Phil Daniels makes surprise appearance at Blur’s Eastbourne show

Blur surprised fans at their intimate gig in Eastbourne last night (May 21) by bringing out actor Phil Daniels.

Daniels famously featured on the spoken verses of Britpop icons’ 1994 smash hit ‘Parklife’ and came on stage at the seaside town’s Winter Gardens to perform his verses live.

The Quadrophenia actor later shared a photo of himself holding a copy of the band’s setlist, with an asterisk marked next to ‘Parklife’.

Watch fan-filmed footage of Daniels and Blur performing ‘Parklife’ below:

It’s not the first time Daniels has been brought out at a Blur show to do ‘Parklife’. The actor recently told Chris Moyles in an interview on Radio X earlier this month that frontman Damon Albarn told him he was always welcome to come and join them.

“I’ve been all over the world doing it,” he said, “because Damon always said: ‘You can do it whenever you like. I’ll tell you when we’re going to an interesting country and you can come along if you want’.

“So I’ve been to Japan, South America, America… All over the place.”

When asked what he does after his famous guest spot on the stage, he added: “Jobs a good’un. Sit behind the drum kit, watch the rest of the band play, sometimes join in with Song 2. It’s great!”

He also told Moyles how the feature came about. “I used to play football for […] it might have been Melody Maker at the time, and Steve Sutherland was the Editor and the Manager and he said ‘Some young band are interested in you singing this song’.

“I said ‘I haven’t really heard of them’, but then I got in contact with Damon and we had a chat, and then he sent me a tape and then I went into the studio and did it, and it was about 40 minutes, and that was it.”

Blur kicked off a run of intimate comeback gigs on Friday with a hometown show at Colchester Arts Centre. The setlist included cuts from across their back catalogue, as well as their brand new single ‘The Narcissist’ and unreleased single ‘St Charles Square’.

Last week, Blur confirmed the release of their first new album in eight years, The Ballad Of Darren, which will arrive on July 21.

They will be playing further intimate shows in Wolverhampton and Newcastle this week before embarking of a summer of European festival shows, including at Primavera Sound. They will play two sold-out nights at Wembley Stadium on July 8 and 9.