Watch Blur play ‘Luminous’ for the first time in 24 years
During their rapturous headline performance at Primavera Sound in Barcelona last night, Blur played the rare track ‘Luminous’ live for the first time in 24 years and added the classic 1995 single ‘Country House’ back to their setlist. The Britpop legends also aired some new tracks from their forthcoming album, The Ballad Of Darren.
At around the halfway mark of their set, Damon Albarn and the gang pulled ‘Luminous’ out of the locker for the superfans, and it went down a treat. The lesser-known track was released as the B-side for ‘Bang’, and also featured on Blur’s debut album of 1991, Leisure.
‘Luminous’ recently resurfaced as part of Blur’s B-side collection, Blur Present The Special Collectors Edition. The highly anticipated release arrived as a contribution to April’s Record Store Day celebrations. Other B-sides included deeper cuts from Leisure, Modern Life Is Rubbish and Parklife.
Another prominent moment came as Blur dusted off ‘Country House’ for a spin. Although the track is among the band’s most beloved hits, the band has neglected to perform it during live shows since the 2015 Magic Whip tour. The track was preceded by a brief rendition of ‘I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside’.
‘Country House’ was released at the height of Blur’s Britpop battle against Oasis. The Manchester group released ‘Roll With It’ on the same day – August 14th – so as to fuel the rivalry. Ultimately, Blur won that battle, with ‘Country House’ reaching number one, forcing ‘Roll With It’ to settle for silver.
“It’s so, so lovely to be back with my old friends again,” Albarn said to the audience early in the set. “I’ve known them since I was young! I met Graham [Coxon] in school when I was 12. And here we still are.”
Watch fan-captured footage of the performance below.
