Parklife

Parklife is the third studio album by the English rock band Blur, released in April 1994 on Food Records. After disappointing sales for their previous album Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993), Parklife returned Blur to prominence in the UK, helped by its four hit singles: "Girls & Boys", "End of a Century", "Parklife" and "To the End".

Certified four times platinum in the United Kingdom, in the year following its release the album came to define the emerging Britpop scene, along with the album Definitely Maybe by rivals Oasis. Britpop in turn would form the backbone of the broader Cool Britannia movement. Parklife therefore has attained a cultural significance above and beyond its considerable sales and critical acclaim, cementing its status as a landmark in British rock music. It has sold over five million copies worldwide.

Recording

After the completion of recording sessions for Blur's previous album, Modern Life Is Rubbish, Damon Albarn, the band's vocalist, began to write prolifically. Blur demoed Albarn's new songs in groups of twos and threes. Due to their precarious financial position at the time, Blur quickly went back into the studio with producer Stephen Street to record their third album. Blur met at the Maison Rouge recording studio in August 1993 to record their next album. The recording was a relatively fast process, apart from the song "This Is a Low".

Phil Daniels

Philip William "Phil" Daniels (born 25 October 1958 in Islington) is an English actor, most noted for film and television roles as Londoners such as the lead role of Jimmy Cooper in Quadrophenia, Richards in Scum, Stewart in The Class of Miss MacMichael, Danny in Breaking Glass, Mark in Meantime, Billy the Kid in Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire, Kevin Wicks in EastEnders, DCS Frank Patterson in New Tricks and Grandad Trotter in the Only Fools and Horses prequel Rock & Chips. He is also known for featuring on Blur's 1994 hit single "Parklife".

Career

Since training at the Anna Scher Theatre School in Islington, Daniels has made appearances in many films and television series.

He made his film debut in 1976, at the age of 17, as a waiter in Bugsy Malone. That same year he had significant roles in three television series; The Molly Wopsies, Four Idle Hands and The Flockton Flyer. However, he had enjoyed an incidental appearance (with fellow drama students) the previous year (1975) in Thames Television's You Must Be Joking! Over the following four years he appeared in Quadrophenia, Breaking Glass and Scum. He also appeared in the 1970s TV drama serial Raven.