"Parklife" is the title track from Blur's

Blur (band)

Blur is an English alternative rock band. Formed in London in 1989 as Seymour, the group consists of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Blur's debut album Leisure incorporated the sounds of Madchester and shoegazing...

 1994 album Parklife

Parklife

Parklife is the third studio album by the English alternative rock band Blur, released in April 1994 on Food Records. After disappointing sales for their previous album Modern Life Is Rubbish , Parklife returned Blur to prominence in the UK, helped by its four hit singles: "Girls & Boys", "End of a...

. When released as the album's third single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

, "Parklife" reached #10 in the UK singles chart. The song has spoken verses, narrated by actor Phil Daniels

Phil Daniels

Philip W. "Phil" Daniels is an English actor, most noted for film and television roles as "cockneys" such as Jimmy in Quadrophenia, Richards in Scum, Stewart in The Class of Miss MacMichael, Mark in Meantime, Kevin Wicks in EastEnders, DCS Frank Patterson in New Tricks and Edward Kitchener "Ted"...

, who also appears in the song's music video.

The song won Best British Single and Best Video at the 1995 Brit Awards

Brit Awards

The Brit Awards are the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain" or "Britannia", but subsequently became a backronym for British Record Industry Trust...

.

Background

A number of newspaper articles about the young middle class

Middle class

The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....

es' adoption of Estuary English

Estuary English

Estuary English is a dialect of English widely spoken in South East England, especially along the River Thames and its estuary. Phonetician John C. Wells defines Estuary English as "Standard English spoken with the accent of the southeast of England"...

 appeared during the single's chart run, including one in The Sunday Times

The Sunday Times (UK)

The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...

on the day the song entered the singles chart (although Daniels' accent is more obviously Cockney

Cockney

The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...

).

The song played a part in Blur's supposed feud with fellow Britpop

Britpop

Britpop is a subgenre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom. Britpop emerged from the British independent music scene of the early 1990s and was characterised by bands influenced by British guitar pop music of the 1960s and 1970s...

 band Oasis

Oasis (band)

Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher...

 at the 1996 BRIT Awards

Brit Awards

The Brit Awards are the British Phonographic Industry's annual pop music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain" or "Britannia", but subsequently became a backronym for British Record Industry Trust...

 when the Gallagher brothers, Liam

Liam Gallagher

William John Paul "Liam" Gallagher is an English musician and singer-songwriter, the former frontman of the English rock band Oasis and currently of the band Beady Eye. Gallagher's erratic behaviour, distinctive singing style, and abrasive attitude have been the subject of commentary in the press...

 and Noel

Noel Gallagher

Noel Thomas David Gallagher is an English musician and singer-songwriter, formerly the lead guitarist, backing vocalist and principal songwriter of the English rock band Oasis. He is currently fronting his solo project, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.Raised in Burnage, Manchester with his...

, taunted Blur by singing a drunk rendition of "Parklife" (with Liam changing the lyrics to "Shite-life" and Noel shouting "Marmite") when the members of Oasis were collecting the "Best British Album" award, which both bands had been nominated for.

The track was written about the bands experience of Castle Park in Colchester, the town where the band lived.

Phil Daniels re-united onstage with Blur to perform a rendition of the song at the band's headline slot at Glastonbury Festival 2009

Glastonbury Festival 2009

The 2009 Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts was held from 24–29 June 2009.- Registration :In a similar way to previous festivals, tickets for the 2009 event required pre-registration through the festival website...

 and at the band's concerts in Hyde Park, London

Hyde Park, London

Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...

 in July 2009.

Music video

The song's music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

 (directed by Pedro Romhanyi) features Phil Daniels as a smarmy double glazing salesman (a homage to Tin Men

Tin Men

Tin Men is a 1987 comedy film written and directed by Barry Levinson, produced by Mark Johnson and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Danny DeVito and Barbara Hershey. It is part of Levinson's series of "Baltimore Films", set in his hometown during the 1940s through the 1960s...

), with Damon Albarn

Damon Albarn

Damon Albarn is an English singer-songwriter and record producer who has been involved in many high profile projects, coming to prominence as the frontman and primary songwriter of Britpop band Blur...

 as his assistant. Other band members appear as various characters from the song, including Dave Rowntree

Dave Rowntree

David Alexander De Horne Rowntree is an English solicitor, musician, animator, and political activist. He is best known as the drummer of the alternative rock band Blur...

 and Alex James

Alex James (musician)

Professionally known as Alex James is an English musician, songwriter, journalist and cheesemaker. He is best known as the bass player and occasional vocalist of band Blur...

 as a couple, with the latter in drag

Drag (clothing)

Drag is used for any clothing carrying symbolic significance but usually referring to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of another gender. The origin of the term "drag" is unknown, but it may have originated in Polari, a gay street argot in England in the early...

. At one point, Albarn is impressed to see a man (Graham Coxon

Graham Coxon

Graham Leslie Coxon is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and painter. He came to prominence as the lead guitarist, backing vocalist and occasional lead vocalist of rock band Blur, and is also a critically acclaimed solo artist, having recorded seven solo albums...

) carrying a placard reading "Modern Life Is Rubbish

Modern Life Is Rubbish

Modern Life Is Rubbish is the second album by English alternative rock band Blur, released in May 1993. Although their debut album Leisure had been commercially successful, Blur faced a severe media backlash soon after its release, and fell out of public favour...

", the title of Blur's previous album; on the reverse is written "End of a Century

End of a Century

"End of a Century" is a song by Blur. It was the last single to be released from their third album Parklife and reached #19 on the UK Singles Chart in 1994. The video is a live performance recorded at Alexandra Palace....

", the title of their subsequent single from Parklife.

The car used by Daniels and Albarn is a bronze coloured Ford Granada

Ford Granada (Europe)

The March 1972 released Granada succeeded the British Ford Zephyr, and the German P7-series as Ford's European executive car offering. At first, lower models in the range were called the Ford Consul, but from 1975 on they were all called Granadas. The car soon became popular for taxi, fleet and...

 Coupe Mk1. In one part of the video, the Granada pulls up next to an Audi Cabriolet convertible and Daniels says "it's got nothing to do with your 'Vorsprung durch Technik

Vorsprung durch Technik

Vorsprung durch Technik is the main strapline, or slogan, and company ethos for the German car maker Audi. It has been used since the 1970s in Audi advertising campaigns all over the world....

' ya know". The driver, seemingly played by Alex James, grimaces back at him. Both cars then pull away at speed to reveal 'Parklife' written on the tarmac.

The video was reviewed on a 1995 episode of Beavis and Butt-Head

Beavis and Butt-Head

Beavis and Butt-head is an American animated television series created by Mike Judge. The series originated from Frog Baseball, a 1992 short film by Judge. After seeing the short, MTV signed Judge to develop the concept. Beavis and Butt-head originally aired from March 8, 1993 to November 28, 1997...

. The characters stated Daniels bore a resemblance to Family Feud

Family Feud

Family Feud is an American television game show created by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman. Two families compete against each other in a contest to name the most popular responses to a survey question posed to 100 people...

host Richard Dawson.

Advertisement

The song started to be played at football matches in the mid-1990s, later becoming a "football anthem" and featuring on albums like The Best Footie Anthems in the World...Ever! and The Beautiful Game, the Official Album of Euro 1996.

Thus, Nike

Nike, Inc.

Nike, Inc. is a major publicly traded sportswear and equipment supplier based in the United States. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, which is part of the Portland metropolitan area...

 aired a television advertisement in 1997 called Parklife. The advertisement featured the song and many famous footballers. The album received acclaim and later was rated the 14th best advert of all time by ITV 1 in 2005.

Reception

The song is still very popular today, with occasional radio plays and regular appearances on music television

Music television

Music television is a type of television programming which focuses predominantly on playing music videos from bands, usually on dedicated television channels broadcasting on satellite or cable. Music TVs may host their own shows charts, award prizes. Examples are VIVA, Scuzz, MTV, JBTV, MuchMusic,...

, in shows such as "The Best of... 1994" on The Vault

The Vault

The Vault is a British music television channel owned and operated by CSC Media Group. It launched in Summer 2003 and shows classic music videos from yesteryear and songs which are between one and five years old. It also plays some music from the eighties and nineties...

. In May 2007, NME

NME

The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

 magazine placed "Parklife" at number 41 in its list of the 50 Greatest Indie Anthems Ever.

Track listings

• 12"

1. "Parklife"
2. "Supa Shoppa"
3. "To the End" (French Version)
4. "Beard"

• CD1

1. "Parklife"
2. "Supa Shoppa"
3. "Theme from an Imaginary Film"

• CD2

1. "Parklife"
2. "Beard"
3. "To the End" (French Version)

• Cassette

1. "Parklife"
2. "Supa Shoppa"
3. "Theme from an Imaginary Film"

• 7"

1. "Parklife"
2. "Supa Shoppa"

• Note: the 7" vinyl edition was pressed for use on jukeboxes and was not issued commercially.

Production credits

• "Parklife" and "Theme from an Imaginary Film" produced by Stephen Street
• "Supa Shoppa" and "Beard" produced by Blur and John Smith
• "To the End" (french version) produced by Stephen Hague, Blur and John Smith