Mother’s Litter Helpers: Blur's Modern Life Is Rubbish

AND THE FOOLS laugh loudest. Blur’s rise and fall has all the comic nuances of Reginald Perrin’s. Two years ago they were pop’s champagne Charlies: ‘There’s No Other Way’ and ‘Bang!’ had been Top 20 hits and Smash Hits had fallen head-over-suede boots for their art school oddness and blue-eyed middle-class charm. Graham wore glasses and an Oxford University T-shirt, Damon spent an entire Top Of The Pops performance grinning madly while clutching a cardboard Kelloggs cockerel. It was all too beautiful.