Setlist:
'Lot 105 (Intro)'
'She's So High'
'Girls and Boys'
'Tracy Jacks'
'There's No Other Way'
'Jubilee'
'Badhead'
'Beetlebum'
'Out of Time'
'Trimm Trabb'
'Coffee and TV'
'Tender'
'Country House'
'Oily Water'
'Chemical World'
'Sunday Sunday'
'Parklife'
'End of a Century'
'To the End'
'This is a Low'

Encore:
'Popscene'
'Advert'
'Song 2'

Encore:
'For Tomorrow'
'The Universal'

I know...fucking everyone's reforming these days, and despite the fact that Blur never officially split, I was slightly nervous this would be a celebration of Britpop - where music went wrong in the 1990's in the UK. Possibly not encouraged by the fact Blur don't appear to have any new material and are just doing a few big shows; tonight was one of several warm-up shows for Glastonbury, Hyde Park et al.

Perhaps this tour should be seen as the four-piece licking their wounds and coming together to celebrate their career, popping a nice conclusion to Blur before returning to their solo careers, cheese-making etc?

There was too much Parklife for my liking, though I guess they were giving the people what they wanted - as well as the title track minus Phil Daniels they even played the execrable 'Country House' and the turgid Oliver Twist mockney wankathon 'Sunday Sunday.' They also offered quite ropey versions of Britpop anthems like 'Chemical World', 'For Tomorrow', and 'Girls and Boys' - most of the stuff that doesn't interest me about Blur.

Great to hear them start on debut single 'She's So High', which got positively psychedelic towards the end and was followed a little later by a rapid Hendrix-style 'There's No Other Way.' Even better was the centre of the set where the gorgeous 'Badhead' was followed by 'Beetlebum' (still one of the strangest number ones and sounding like Sonic Youth doing The White Album), Think Tank's 'Out of Time' (now benefiting from Coxon's presence), a charming 'Coffee and TV', and a spellbinding take on 'Tender' which left the recorded version in dust.

Best of all was 13's 'Trimm Trabb' which channelled Bowie and sonic maelstrom wonderfully, especially the part where Albarn screams over a wall of Coxon's feedback. Nice of Blur to represent their art-rock side, almost as great was a version of 'Oily Water' which saw Albarn sing Mark E Smith-style through a megaphone (as on the Rollercoaster tour) and Coxon remind us his guitar-style was heavily influenced by Dinosaur Jr. The main set concluded after several obligatory anthems, a jazzy 'To the End' and an epic take on 'This is a Low' could not be denied. The first encore opened with their lost single 'Popscene' which sounded like that Mudhoney LP where they got horns in, as well as a violent 'Advert' and a version of 'Song 2' worthy of The Minutemen. The set ended too early with a perfect take on 'The Universal', which I guess had to be the last song...

The only regret was that they have rehearsed pretty much everything they've recorded, yet didn't change the set much - it would have been nice if they'd played one of their many great b-sides like 'Black Book', 'Mr Briggs' or 'Young and Lovely' or album tracks like 'Blue Jeans', 'Death of a Party', and 'He Thought of Cars.' Still, regardless of the Britpop anthems which might be too familiar for objectivity, Blur reminded us how great they were and Radiohead apart, who of their peer bands could come close?