Blur (band)

• 1. Introduction

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  Blur formed in December 1988 when Alex James walked into a rehearsal room and joined Damon Albarn's band. Within a few years, they would be at the centre of a media storm that briefly brought the British music press closer to sports coverage than arts journalism. A chart battle broadcast on national news. A rivalry that split the country. And then, unexpectedly, a band that walked away from all of it and reinvented themselves entirely, not once but several times over.

  The questions worth asking about Blur are not simply who won or who lost. They are about what happens when a band refuses to stay fixed, and what it costs them each time they change.

• 2. Finding the Name

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  The group first performed live in summer 1989 in the goods shed of the East Anglian Railway Museum at Chappel and Wakes Colne, a setting that captures how far they were from stardom. They were still called Seymour, a name taken from J. D. Salinger's Seymour: An Introduction. Drummer Dave Rowntree had joined in October 1988, and guitarist Graham Coxon was Albarn's childhood friend from Essex, studying at Goldsmiths College alongside Albarn and James.

  Food Records' A&R representative Andy Ross attended a Seymour performance in November 1989 and decided to pursue the group for his label. He brought label founder David Balfe to further shows, including a particularly packed gig at The Falcon in Camden. The one sticking point was the name. Food drew up a list of alternatives, and the group settled on Blur. Food Records formally signed them in March 1990.

  From March to July 1990, Blur toured Britain opening for the Cramps. Their October single "She's So High" reached number 48. A harder road came next, until they were paired with producer Stephen Street. The resulting single "There's No Other Way" peaked at number eight, turning them into pop stars almost overnight and earning them entry into a London clique of bands known as "The Scene That Celebrates Itself".

• 3. The Britpop Pivot

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  In 1992, Blur were £60,000 in debt. The American tour they undertook to recover those losses proved miserable. Members vented frustrations physically, and Albarn later said he became so homesick that he began writing songs to recreate an English atmosphere. When the band returned, they discovered that Suede had built a following in their absence. A poor performance on the same bill as Suede put Blur in danger of being dropped by Food Records entirely.

  Albarn's response was a decisive ideological and image shift toward British heritage, set against the wave of American grunge. The band's February 1993 single "Popscene" came first, described by one account as featuring "a rush of punk guitars, '60s pop hooks, blaring British horns, controlled fury, and postmodern humor". It only charted at number 32. Albarn told the NME that year, "We felt 'Popscene' was a big departure; a very, very English record. But that annoyed a lot of people." Plans for a follow-up single were cancelled.

  With Stephen Street returning as producer, Modern Life Is Rubbish was completed in December 1992. Food Records insisted the album needed more potential hit singles, sending the band back to the studio. Albarn wrote "For Tomorrow", which became the lead single and reached number 28. The album followed in May 1993, peaking at number 15 in the UK but selling only 19,000 copies in the United States. The British revival Albarn envisioned had not yet arrived, but Parklife was already in preparation.

• 4. Parklife and the Battle

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  Parklife arrived in 1994 and stayed on the UK album charts for 90 weeks. Its opening single "Girls and Boys" peaked at number 5 on the UK Singles Chart and number 59 on the Billboard Hot 100, the highest any Blur single would chart in the United States. The NME called the album "a Great Pop Record... bigger, bolder, narkier and funnier" than its predecessor. Blur won four awards at the 1995 Brit Awards, including Best Band and Best Album. Coxon later identified Parklife as the moment when the band went "from being regarded as an alternative, left field arty band to this amazing new pop sensation".

  The follow-up, The Great Escape, brought the rivalry with Manchester band Oasis to a head. The two groups released new singles on the same day, an event the NME called "The British Heavyweight Championship". Albarn appeared on the News at Ten as the chart outcome became a news story. "Country House" outsold Oasis' "Roll With It" by 274,000 copies to 216,000, giving Blur their first number one single.

  The victory turned sour within weeks. Following the worldwide success of Oasis' (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, the media's verdict shifted. Blur were now framed as an "inauthentic middle class pop band" against Oasis as "working class heroes". Alex James later recalled: "After being the People's Hero, Damon was the People's Prick for a short period... basically, he was a loser, very publicly." Albarn said the reversal made him feel "stupid and confused".

• 5. The American Turn

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  A Q magazine interview in early 1996 found the band, as journalist Adrian Deevoy wrote, "on the verge of a nervous breakup". Coxon had grown to resent James for his playboy lifestyle and Albarn for his control over the band's direction. He developed a drinking problem and, in deliberate opposition to Blur's Britpop identity, began listening heavily to American alternative rock bands such as Pavement.

  Coxon wrote a letter to Albarn expressing his desire for their music "to scare people again". Albarn, who had previously dismissed Coxon's tastes, came around. He told Stephen Street he wanted a stripped-down sound. The band recorded initial sessions in London, then decamped to Iceland to escape the Britpop scene entirely.

  The self-titled album Blur, released in February 1997, debuted at number one in the UK along with its first single "Beetlebum". Internationally it outperformed its predecessors: it reached number 61 on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold in the United States. Its second single "Song 2" reached number six on the Billboard Modern Rock chart and stayed there for 26 weeks. After it was licensed for use in FIFA: Road to World Cup 98 and various other media, "Song 2" became the most recognisable Blur track in America, despite being built on the lo-fi aesthetic the band had borrowed from the US in the first place.

• 6. Coxon's Departure and Think Tank

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  Blur's sixth studio album 13, released in March 1999, was shaped significantly by Albarn's break-up with Elastica frontwoman Justine Frischmann, his partner of eight years. Producer William Orbit, brought in after the band were impressed by his remix on the Japan-only release Bustin' + Dronin', gave Coxon room to work "unedited", by Orbit's own description. The album debuted at number one in the UK for two weeks. Its lead single "Tender", built on a gospel foundation, opened at number two. A later single, "Coffee and TV", was the first Blur release to feature Coxon on lead vocals and reached number 11, a result disputed by manager Chris Morrison, who demanded a chart re-run over what he considered a sales miscalculation.

  Work on what became Think Tank began in London in November 2001, continued in Marrakesh in Morocco, and then moved to Devon. Not long into those sessions, Coxon left. He later said there were no rows, describing it as both parties recognising they needed time apart. The album Think Tank, released in May 2003, was almost entirely written by Albarn. Former Verve guitarist Simon Tong filled Coxon's live role on the subsequent tour. The album debuted at number one in the UK and reached number 56 in the United States, and was nominated for Best Album at the 2004 Brit Awards.

  Early in 2002, before Think Tank was finished, Blur recorded a short piece to be played by the European Space Agency's Beagle 2 lander upon touching down on Mars. The probe landed but could not be located afterward. The song was never heard from the Martian surface.

• 7. Returns and the Magic Whip

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  In December 2008, Blur announced a reunion concert at Hyde Park in London on the 3rd of July 2009. A second date was added for the 2nd of July, and a series of preview shows culminated at Manchester Evening News arena on the 26th of June. They headlined Glastonbury on the 28th of June, their first appearance there since 1998. The Guardian called them "the best Glastonbury headliners in an age". Albarn said the main motivation for participating in the reunion was to repair his relationship with Coxon, which he felt he had achieved.

  In January 2010, the documentary No Distance Left to Run was released in cinemas. The same month, the cover of Parklife was among ten British album covers commemorated on a UK postage stamp issued by the Royal Mail; the collection was unveiled by Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. In April 2010, for Record Store Day, Blur released "Fool's Day" on vinyl limited to 1,000 copies. No Distance Left to Run was nominated for Best Long Form Music Video at the 53rd Grammy Awards, Blur's first Grammy nomination.

  The Magic Whip, released in April 2015, was conceived over five days in Hong Kong following a cancelled Japan tour in 2013. It became the sixth consecutive Blur studio album since Parklife to top the British charts. The Daily Telegraph awarded it five stars, and it peaked at number 24 on the Billboard 200, the band's highest US chart position for any album. A documentary on the recording process, New World Towers, was released in select British theatres in December 2015.

• 8. The Ballad of Darren

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  On the 14th of November 2022, Blur announced a headline show at Wembley Stadium for the 8th of July 2023. Their ninth album, The Ballad of Darren, followed on the 21st of July 2023, preceded by the single "The Narcissist" in May. The band's first concert in eight years took place on the 19th of May 2023 at the Colchester Arts Centre, a venue considerably more intimate than where the tour would end up. They headlined Wembley across two nights on the 8th and the 9th of July, with Paul Weller among the support acts for the second show.

  In December 2023, Albarn announced the campaign was over, saying "it's too much for me". Then, within days, a late-night call came offering a Coachella slot for 2024. Management gave the band five minutes to decide. They said yes. A warm-up show at Pomona Fox Theater on the 10th of April 2024 was their first US appearance since 2015. During Blur's second Coachella performance on the 20th of April, Albarn said from the stage that it was probably the band's final show. A documentary titled To the End was announced for release in July 2024, charting the full arc from reunion to those Coachella nights in the California desert.