Morning Music Notes – This weekend was a Blur
Graham Coxon and Damon Albarn Debut New Blur Song
At last night’s War Child benefit show in London’s Shepherds Bush Empire, Blur members Graham Coxon and Damon Albarn played a new Blur song called Under the West Way (via Consequence of Sound). The band has been on hiatus since 2003 and since then, Damon has been in 2-3 awesome side project bands, leaving the future of Blur, um, blurry. I think I’m 0 for 2 with Blur puns and comments, so I’ll stop before I blurt out another one. Tomorrow night, the Brit Awards will take place in London, with all the members playing together for the first time in 3 years.
You can watch the new song performance below.
Blur – Under the West Way
The 2012 Hyde Park Shows are a Go, The 2013 Ones are Cut Back
Other big news happening in London are the summer shows in Hyde Park in central London. Complaints from killjoys local residents put the shows in jeopardy. However, local council agreed to reduce the capacity of the gigs from 80,000 to 50,000-65,000, and to reduce the number of summer concerts from 13 to 9 (via NME). Acts playing in Hyde Park this summer include Rihanna and Drake headlining the Wireless Festival the weekend of July 6-8, Madonna will play the park on July 11 (presumably NOT with M.I.A.) and Bruce Springsteen on July 14.
Chris Cornell Does Everything; Yells at Homophobes, Covers I Will Always Love You
First, let me mention that Whitney Houston’s funeral was this past weekend. Stars showed up, Kevin Costner spoke, Bobby Brown stormed out, yada yada yada, rest in peace.
Stuff about Whitney Houston has been reported to death a lot, so let’s focus on some related, happier news. One of Whitney’s biggest hits was I Will Always Love You. She made it her own, so much so that virtually everyone forgets that it’s a Dolly Parton cover. Another cover has surfaced, and it is performed in amazing fashion by Chris Cornell. The 47 year old (fuck he looks and sounds good for 47) Soundgarden front man played the song late last week at a gig, and absolutely nails it. The crowd doesn’t recognize the song at first, but goes wild once they do. Make sure you check it out below.
Chris Cornell – I Will Always Love You (original: Dolly Parton, then Whitney Houston)
Chris Cornell is also playing 3 solo shows in England before Soundgarden’s slot at the Download Festival. Chris will play:
June 18 – London Palladium
June 19 – Birmingham Symphony Hall
June 20 – Newcastle City Hall
Last but not least, Chris breaks up a verbal argument. Some businessman took the high road (sarcasm alert!) and called a man at an airport lounge a queer, and Chris Cornell ripped into the businessman (via New York Post). According to a passenger in the lounge, Cornell said, “You’re a [bleep]. You deliberately called him a queer to make him feel uncomfortable in front of a lot of people.” The witness said security came and the offending suit was asked to leave. Hopefully the businessman was anally raped, and he will never call another man a queer again.
