It’s been three years since Blur last played Hyde Park as part of the Olympic closing ceremony and six years when they played 2 sell out dates to celebrate their reunion, and here they are again headlining British Summer Time.

As the various ice cream van tunes pump through the PA, the band stroll onto the stage, Alex James with customary fag, Graham Coxon picking up his guitar en route, Dave Rowntree wearing the traditional Fred Perry gets behind the drum kit and Damon Albarn swaggers around the stage letting everyone know he was ‘up for it’.

The openings bars of ‘Go Out’ from the Magic Whip is all that’s required for 65,000 Fred Perry’s and Ice Cream Tee’s to start bouncing. After ‘There's No Other Way’ Albarn makes the gesture of offering 99’s to a few lucky ones, prefacing that this could go one of two ways, to nobody’s surprise it went pear shape.

Photo from: Barclaycard British Summer Time

Luckily the performance doesn't and provides more highlights than you can shake the proverbial stick at, these include ‘Coffee & TV’, with Coxon's, reverb-heavy guitar adding depth to the track about Albarns experimentation with heroin, and ‘Tender’. Albarn then introduces the ever chirpy (if not ageing) Phil Daniels, the crowd goes mad in anticipation of ‘Parklife’, it says much about the strength of their back catalogue that Parklife doesn’t close their set.

Next up is ‘Ong Ong’ from The Magic whip, its catchy chorus ensures yet another sing along, the anthemic ‘Song 2’ takes the show to new heights.

The show ends with a rousing rendition of ‘The Universal‘ they say their good byes, let’s hope this isn't the last time.

Photo from: Barclaycard British Summer Time

With the rain teaming down Metronomy entered the BST main stage with one thing in mind, to bring the sun out and literally warm everyone up for Blur. Oh boy did they manage to do that! Starting with ‘Holiday’ and ‘Radio Ladio’, two old favourites from 2008's ‘Nights Out’ you could see that the crowd were finally starting to move.

By the mid-point of the set the sky's had begun to clear and the synchronised dance moves on stage added another extra layer of fun to ‘The Look’, they even managed to even get members of the audience that had no idea who anyone else on the line was up other than Blur to stop sneering and get involved.

An hour and a half later set closer ‘You Could Easily Have Me’, from "all the way back in 2006", Metronomy had won. The sun was out and the whole audience was involved in the music. Hipsters and 50 year old dads alike were bopping along to the most inaccessible song of the whole set.

Earlier in the day Jupiter and Okwess International provided an inspired set to get everyone up dancing and forget the rain with their funk, rock and traditional Congolese rhythms.

Article by: Mick Game