Blur: Live at Wembley Stadium assessment: A Triumphant comeback

BLUR: Live At Wembley Stadium (Parlophone)

Verdict: Triumphant comeback

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There’s sometimes something a little hokey when pop stars thank fans for their support at live shows. But there was more to it than crowd-pleasing banter when Damon Albarn addressed the Blur devotees — 180,000 of them across two nights — who flocked to Wembley Stadium for the biggest residency of the band’s career last summer.

‘We’ve been waiting for this moment all our lives, and it’s lovely to share it with you all,’ Damon gushed. ‘Without you, none of this is possible.’

I went to the second Wembley show, when an overwhelmed Damon sank to his knees and shed tears after the epic ballad Under The Westway, and his reactions were genuine. 

He’s since described the July 2023 gigs as the best Blur ever played, so it’s no surprise that the band are marking their first anniversary. 

A candid documentary, Blur: To The End, is in cinemas now, with a two-hour concert film following in September. There’s also a new live album, out today on CD, vinyl, cassette and digitally.

Live records never fully capture the excitement of seeing a show in the flesh, but this one at least hints at the celebratory fervour of those Wembley nights. Touring for the first time in eight years, Blur are in sparkling form, rekindling the fire of their 1995 heyday, when a heated chart battle with rivals Oasis made national news.

Highlights here include the Britpop anthems Parklife — sung by guest Phil Daniels — and Girls & Boys, Damon’s awestruck account of the sexual shenanigans he witnessed on a Brits-abroad holiday on the Med. The post-Britpop years, when Blur’s music took a lo-fi turn, are represented by Coffee & TV, sung by guitarist Graham Coxon, and Song 2.

Blur can be erratic. Modern Life Is Rubbish, an album released in 1993, provided the blueprint for Britpop, but its quirky songs weren’t designed for packed stadiums, and they fall flat here: Popscene sounds ragged; the obscure Villa Rosie leads to a mid-set lull.

The same can’t be said of the band’s brooding, reflective ballads, which suit a balmy summer stadium perfectly. To The End and The Universal are melancholy singalongs, and 1999’s Tender, written about Damon’s split from girlfriend Justine Frischmann, is a delight, illuminated by Coxon’s bluesy guitar and the London Community Gospel Choir.

Following the Wembley gigs, Blur went on the road in Europe, Japan and South America. They also made two appearances at this April’s Coachella festival in California, with Damon suggesting those gigs were ‘probably’ the quartet’s last ever shows.

That should be taken with a pinch of salt. Blur are on sabbatical — with Damon reportedly focusing on one of his other projects, Gorillaz — but the band members remain on good terms. ‘I hope we lifted your spirits,’ says Damon at the end of this album. You would not rule out another emotional reunion.

EMPIRE OF THE SUN: Ask That God (EMI)

Verdict: Star-gazing dance music

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Electropop duo Empire Of The Sun are one of Australia’s most successful musical exports, but producer Nick Littlemore and singer Luke Steele have been quiet since their 2016 album Two Vines.

Their absence was down initially to the pandemic, with the two struggling to write together over Zoom. Littlemore has also been working with his other band, the dance trio Pnau, who topped the charts in 2021 with Cold Heart.

Back in tandem on new album Ask That God, Littlemore and Steele play to their strengths. On their debut LP, 2008’s Walking On A Dream, the pair were honing a strain of gleaming, space-age disco — a sound that has since become a default setting for a lot of modern pop, albeit without as many star-gazing lyrics.

On Ask That God — a record they call ‘a holistic musical adventure where imagination and reality blur’ — they reassert their celestial credentials. The pretentious description is surely tongue in cheek but also a reasonable synopsis of songs that drift off into the realms of fantasy.

The cosmic sparks start to fly on Changes, with lyrics concerning an all-night rave soundtracked by ‘a heart-radio for the soul’. On Cherry Blossom, there are lines about quantum physics. Music On The Radio finds Steele singing of neon trees and referencing German electronic band Tangerine Dream.

The duo never lose sight of the pop essentials. The title track is an 80s-style synth piece, and AEIOU a collaboration with Pnau. But, even at their most earthbound — as on Friends I Know, about conversations in a Tokyo bar — they can’t help but reach for the stars.

Classic disco becomes disco classical in Proms boogie night 

LIVE: Everybody Dance! The Sound Of Disco (Royal Albert Hall)

Verdict: Disco with strings attached

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From the mirror balls above the stage to the sequins and glitter of those trying to pull off John Travolta dance moves in the aisles, the Royal Albert Hall was hit by a bad case of Saturday Night Fever last weekend as the Proms paid homage to the disco sounds of the 1970s and 1980s.

Following last year’s northern soul event, this was another case of the Proms taking a dance genre and giving it a symphonic makeover. Led by conductor Daniel Bartholomew-Poyser, the BBC Concert Orchestra and a squad of soulful singers turned disco classics into disco classical.

The night was inspired by New York nightspot Studio 54. As Bartholomew-Poyser said, that was where ‘artists, singers, actors, dancers and writers came for a night of dance, drinks, fun… and maybe a little debauchery’ (Chic’s Nile Rodgers once described it as ‘Sodom and Gomorrah on steroids’).

There was, mercifully, no debauchery at the Proms. Instead, a well-chosen, 25-song setlist struck a well-informed balance between standards and less celebrated landmarks. Odyssey’s Native New Yorker lent itself well to elegant strings, while Diana Ross’s I’m Coming Out was lit up by a fine trombone solo.

Among the other hits revamped were Chic’s Le Freak and the Bee Gees’ Night Fever, while Basement Jaxx collaborator Vula Malinga almost raised the roof with Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive and Never Can Say Goodbye.

Surprisingly, there was no place for Barry White, who made his mark with The Love Unlimited Orchestra. But Walter Murphy, who fused disco and classical in the 70s, did feature. His Beethoven and Gershwin numbers both worked a treat, leaving scope for a sequel event.

Everybody Dance! The Sound Of Disco is available on BBC Sounds and will be aired on BBC2 at a later date.