MIDWAY through Blur’s momentous Wembley shows, a small workman’s tent appears stage right.
As a raucous rendition of Country House dies down, frontman Damon Albarn peers inside and bellows: “Oi, what are you doing in here?”
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“Digging a hole,” comes the response from the mysterious “workman”.
To the delight of 75,000 rapturous people, this is the cue for the emergence of Phil Daniels — and the familiar opening chords of Parklife.
The actor, known variously for Quadrophenia, EastEnders and, most recently, House Of The Dragon, brings the house down when he spits out the immortal lines.
“Confidence is a preference for the habitual voyeur/Of what is known as.”
“Parklife!” shouts back Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James, drummer Dave Rowntree — and the entire crowd.
It’s just one memorable moment of many in two breathless hours filled with the classics, a few surprises and a couple of promising numbers from Blur’s forthcoming album The Ballad Of Darren.
The band brought Albarn’s West London stomping ground to the North Circular by singing Under The Westway for the first time in nearly ten years.
Lot 105 became a giant salute to the home of football as a chorus of “Wem-ber-ly!” rang out, and there was a big shout-out to the king of Live Aid, Queen’s Freddie Mercury.
While the band were given the England dressing room as their backstage camp, Daniels found himself in the well-appointed referees’ quarters.
By happy chance, it has a sofa and chairs in striking Union Jack print, eminently suitable for a Mod legend.
I’m catching up with him between the two shows and I find him in high spirits about this momentous celebration of peak Britpop.
As he stepped out into the tumult to do Parklife, Daniels was struck by the sheer power of a Wembley crowd in full party mode.
“It was amazing from my point of view,” he says.
“When I did the soundcheck in the morning, it was completely empty. Then, in the evening, I could see seats right at the back all filled.
“I looked out there and everyone was going mad, hanging on every word.
“Parklife is just about the right length of song as well. You get an instant fix and then it’s onto something else.
“It was a brilliant audience. From Tracy Jacks onwards, they were really going for it.”
So, which were his other highlights?
“I’m a bit of an old ham so I liked (final encore) The Universal and all the old hits. Of the new stuff, The Narcissist is great.”
He also singles out the anthem Tender, which turned Wembley into a giant cathedral of sound with the help of The London Community Gospel Choir.
‘You get an instant fix’
For full atmospheric effect, two giant mirrorballs and thousands of phone lights cast swirling sparkles around the arena.
So, what was it like for Daniels being inside that tent with all hell breaking loose outside it? I ask him.
“Well, I like to be put into a situation where I can concentrate and not be bothered before I go onstage,” he replies.
“It’s a handy tool for me to be put into a little workman’s tent.
“My mic wasn’t turned on for the whole time I was in there but it will be tonight.
“I’m looking forward to some banter with Damon in his big Country House and me in my little Wembley tent.”
Daniels first did his Parklife vocal for 1994’s Blur album of the same name and he has relished the chance to do it again in 2023.
He says: “They’d have got rid of me by now if Damon was the governor of that song.
“Early doors, 30 years ago, I think it was hard for the record company to accept me.
“They wanted Damon to do it but he decided he couldn’t and that he wanted me.”
The idea to employ Daniels, he believes, may have come from the Blur bandmates’ love of the film Meantime, Mike Leigh’s powerful study of being on the dole in Thatcher’s Britain, starring Tim Roth, Gary Oldman and Phil.
Daniels says: “I think they used to watch Meantime on the tour bus, because Graham can quote nearly every single line from it.
“Me and him still trade lines from it all the time to this day.”
Bearing in mind that both Daniels and Albarn are avid Chelsea fans (don’t mention last season!), there was another immediate connection.
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And their shared love of football has given the Wembley gigs special significance.
Performing with Blur is just like the old days. The only difference is that before they go on stage now, everybody’s got to find their glasses.
Phil Daniels
“We both played in a charity game here, God knows how many years ago — England v Scotland,” says Daniels.
“I think it was the first game ever played at the new stadium. We beat Scotland one-nil and Damon scored the goal — he’s never, ever forgotten that.
“Even on the stage last night when we were doing Parklife, he said in my ear, ‘Tell them I scored a goal here!’
“Every time I’ve seen him recently, he goes, ‘We’re playing Wembley!’ like an excited schoolboy.”
Daniels says that, over the past few days, Albarn has been particularly taken by a bronze statue of England’s 1966 World Cup-winning manager.
“Damon said to me, ‘Yesterday, I patted Sir Alf on the head and I felt a bit guilty. Today, I’ve made up for it by kissing him!”
For this particular Blur comeback (the last was in 2015), Daniels first performed with them at a small warm-up gig in the genteel South Coast town of Eastbourne.
“It was the first time I saw them again after all those years,” he says. “I walked into the dressing room and they were all there. It was all big hugs and love.”
And how does being with Blur today compare with the old days?
“The only difference is that before they go on stage now, everybody’s got to find their glasses,” says Daniels with one of his mischievous laughs. “People can’t see as well when they get older!”
On the one hand, these shows are like stepping back in time to the Nineties and the heady days of Britpop.
On the other, playing the hallowed Wembley Stadium is the biggest live event in Blur’s 25-year history.
And, to borrow from Parklife, there’s also been a fair bit of “vorsprung durch technik”, which translates as “progress through technology”, in the intervening years . . . hence a dazzling stage display.
‘Music is in our psyche’
Daniels retains buckets of respect for Albarn and the rest of the band.
He says: “Being in Blur is great for Damon because he doesn’t have to run the show so much — it runs itself.
“He can be an out-and-out frontman. He says to me, ‘I’m really not nervous anymore.’”
Of the others, Daniels says: “Graham to me is like a manifestation of Eric Morecambe, one of the funniest blokes you’ll ever meet. He’s so dry and so clever.
“On the guitar, he never puts a foot wrong, even when he’s spinning it up in the air.
“Dave’s probably the quietest. He gets on with it but he’s fun.
“And Alex is lovely and still goes out of an evening and enjoys himself. He hasn’t changed much at all.”
Next, I get Daniels to comment on another Britpop phenomenon, Oasis, and whether they might reform one day, too.
“I don’t really know Oasis but I’m sure they’d fill Wembley,” he says.
“Their fans long for it and the new fans, who are the sons and daughters of the old ones, would also love it. Whether it’s Oasis, Pulp, Blur . . . that music is in our psyche.
“A lot of the people who have come up to me at Wembley are probably in their forties and fifties.
“I can feel their nostalgia and when I’m singing, I can feel my nostalgia.
“And yet it has felt fresh and new. You’ve got to put it all in to get anything out.”
So, does he hope to reprise his Parklife role again one day?
“You never say never but I’m ten years older than them.
“In ten years, I’ll be 74 and they’ll be 64!”
The last word is with the man who could make the next reunion happen, Damon Albarn.
He began the Wembley show by exclaiming: “Obviously, we’ve been waiting for this moment all our lives.”
And he ended it by announcing that show had been “a dream come true”.
Blur at Wembley Stadium
★★★★★
Setlist
- St Charles Square
- There’s No Other Way
- Popscene
- Tracy Jacks
- Beetlebum
- Trimm Tabb
- Villa Rosie
- Stereotypes
- Out Of Time
- Coffee & TV
- Under The Westway (first time since 2014)
- End of a Century
- Country House
- Parklife (with Phil Daniels)
- To The End
- Oily Water
- Advert
- Song 2
- This Is A Low
- ENCORE:
- Lot 105 (first time since 1994)
- Girls & Boys
- For Tomorrow
- Tender (with London Community Gospel Choir)
- The Narcissist
- The Universal
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