BLUR: Country House CD. No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart. Check video that features Matt Lucas from Little Britain

Description

“Country House” is a song by English alternative rock band Blur. It was released as the lead single from the bands fourth album The Great Escape on 14 August 1995. “Country House” was the first of two Blur singles to reach number one on the UK Singles Chart
The song is about a man who retires to an expensive country house to escape the pressures of the city. In an interview for the South Bank Show, Damon Albarn explained that it was inspired by former Blur manager Dave Balfe, who left Blurs label Food Records and bought a house in the country. The cover art features a horizontally-flipped image of Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria.

Release and ‘battle’ with Oasis:
“Country House” received a great deal of media attention when Blurs label Food Records moved the original release date to the same day as Oasiss “Roll with It”. The British media had already reported an intense rivalry between the two bands and this clash of releases was seen as a battle for the number one spot, dubbed the ‘Battle of Britpop’.
In the event, “Country House” won the ‘battle’, attaining the No. 1 spot while “Roll with It” came in at No. 2 and having marginally fewer sales. However, the sales for Blurs album The Great Escape were lower than those for Oasiss album (Whats the Story) Morning Glory.
“Country House” features the lines “Hes got morning glory/And lifes a different story”, a line often assumed to be an allusion to the title of Oasiss album Morning Glory. In fact, Blur recorded the song before Oasis had completed, let alone released, their album. Other explanations have included a reference to the Jamiroquai song “Morning Glory”, released in 1994, or a jibe at Julian Cope, who, like Dave Balfe, was formerly a member of The Teardrop Explodes, and was known for using LSD. It may, however, simply have been a reference to the British slang term for waking up with an erection.

Music video:
The video for “Country House” was directed by artist Damien Hirst, who had attended Goldsmiths, University of London, with members of Blur. It features Keith Allen as a businessman trapped in a giant board game called “Escape from the Rat Race”. The band appears in the video alongside British comic actors Matt Lucas and Sara Stockbridge and model Jo Guest. It features pastiches of – or tributes to – Benny Hill (Lucas’ doctor chasing scantily clad young women culminating in the entry of the milk van of Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West) and Queens 1975 video for “Bohemian Rhapsody”. It was nominated for Best Video in the 1996 BRIT Awards.
A candlestick from the video sold on eBay for £92 in March 2005, though it was estimated to be worth £500.

Promotion and release:
On Sunday 20 August 1995 the charts were officially announced. (The Chart Show announced the winner the day before, though the shows chart was unofficial) “Country House” topped the British singles chart, selling 270,000 copies, compared to 220,000 sold by “Roll with It”, which came in at number two. Albarn himself was surprised that “Country House” topped the charts. He told NME, “I sort of believed all the papers, including NME, who told me Oasis were going to win.

video features Matt Lucas from Little Britain