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Blur Information
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'Blur' is the name of a British rock band. Originally called 'Seymour', Blur formed in London in 1989 from the remnants of a band called Circus. Vocalist/keyboardist Damon Albarn, guitarist/backing vocalist Graham Coxon and drummer Dave Rowntree, with bassist Alex James joining the lineup.
History
Roots and Influence
Blur were one of the British bands who appeared in the wake of the Stone Roses's eponymous album, mixing psychedelic pop rock with very loud guitars. Following an image change in the mid-'90s, the group emerged as one of the most popular bands in the U.K., establishing themselves as heir to the English pop tradition of the Kinks, the Small Faces, the Who, the Jam, Madness, and the Smiths. In the process, the group broke open the doors for a new generation of bands who became labelled as Britpop. With Damon Albarn's wry lyrics and 'mockney' vocals, Graham Coxon's remarkable guitar work and the group's pop mastery, Blur were one of the leaders of the Britpop movement. However they quickly became bound to it; since they were one of its biggest bands, they nearly fell apart when the movement itself subdued. Through some reinvention, Blur reclaimed their position as an art pop rock band in the late 1990s by incorporating indie rock and lo-fi influences of the American bands in the style of Pavement and R.E.M., which finally gave them their elusive American success in 1997. But the band's legacy remained in Britain, where they helped reinvent the guitar pop music by skilfully enriching the country's pop traditions.
It should also be noted that Coxon and James attended Goldsmiths College, whose alumni include Damien Hirst. Hirst later worked with Blur on a video and with members of the band in another band called Fat Les, and Julian Opie, who created the vector-realistic images used on the cover of Blur's collection of singles. The impact of Goldsmiths College on the band should not be overlooked.
Breakthrough and rising to success (1991-1993)
After "She's So High", the group's first single, made it into the Top 50 - Morissey producer Stephen Street contacted the band and proposed to them to produce their album. The band agreed and this would be considered a very wise move, considering the band's later success. The partnership between Blur and Street would be incredibly successful and would last for the next half-decade. Street's exceptional production help, which aided the band immensely on their way to stardom, often lead to him being dubbed the band's fifth member by fans and press.
The follow-up to "She's So High" - "There's No Other Way" - went Top Ten. Both singles were included on their debut album, Leisure. Although receiving good reviews, the album managed to fit into both the dying Madchester pop scene and the near fading Shoegazing scene, causing some journalists and music critics to dismiss the band as manufactured teen idols. For a couple of years, Blur struggled to abandon this title and prove the critics wrong.
XTC's Andy Partridge was originally slated to produce the follow-up of Leisure - Modern Life Is Rubbish. However the relationship between him and the band soon deteriorated, so Street was again brought in to produce the record. After spending nearly a year in the studio, the band delivered the album to Food records. However the record company rejected the album, declaring that it needed a hit single. The band went back into the studio and recorded "For Tomorrow", which turned out to be a British hit. Food were ready to release the record, but their U.S. record company, SBK, said there was no American hit single on the record and asked them to return to the studio. They angrily complied and recorded "Chemical World" which pleased SBK for a short while; the song would become a minor alternative hit in the U.S. and charted at number 28 in the U.K. Modern Life... was set for release in the spring of 1993, when SBK asked Blur to re-record the album with producer Butch Vig (Nirvana and Sonic Youth). The band was quite angry and irritated by the suggestion and so refused. The record was released in May in Britain; it appeared in the United States that Fall. Modern Life Is Rubbish received good reviews in Britain, peaking at number 15 on the charts, yet it failed to make much of an impression in the U.S. In spite of Albarn's stated disdain at the time for American culture, particularly grunge, the liner notes for the album in fact carried a quote directly from Canadian writer Douglas Coupland's 'grunge novel' Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture ("Legislated nostalgia: to force a body of people to have memories they do not actually possess.")
Britpop and the Height of Fame (1994-1998)
Modern Life... turned out to be a dry run for Blur's breakthrough album - Parklife, whose East End stylings were inspired by Martin Amis' London Fields. The follow-up entered the charts at number one and catapulted the band to stardom in Britain. The new wave dance-pop single "Girls & Boys" entered the charts at number five; the single managed to spend 15 weeks on the U.S. charts, peaking at number 52, but the album never cracked the charts. It was a completely different story in England, as Blur had a string of hit singles, including the ballad "To the End" and the mod anthem "Parklife", which featured narration by Phil Daniels, the star of the film version of the Who's Quadrophenia.
With the success of Parklife, Blur opened the door for many British bands who dominated the British pop culture in the mid-'90s and which were labelled as Britpop. Oasis, Elastica, Pulp, the Boo Radleys, Supergrass, Gene, Echobelly, Menswear, Mansun, Radiohead, Suede and numerous other bands all benefited from the band's success. By the beginning of 1995, Parklife went triple platinum and the band became superstars. The group spent the first half of 1995 recording their fourth album and playing various one-off concerts, including a sold-out stadium show.
Blur released "Country House", the first single from their new album, in August amidst media attention, as Albarn had requested the single's release moved up a week to compete with the release of "Roll With It", a new single from Blur's chief rivals, Oasis. The strategy however backfired. Although the band won the battle, with "Country House" becoming the group's first number one single, they ultimately lost the war, as Oasis became Britain's biggest band at the time with their second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, overshadowing The Great Escape. While The Great Escape entered the U.K. charts at number one and earned overwhelmingly positive reviews, it sold in smaller numbers, and by the beginning of 1996, Blur were seen as has-beens, especially since they once again failed to make impression on the American market, where Oasis had been successful.
In the face of negative press and weak public support, Blur nearly broke up in early 1996, following a major drug-fuelled scuffle between chief artists Coxon and Albarn. Instead, the band decided to spend the entire year out of the spotlight, quietly plotting and working on the follow-up to The Great Escape. By the end of the year, Albarn declared that he was no longer interested in British music and was fascinated with American indie rock (particularly Pavement), a genre that Graham Coxon had been supporting for years.
These influences sparked in Blur's eponymous fifth album, Blur, which was released in February of 1997 to fantastic reviews, nearly rivalling those of Parklife. However the band's reinvention didn't earn them initially warm reviews in U.K. - the album and the first single, "Beetlebum" (said to be heavily influenced by American indie band Pavement) debuted at number one but quickly fell down the charts - as the group's mass audience didn't all accept this incarnation. In the U.S. the record received strong reviews and the album and its second single "Song 2" became a large hit, helped by its popularity as a pre-match anthem at ice hockey games. The album reached #61 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, while "Song 2" peaked at #6 on the magazine's Modern Rock chart, and has since become a rock cultural icon. "Song 2" continues to have legs, frequently being played at U.S. sports events, though it has also branded Blur as a one hit wonder. The success in America was eventually repeated in Britain and by the end of the year Blur bounced back onto the charts. It show-cased the natural evolution of the band beyond their roots, while combining earlier work in a successful blend of Britpop and American music, which came as a contrast to the much-criticized record of their counterparts Oasis - Be Here Now.
Post Britpop (1999-present)
As the Britpop movement died, the band decided to take a different approach to their next album, so they parted ways with long-time producer and collaborator Stephen Street, who helped immensely in establishing the band. However, many fans weren't so happy about it and criticized the band. Nevertheless, in 1999, Blur returned with 13, a more mature album than any other records Blur have released. It was lyrically dominated by the end of Albarn's turbulent relationship with Justine Frischmann, Elastica frontwoman, as well as his publicized battles with heavy cocaine, crack and alcohol addictions provoked by that relationship. Darker in tone, the album was received very well, although not as well as their Britpop records. In addition, a box set celebrating Blur's 10th anniversary was released later that year. The box set featured 22 singles and all accompanying b-sides.
Exhausted by incessant recording and touring through the world, the band entered into a hiatus. Albarn said that as they didn't stop for a decade, they needed a break. For a couple of years members of Blur engaged in a variety of side-projects around this time: Coxon made a number of solo albums, Alex James joined actor Keith Allen and artist Damien Hirst (who had both contributed their talents to the video for Blur's single, "Country House" earlier) to form Fat Les, while Albarn made the cartoon supergroup Gorillaz and travelled to Mali on behalf of Oxfam, producing the fundraising album Mali Music.
Afterwards the band returned for recording sessions in 2002, but tensions between Coxon and the rest of the band escalated during them. Coxon was variously reported to have failed to attend recording sessions or to have been shut out of them. He was apparently unhappy at the choice of dance DJ Fatboy Slim (aka Norman Cook) as the sessions' producer. After several weeks of rumour and uncertainty, Coxon confirmed that he had been asked to leave the band for reasons connected with his "attitude" at a time when he had given up heavy alcohol habit. Since then Albarn had said that the door is always opened for Graham to return, but a possible project or a collaborative work of the full line-up is not very likely in the foreseeable future.
Albarn later told an interviewer that there had been a big struggle between himself and Coxon. The album resulting from the sessions, Think Tank, was released in May 2003 to mostly favourable reviews and was nominated for Best British Album at the 2004 Brit awards. Ex-Verve guitarist Simon Tong has been standing in place of Coxon on live dates. Ironically, Coxon realigned with ex-Blur producer Stephen Street, to release his most successful and accessible solo album up to date Happiness in Magazines on May 17, 2004.
Another Gorillaz album Demon Days was released in May 2005, receiving significant praise. Damon Albarn, currently touring with Gorillaz, had previously said that he was waiting for estranged guitarist Graham Coxon to return to the band before work could begin on a new Blur album. However his hopes for such an album were bashed by Coxon's tenacious refusals to work with his former bandmates again.
Next album
In an interview (28 September, 2005) for NME Albarn disclosed information that the band have in cards a new "basic album" for a follow-up to 2003's Think Tank. The band apparently will continue as a three-piece after Graham Coxon lack of interest towards his former's band activities and Damon's: "There is a Blur record at the moment but it's very basic", explained Albarn of the next album, which could be out in 2006. "the reason why it's so basic is we decided that if we're going to make another record it's just going to be the three of us and I've got to play guitar. And because I'm such a rudimentary guitarist it has to be really stupid and basic punk rock".
In 19 October, 2005 Albarn disclosed more information for Xfm about the band's next material for an "aggressively laid back" Blur EP to be released before the end of the year and the likelihood of some low key gigs: "I think we™re gonna do an EP first, sometime by the end of this year," he confessed, "but you probably won't know about it. It'll just 'come out'. It'll be so, sort of, underplayed. It'll come out but you won't know it's us as it'll be so, well, not us." Speaking about the guitar part Albarn again said: "I can't really make another Blur record that's a big landscape sort of thing, due to my very basic guitar ability. Cos I want to sing and play so it has to be three chords. I can only do three chords and not look at the guitar." Albarn also dismissed the idea of getting a new guitarist to replace the long departed Graham Coxon saying, "What™s the point? We™d never be able to get one as good as Graham!"
Albarn's also confirmed, that he is currently working on his first solo album like his previous side project "Mali Music": "I'm halfway through a record that I started in Nigeria last year," said the Blur frontman. "I suppose will end up being my first solo record, although I hate the term solo record." Meanwhile the band is in the studio, Graham Coxon has just finished his sixth studio album, again with Street and the same production team behind Happiness in Magazines. The album is going to be called Love Travels At Illegal Speeds and is scheduled to be released on March 13, 2006.
Music
Blur takes elements from different styles of popular music, but is particularly notable for an unique use of feedback and dissonant synthetized sounds.
Discography
Studio Albums
Image:LeisureUK.jpg|'1. Leisure' - 26 August 1991 || #7 (UK) 'Singles:'"She's So High" (1 October 1990) UK #48, "There's No Other Way" (15 April 1991) UK #8, US #82, "Bang" (29 July 1991) UK #24
Image:BlurModernLifeIsRubbish.jpg|'2. Modern Life Is Rubbish' - 10 May 1993 || #15 (UK) 'Singles:'"Popscene" (This wasn't on the UK release of the album) (30 March 1992) UK #32, "For Tomorrow" (19 April 1993) UK #28, "Chemical World" (21 June 1993) UK #28, "Sunday Sunday" (27 September 1993) UK #26
Image:BlurParklife.jpg|'3. Parklife' - 25 April 1994 - #1 (UK) 'Singles:' "Girls & Boys" (28 February 1994) UK #5, US #59, "To the End" (30 May 1994) UK #16, "Parklife" (8 August 1994) UK #10, "End of a Century" (7 November 1994) UK #19
Image:Blur_thegreatescape.png|'4. The Great Escape' - 11 September 1995 || #1 (UK), #150 (US) 'Singles:' "Country House" (14 August 1995) UK #1, "The Universal" (13 November 1995) UK #5, "Stereotypes" (5 February 1996) UK #7, "Charmless Man" (22 April 1996) UK #5
Image:Blur_blur.png|'5. Blur' - 10 February 1997 || #1 (UK), #61 (US) 'Singles:' "Beetlebum" (20 January 1997) UK #1, "Song 2" (7 April 1997) UK #2, US #6 (Modern Rock Tracks), "On Your Own" (16 June 1997) UK #5, "M.O.R." (15 September 1997) UK #15
Image:Blur13.jpg|'6. 13' - 15 March 1999 - #1 (UK), #80 (US) 'Singles:' "Tender" (22 February 1999) UK #2, "Coffee & TV" (28 June 1999) UK #11, "No Distance Left to Run" (8 November 1999) UK #14
Image:Think_tank_album_cover.jpg|'7. Think Tank' - 5 May 2003 || #1 (UK), #56 (US) 'Singles:' "Out of Time" (14 April 2003) UK #5, "Crazy Beat" (7 July 2003) UK #18, US#22 (Modern Rock Tracks), "Good Song" (6 October 2003) UK #22
Compilations & Live Albums and Box Sets
* The Special Collectors Edition (26 October 1994) (Japan-only B-Side album)
* Live at Budokan (22 May 1996) (Japan-only live album)
* Bustin' + Dronin' (25 February 1998) (remix/live album) #50 UK
* 10 Year Anniversary Box Set (17 August 1999) (compilation, collection of singles and b-sides box set)
* Blur: The Best Of (30 October 2000) #3 UK, #186 US (first editions included a second disc, featruing 10 tracks from Blur's Singles Night concert, 12 December 1999 at Wembley Arena)
Fanclub CDs
#"Death Of A Party (1992 demo)" (August 1996)
#"I Love Her" (Autumn 1997)
#"Close" (November 1998)
#"Sing (To Me)" (December 1999)
#B-Sides Gig EP (1. I'm Fine; 2. Bone Bag; 3. No Monsters In Me; 4. Young & Lovely) (January 2001)
#"Won't Do It (demo)/Come Together (demo)" (March 2002)
#"Colours" (September 2003)
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