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Graham Coxon

Graham Coxon Live At The Zodiac DVD

Parlophone

If we’re all honest, Graham Coxon was always the best thing about of Blur. His warm fuzzy guitar tones and hop-skip-jump bendy guitar lines worked so well, and his nervous high pitched cooing gave a real sense of emotion to Damon’s everyman delivery. But in one swift action that finally gave conclusive evidence that Damon is in fact a nasty piece of work (well, I wasn’t gonna just believe what the Gallagher’s were saying was I?) Graham was asked to leave the band in such a humiliating manner. He quit the drink and alcohol, sorted his mind and family life out, and pushed on with his solo work whilst Blur went on to sell a lot of records (as per usual) but generally bore people into buying Gorillaz records (so it would occupy more of Damon’s time until the inevitable reunion of Coxon and Blur.) and while Blur may sell more records than Graham, the respect he gets from the critics, fans and other bands far exceeds that of his former band. So just to rub it in that little bit more we have one frantically electric show of Graham’s (and his amazing band) captured on DVD for the first time.

The show is a revelation from start to finish, the band are tight and taut, and Graham is the constant focus of your attention as he strangles his guitar into making some of the most amazing sounds and looks onwards nervously, trying to remember the words. It’s all there, the new wave sensibility of Blondie, the ever-summer feeling of the Beach Boys, the robotic edginess of Wire, and the warped world-outlook of Pavement, all perfectly fused in bite sized chunks. You also get an acoustic set and his promo videos all thrown in for free, but the most interesting thing I found on the DVD was the proof that Graham sounds exactly like Nigel Tuffnel’s character in “This Is Spinal Tap,รข?”. Luckily for us though there are no Violin vs. Guitar solo’s on offer here. This DVD showcases Coxon’s undeniable talent, but much more than that it shows a man finally at ease with himself and happy. Y’see, it wasn’t that hard after all! Buy this DVD from here online.

Jeremy Chick
www.subba-cultcha.com