Blur

The extravagant rock band Blur was formed in London in 1988 by vocalist Damon Albarn, bassist Alex James, guitarist Graham Coxon and drummer Dave Rowntree. Initially called Seymour, this formation used to play where they could, as often as not in front of virtually empty halls. A year after the formation, the group signed a contract Food Records, provided that they change their name. In the end, Seymour became Blur. The young men were very confident in the stage despite all their inexperience and this made them quickly new favorites of the local audience. The best evidence of that was the success of the band’s debut single She’s So High hitting the British Top 50. The follow-up single by Blur performed nicely in the charts until the music they played ran out of fashion. Blur stuck to pop music with barely noticeable guitars, which one day lost its fascination. Their first albums Leisure (1991) and Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993) sold poorly while the solid concert activity saved the day.

When the promotional tour for the 1993 release came to an end, the Blur members knew they had to try something new. In a year, they presented their new long player, Parklife, a cornerstone in the group’s career. Basically, this studio work became one of the first notable and influential records in the history of Britpop. Blur decided to make guitars the core of their music and play with focus on the art of established British groups, particularly Madness, and The Beatles. Press once again paid close attention to the beginning band as even more people came to see what they were on the stage. Equally good at playing live and working hard in the studio, Blur issued their subsequent album as soon as in 1995. That was The Great Escape, a record to borrow the best features of Parklife, yet to offer a more mature and eclectic material. The follow-up album was named Blur and prepared in Iceland. It was much heavier and more energetic than its predecessors. One could easily recognize a strong influence of the American alternative stage, which granted the new product a warm welcome on the other cost of the Atlantic Ocean. The USA public was especially happy with the smashing radio-hit Song 2. In 1998, Cocxon founded his own label and released a solo album.

In a year, Blur prepared another full-length record, 13. This album marked an inevitable breakup with Britpop. The musician made it clear that they wanted to play something different. As if finishing one more chapter in their biography, they released a collection of their most notable songs from that period, Blur: The Best Of (2000). In the meantime, Coxon was getting more and more focused on his own project paying less attention to Blur. The mass media spread massive speculations about the upcoming collapse of the whole group. Blur’s next album, entitled Think Tank, was executed without Coxon. Guitar parts were remarkably simplified, which was compensated with the application of other instruments. Critics praised this work and named it one of the year’s best efforts. After that, Blur delivered news rarely and were musically inactive. The participants of the bands stated often that Coxon was about to return and that the musicians were thinking over the making of the new album. Meanwhile, Coxon continued recording his own stuff and did not seem willing to come back to Blur. In December 2008, Albarn and Coxon said publicly that they had eliminated all the differences that they had had before and that Blur were going to give a couple of concerts in July 2009 in their original lineup.