Peak UK Chart Position: #16 in June 1994.

It’s Damon Albarn‘s birthday today – frontman with Blur, born in Whitechapel, London – who turns 49 today. As well as Blur, he is co-founder, vocalist, instrumentalist and principal songwriter of the virtual band Gorillaz. In 2008 The Daily Telegraph ranked Albarn number 18 in their list of the “100 most powerful people in British culture”. In a 2010 UK poll for Q magazine Albarn was voted the fourth-greatest frontman of all time. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to music.

With Blur, he has had two UK chart-toppers: 1995’s era-defining Britpop battle-winning “Country House”, and 1997’s “Beetlebum”, amongst a total of thirteen top ten hits. Most recently, in 2015, they managed their sixth successive studio album number one with “The Magic Whip”, their first in twelve years.

“To The End” was sandwiched between two very prominent and memorable singles – “Girls And Boys”, and the singalong anthem “Parklife”. It features Lætitia Sadier from Stereolab, who provides the occasional interspersed French vocals. Here it is, performed on Top of the Pops on June 9th 1994, a show hosted by Reeves and Mortimer and suffering from time having not been kind to the VHS cassette…