‘I thought Blur’s 1995 Gorleston gig was a hoax,’ says paper editor

Getty ImagesWeeks after taking part in to 27,000 followers at Mile Finish Stadium, Blur set off on a tour of conventional seaside resorts On the peak of their chart battle with Oasis and following their first stadium gig, Blur switched tack and headed to among the nation’s far-flung small music venues as a part of their 1995 Seaside Tour.Thirty years in the past this month, the four-piece boarded their white double-decker tour bus certain for conventional seashore resorts on the sides of Britain.Areas included Clacton, in three of the band’s dwelling county of Essex, Bournemouth, Dorset, Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, and Morecambe, Lancashire, earlier than they signed off the eight-date circuit in Gorleston-on-Sea, Norfolk, on 20 September.Within the weeks earlier than the tour, Blur had emerged triumphant within the media-charged race to primary within the UK Singles Chart with their report Nation Home, beating Oasis’ Roll With It. Blur had additionally carried out to 27,000 followers at Mile Finish Stadium in east London and received 4 accolades at that 12 months’s Brit Awards.John McNamara, the previous editor of the Advertiser newspaper, was sitting in an workplace when he noticed Blur’s announcement of a gig at Gorleston’s Ocean Room a few mile (1.6km) away – which he thought was a prank.”I bear in mind vividly speaking to individuals within the workplace and pondering it was a hoax – that is the place the joy degree was,” he stated.”They had been on the peak of recognition, that they had the primary single, that they had a brand new album popping out,” he added. John McNamaraJohn McNamara took this beforehand unpublished photograph of Blur frontman Damon Albarn at 1994’s Parklife present on the College of East Anglia, NorwichMr McNamara had shot photographs of Blur in Norwich throughout their 1994 Parklife tour – and remembered each how good the band sounded and the followers screaming for entrance man Damon Albarn.Mr McNamara, who lives in Lowestoft, Suffolk, stated he thought he had been alerted to the Gorleston gig by a fax from the band’s press workforce – and was happy his inventory of reside photographs had given him an “ace within the gap” for his story within the freesheet.BBC Look East’s TV cameras captured the band arriving on the Ocean Room, with singer Damon Albarn accompanied by bodyguard Darren “Smoggy” Evans (proper), to who Blur would go on to dedicate their 2023 comeback, The Album of DarrenBlur – made up of Albarn and guitarist Graham Coxon, who met at Colchester’s The Stanway College, drummer Dave Rowntree, additionally from the city, and bassist Alex James, who grew up in Bournemouth – set off on the Seaside Tour from Cleethorpes on 12 September 1995.Fittingly, it was the day after their fourth studio album, The Nice Escape, was launched.Because the Cool Britannia motion was beginning to surge, Mr McNamara discovered the nation’s blossoming temper matched by the gang’s excessive spirits on a heat night exterior the venue, which has now closed.Blur drummer Dave Rowntree, who went on to be a Labour councillor in Norwich, was greeted by crowds in Gorleston, close to Nice Yarmouth”There have been lots of individuals in every single place – all of the pubs had been open they usually had been actually busy,” Mr McNamara stated.”It was a supercharged environment.”Regardless that I had privileged entry a 12 months earlier to take footage, the place I might have reached up and shook fingers with Damon Albarn – it was extra thrilling in Gorleston.”For that to land in your doorstep was large: it was the shock, novelty and pleasure all rolled into one.”They’re an amazing reside band they usually had been very good that evening,” he added. NME through @nothingelseonAn advert for the tour appeared in NME Whereas 800 individuals crammed the Ocean Room, a round domed constructing, not everybody might pay money for a paper ticket in time, together with a 14-year-old Jon Rogers, who had cycled to a Gorleston Excessive Road music store solely to seek out tickets offered out.He was informed to attempt to get in on the door as a substitute.”Sadly, it was pandemonium and I had no method of getting in,” he stated.”I bear in mind getting down there early and I might see Blur on the roof through the day… waving all the way down to the gang.”I used to be jealous of some individuals I recognised from college, queuing up with a ticket of their fingers,” he added. Fraser McKayIn an period earlier than on-line gross sales, not everybody made it to the venue, native ticket brokers or bought via on the cellphone in time to purchase a £10 ticket for the tourBut in a full circle second, Mr Rogers – who now runs native Britpop evening Frequent Folks with good friend David Powles – has since welcomed Blur drummer Dave Rowntree to DJ twice and held an anniversary tribute on the Ocean Room in 2022.”It felt like a stunning thought,” stated Mr Rogers, who lives in Aslacton, close to Norwich.”However the Queen died the day earlier than – and it wasn’t busy, however we nonetheless had a very good evening and it was good to listen to these songs in that very same house,” he added. Frequent PeopleJon Rogers remembered his classmates being excited by the prospect of seeing the Britpoppers carry out down the street from their schoolAs unlikely because the tour appeared on paper, Blur’s penchant for storytelling about on a regular basis British life – punctuated by some bouncy guitar-driven pop melodies – made them an ideal match for a quintessential seaside jaunt. Rowntree informed BBC Scotland, whereas on a automotive ferry to the Dunoon date, that it had been an orchestrated plan to ship individuals to a “load of seaside cities” to report again what appeared probably the most “attention-grabbing”.ContributedNewspaper editor John McNamara initially thought Blur’s gig announcement for the small Norfolk city was a prankYet in a 1995 documentary, which adopted the band on their travels, Albarn was extra introspective concerning the tour’s objective. “You need to discover out what being well-known is like… lots of people have gotten to go on this voyage of discovery about fame and by no means return to what they had been beforehand,” he stated.”The trick is to stability the 2… so doing a really small tour… once we might have been taking part in anyplace we favored, was a method of addressing that must stability issues out,” he added. PA MediaBlur arrive for the London premiere of Blur: To The Finish documentary concerning the band’s most up-to-date reunion and albumNow, with a resurgence in curiosity within the Britpop scene fuelled by Oasis’ summer time reunion, Albarn cautioned his one-time rivals concerning the feelings concerned in Blur’s 2023 comeback, including how he tried to keep away from nostalgia in a current interview with The Solar.However with Rowntree having simply launched a photograph e book capturing the band’s early days – and Seaside Tour venues such because the Ocean Room and Clacton’s Oscar’s now closed, there are many individuals reminiscing.”The Ocean Rooms… is such an iconic venue for us domestically and it introduced the venue alive – it was the juxtaposition of a giant band taking part in on the Ocean Rooms and it appeared regular,” stated Mr McNamara.”These are the gigs you bear in mind all of your life.”Andrew Turner/BBCThe hanging Artwork Deco Ocean Room venue closed down in 2024