As a teenager, without fail on a Sunday night I would be sitting beside my cassette recorder listening to Radio 1’s regular In Concert series. And, most likely, if it was a band I liked, then I’d be taping it (for archival purposes only, of course). One of my very favourite gigs was Blur’s 1999 performance of songs from their album 13.

Obviously, the Beeb produced and broadcast huge numbers of fabulous live recordings: my first Delgados CD was the release of the BBC Sessions on the Strange Fruit label (not enough to stop me buying the Complete BBC Peel Sessions when that came out a few years back). Mogwai’s Government Commissions, Belle & Sebastian’s BBC Sessions, The Pixies, The Beatles Live at the BBC – all classics. And then there’s the stuff that comes as bonus discs – my main reason for picking up Blur’s Bustin+Dronin set in 1997 was the second CD of six tracks recorded for the Peel Sessions.

Of course, lots of this stuff has never been released, and the issues with rights-holders, broadcasting rights, etc means that maybe there are a lot of classic broadcasts we’ll never hear again. This is one of the things that makes me massively appreciate NPR, Auntie’s underfunded, unloved cousin. Visit the website for All Songs Considered and you’ll find a veritable cornucopia of archived concerts and performances. This makes the BBC’s 7-day iPlayer offering look pretty shameful (if you try listening to 6Music’s Peel’s Scottish Sessions, linked here last week, then you’ll find it’s already unavailable). In fairness, 6Music are re-broadcasting a number of “classic concerts”, but these are subject to the same 7-day limits as every other BBC programme.

By 1999 I had grown pretty handy with my tape-deck. Although this was a pretty terrible machine with an awful FM aerial which had to pointed the right way and which could go to white noise if the dog walked past, combined with just a bog standard cassette recording mechanism, I got to be pretty good at tuning it in and spotting the end of the tape coming up in conjunction with either a song that was going to descend into an overlong jam/solo, or a short break in proceedings – essential when your c90 needs to swap sides after 45 minutes.

Blur’s performance, recorded at the BBC Hippodrome on the 15^th March 1999 was performed as a promo for the newly released 13 (still one of Blur’s greatest records, I think). There’s also a video of the performance which was I think broadcast elsewhere on the BBC and which I have somewhere on a VHS tape (I’d make it digital if I knew how). It’s a great performance, and the songs sound fresh and vibrant (even after 10 years mouldering on a cassette tape). Alex gets his double bass out, which I wish he’d done at Hyde Park last year; this gives ‘Tender’ a nice, rich and warm backdrop for Damon’s vocals. 2 songs from 13 are left off; ‘Caramel’, and ‘Optigan 1’, but the rest are present and correct; the band also come back for an encore of older songs. Caramel is a sad omission, although it’s only the completist in me that wishes they’d done Optigan 1.

The whole set really showcases a band who were at the peak of their powers and confident in their musicianship and their capacity for reinvention (even if there continued to be grumbles behind the scenes: perhaps not at the forefront of but also not entirely skated over in 1999′s bio 3862 Days by Stuart Maconie, which I consumed avidly at the time).

I wouldn’t want to wish away any of the 21st century Blur achievements (not Think Tank, not Gorillaz, not The Good, The Bad and The Queen, not Monkey, and certainly not any of Graham’s solo output): but imagine if Blur had held together on a post-13 trajectory that took in all of their newfound ideas and influences. Well, perhaps we can hope that there’ll be something else new to come following “Fool’s Day”.

Setlist:

Tender; Bugman; Coffee + TV; Swamp Song; 1992; B.L.U.R.E.M.I.; Battle; Mellow Song; Trailerpark; Trimm Trabb; No Distance Left to Run; Beetlebum; There’s No Other Way; Popscene; Song 2

I have it on good authority that you can find a full bootleg if you search around forums.blur.co.uk.

Also worth checking out is the Blur live audio archive project.

MP3: Blur, Tender (Live at the BBC Hippodrome, 1999.03.15)