A band is releasing an album of its live concert at The Budokan and it isn't Cheap Trick. Blur has announced that the group's 1995 live performance at the Tokyo landmark during its "Great Escape" tour will be released August 11.
This isn't exactly amazing news for the most hardcore of Blur fans. The album was released almost immediately in Japan around the time of the concert but never saw a release in Western markets. Although we're sure bootlegs exist, the new release will trump even the original Japanese version for sound quality, in theory, thanks to the work Frank Arkwright did with it at Abbey Roads Studios.
Here's the setlist, just in case you didn't want to scroll that far back on discogs.com:
01) The Great Escape
02) Jubilee
03) Popscene
04) End Of A Century
05) Tracy Jacks
06) Mr Robinson's Quango
07) To The End
08) Fade Away
09) It Could Be You
10) Stereotypes
11) She's So High
12) Girls & Boys
13) Advert
14) Intermission
15) Bank Holiday
16) For Tomorrow
17) Country House
18) This Is A Low
19) Supa Shoppa
20) Yuko And Hiro
21) He Thought Of Cars
22) Coping
23) Globe Alone
24) Parklife
25) The Universal
The Nippon Budokan was built for judo competitions for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo but later found value as a music venue. Multiple big names have recorded live albums there including Bob Dylan, Ozzy Osbourne and, most famously, Cheap Trick. Other previous Olympic hosts would do well to take an example from Tokyo and convert those now unused buildings into music venues.
