Blur live in Dublin: ‘Céad míle fáilte’ barks Damon Albarn on an emotionally charged night of hit after hit

Blur

Malahide Castle, Co Dublin

★★★★☆

The best part of 30 short years ago, Blur headlined Feile ‘95 on a Saturday night, sandwiched between The Prodigy and The Stone Roses, who bookended the first and last time the event was held in Cork’s Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Back then in their imperial heyday, Damon Albarn and his chums were riding high on the crest of a wave on the back of Parklife, their epoch and career-defining third album. It became much more than just a soundtrack for the times, but a cultural juggernaut that inspired a fashion for luridly coloured Adidas track suit tops, Fred Perry polo shirts, and elegantly wasted mod haircuts.

Since those glory days, Blur have released five studio albums, endured a nuclear fall out, effectively fired one of the finest guitarists of his generation, Graham Coxon, subsequently kissed and made up, and became individually enmeshed in a dazzling array of highly successful ventures from cheese-making to creating a cartoon hip-hop band.

Blur undisputedly possess the four strongest personalties of the entire 1990s set. Face it, nobody gave a damn about Oasis aside from the Gallaghers, or would recognise a member of Pulp who isn’t named Jarvis on the street. Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James, and Dave Rowntree may have visibly aged, but they perform with the vigour and chutzpah of a brand new band, albeit one with a back catalogue to die for.

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They swagger onstage to the strains of the theme tune to the British soap opera Crossroads, which ran on ITV between 1964 and 1988. Damon Albarn barks “céad míle fáilte” into his microphone, and they launch into a new song entitled St. Charles Square, the first of three tasters for next month’s new studio album, The Ballad of Darren.

[ Damon Albarn: ‘I’ve lost one of the loves of my life’ ]

The newbies are deployed sparingly in a 23-song set list that ranges from early singles There’s No Other Way and Popscene to the evergreen anthems Song 2 and Parklife. The latter features a surprise cameo from Quadrophenia star Phil Daniels, which sends the crowd into delirium and pints of beer into the air.

This rendition of one of their signature songs dramatically elevates the evening into first gear. The majestic melancholy of This is a Low beautifully closes the main set. The quartet return for a raucous rendition of Girls and Boys, which Albarn performs draped in a Pride flag. Tender, recent single The Narcissist, and their 1995 ballad, The Universal, cap an emotionally charged night from the cockroaches of Britpop.

Two mammoth homecoming shows in Wembley Stadium beckon next month, which on the strength of this whopper of a performance in north Dublin, will be talked about for decades to come.