Blur: To the End

I am not a massive Blur fan. I don't own any of their CDs, however as someone who was around in the 90's, like Oasis, Blur were part of everyone in the UK's psyche. It was impossible to not hear their music on Top Of The Pops, radio or even nightclubs and pubs if you were socialising at this time. They were not as popular as the more working class Oasis. However Blur did have their fans, which seemed to be mainly female and/or students. They were hyped as being more cerebral than Oasis. But were mocked by their rivals as playing "Cockney Chimney Sweep Music" by one Liam Gallagher.

This is an odd documentary as it finds the band prepping for their Wembley gig. While they apparently haven't been in touch, that is almost irrelevant as they are still pretty much well known to the UK press. One for cheese and the others for playing music. However this is more intimate camera work and that is the rub of this doc. Because Blur have almost a bad reputation for not being that pleasant. There have been numerous stories about their behaviour and theres the infamous Naurduar interview. This documentary doesn't exactly negate that image. They come across as a but whiny and irritable, unlikable almost. They don't even seem to like each other. The Wembley gig seems like a cash grab and they are simply enduring each other for the payday. So not a million miles from Oasis. However it is still good to see they are still functioning as a band. And some of the convert footage is good. But the much covered incident of Damon breaking down crying on stage isn't in this doc. An obvious omission. I've no idea whats next for Blur but what I do know is a UK tour wasnt on the cards. Like I said, they weren't as popular as Oasis.

For a few years during the 1990s, British band Blur was defining the new cool for Britons and Anglophiles, as the middle-class, middle-brow alternative to Oasis' in-your-face working-class ethos, in what became known as 'The Battle of Britpop', arguably to the ultimate detriment of both bands. This new documentary about the band is unruly, repetitive, and often unappealing, but it's also contemplative, beautiful, and ultimately triumphant. The sort of music documentary made for all the right reasons and willing to get stuck in without resorting to pure adulation. The band members and the music scene they once were a part of (and to a certain degree still are), come across as something of a curiosity in today's world, making those of us who were there to witness and experience it realise that pop music, such as it once was, arguably isn't at all pop anymore. Like Blur themselves, the scene they belonged to and largely defined, just appears to be holding on to the end.

I was always more of a "Blur" fan than an "Oasis" one, but to be honest I'd forgotten completely why they had split up. This fly-on-the-wall documentary tries to fill in some of the gaps as it reunites the four members of the band who are going to record their first new album in decades and do a little mini-tour of some "intimate" venues before a couple of gigs in front of eighty-odd thousand people at London's Wembley stadium. The film is centred around Damon Albarn's home in the South West of England and as Graham Coxon (anyone else think he's turning into Dudley Moore?), renowned cheesemaker Alex James and Dave Rowntree turn up it seems that there's a lot of forgiving and forgetting going on. There's a conversational candour from all four about their demise as a band. They couldn't stand the sight of one another - hardly surprising after living in each other's pockets for years, but it's clear that there is still something compelling, addictive even, about their relationships that will either float or sink this ambitions project that is proving nerve-wracking even now, after years of performing. I could have been doing with more of their music, if only to remind me there was more to them than "Boys and Girls" and "Parklife", and I could have done with less of their political hypocrisy as they live in safe conservative parliamentary seats whilst espousing urbanite socialism - but when it comes down to it, they are just four formerly quite handsome guys (yes, I know that's reductive!) who knew how to put lyrics and music into a format that mischievously and vibrantly entertained on a stage and on a television at a time when music in Britain was undoubtedly suffering from a creative malaise that was crying out for something different, energetic and powerful. I liked the style of this documentary and I liked the very fact that it's an episode in the lives of these four, now quite different, men. What happens next is anyone's guess.

Sadly, on a big screen tv the gimmicky aggressive handheld camera footage made this hard to watch without feeling very ill (think carsickness). Why do some so-called camera-operators think that the more they throw a camera around the more it feels like a home video?? As we know, all modern-day phones etc, have amazing stabilization, that continue to improve, so that we can get away from all this un-stabilized footage. Such a shame as I couldn't watch without feeling ill. Wonder how many other viewers felt the same. BTW being an Aussie we don't know much about the band, but LOVE a couple of songs so were really looking forward to this .. sadly !!!

Chronicling the experience of the Britpop legends emergence together after nearly a decade since recording their most recent studio album, "Blur: To the End" is a revealing glimpse at aging, human interaction and great music. Converging at lead singer Damon Albarn's rural domicile away from the limelight the band record their comeback album "The Ballad of Darren" and the film follows the lads with the English countryside and coasts as picturesque backdrops as they trek across Britain and Spain to tour in support of the new album. Interviews with the group and classic footage and images of them from their teens and younger peak years as a band during the 1990s add a touch of the legend. Laughs, insights, tempers, broken bones and rocking performances constitute the human drama as the tour culminates in a solid performance at Wembley Stadium in London where the band rock out for the first time and cap a deep and moving experience with a triumphant bow.

Proof that Rock 'n' Roll and it's attendant lifestyle is for the young after seeing what those can do here with what once was four trim, young handsome men transform into weary, miserable, craggy-faced old men with rotund bellies and protruding chests prove that one should know when to make a grand exit. But no matter. After viewing these four amiable and easy-going gentlemen and the stories and lessons they share on living a rollercoaster life topped by outstanding artistry one can see why these rockumentaries are made. A simple and direct tribute to a great band this is for fans and for us '90s kids who carry our great time within us like a weapon and a soul.