Blur to reunite in 2011
In news that is sure to delight their fans across the world, Britpop legends Blur are currently in talks about a reunion in 2011, with some all-new material possibly on the cards. In an interview with BBC 6 Music, frontman Damon Albarn revealed that the band recently met up to discuss a new venture, a year on from their last live performance in 2009. However, it seems that the new project will be relatively small in scale, and that the band won’t be recording a new album or embarking on a major tour.
“We met up yesterday and had a really nice chat,” said Albarn. “I think we’ll probably do something, well we did talk about doing something, maybe, in January.” Asked to clarify exactly what this ‘something’ might entail, Albarn merely said, “something small. No career-based world-domination ideas.”
After dominating the Britpop scene in the 1990s alongside Mancunian rivals Oasis, Blur went on a sabattical during 1999, as various band members began exploring personal projects. Albarn went on to create animated band Gorillaz with artist Jamie Hewlett, while Alex James began co-writing songs with a number of different artists. Although Blur got back together to record ‘Think Tank’ in 2003, tensions within the band came to a head during their time in the studio. This resulted in the departure of guitarist Graham Coxon in the midst of recording, and after the album’s release the band decided to go their separate ways.
However, this was not the end for Blur, and after years of unsubstantiated rumours, in 2007 Alex James announced that the band would shortly reunite. Although this proved a little premature, Blur eventually got back together two years later for a number of gigs, culminating with two sell-out shows in London’s Hyde Park in July 2009. The band also headlined Glastonbury that summer as well as number of other festivals, but any hopes of a new album were extinguished when Albarn confirmed that their headline slot at T in the Park would be their final live performance, and that the reunion was over.
Despite the protestations of Albarn and co, it seems that fate keeps bringing the band back together again. In April 2010, Blur released their first single for nearly seven years, distributed as a free download and a limited edition 7” vinyl. Entitled ‘Fools Day’, the single sold out in hard copy almost immediately, leading the band to consider further limited recordings. “I’m definitely going to do a few more of those 7ins,” said Albarn earlier this year, confirming that the band already have songs ready to record. It could be that Blur have another single pencilled in for January 2011 – whatever the truth, it’s unlikely that we’ve heard the last from the founding fathers of Britpop, which can only be good news for the band’s legion of loyal fans.
