Meanwhile, judging by the new music being demoed at Maison Rouge studios in Fulham with Stephen Street, Blur’s horizons had broadened considerably since ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish’. Real self-confidence and proper talent, all coming through at the same time.”īlur in Tokyo, 1994, L-R Alex James, Graham Coxon, Damon Albarn, Dave Rowntree (Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images) “Like Elastica, Menswear, Pulp were sharpening up, and I’d seen Oasis in the autumn of ’93 and thought, my god, then the beginning of ’94 we saw Supergrass – another brilliant band. “At the same time you had other bands coming out on the scene,” Smith recalls. The press in general seemed to come to a collective conclusion that they’d missed the boat, and went into damage limitation mode, getting more and more receptive to anything the band subsequently did.” A lot of journalists realised, ‘Oops, we really fucked up there’. “The fans really came through for the band that day, and it turned the corner significantly. The music press were also starting to get excited, Andy Ross recalls.
#Parklife blur mod
It was full of kids, in suits and boots – it was a take on mod identity which a lot of people got into, and it’s an easy look.” “In ’93, ’94, there were bands with real self-confidence and proper talent, all coming through at the same time” – Mike Smith, A&R “They did a show headlining the tent at Reading in August ‘93, and you suddenly realised people were really starting to get it. Mike Smith, the A&R legend who had snapped the band up for their original publishing deal and has been a close friend ever since, could also see the tide turning for them. “At first it had felt like we had no compadres, no gang,” says Coxon, “until we saw Pulp and thought, these guys get it too – a bit eccentric, more highbrow pop with a bit of wit.” That sense continued to seep through the back half of 1993, helped by the growing feeling that Blur had fellow travellers on their quest to re-establish a potent strain of artful indie-rock with a smart (in both meanings) British accent, steel toecaps and a subtle but distinct sense of humour. There seemed to be a feeling that the time was right.”ĭamon Albarn in 1994 (Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images) “But at the same time, we were confident. “There was a sense of ‘this has got to work’,” he says. But as Stephen Street recalls, another commercial under-performance was not an option.
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