Wembley can be your field of dreams, or a crucible of disappointment; in the run up to Blur’s two landmark shows there in July 2023 Damon Albarn cited Freddie Mercury as one of it’s winners, his performance at Live Aid setting the benchmark for thousands of aspiring 20th century pop stars.
Whether these shows will actually mark the band’s last – well, history tells us that their break up to make up inter relationships mean a future reunion is more likely than not. But for now listeners can suspend belief and enjoy what for them was obviously a cathartic experience, never better exemplified than when Albarn breaks down in tears at the end of Under the Westway. It’s not admittedly great radio, but that’s missing the point.
Whatever else you’d want from a Blur live show is either present or represented in some way. Those who’ve post-demonised Britpop can sneer at Girls And Boys, the rarely played Country House and of course Parklife, but if nothing else serving them up with so much vigour deserves kudos itself. The somehow still underrated Modern Life Is Rubbish deservedly gets the setlist’s most exposure, but the finale is an 80,000 mass singalong around the old joanner, with Tender and The Universal getting everyone into the kind of Blitz spirit they’re going to need during the two hour wait for the underground.
Wembley loves winners. And if this is honestly, genuinely, definitely goodbye, then this was lots more than just any old Radio Ga Ga.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 
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