The Beat Surrender

As a dedicated fan of a band you are similar in many ways to a football supporter, although you may have a soft spot for other bands there is no way on earth you’d consider following any other group of musicians around the country on tour, much as you wouldn’t choose to go watch another team.

Sure just as you might watch games from any team on the TV, you’ll be happy enough to go to see other bands when they hit your local area, but that obsession and devotion is saved for the one group that you feel a connection with.

It’s not just the lyrics, it’s the music as well, a single note (Graham’s guitar in This Is A Low) from a song can lift your spirits on hearing it, they’ll have tracks that suit your every mood and can soundtrack your life and you find yourself becoming a collector.

Not just in the traditional way of getting hold of rare recordings and limited editions etc, but also in experiences, you grow up with the band in a sense and your lives become entwined in shared experiences.

That’s certainly the case for me with Blur, from the first time I saw them in Bradford in 1993 (I got into the whole gig going thing quite late for a music lover) I knew they were the band for me, just as I knew when I saw Leeds United lose at home in my first ever football match that they would be my team.

So they saw me through my sixth form years at school, I caught them several times when I was at Uni travelling to London to see them, headed on a coach and ferry to Dublin to see them in 1996 and have racked up countless gigs and festivals since, each time giving me something different, a new experience to add to my collection and memory bank.

Which is why I’m here on day two of my own mini tour to see them again in Newcastle, having travelled up from last night’s gig in Wolverhampton today I’m tired, but I’m also hugely excited, last night had been brilliant and had answered some pre gig nerves for me.

Would they still be as good? Should they have done these dates or left it as it was? Was the chemistry going to be as good after everything that happened?

You see when your support of a band is so public, it again is like a football thing, outsiders are looking for them (your team and your band) to fail, they could never understand why you feel like you do about them and so there success becomes almost personal to you.

I was delighted, relieved, chuffed, relieved, ecstatic and relieved that they had been so good in Wolverhampton. Why so relieved you might ask? Well as I say above it’s personal and the gig had answered my own doubts and even louder ones from the non-believers.

Amazingly tonight is even better in Newcastle, as good as the venue was last night, something special happens in Newcastle tonight for it all to come together into a near perfect gig. The venue is perfect, a touch smaller (at least it seems it) and more enclosed, the energy between crowd and band is amplified, air conditioning makes a huge difference as well just to the overall ambience, it does wonders for your own enjoyment when a walk to the bar doesn’t result in a river flowing from your head.

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