After the release at the end of August 1991 of the debut album
"Leisure", which received very good reviews, partly because it had
been polished during the concerts that the group gave between the end of '89 and
a good part of the 1990; in May of that year, Blur finally decided to start a
series of studio sessions that lasted intermittently for 10 months until the
month of March 1991, when the album was ready for the final mixes.
Shortly before it was published, on August 26, the
group started new sessions to register material in order to form a second Lp,
before getting fully involved in the "Leisure" promotion with a mini
European tour that would begin on March 4. October and that would take them to their first
American tour to close the year.Between mid-November and January of the
following year 1992, Blur continued to record tracks for an album that was
originally going to be called "British Image 1" with producer Stephen
Street, who had previously worked on his 1991 single "There's No Other Way
"; and that they had planned to release in the spring, just before
embarking on a new American tour much longer than the previous one, before more
numerous audiences with TV appearances included.
While this happened, "Leisure" continued to
climb positions, placing in the top 10 of Uk Records and putting Blur at the
head of a musical phenomenon that would soon be known as the rebirth of
"Britpop" with bands as important as Stone Roses, Happy Monday, Oasis
or Suede.
So in mid-March, the group already had a demo tape to
present to their label with the following line-up:
"Oily Water",
"Mace", "Badgeman Brown", "Popscene",
"Resigned", "I'm fine", "Garden Central",
"Hanging Over", "Into Another", "Peach",
"Bone Bag", "Never Clever", "Coping", "My
Ark" and "Pressure On Julian"..;
.. of which they were quite
satisfied.But David Balfe owner of Food Records, after listening to this
compilation did not see with good eyes this material, because in comparison
with all the previous thing it did not have sufficient quality and they did not
contain songs that could be removed like singles of success, qualifying it as
"artistic suicide".Despite this, Food Records, selected what they
considered best and on March 30, a cdsgl with three songs: "Popscene";
"Mace" & "Bageman Brown.", Plus two others in 12
"format:" I'm fine "and" Garden Central ". In place of the album "British Image
1".
On April 1 a mini tour of the United Kingdom began, prior to the great
American tour with 37 performances contracted until June 3 in Pittsburg,
although this tour of America was so exhausting and so little recognized by the
public that preferred before the phenomenon Nirvana, that Blur anticipated its
end by canceling the last four dates.In addition, the little success achieved
by "Popscene" and the rivalry with Suede shook the foundations of the
group, to such an extent that their continuity within Food Records was
questioned, as the debts of the members of the group began to increase as the
problems with the alcohol and fights.
It was during this time, the Olympic summer of 1992 when Damon Albarn
decided to change the name of the album and its theme to "Britain vs.
America", due to the resentment that had remained within the band due to
the lack of interest of the American public before their music and the severe
criticism they received from their performances. They felt contempt for
everything American.
Despite this the creative process continued, as well as the changes both
physically and in the way of composing the new songs, for this they took as
reference groups like The Kinks or Small Faces to compose the new songs of what
would soon become "Modern life is rubbish ", title taken from street
graffiti. This second album did not reach the popularity of the first, but at
least it was worth to get out of bankruptcy.
"Britisn Image 1", now "Britain vs
America", had a second chance in December, but SBK again despised the work
and recommended a new producer, Butch Vig linked to Nirvana, which they
rejected.Willing to break with SBK and not to act again in America during a
good season. The group dedicated the months of January to April of 1993 to
perfect the album over any criticism that they were not themselves and to take
it forward, of 1992, with new songs written by Damon Albarn, like "For
Tomorrow" or "Chemical World" , definitively published on May
10, 93.
"Modern life is rubbish", although it is not
the best work of the group, a moderate success, if it is a clear sign of
overcoming, of survival, of a group of kids, in front of the
system. Bit.ly/9b2l8r What you have here, it´s a reconstruction of
the demonstration tape that Blur presented to the owner of Food Records, but
does not correspond to the alternate or definitive "line-up" of the
album. This collection carries the 1st provisional title: "British Image
1" , and the original artwork.
Enjoy it!.
