Blur: Live At Wembley Stadium ★★★★★

Released: 6 September 2024

Director: Toby L

Starring: Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Dave Rowntree, Alex James

Concert films can be a hard sell. It’s rather difficult to recapture the sense of euphoria and place and time that live music can bring, with a live recording often seeming weaker than the experience itself. For every Stop Making Sense, there are many poor imitations, however, Blur’s Wembley showcase differs. Coming off the back of the stellar To The End earlier this year, this film capturing the band’s historic shows last summer, bookends that film and is a celebration of the joy both the band and fans felt, delivering a career-spanning, often emotional set.

The film features the band’s Saturday night set, with slow-motion footage captured from the Sunday performance. Director Toby L has spoken of wanting to create something different from a live TV show like those seen at Glastonbury. It is clear from the outset that this is a labour of love for all involved, showcasing the full range of the band’s catalogue and their musicianship. Tracks from early pioneering works like Modern Life Is Rubbish or Parklife, sitting alongside works from their latest album The Ballad of Darren.

Perhaps the most daunting task any concert film has is recapturing the magic of the gig in question. The atmosphere of this particular concert is spine-tingling with shots of the iconic Wembley arch and surrounding area in North London adding to the music itself. This was Blur at the top of their game and the crowd shows the breadth of their appeal with many, especially those captured in the film too young to have been around in their 90s heyday, showing like Oasis and other bands how well their music has endured over the past 30 years and beyond.

So many tracks stand out live here. Whether that’s an emotional Under The Westway, a non-album single the band hadn’t played since 2014, a huge rendition of Song 2 or a singalong to Tender backed by the London Community Gospel Choir. It is two hours of one of Britain’s best-loved acts at the peak of their powers. Damon Albarn clearly in his element works the crowd into a frenzy while Alex James on bass looks the epitome of cool, never without a cigarette in his hand.

As a two-part project, these films paint a picture of Blur as individuals both in and away from the group and as performers. The Wembley film in particular shows how much they still mean to people and whether or not we see them again, those concerts and this film will remain some of the most iconic of the band’s entire career. This is far from a run-of-the-mill concert film, with a huge amount of care and love clearing going into making this a stellar celebration of the pinnacle of the band’s live career, Whether you were there or not, there is plenty to admire.