Blur
photo: Steve Pyke
98 articles
Free articles
Blur, Oasis: Battle of the Bands — Old Turf, New Combatants
Overview by Simon Reynolds, The New York Times, 22 October 1995
RIGHT NOW, the British music scene is convulsed with patriotic fervor. For the first time in over a decade, young British guitar bands are penetrating ...
Audio interviews
Interview by Maureen Paton, Rock's Backpages audio, 25 April 2007
The Blur bassist/cheesemaker on being rebuffed by Faye Dunaway and writing his autobiography... plus he looks back on Blur, his family and personal life; talks about being a (sort of) farmer; about rubbing shoulders with the West Oxfordshire glitterati; about pals like Damien Hirst and about London's clubland; about his love of P.G. Wodehouse and his great friend Marianne Faithfull... and quitting booze.
File format: mp3; file size: 61.4mb, interview length: 1h 03' 59" sound quality: ***
List of articles in the library
Live Review by Push, Melody Maker, 26 May 1990
BLUR are precisely that. The antics of their vocalist have to be seen to be believed. ...
Blur: Pink Toothbrush, Rayleigh, Essex
Live Review by Roy Wilkinson, Sounds, 27 October 1990
Opportunity knocks ...
The Soup Dragons/Blur: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Ian Watson, Melody Maker, 5 January 1991
FASHION: the question is, do you follow it or skirt round it? It's picked the bill, filled the venue and dressed the punters. Ignore it ...
Live Review by Dele Fadele, New Musical Express, 12 January 1991
THE HYPE and shoddy promotional tactics surrounding Blur would surely stifle a lesser group. ...
Review by David Cavanagh, Select, October 1991
AND GUESS WHAT: they were right. It is special. The four Blur boys have guaranteed themselves a hefty leg-up in the being-taken-seriously stakes with the thrills ...
Diesel Park West/Blur/Jesus Jones: From The Soup Kitchen To The Stars
Report and Interview by Stephen Dalton, Vox, March 1992
Food Records' charity knees-up included tasty appetisers of Diesel Park West, an entrée of Blur and the piece de resistance, Jesus Jones. Stephen Dalton tucked ...
Blur: Blast Of The Famous International Game Boys
Report and Interview by Stuart Maconie, New Musical Express, 28 March 1992
It's not all Calpis Walter, Pocari Sweat and smoking Keiths while on a rock 'n' roll jaunt in Japan, y'know. Sometimes you rediscover BLUR, completely ...
Rollercoaster: Will and Jim's Excellent Misadventure
Live Review by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 4 April 1992
The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Dinosaur Jr, Blur: Glasgow SECC ...
Mother’s Litter Helpers: Blur's Modern Life Is Rubbish
Review by Paul Moody, New Musical Express, 1993
AND THE FOOLS laugh loudest. Blur’s rise and fall has all the comic nuances of Reginald Perrin’s. Two years ago they were pop’s champagne Charlies: ...
Blur: Modern Life Is Rubbish (Food)
Review by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 15 May 1993
CONTEMPORARY FAULT – ADJUST YOUR MIND-SET ...
Overview by Stephen Dalton, New Musical Express, 22 May 1993
From The Kinks to Carter, Bowie to Blur, the Small Faces to Suede, British pop groups have eulogised, mythologised, criticised, glamorised, immortalised, romanticised and agonised ...
Blur: We Can Be Eros… Just For One Day
Interview by Paul Moody, New Musical Express, 5 March 1994
Breaking out of the Camden bootboy mould that brought more bovver than they’d bargained for, BLUR are back with more songs about penile dementia, lager ...
Park Psychosis — Blur: Parklife (Food /EMI F00D10)
Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 23 April 1994
Strike a light, guvnah. For thair fird al-bum, BLUR, the bin lids' faverits, 'ave gorn awl Lahn-dun on us, and no mistake. SIMON PRICE gave ...
Profile and Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 29 April 1994
After several false starts, Blur have got it right with their album Parklife, which is set to leap into the charts at number one. ...
Review by David Cavanagh, The Independent, 30 April 1994
BLURRY SHADES OF SGT PEPPER AT ABOUT seven o'clock this evening, if the midweek sales pointers are correct, Blur's third album Parklife will enter the chart ...
Blur: This Is The Modern World?
Interview by David Bennun, Melody Maker, 7 May 1994
BLUR believe themselves to be the most modern of bands, a four-man amalgamation of Nineties Britain. DAVID BENNUN reckons they're clever throwbacks, feeding on a ...
Interview by Tom Doyle, Melody Maker, 14 May 1994
BLUR's Parklife is selling by the truck load, has loads of fabulous tunes on it and is really very good. TOM DOYLE talks to producer ...
Blur: Civic Hall Wolverhampton
Live Review by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 21 May 1994
THE (CL)ASS OF '94 ...
Review by Stuart Maconie, Q, June 1994
TO USE the vernacular of our friends in the American therapy industry, today's music business is not "a nurturing environment". One might use the expression ...
Report by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 16 September 1994
Jon Savage sees the north take its regional revenge ...
Bedsitters' night out — Blur, Pulp: Alexandra Palace, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 10 October 1994
Minimalist pop has its day as Blur and Pulp share the bill at London's Alexandra Palace ...
Blur: Who needs a used Merc, anyway?
Interview by Max Bell, Vox, November 1994
Mr Cholmondley-Warner may not have rated Blur good enough for the Mercury Music Prize, but Damon Albarn isn't losing sleep over it — hit singles, ...
Profile and Interview by Steven Daly, Rolling Stone, 3 November 1994
BLUR stand up for their mod-rock roots on Parklife ...
Report by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 10 November 1994
They are the names on everyone's lips, the pop heroes from Essex. Blur are being mentioned in the same breath as The Beatles, and yesterday ...
Blur: Have a Go if You're Hard Enough
Interview by Susan Corrigan, i-D, December 1994
London lads on the pull or just taking the piss? Blur are this year's Brit pop sensations, defining a bold New Englishness out of smart ...
Essay by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 16 December 1994
The media's love affair with football has spawned a huge culture industry. But is it to blame for the return of loutishness? ...
Book Excerpt by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 24 December 1994
Blur had a brilliant 1994 — their album, Parklife, entered the charts at Number One and spent the rest of the year blaring from every ...
Britpop: Modern Life Is... Brilliant!
Overview by John Harris, New Musical Express, 7 January 1995
It was the year grunge died, the year of jungle... arses. It was the year that BRITISH POP found its feet again, and what's more, ...
Boys will be lads — Blur: Mile End Stadium, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 19 June 1995
A right old knees-up with Blur and their guests at Mile End ...
Blur: The Return Of The Fab Four
Interview by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 12 August 1995
That rumble at the earth's core can only mean one thing — BLUR are back! With new single, 'Country House', out in ten days and ...
Blur: The Return Of The Fab Four: Part Two
Interview by Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 19 August 1995
Last week, BLUR talked long and hard about, well, everything, really. Everything, that is, except new LP The Great Escape, the R.E.M. date at Milton ...
Special Feature by Chris Heath, The Face, September 1995
BLUR'S NEW album, The Great Escape, might be based around an imaginary retreat from the heady pop melee, but for Damon, Graham, Alex and Dave, ...
Blur: The Great Escape (Food/Parlophone 8 35235)
Review by David Sinclair, The Times, 8 September 1995
Blur put the grate in Britain ...
Review by Johnny Cigarettes, New Musical Express, 9 September 1995
DON'T PRETEND you saw it coming. In fact, don't even bother going back and combing the grooves looking for it. ...
Colditz A Knockout!: Blur: The Great Escape (Food)
Review by Paul Lester, Melody Maker, 9 September 1995
If you thought 'Country House' meant BLUR were playing it safe, you haven't heard The Great Escape. Damon has laced his tales of commuter belt ...
Blur: The great escape — live!
Report by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 22 September 1995
Caitlin Moran catches up with Blur's whimsical tour of unlikely seaside resorts ...
Graham Coxon: I'm Completely at Odds With Everything
Interview by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 23 September 1995
He hated the 'Country House' video and had doubts about it as a single. He thought of sabotaging his band's attempts to win that coveted ...
Blur: The Floral Hall, Eastbourne
Live Review by Simon Price, Melody Maker, 30 September 1995
ESCAPE TO VICTORY ...
Blur vs. Oasis: What's the story?
Report by Siân Pattenden, Select, October 1995
We know who won the Blur-versus-Oasis singles showdown. But who trounced who in the media-othon? Sian Pattenden adds 'em up. ...
Review by David Cavanagh, Select, October 1995
THE JOY OF ESSEX. The suburbs are still rotting on the sequel to Parklife. ...
Overview by Jon Savage, Artforum, October 1995
RECENTLY I returned from the US into a British news media dominated by a by-election in the North West of England. The point about the ...
Blur: Floral Hall, Winter Gardens, Eastbourne
Live Review by David Quantick, MOJO, November 1995
"Blimey," says Damon Albarn as he takes the stage. How apt, Blur, as even tiny children in their prams know, are the current monarchs of ...
Can't Fight This Fleeing: Blur: The Great Escape (Parlophone)
Review by Paul Moody, Vox, November 1995
"I'm not walking out of this/I want to stay this way forever" — Blur, 'Blue Jeans', 1993 ...
Oasis: (What's the Story) Morning Glory (Epic); Blur: The Great Escape (Virgin), both 6/10
Review by Chuck Eddy, Spin, November 1995
THE MORE Blur and Oasis act British by pretending to be funny without punch lines on their long-awaited new albums (long-awaited in England, anyway, where ...
Time for the Blur to Fly — Blur: NEC Arena, Birmingham
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 27 November 1995
Blur a flagging, studenty band? Those memories are now long gone as screaming teenyboppers everywhere fight to hear their heroes ...
Comment by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 8 December 1995
Unless the music business pulls its finger out, we'll have nothing to look forward to once Britpop dies. ...
Blur: Stop The Band, I Wanna Get Off!
Report and Interview by Adrian Deevoy, Q, March 1996
Are BLUR really going to the dogs? Behind all the adoring screams, we hear internal bickering, the tell-tale snii-ii-i-iff! of media-centric decadence, a hollow champagne ...
Report and Interview by Everett True, Melody Maker, 9 March 1996
BOSTON. IT'S COLD. Covered in snow. Twee. In the rarefied, tourist part of the city centre, fairy lights twinkle on the gaudy exterior of Doc ...
Britpop Football Special: Ooh-aah, Rossit-ah!
Report and Interview by Ian Watson, Melody Maker, 25 May 1996
Martin Rossiter as Eric Cantona? Liam Gallagher squaring off against Damon Albarn? Robbie Williams and Steve Pulp in the same footie team? No, you're not ...
Interview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 6 July 1996
Blur's Damon Albarn tells CAROLINE SULLIVAN he is tired of being a star, tired of Yob Pop and tired off feuding. That's why he's reading ...
Comment by Johnny Cigarettes, The Face, September 1996
In the Nineties, we are all everyday people, says Johnny Cigarettes ...
Comment by Cliff Jones, The Face, January 1997
Britpop hasn't so much gone Pete Tong as Travelling Wilburys, says Cliff Jones ...
Blur: "We're an art school band and always will be"
Interview by Max Bell, The Evening Standard, 7 February 1997
Damon Albarn has re-invented Blur: they don't drink (much), they don't like New Labour and they certainly don't play Britpop. MAX BELL meets the capital's ...
Blur: Blur (Reprise 9362-46236-2)
Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 7 February 1997
LOUDLY HERALDED as the pyre upon which their former Britpop selves have been ritually dispatched, Blur certainly takes some getting used to, though it's questionable ...
Blur: Blur (Food/Parlophone 14tks/57mins)
Review by David Bennun, Melody Maker, 8 February 1997
Get this. BLUR have gone lo-fi. They're slumming it. And they might just have made their finest album to date... ...
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, MOJO, March 1997
Fifth album in six years; as ever a Stephen Street production. Change of ’direction’ hears Blur muss up their sound and back-pedal into the future. ...
Blur: Palace Theatre, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Richard Cromelin, Los Angeles Times, 21 March 1997
Blur Strays From Its Roots in Palace Show ...
Blur: Blur Knocks The Pulp Out Of Oasis, Right?
Interview by Erik Himmelsbach, Pulse!, April 1997
CLEARLY, Damon Albarn has studied his rock 'n' roll history. "When you start wearing tight trousers, you're fucked," notes the metaphorically astute 28-year-old. ...
Review by James Hunter, Rolling Stone, 3 April 1997
ASIDE FROM a minor hit three years ago, with the perfect pop single 'Girls and Boys', England's beloved Blur have never quite killed alternative-era America. ...
Report by Ben Myers, Melody Maker, 31 May 1997
Sunday sunshine and a celebrity soccer shoot-out! A brace of top pop stars recently puffed their way around the pitch in a charity match. Some ...
Essay by Jon Savage, The Guardian, 4 July 1997
Pop music is booming, right? British bands are taking over the world, right? Wrong. The yobbish lads of Brit rock are about to hit the ...
Rejoice! Rejoice! Britpop is dead
Comment by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 28 November 1997
The jig is up, the hype exposed, and now Oasis, Pulp and the rest will have to do a proper job ...
Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, and Damon
Report by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 19 December 1997
Look boys, it's Christmas — time to kiss under the mistletoe and call off the damaging Blur-Oasis wars ...
Comment by Sean O'Hagan, The Guardian, 13 March 1998
According to this week's NME, the honeymoon between pop and the Government is well and truly over. Sean O'Hagan isn't surprised ...
Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, 'Seven Years of Plenty' (Gollancz), October 1998
"A recent article in the New York Times proclaimed Newport as The New Seattle..." Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 13 December, 1996 ...
Interview by Tom Doyle, Q, February 1999
Slade were good at it; Quintessence weren't. Ten rules of 7" engagement as decreed by Blur label boss Andy Ross and New National Anthem™ writer ...
Review by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 10 March 1999
TWO-AND-a-half minutes into the tenth track on his band's sixth album Damon Albarn is heard to ponder: "Where is the magic?/I've got to get better". ...
The Prehistory of Blur: 'We Were Very... Purple'
Retrospective and Interview by Stuart Maconie, Q, April 1999
A mohican, Artaud, pyjama bottoms, The Cardiacs, sackings, Pernod, dressing up as the Ayatollah Khomeini: all of this and more in the story of Blur ...
Review by James Hunter, New York Observer, 5 April 1999
Blur's Tender Mercies Shine Through Sheen of 13 ...
Retrospective and Interview by Stuart Maconie, Select, August 1999
WE JOIN the story in the autumn of 1995. 'Country House' has beaten 'Roll With It' to Number One and the critics are in short-lived ...
Britpop: And The Beat Goes Off
Retrospective by Philip Norman, The Sunday Times, 17 February 2003
Britpop recalled the halcyon days of the Beatles and the Stones – but the party didn't last ...
Film/DVD/TV Review by David Stubbs, The Guardian, 1 March 2003
THERE ARE MANY reasons to see Live Forever, the new documentary about the 1990s Britpop years. Mostly they involve Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn being ...
Review and Interview by Paul Lester, The Guardian, 25 April 2003
Backstage at L'Espace Clacquesin, a former brewery 20 minutes from the centre of Paris, Blur are relaxing. The band has just performed for 200 invited ...
Review by Devon Powers, PopMatters, 9 May 2003
IT'S finally happened: Blur have become one of those bands. ...
This Is A High For A Refreshed Blur
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 12 May 2003
Blur: The Astoria, London ...
Justin Timberlake: NEC Arena, Birmingham; Blur: Astoria, London
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 17 May 2003
Non-threatening boys: come and get 'em ...
Beck: Main Stage, Reading, Saturday 6.35pm; Blur: Main Stage, Reading, Saturday 9.30pm
Live Review by Paul Moody, New Musical Express, 30 August 2003
Battle of the Old-Timers: Funky robots take on a chaotic Blur ...
Profile and Interview by Dorian Lynskey, Bang, December 2003
Blur are no longer the centre of Damon Albarn's world and he says he finds the idea of turning into a career band like U2 ...
Britpop: Remember the first time
Retrospective and Interview by John Harris, The Guardian, 12 August 2005
Without Britpop, would we have had hit guitar groups, stadium anthems or rock stars on Newsnight? Ten years on, John Harris looks back on how ...
Retrospective by Nick Hasted, The Independent, 19 August 2005
Exactly a decade ago the British pop revival reached its zenith when Blur and Oasis battled it out for the number one spot. Nick Hasted ...
Brett Anderson and the real rivalry of Britpop
Retrospective by John Lewis, So London, March 2007
BACK IN the heyday of Britpop, the rivalry that garnered all the column inches was that between Blur and Oasis; the nice middle-class Essex boys ...
Alex James: Where There's Muck, There's Blur
Interview by James Medd, The Word, July 2007
Britpop pin-up, champagne-guzzler and gentleman farmer... Just how much of Alex James's extraordinary life has gone into his new book? ...
Damon Albarn: The Great Escape
Report and Interview by Andrew Purcell, The Independent, 12 April 2008
THERE ARE GHOSTS at the Apollo. Bobby Byrd holds his master's cape, the amateur night regulars bawl and shimmy, and Fats Gonder asks: "Are you ...
Damon Albarn: From Pop to Opera
Interview by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 2 November 2008
He's indifferent to money and drugs. He hates the celebrity circus. And he famously said no to Tony Blair – but yes to getting drunk ...
Report and Interview by Pete Paphides, The Times, 10 December 2008
SIX YEARS AFTER they last played together, 13 since their epic chart duel with Oasis and almost three decades after the band's dominant figures met ...
From the life of Leisure to inside the Think Tank...
Retrospective and Interview by Nick Hasted, Uncut, July 2009
As BLUR prepare for 2009's biggest comeback, Uncut goes behind the scenes of the sessions that produced their classic albums and reveals the conflicts that ...
Retrospective by Jude Rogers, New Statesman, 13 August 2009
Fifteen years ago, a teenage Jude Rogers was enchanted by a new pop sound and a new politics, both of which promised to change the ...
Damon Albarn: "I'm Sort Of English Melancholy"
Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Quietus, 27 March 2012
With an upcoming Blur show and a number of albums set for release in the coming months, Damon Albarn's 2012 looks set to be as ...
Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 28 July 2012
Blur are marking 21 years, and possibly their final days, by re-releasing almost everything they have ever recorded. Andy Gill discovers a host of unheard ...
Blur: Maida Vale Studios, London
Live Review by Jude Rogers, The Observer, 5 August 2012
AFTER BLUR'S 6 Music gig – the first of two shows they're playing for BBC radio tonight, to begin what they have suggested may be ...
Modern Life Isn't Rubbish: The Trouble With Britpop Nostalgia
Comment by Luke Turner, The Quietus, 10 April 2014
The mainstream media are currently engaged in a collective misty-eyed throwback to the 'glory days' of the mid 90s. Luke Turner, who was a teenager ...
The privileged are taking over the arts – without the grit, pop culture is doomed
Comment by Stuart Maconie, New Statesman, 4 February 2015
With school music spending down and the benefits system crippled, the voices of pop have lost their bite. ...
Who On Earth Are Blur? An Interview
Interview by Jude Rogers, The Quietus, 27 April 2015
Will the real Blur please step forward, asks Jude Rogers after speaking to them (individually) recently. ...
see also Damon Albarn
see also Graham Coxon
see also Good, The Bad & The Queen, The
see also Gorillaz
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