Blur
Blur formed in December 1988 when bassist Alex James joined Damon Albarn’s band, Circus, and they changed the name to Seymour after J. D. Salinger’s Seymour: An Introduction. Already in the band were drummer Dave Rowntree and guitarist Graham Coxon, Albarn’s childhood friend.
Albarn was interested in music from an early age, attending an Osmonds concert at the age of six. He started playing guitar, piano and violin in his youth and was interested in composing music, one of his compositions winning a heat in the nationwide Young Composer of the Year competition.
The group performed live for the first time in summer 1989 in the goods shed of the East Anglian Railway Museum at Chappel & Wakes Colne.
Food Records’ A&R rep Andy Ross attended a Seymour gig that convinced him to court the group for his label. The only concern held by Ross and Food was that they disliked the band’s name. Food drew up a list of alternatives, from which the group decided on Blur. Food Records finally signed the rechristened band in March 1990.
Their first single “She’s So High”, released on 15 October 1990 reached number 48 in the UK Singles Chart and was featured as NME ‘single of the week’. The follow-up ‘There’s No Other Way’ released 15 April 1991 peaked at number five on the UK Singles Chart. It was also their first charting song in the US, reaching number 82 on the Billboard Hot 100, and also reaching number five on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks.
Blur released their debut studio album Leisure on 26 August 1991 and reached number 7 in the UK Albums Chart. Modern Life Is Rubbish the second studio album was released in May 1993 and was a moderate chart success peaking at number 15 in the UK.
The success of Parklife (1994) revived Blur’s commercial fortunes. The album’s first single, the disco-influenced “Girls & Boys”, found favour on BBC Radio 1 and peaked at number 5 on the UK Singles Chart, and number 59 in the US Billboard Hot 100 where it remains the band’s highest-charting single. The album Parklife entered the British charts at number one and stayed on the album charts for 90 weeks.
The release of the single “Country House” played a part in Blur’s public rivalry with Manchester band Oasis termed the “Battle of Britpop”. Partly due to increasing antagonisms between the groups, Blur and Oasis released their new singles on the same day. The debate over which band would top the British singles chart became a media phenomenon. At the end of the week, “Country House” ultimately outsold Oasis’ “Roll With It” by 274,000 copies to 216,000, becoming Blur’s first number one single.
By early 1996 relations between Blur members had become very strained. Coxon, in particular, began to resent his bandmates: James for his playboy lifestyle, and Albarn for his control over Blur’s musical direction and public image.
Blur, the band’s fifth studio album, released in February 1997 was a step towards lo-fi sonic experimentation. Despite cries of “commercial suicide”, the album and its first single, “Beetlebum”, debuted at number one in the UK.
Albarn formed the virtual band Gorillaz in 1998 with the comic book artist Jamie Hewlett. Drawing influences from hip hop, dub, pop, trip hop and world music, Gorillaz released their self-titled debut album in 2001 to worldwide success.
After their sixth studio album 13 and the subsequent tours in 1999–2000, band members pursued other projects. Graham Coxon recorded a string of solo albums, while Damon Albarn dedicated his time to Gorillaz. Alex James worked with Fat Les and co-wrote several songs with Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Marianne Faithfull.
The Good, the Bad & the Queen began as a solo project by Damon Albarn with production by Danger Mouse. However, by July 2006, the project had become a band, with bassist Paul Simonon of the Clash, guitarist Simon Tong of the Verve, and drummer Tony Allen of Fela Kuti’s band Africa ’70.
In February 2012, Blur were awarded the Outstanding Contribution to Music award at the 2012 Brit Awards.
Coldplay‘s 2011 headline appearance on the Glastonbury Pyramid Stage was voted the top Glastonbury Festival moment by BBC Radio listeners. Radiohead and Blur‘s 2009 Pyramid Stage appearances polled second and third respectively, with Bruce Springsteen‘s performance of Thunder Road in 2009 coming fourth.
In 20215, Damon Albarn was removed from the stage at the Roskilde festival in Denmark after a mammoth five-hour set. The singer who was headlining the event with his Africa Express project encouraged the crowd to protest at the plug being pulled. The stage manager emerged, put the singer’s jacket over his shoulders and lifted him off stage.
After his career with Blur, James moved into cheese production. He purchased a farmhouse in the Cotswolds and renovated it into a cheese farm. His 200-acre cheese farm in Kingham, Oxfordshire, now produces cheeses including Good Queen Maude, Blue Monday (named after his favourite New Order song) and Goddess.
Rowntree trained to become a solicitor when Blur took a hiatus in 2006. He worked in the criminal department of London law firm Kingsley Napley, a firm of solicitors based in Moorgate, London. In his political career, Dave Rowntree served on the Norfolk County Council from 2017 to 2021 representing the Labour Party, and unsuccessfully stood for Parliament as a Labour candidate in the 2010 and 2024 general elections.
In 2016, Albarn received the Ivor Novello Award for Lifetime Achievement from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to music.
