Modern Life Is Rubbish

I remember when I started buying CDs wanting the first Blur CD, but it was quite pricey at Our Price. Eventually I bought it, and loved it. I went to see Blur in concert with my sister. We both loved it. That was 1991, I guess. In the summer of 1993, I bought their second album straightaway. It was called Modern Life is Rubbish (get it?). That was an even better album. Well, it was as good, but different, so hard to compare. Tales of British life, getting Blur tee'd up for the epic that was Parklife.

What I don't get, is that while I was buying the first CD, and all the singles, going to see them live, getting their second CD and singles, is that they had no money and we basically still out on the streets. Now, when they were touring they were looked after. And probably blew lots of their own / their record company's dough. But surely the record company would have had some money for them. It saddens me that at that time, they could have given up as they needed to get money in to pay the bills, yet they already had had a top 10 single and a top 10 album. I guess that is not good enough. Imagine all those other bands that do fail. Blur almost gave up before Parklife. What a tragedy that would have been. Thank goodness Girls & Boys saved them.

The book was good, but not enough depth for me. A bit of a bragging exercise by Alex James. I mean, it's interesting all the stuff that he got up to (he just happened to be in with Damien Hirst as he was getting tons of cash in hand and using it to party). I mean, it's quite incredible all the cash that started flowing after Parklife and Song 2 with him and his mates. And the flying lifestyle. But after a while it is a bit like "jumped on plane to NY, blew lots of cash at this party, met gorgeous girl and her mates, woke up somewhere random, flew back to London, recorded number one hit, flew of to iceland, blew some more cash" etc.

I guess I was hoping for more insight into what it was like recording Parklife, rather than just that the crowd went mental when the firs played Girls & Boys so they knew they were on to a winner.

What it does do, though, is make me want to dig out more Blur books. And listen to more Blur music. And hopefully get some stuff from the others' points of view.

So, back to Amazon. Alex, if you're reading this, I liked the book, I think you're great, I just got jealous reading the book ok?

And as I came back to home today, I found this new excellent Blur website, Vikko's Blur Page.