THE word came from the depths of Nora Doyle's 10 year old heart. "Daaaamon" she screamed with thousands of others as Blur's lead singer, Damon Albarn, slouched his stuff on stage in the RDS on Saturday night. Her father, Gerry, was enjoying it, too.
Behind them around 20,000 fans pressed towards the stage, with a semi circle of crush barriers arranged about 50ft from the front to break the pressure. A corridor was set up for people to be pulled out, and a second set of barriers cordoned in those closest to the stage. Large signs warned that anyone caught "moshing or crowd surfing" would be thrown out.
Most of those nearest the front had been waiting up to five hours before the band came on stage. They had barely started chanting "We want Blur" when the boys ambled on stage smiling. Twenty thousand people smiled back.
"Who's just finished their exams?" Damon asked. It seemed they all had. Down in the crowd about 40 security men watched the main body of people and dragged those out, who were in trouble or causing it.
All the big crowd pleasers were left to last. "Say hello to the people listening on the radio," Damon said. The crowd obliged. "They're good, the Irish," he said.
After Park Life the guitar player took out his snap camera to take a picture of the arena. He gestured at the thousands to squeeze in to the frame. Then the Blur ballad, Universal, a few explosions of silver glitter into the air and it was all over.
