BLUR - NO DISTANCE LEFT TO RUN

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I recently attended the press screening for the new Blur doc called No Distance Left to Run, and it was incredible. As a self-professed Anglophile, I started really getting into music in ‘94 when I was 12, just before the height of Brit Pop. Although, I was on the Oasis side (there was something about the themes of big dreams and wanting to escape a small town in their songs that really resonated for me as a young teen living in the suburbs), I still secretly loved Blur. When I got a little older, I realized that it was silly to pick sides. At the end of the day, if not for Oasis and Blur, and the creation, rise, and fall of Brit Pop, I wouldn’t have known to seek out bands like the Smiths, the Stone Roses, the Clash, Sex Pistols… the varied list goes on. This is where my musical education started, and the No Distance Left to Run film brought all these memories back to me.

At the core of the film is the deep friendship and familial love in the band. Every member of Blur has a sister, but no brothers, so they became each other’s brothers, which explains their tight bond and tumultuous relationship. No Distance Left to Run takes you from the very beginning, in Essex where Damon and Graham met in elementry school (they were 6 or 7 years old and Damon goes to Graham “you don’t have proper shoes like I do.” The interviews cut between Damon and Graham on this moment is so funny), to the reunion shows last year at Glastonbury and Hyde Park. The film also takes a look at how Blur created Brit Pop with their Modern Life record and how Damon became the most hated man in the UK in 1997 after the Country House/Roll With It number 1 single battle with Oasis.

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