 The music press predicted that the lo @-@ fi sonic experimentation would alienate Blur 's fan @-@ base . These fears were also shared by James who revealed that the front rows of the gigs that the band were performing at during the Britpop years were primarily attracting 15 @-@ year @-@ old girls and that he thought the change in style was a " fucking big balls move . " Andy Ross , who was running Food Records at the time , admitted that when he first heard it he was " taken aback . We 'd won Brits , we 'd won two consecutive Q magazine Albums of the Year and my initial reaction was it 's awkward and difficult . My immediate reaction was will you sell as many records ? Where 's my royalties ? Everyone 's first reaction to it was that it was a departure : that ’ s clear from the artwork onwards . " Albarn dismissed the EMI 's concerns calling them " The usual thing — ' It 's got no singles on it ' . Meanwhile , they 're giving Radiohead the full marketing works . That hurt for a while because we 've done so well for them . We were trying to be really brave . But it was all made up pretty quickly . " Parlophone MD Tony Wadsworth was enthusiastic however as Coxon recalls , " We played him " Song 2 " as a bit of a test of whether he was on our wavelength . We told him this was the second single . Course , we had no idea that it would be . He sat there , grinning — ' Definitely ! Definitely a single ! ' " 
