Blur

Blur were formed in 1989 by Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree and signed with Food/EMI the same year. Announcing their arrival with debut album Leisure in 1991, Blur continued to revolutionise the sound of English popular music with second release Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993).

Five successive UK No.1 albums followed – with Parklife (1994) and The Great Escape (1995) helping to propel the band to mass popularity in the UK and beyond. The eponymous Blur was released in 1997 and seventh album Think Tank (2003) was Blur’s first as a three-piece after the temporary departure of founding guitarist Graham Coxon.

Twenty one years after the release of their debut album, 2012 saw Blur 21: The Box, the band’s body of work compiled and gathered together into one box. Their most recent release as a four-piece, the critically acclaimed chart-topping studio album The Magic Whip (2015), started life in Hong Kong when the band had an unexpected break in touring in May 2013.

In 2009 Blur played a series of UK shows including two sold out dates at Hyde Park and a historic Sunday night appearance at Glastonbury. A film about Blur, No Distance Left To Run, was made that summer and released the following year. In 2012 the band received a BRIT Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music and wrote two new songs ahead of their massive sold-out show in London’s Hyde Park to mark the closing of the Olympic Games.