The forgotten Blur song the band refuse to play: “Worst verse you ever heard”
There are certain songs that will find their way into almost every iteration of Blur’s setlist. Their 2000 hit ‘Girls and Boys’, for example, has become a staple in their set, with the band playing it live over 460 times. ‘Parklife’ is another mainstay, a singalong hit guaranteed to get the crowd moving, while ‘To the End’ provides a quieter moment in the Britpop band’s live show. But while some songs have been played hundreds of times, others are less lucky.
Some songs seem to get left out of live sets more than others, perhaps because they’re not all that interesting to play, or maybe they never really took off with fans, or it could be that they just don’t fit with the direction of the band anymore. ‘Mirrorball’, for example, which featured on their 2015 album The Magic Whip, has been played live less than ten times, while ‘No Monsters in Me’ has appeared on their setlist just once.
Like all bands, Blur could make an entirely new setlist out of the tracks that they rarely play live. But there is one song in particular that they seem intent on never performing again: ‘Bang’, from their debut album, Leisure. The 1991 album birthed some of the biggest hits in Britpop and in Blur’s catalogue, including ‘There’s No Other Way’ and ‘She’s So High’, but it also spawned a song that the band members seem to regret ever writing.
Following the mammoth success of the first two singles from Leisure, Blur unleashed ‘Bang’. The song had been rushedly written to please their label, and you can hear it. Compared to the palpable energy in their previous singles, ‘Bang’ lacked the striking quality its title implied, pairing uninspired guitars with drawn-out declarations of, “I don’t need anyone, but a little love could make things better.”
It wasn’t necessarily a bad song, but it wasn’t a good one either. And that was the problem, it was just mediocre, a quality that was reflected in the responses from audiences and critics when it was first released. ‘Bang’ performed poorly compared to the pieces that had preceded it, lacking in identity and impact, and even Blur would eventually grow to hate the song.
As a result, they began to exempt it from their live set. It has now been almost 25 years since Blur last played ‘Bang’ live, but they gave it a solid send-off towards the end of 1999. After playing ‘There’s No Other Way’, Blur gave ‘Bang’ its final outing, performing it to thousands of fans at London’s mammoth Wembley Arena. They haven’t played it since.
Unfortunately for those few Blur fans who were taken in by ‘Bang’, it doesn’t seem like the band are keen on ever reintroducing the poorly-received single into their setlist. Bassist Alex James told Select that he doesn’t think they will ever play it again, adding, “Fuckin’ hell, worst verse you ever heard.”
While that statement may be a slight exaggeration, ‘Bang’ certainly is one of the least interesting entries into Blur’s catalogue. Most of their songs are vibrant and impassioned, full of “Woohoo”s and “Parklife!”s, but ‘Bang’ was completely lacking in that energy, a filler single that failed to reach its full potential. It’s easy to see why they won’t save it a spot in their setlist.
