Blur: To The End
★★★★
Cinemas
Brilliant doc capturing their 2023 reunion
“The less we do, the bigger we get,” notes Dave Rowntree of Blur getting to play Wembley Stadium for the first time in 2023, eight years since their previous album and 21 since their initial dissolution.
While relationships have appeared amicable enough since Blur’s first reunion in 2009, To The End is beautiful both in showing their varying degrees of emotional intelligence, and in allowing everyone’s individual complexities to emerge.
Few will be surprised that Damon Albarn is sometimes overbearing, yelling: “You’re making me look an amateur!” when Alex James messes up in rehearsal. But Albarn’s sweetness and humour are equally present. Coxon is fidgety, James larky and Rowntree eccentric: they all really do need each other, summarised when Albarn notes of their excellent reunion album ,The Ballad Of Darren, that it began with the newly single singer isolated on his farm in Devon, before becoming “a record about my brothers”.
James admits he thought Albarn was laughing onstage at one show, only to realise the singer was in tears, brought home when Albarn cries during The Ballad Of Darren’s first playback and none of his bandmates quite know how to react.
But director Toby L – the head of Coxon’s solo label, Transgressive – ensures the lighter aspects of the reunion are documented, especially when Coxon has to urinate in a roadie’s Diet Coke can during the walk to the Wembley stage as he’s missed his last toilet break opportunity. The guitarist’s extended rant about the concrete floor of Blur’s live rehearsal studio is also delicious for anyone seeking the reality of the work a stadium show requires.
Footage of the Wembley warm-up gigs mainly focuses on Blur’s most adrenalised songs like Popscene and Advert, which climaxes with Song 2 from the stadium sounding an incredible roar: September’s accompanying concert film
Live At Wembley Stadium should be thrilling. Meanwhile, here’s one of the great fullyrounded music documentaries, a full-stop decades on from the mania of Blur’s Britpop-era Starshaped film. Never has a band member recounting being sent an email been so heartwarming. John Earls