The Smarts: If you were on Twitter you wouldn’t need to read this

Published on 05/07/2012 09:50

JUST when you thought the globe-straddling social media behemoth dressed up as a cute little cartoon bluebird couldn’t possibly become any more all-pervasive, along came Blur, earlier this week, and made Twitter the cool new way for bands to premiere new material.

It all began with a cryptic tweet on the @blurofficial stream on 21 June that simply read “Be here Monday 2nd July. 6.15pm & 7.15pm BST RT”. Cue much speculation among the band’s 45,000 Twitter followers as to what these words might mean, followed by clarification from the band: links to live feeds would be posted on Twitter at the aforementioned times, allowing fans to watch Damon Albarn and Co perform two new tracks written for the Olympic Games closing ceremony at Hyde Park. Throughout Monday, the band teased fans by posting images of their equipment being set up on a secret rooftop location, and then, as advertised, they performed the two new tracks: epic weepy Under the Westway first, followed an hour later by faster, spikier number The Puritan. So does this mean Twitter is now going to become an electronic substitute for gig-going, as well as the electronic substitute for going to the pub and talking rubbish to people you’ve never met before? Well, possibly. The Blur premiere seems to have succeeded partly because of the way the drip-drip nature of a Twitter feed mimics the build-up of tension before a live performance, and it helped that fans were able to interact with band members just as they would in a live setting. In response to one fan who tweeted that she was wiping away tears, bass player Alex James responded: “I feel quite emotional too.” So yeah, Twitter’s taking over everything. Get used to it.