IT was a rare and magical night which the 400 lucky gig-goers who managed to get their hands on the hardest-to-come-by ticket in town will never forget.
But Blur’s pocket-sized explosion at Colchester Arts Centre on Friday night also represented a beautiful full-circle moment for the rock icons themselves.
As frontman Damon Albarn alluded to midway through their 23-song set, the band have never “actually played Colchester” before under the moniker of Blur.
Their connections with the city, however, are deep-rooted given Damon and Graham’s time at the Stanway School and Colchester-born Dave’s links to the Gilberd School.
With that emotional link in mind, Blur’s full-throttle return to the place where it all started will - I am certain – live just as long in their memories as it will in the minds of those who were fortunate enough to experience it.
Dubbed “the show we never thought would happen” – for good reason given the magnitude of Blur and intimacy of the venue – the gig marked their first in eight years.
But despite their time away from the stage the quartet delivered a 23-song set with all the assured swagger and conviction expected from a group of their stature.
After somewhat humbly strolling onto the stage, Blur kicked-off proceedings with St Charles Square, a song taken from their forthcoming new album The Ballad of Darren.
The more familiar sounds of There’s No Other Way and Popscene followed, before Trouble In The Message Centre, Chemical World and Badhead were given an outing.
READ MORE: ‘Sorry it took so long’ - Blur return to Colchester with explosive and emotional gig
Beetlebum, Trimm Trab, Villa Rosie, Coffee and TV, Out of Time and End of a Century followed before Parklife - arguably the highlight of the show – ignited the crowd.
To The End, a cut from Blur’s third album Parklife, and Modern Life Is Rubbish’s Oily Water and Advert, were also positioned nicely among the band’s bigger hits.
After a teasing introduction, the ferocious Song 2 blew the doors off the jam-packed venue as sweat, beer and god knows what else flew through the air.
Following initial set-closer This Is A Low, the band exited before returning moments later for an encore of Girls and Boys, The Narcissist, Tender and For Tomorrow.
But on what was a moving night for the homegrown heroes it was The Universal - oozing with poignant melancholy - which concluded the once-in-a-lifetime gig.
And its sentimental traits only served to further confirm this Colchester comeback was more than just the Wembley Stadium warm-up gig it had been billed as.
This was in fact a trip down memory lane and a platform from which the rockers could slingshot themselves – if only for a moment – back to the carefree days they spent together as youngsters.
Over the course of those two very special hours, Damon, Graham, Dave and Alex, each of whom exuded a giddy childlike innocence and beaming smile throughout, were able to relive those priceless, fleeting moments.
As one fan told me before the show, Blur performing in Colchester felt like a “real moment in history”. What a privilege it was to be a small part of it.
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