stories from the city; damon albarn

3-

The sun was beating down on Maxis and Chloe Erlich's backs as they made their way through the line of trailers, so far, not spotting a single word with the name Blur.

"You'd think they'd do this alphabetically." Chloe murmured, stopping for a second to catch her breath.

"Perhaps I should've given management a call, or Michael."

Michael Eavis was the man behind Glastonbury, and had been running the whole damn thing since 1970. It had grown massively since then and was now, in the year 1994 hosting over 1000 acts alone.

"Like Michael knows the exact location of Blur." Chloe says scoffing

Maxis sighed "You're coming to watch Blur tonight. It'll be a good show. I promise. Hell, you might even like them so much that you want to get to know them better, make some new friends and all."

She deadpans.

The two had been wandering around for at least thirty minutes, watching familiar faces walk past them. Nobody even bothering to say hello. Maxis hadn't even seemed to notice.

It was like the entire Erlich family had a warning sign etched across their faces this year. In all the years prior, people had beamed at the opportunity to speak to Maxis and the family, jumped to take pictures. But now it seemed that everyone was aware of their misfortune.

Well, everyone backstage at least.

Luckily enough, the sound of music had begun to get louder as they neared the backstage area of the NME stage, catching a glimpse of the crowd of thousands gathering to watch the new band play. Thankfully interrupting the thoughts running through the photographers head.

"I guess no Blur for now?" She jokes, looking up at her father expectantly

He shrugs and begins soldiering into the backstage area, making sure to keep a lingering eye on the equipment being carried out to the stage, wanting to get a feel for who this band was, what the sound might be and all of that.

Thankfully, Maxis would get to met the two brothers before the show even started.

"Look who showed up. Hope your cameras all nice and ready." Liam says, giving a cheeky grin to Chloe before turning to look at Maxis, kind of terrified to see a rock legend in front of him.

"Of course- it's my job. But I hope you don't mind that I brought some extra help. I do have a lot of lenses to carry."

"Course I don't fucking mind, you brought Maxis Erlich er your old man back here." Liam seems almost in awe, not afraid to show his reaction to the rockstar in front of him.

It was almost refreshing to see someone react to Maxis and to not give a pitiful look, and to look at him as a legend instead of a man who'd lost his son and had been left to deal with the aftermath of it all.

Maxis chuckles a little bit, "Heard you're trying to knock me off the charts. Wish you luck there! People have been saying that to me for years now, few have succeeded."

Liam shrugs his shoulders, finding his ground quickly and starting to grow more comfortable. "Watch and learn Erlich, we'll show you what a real show looks like."

"When I see a whammy bar on your guitars, then we'll talk." Maxis says teasingly

"Say, where's the rest of your band?" Chloe asks

Liam snorts and then says "Noel is off talking his head off to some bird he fancies, and er, Bonehead is somewhere, probably checking his gear out. Doesn't trust the fucking techs."