in 2019, listeners in France were able to obtain this as a promotional CD in 1994 under the album titled “Bet Bet Bet (The Mark Radcliffe Session)”.
The songs “Girls & Boys”, “Jubilee”, “Trouble in the Message Centre” and “Lot 105” was recorded live at the BBC in Manchester from their Mark Radcliffe Radio 1 session in March 1994.
These songs were first heard by listeners before the release of “Parklife” to promote the album and it’s a pretty inexpensive because it only has four tracks.
For me, as a Blur fan, I love the live performances of “Boys & Girls” and while you are not going to hear any audience screams, it’s still cool to hear the band rock live and hear what was presented in the live session.
And for Blur completist, it’s worth checking out because this live album was not released anywhere else, including the Blur 21 box set which had several radio sessions, not this one.
But for the Blur fans unsure about this EP, but yet who want to hear the live sessions of these cool songs a month before “Parklife” was released or be nostalgic of 1994 all over again, then definitely give Blur’s “Live at the BBC” a try!
Please Click Here to purchase Blur’s “Live at the BBC” from Amazon
