Woo-hoo: Blur’s sensational song turns 25
Woo-hoo: Blur’s sensational song turns 25
Woo-hoo: Blur’s sensational song turns 25.
Blur may have won the battle, but Oasis won the war. The Great Escape felt like a bloated sequel to Parklife, the 1994 album that made Blur UK superstars. Oasis meanwhile made an album that appealed to audiences outside of Britain, including America where the album went to #4 and "Wonderwall" went Top 10 in March of 1996. While The Great Escape went to #1 in the UK, it fizzled out at #150 in the US. Extremely competitive Blur frontman Damon Albarn saw his band as superior to Oasis in every way, and this burned a hole in his gut like an ulcer.
Ironically, it was reportedly a grueling, endless 1992 tour of the US supporting their debut album Leisure -- where they played half-filled venues during a time that alternative radio stations had embraced Seattle -- that gave Albarn the idea to make an explicitly British-sounding album. That was 1993's Modern Life is Rubbish, the first of the "Life" trilogy that helped spark Britpop. But after The Great Escape and the sting of Oasis' success, Blur were burned out on fish n' chips and oompa music hall sounds as well. They needed a new direction.