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Back to: Archive · 1999 Coffee + CV! From the NME, 7 August 1999. Review by Steve Sutherland. What strange impetus, bar vanity and perhaps a vain attempt to wrest back control of their public image from the mags and papers, drives a band to commission an official biography? Fans, after all, know this stuff. And if you're not a Blur fan, well, frankly, you won't read it. Which is presumably why 3862 Days tries devillishly hard to be more than the usual hagiography, and in Stuart Maconie the band have found just the man for the job. Maconie, a familiar name to those of you who still listen to radio, is a very clever, very old-school English journo - hates grunge, knows his music hall - who is not about to allow the story of some pop group to impede this spiffing opportunity to play a little cultural backgammon. Hence it's top stuff like, "...We might characterise Bournemouth as presentable, attractive and well-mannered, but with, who knows, hidden depths - a sort of Carol Vorderman of the seaside" that we remember from 3862, rather than the chart placing of 'Chemical World'. Maconie is a good writer and that's the problem. The book's slightly supercilious tone suggests he considers the pubescent thrashings of silly old rock really rather beneath him. It's this older, wiser, seen-it-all-before attitude which admirably suits the 1999 model Blur - the Blur who write songs called 'Coffee + TV', have all but retired from touring (which, by the way Damon, is what bands do!) and seem slightly ashamed of what they are. The self-same attitude, incidentally, which irritates the shit out of everyone else still elbow deep up the cow's arse of pop. Rating: 7 out of 10. |