Sunday 21 June 2015

Blur, rain and ice cream on day two of BST Hyde Park

Blur dished out ice creams to fans as they headlined day two of the British Summer Time festival in London's Hyde Park. This was the scene of their triumphant reunion in 2009 and they were clearly delighted to be back.
Blur performing at BST

"I love it here, It's like home, well it is home," shouted frontman Damon Albarn to the crowd.
All set to the backdrop of ice cream cones, which are on the front cover of their new album The Magic Whip.
The crowd at Blur gig
There was also an ice cream van on stage, from which Damon took 99's and handed them to delighted fans.
While Damon was jumping about in his usual fashion, it was a more muted performance from guitarist Graham Coxon.
"I can't even put my shoes on," he told Newsbeat before their headline set.
He has an old back injury that had flared up two days ago.
Blur performing at BST
Image captionGraham on stage with Damon Albarn
"I have to have people put my shoes on for me, which is quite nice, but I would rather do it myself and not have the agony.
"I won't be able to just jig about and have fun, which is a shame.
"We're all falling to bits," he laughed.
"I think we put a lot into those warm-up shows and we all suffered. We've all had ear infections, sore throats, voices going."
Well maybe a dose of their branded ice cream helped, as Graham was among those who chose the flavour.
"We had a taste test - it was fun," he said.
"We thought it has got to be white with red bits on, like the album cover, so it's got to be vanilla and then we thought raspberry ripple.
"I'm not a big fan of raspberry ripple, but it is something like that with a slight twist on it."
The band opened their set with Go Out - the lead single off their new record.
Singalongs to the likes of Song 2, Tender and End Of A Century followed, before the four-piece closed with The Universal.
And there was a cameo from former EastEnders star Phil Daniels, who took his place as narrator for the 1994 hit Parklife.