Parklife

The spoken word lyrics were performed by British actor Phil Daniels, who was also in the video.

In the August, 2005 issue of Q magazine, Damon Albarn explained: "London Fields (a novel by English writer Martin Amis) inspired Parklife. That book changed my outlook on life." Bassist Alex James said, "The first time Damon played Parklife to me I was certain that it would be big. It was one of the most complete things I'd ever heard."
Food Records (their record label) co-owner Dave Balfe was not so enthusiastic: "When I first heard the demo without Phil Daniels, I thought that the chorus was brilliant but it was such a rubbish verse. I thought it was fairly tedious and the talking verses were not hit single material as far as I was concerned."

Blur Guitarist Graham Coxon played the saxophone on this. He was a saxophonist when he first met Albarn, but this was the only time he played sax for Blur.

What sounds like breaking glass was drummer Dave Rowntree smashing a plate.

Originally, Albarn was to sing the whole song and Daniels was going to sing on another track, "The Debt Collector," but Albarn hadn't finished writing the lyrics for that one, so Daniels was asked to narrate the verses of this instead. (thanks, Edward Pearce - Ashford, Kent, England, for all above)

The song and video won numerous awards in England. It went nowhere in the US.

Parklife was Blur's breakout album in England. They never hit it big in the US.