With the wife in full soap opera mode last night, I was in the need to while away two hours of crap so I put the headphones on and dived into YouTube. I have nothing prepared so I when along my playlist picking the odd tune and while listening to some Blur I spied a documentary of the band and decided to sit back and give it a watch.
I soon realised I had seen the starting 20 minutes or so but I could not have finished it. It was a very interesting look into the band from their beginnings, Britpop, Oasis, the break up and the healing to them coming back for their 2009 reunion gigs.
During the Britpop frenzy between Blur and Oasis I was on the fence as I like both although I would not call myself a fan of either really.
There are very few Brits of the time could deny that Blur helped define a pivotal moment in modern music. Their recent mammoth shows, after a 9-year hiatus, were a testament to the support that remains for them. Hearing the opening for Song 2 at the beginning of the trailer takes you straight back to remembering a period in music that was incredibly exciting and dramatic.
The Blur band members (Damon Albarn - Singer/Guitar, Graham Coxon · Guitar, Alex James - Bass, and Dave Rowntree - Drums) give exceedingly honest accounts of their feelings towards each other. their emotions, their ambitions, the stories behind the songs / albums, their personal lives, the split-up and the reunion ... all interlaced with great gig footage and behind the scenes "never seen before" footage that really draws you into the inner circle of the make-up of the band.
The four members of the band have always been intriguing and their post-blur careers very varied, from James’ cheese making antics, Dave’s foray into politics and Damon’s enormous success with other musical interests like Gorillazs.
But it's shy guitarist Graham Coxon who steals the show, he seems the unlikeliest of pop stars, which explains much of why he found his fame so hard to deal with. He did not same to like much about the time in the band including the music and hated the label Britpop.
Filmed throughout the band’s 2009 rehearsals and acclaimed summer tour, No Distance Left to run finds all four members of Blur together for the first time in nine years. With previously unseen archive material alongside new interviews, the film recounts the highs and lows of a British band from the late 80’s to their headline return at Glastonbury and Hyde Park. The result is a musing on Englishness and identity and a portrait of friendship and resolution.
This is a very interesting film/documentary - and it is great to get an inner perspective of what motivates drives bands such as Blur in this "fly on the wall" way - as well as getting the real take on what the creative influences were behind many of their songs albums
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