Blur, Self Esteem – Wembley Stadium, Wembley

My 11th Blur gig, and my biggest one ever.

There had been rumours this was coming – but there have been before. The gig was announced in November, so I’ve been looking forward to this for over 6 months.

I expected this to sell out quickly – and it did. Being 39,633th in queue at one point meant I wasn’t going to get a great view, but we got there in the end.

I was a little bit peeved about being 2/3 of the way back until the Newcastle warm up gig was announced – and I got tickets for that. So much more relaxed about being here, with supports I wasn’t so keen on.

What I didn’t expect was a second Wembley gig which didn’t sell out so quickly and had better support acts – oh well!

Sleaford Mods replaced Slowthai on the bill. I missed them as we were a bit short of time (we weren’t, but I was having a rare evening of beer and pizza). The ‘Mods didn’t go down too well with the crowd according to The Idiots On Social Media, but I’ve seen them before and really enjoyed them.

We caught just a bit of Self Esteem’s act. Everyone raves about her but I just don’t get it. Nothing that everyone hasn’t heard before. Sorry!

Obviously this was my second Blur gig and a much different affair to Newcastle. It was a shame I was so far away from the stage that even my 100x zoom on my camera couldn’t fix it. It was nice to have your own space though, to see everything and not have someone take your half a square yard every time you shifted from one foot to another.

And for a stadium gig, it seemed incredibly intimate. The sound was good and it genuinely felt like it was a smaller venue at times. Two hours and ten minutes which just flew by. Worth every penny.

Setlist not quite as good as Newcastle’s but still excellent – they have never been anything less than that. And every single Blur gig is a bonus!

The Debt Collector (played from tape)
St Charles Square
There’s No Other Way
Popscene
Tracy Jacks
Beetlebum
Trimm Trabb
Villa Rosie
Stereotypes
Out Of Time
Coffee & TV
Under The Westway (First time live since 2014)
End Of A Century (Preceded by applause for Freddie Mercury)
Country House (Preceded by Damon going into a tent on stage to find out who was in it)
Parklife (with Phil Daniels)
To The End
Oily Water
Advert
Song 2 (With false start)
This Is A Low
Encore:
Lot 105 (First time live since 1994; with “Wembley” intro and chant throughout)
Girls & Boys
For Tomorrow
Tender (with London Community Gospel Choir)
The Narcissist
The Universal