3862 Days: The Official History of Blur Book

Surfing the trouser wave of "baggy" music, Blur burped on to the British pop scene with the single "There's No Other Way" in 1991, promptly vanished, and resurfaced several years later with the album Park Life. This time for good. Stuart Maconie's 3862 Days, covering the duration between the band's formation as Seymour and the publication of this book, is the first fully comprehensive biography of the art group from Essex, more famously known as Blur. Park Life launched a thousand pseudo-cockney choruses of "All the people, so many people, they all go hand in hand, hand in hand through their parklife". Three years later the same crowds cried endless "Woo Hoo's" followed by a bout of misheard lyrics from the thrashy "Song 2" from the group's eponymous fifth album. But Blur are much more than masters of the catchy tune and have consistently redefined the boundaries of pop to great success. The recent 13 embraced experimentation to critical and popular acclaim while Park Life heralded the phenomenon "Britpop", the fleeting moment when British music reawakened and once again became the envy of the world. A fascinating part of 3862 Days explores this period and the largely media-fabricated rivalry between Blur and northern lads Oasis. Beginning with a war of words and a head-to-head chart battle in August 1995, the feud culminated with Noel Gallagher's outspoken desire for both Damon Albarn and Alex James to die of AIDS-related illnesses. Flaunting official status, the book could easily sell itself on fresh interviews alone, with band members and key players block quoted throughout. These give the lowdown on Albarn's public romance and break-up with Justine Frischmann of Elastica, Graham Coxen's hatred of commercialism, Alex James's lust for the ultimate popstar life and his laddish activities with actor Keith Allen and artist Damien Hirst (all to Coxen's horror and disgust), and Dave Rowntree, well, er, he's the drummer. Enough said. Maconie, music journalist and radio presenter, has followed Blur since their early days and vividly pieces together the group's history. He writes with an enthusiastic and sharp style and offers incisive reviews of the music, peppered with just enough cynicism and a dash of acerbic wit. For the blurb on Blur, 3862 Days is a definitive memoir. --Robert BrookesRead More