Tag Archives: Blur

Old Fruit

Old Fruit 30th January 2026

The Charlatans – One To Another

This weeks’ selection of vintage music focuses in on great bands of the 1990’s playing their classic material to a present day mid 2020’s audience. And still sounding amazing if not even better than in their heyday. It also maybe highlights the difficulty so many bands have in matching the highs of their early records with new material years later. There are some in these selections who have re-formed on the basis that they remain creative and put out fresh music, others who willingly accept their audiences appetite for the old stuff and then some, like first offering The Charlatans, who have never really stopped writing new albums and mixing it up live with the older classics. Still, seen here in the 2025 series of ‘Later With Jools Holland,’ they had initially played a couple of tunes from their latest release but it was still their rendition of this 1996 classic that gave the show a suitably rousing finale.

Blur – Beetlebum

Blur’s Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon have both individually remained relentlessly creative musicians and have learned the value in re-branding for newer projects and loosening themselves from the shackles of the past. And even though they are fully aware that the re-formed Blur are playing Wembley Stadium, as they did in 2023, not because of the new music but rather to let the golden days of the nineties rain down one more time, this did not stop them from tying a recently recorded album of new songs to the venture. By the time of the concerts however, there was only a passing acknowledgement of ‘The Ballad Of Darren’ during shows, attracting crowds of roughly 150,000 across two nights, that revisited the classics such as this 1997 number one single, taken from their ‘Blur’ album of the same year.

The Lemonheads – My Drug Buddy

Of course the thing about The Lemonheads is that they are essentially a one man vehicle for the music of Evan Dando, the other band members remaining a rolling cast of side-people that would not detract from the commercial clout of a Lemonheads project, no matter the identity of the players at Evan’s side. He obviously was canny enough to recognise that the band name packs more of a punch for his new music than he received when trying out as a solo artist. Furthermore, going out under the band name has given Dando license to dip into the pair of still un-surpassed grunge era classics they released; ‘It’s A Shame About Ray’ and ‘Come On Feel The Lemonheads’. A temptation that got the host especially excited on a recent TV appearance for ‘Tonight With Jimmy Fallon.’

The Cardigans – My Favourite Game

There is no evidence that I can find of The Cardigans having ever officially split up but despite this, they have not released a new album of songs since 2006’s ‘Super Extra Gravity.’ From 2011 onwards however, they have played together for occasional gigs or festival appearances, describing themselves when asked as still a going concern although evidently one that is happy to play the old stuff. It is true that they were thought of as quite twee in their earlier days and so by the time the band hit big with this song later in the 1990’s, it actually was a head-turning surprise. By the sounds of this recent live appearance, the harder rock muscle of their work remains an element they are very comfortable with, indeed they quite excel at it.

The Beta Band – Dry The Rain

Before they got a big shout out in the film ‘High Fidelity’ towards the end of the nineties, not too many had heard of The Beta Band and indeed, by the time they split up in 2004 it did feel like a case of gone way too soon. Some 21 years later they announced their reunion to tie in with a deluxe re-issue of ‘The Three EP’s’ and they atypically, amusingly, accompanied the news with statements about “shaking it out every couple of decades” and “showing the wall the Luminol, killing the lights and hitting the UV.”

Oasis – Cigarettes And Alcohol

Unlike their rivals from the decade, Blur, the re-formed Oasis showed absolutely no interest in writing any new material or attaching any particular importance to having the original line up of band members from the classic period. Neither were they bothered about TV or film coverage of the shows, this was all about the numbers all the way and squeezing every last drop out of the public appetite to attend and experience this communal live event. That is not to criticise though, because as this live clip from last year definitively proves, the combination of audience energy and band conviction did generate some authentic rock ‘n’ roll momentum from the occasions as the songs that made Oasis great in the first place enjoyed a fully deserved resurrection.

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Fresh Juice

18th September 2023

Blur – St Charles Square

Much of Damon Albarn’s writing of late has tended towards the melancholic, maybe with good reason if there is turbulence in his personal life. Certainly it has been evident in his solo music and even the most recent Gorillaz album had more mournfulness than earlier work. On top of that this years new Blur material had its fair share of 21st century angst and sorrow. That said, in the same way that you would not wish for the Rolling Stones to abandon their signature electric blues riffing neither do I want for Blur to abandon that stomping, Brit-grunge sound they perfected around the time of their late nineties peak. It is that very sound you hear here, alive and well on the fantastic ‘St Charles Square’. A deranged, pounding, punchy late period slab of crunchy, tasty Blur goodness that may not define the whole of ‘The Ballad Of Darren’ but for these ears, at least the Bugman still has a place and that’s good enough for now…

Ezra Furman – Gloria

The End Of The Road festival is becoming my unmissable highlight of the festival season and this year offered a phenomenal roster with far more must-see live treats than I could possibly hope to fit into the four days I was there. This is an audience filmed clip of the closing act on the second stage from the final night, Ezra Furman. The fantastically wired version of Patti Smith’s re-working of ‘Gloria’ was the penultimate number from an emotional set in which Ezra offered her own Ziggy style farewell to her audience, stating that this was the last live performance from her band and pointing to an uncertain future with no firm live plans in place. I am certain she will continue to make music but anyone witnessing her dramatic personal and musical journey for the past decade will be aware that this has been tumultuous period in which she has channelled turmoil into some essential, fully-loaded writing and performance; a real artist in the purest sense. One full-throttle run through of ‘Tell Em All To Go To Hell’ later and she was gone, come back soon please Ezra…

Adwaith – Cwympo

I will continue my End Of The Road reminiscences a little longer with my next few selections. Adwaith were unknown to me before the festival, not a name that I had pencilled in to see and indeed when they started their set I was not watching, I was queueing up for a cider or something when I heard their music coming out of the Big Top stage and instantly thought “wow they sound good” making a detour to catch them before they finished. I am still in the process of discovering them post-festival but here is a nice taster of their wonderful Welsh sound when they were playing the Focus Wales annual international showcase festival earlier this year…

Say She She – C’est Si Bon

Say She She were a band that I did schedule to see at the End Of The Road festival but wow, they certainly exceeded my already high expectations. Their sound is indeed rooted in the seventies US disco scene but it was their natural stage presence and personalities that won this crowd over wholesale. They made me think of the Sugababes or All Saints, those bands that whilst adhering to the choreographed dance moves typical of the music’s roots never lose the sense of being friends brought together by their love of the music and desire to have a laugh along the way. Nothing was too slick or polished which only served to enhance the charm tenfold; do not underestimate this trio though, they are producing music with soul, groove and a vintage / modern crossover flare that marks them down for serious good times to come…

Angeline Morrison – Cruel Mother Country

My final End Of The Road reflection for the time being is Angeline Morrison, who I went to watch at a small stage tucked away at the bottom of a steep slope in the woods. It is a stage where the comedy and spoken word elements of the festival bill often perform but as Angeline plays a purely acoustic set on very gentle, quite quiet, instruments maybe it was the right location for her. She was wonderful, intense, hushed, poised, focused as she played and sang with indelible conviction, especially on often quite hard hitting material from her rightfully acclaimed 2022 album ‘The Sorrow Songs (Folk Songs Of Black British Experience)’. My only reservation was the feeling that I might have got even more from this set in an enclosed location such as that featured in the clip below. It is no fault of Angeline’s, but to start with she was up against the closing crescendo of Daniel Norgren’s electric blues bleeding into her arena then towards the end the main stage sound of Bodega’s alt-rock threatened to drown out the modest acoustic performer. How an artist holds their concentration against sonic intrusion like that I never know, but she did not appear in the least bit disturbed because perhaps sometimes power comes from within, it does not need to beat a drum…

Rolling Stones – Angry

I will end where I began (just as the Rolling Stones maybe plan to with their latest record) by celebrating the presence in 2023 of one of the greatest bands of all time. When I was listening to a lot of classic sixties bands in the nineties, it could feel at times like I was perversely indulging in the music of the past. That no longer feels the case, as much as it may not fit in with the music industry narrative, I fully believe that I have lived through the era of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Being born in the seventies, my lifetime is coinciding with the majority of the living years of these bands and their members, as time moves on that increasingly feels true. I mean only a few months ago I was at the Fleet motorway services and I recognised the band The Zombies had stopped off on their travels for a coffee. I once stood in a newsagents in Diss and looked over to see that Peter Green was stood next to me. I have interviewed Dave Davies of The Kinks and many others who are readily tied to the sixties. A little while ago my parents saw Rod Stewart having breakfast in the farm shop of their Essex village. I know people who have built their social calendars around seeing artists like Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan whenever they’re on tour, in fact one of my daughters saw Bob Dylan in Bournemouth only last year. My point is the Rolling Stones is not the music of the past, theirs and so many of their peers remains the music of our time now and to have them putting out new material in 2023 and it still sounding as good as this makes me feel alright…

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Fresh Juice

26th June 2023

Eilen Jewell – Lethal Love

Eilen has for a couple of decades now been one of the essential artists on the country scene who remains frustratingly outside of the mainstream. That might have something to do with the uncompromising purity in her rockabilly sound, she never sounds anything other than wholly true to who she is musically and that is expressed to the full on newly released album ‘Get Behind the Wheel’ on Signature Sounds Recordings…

The Coral – Wild Bird

This band of scouse psychedelic warriors show no sign of letting up even as they enter a third decade of music making. This is taken from the band’s forthcoming album ‘Sea Of Mirrors’ released on 8th September 2023 which is a speedy follow up to the former Fruit Tree Records album of 2021 ‘Coral Island’ covered by us here: https://fruit-tree-records.com/2022/01/03/the-coral-coral-island/

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway – Next Rodeo

Here is another artist responsible for a previous Fruit Tree Records album of the year, this time as recently as 2022 with the ‘Crooked Tree’ record which was written about here: https://fruit-tree-records.com/2022/12/22/molly-tuttle-the-golden-highway-crooked-tree/ This new tune is from their upcoming album, ‘City of Gold,’ due July 21 on Nonesuch Records…

Picture Parlour – Norwegian Wood

First of all this is related in no way to the Beatles classic, but if a title is designed to catch your attention this certainly works. When casting your net, as I do every week, for new music to excite and stimulate you will inevitably encounter some names repeatedly getting mentioned and you suspect, because more often than not it turns out to be true, that this is hype generated by an act well connected within the industry. I had read the name Picture Parlour a few times lately and gave this clip a try out for that reason primarily (although the title had me curious too). Whilst I wouldn’t want to go overboard in my praise, the buzz around Picture Parlour is clearly based on musical merit and va-va-voom far more than it is knowing the right PR people, which is always something to celebrate, watch this four piece…

Blur – The Narcissist

This is the by now probably quite familiar lead single from the reformed Blur’s forthcoming new album ‘The Ballad Of Darren’. As great as it is to have them back and playing both large and small gigs again this summer, that they remain inspired to turn a reformation into a creative process highlights the musical seed within their DNA that always elevated Blur above their closest Britpop peers in my opinion. That Damon and Graham have maintained a relevant presence in the mainstream music scene over thirty years since their bands debut album is further evidence of their justifiable stature. I am reserving critical appraisal of the new album until I get to experience it as a whole, but this song does promise a firm hold in the bands catalogue with absolutely no suggestion of covering terrains already well walked…

Melissa Aldana – Los Ojos de Chile

This is a captivating live recording from earlier this year courtesy of The Soraya at Cal State Northridge. Sometimes the visual spectacle of seeing an artist connect with their music both physically and instinctively can open up doors and I believe that to be the case here with Melissa. The moment she locks into this piece at the outset she is no longer on stage before an audience, she is sailing in another dimension. The album ’12 Stars’ was released in 2022 on the Blue Note label…

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