Blur are rumoured to be playing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA, on Saturday August 10th 2013 (12:00 a.m). The news was brought up by a fan, who saw a notification on Pollster about this new show.
The gig is listed to be held in 200 W Broward Blvd, the address of a local concert and musical venue Revolution Live. The website Tktsnow also posted a sales link for the Florida concert one day ago. The new show has also been listed in various other gig websites.
Blur have just finished a concert in Budapest, Hungary on August 5th 2013 for the Sziget Festival. The rumoured new date in Florida does not clash with the band's hectic schedule, as the band are currently on a month-long break in-between touring. Blur's next big show will be on September 6th-7th in Germany.
However, no further information about a possible USA date can be found on search engines, websites or the band's official social media pages. It also seems unlikely that Blur will fly over to the USA again after playing in Coachella a few months ago.
The ticketing website also looks incomplete, with the outdated picture and the gig listed as "sold out".
It was a very English Coachella - Blur performed in America's Coachella music festival on Friday 12th April to a massive group of festival-goers, spinning out hits such as 'Girls and Boys', 'Parklife' and 'Song 2'. They were part of a very British lineup, joining the likes of English bands such as "The Stone Roses".
Many fans who have waited years to see the band were pleased. Blur hit the stage at 10pm on Friday evening; Damon Albarn was in relatively good moods and made jokes at the audience just like he used to from earlier Blur tours.
The performance from Blur received mixed reviews from critics and fans alike.
Northernmonkey, a fan from the official Blur forums reports: The crowd seemed a bit quiet, although the broadcast didn't show much of the crowd and locked firmly on the stage, the set was a lot shorter than expected, but this was obviously to do with the time slot given.
The set list was good, although I think they should have dropped 'Parklife', way too rooted to the UK and not my favourite Blur song, Phil Daniels should have been left at home.
Blur
"Everything else was good though and the boys sounded great and as a band looked the part, to a person who maybe wouldn't know who Blur are, they don't come across as a band who are mid 40's and beyond, and most of the songs still sound fresh and in many ways more relevant than they did in the 90's.
'Trimm Trabb', the song, is amazing live and Dave is a highlight on the drums."
Blur's Damon
Pasadena Star News criticised the show, saying "there was plenty of room for fans to sit down and take a break before the performance, which is a rarity for a Coachella main stage headliner.
But audience members ran to the group's set when Blur performed the uptempo "Boys & Girls" but the rest of the set lost steam with slower tracks or the group's overall lack of charisma despite the antics of lead singer Damon Albarn, with eyes that looked red and facial expressions." Photo Gallery
Alex James and Damon Albarn - Coachella 2013
Damon Albarn jumping during a song - Coachella 2013
Damon Albarn also explained to the audience about how Britain’s gray weather influenced many songs. Damon explained that the tune 'Tracy Jacks' was about a character who was bothered by the weather. “It’s very nice to enjoy your sunshine,” he said.
A telling tweet - on Blur at Coachella
Set list- Blur's Coachella set 4/11/13:
Girls & Boys
There's No Other Way
Tracy Jacks
Beetlebum
Out of Time
Trimm Trabb
Caramel
Coffee & TV
Tender
Parklife (ft. Phil Daniels)
Song 2
This is a Low
Sing
For Tomorrow
The Universal
Watch - Coachella Video Gallery
You can watch the FULL show of Blur at Coachella, now available for online streaming below.
Despite the good reviews from Blur fans, not all of the big music magazines were swayed. Pitchfork gave Blur's show a slightly negative review, reporting that "...other headliners felt less interested in meeting the crowd halfway. Blur frontman Damon Albarn has now headlined Coachella in two different acts (Gorillaz played in 2010). But Blur’s Coachella set bore a similarity to that of their late-90s heroes Pavement in 2010: they didn’t seem particularly happy to be there or all that excited to see each other. Set opener “Boys & Girls” had a fun energy, but later in the set they made you wonder how much it pains them to still have to play “Song 2”. Maybe so much that they felt the need to satiate the diehards by leaning on atmospheric deep cuts such as “Trimm Trabb”, “Caramel”, and “Sing”."
Read a short review of the Blur show HERE.
Also be sure to check out The Guardian's review of Day 1 at Coachella.
Check out the FULL gallery of Coachella pictures, snapshots and photographs HERE. An Additional gallery HERE.
You say it, and we will listen - at least that's the vibe that Blur's management have been giving out recently. The band have been announcing tour dates and venues for their 2013 shows steadily since late last year, and now it seemsthat a South American date will be added to the list. Sara-m-a, an active fan on the forums, sends in an exciting piece of news - Blur have answered some of the fan's private messages saying that there will be a South America date for Blur in November 2013.
Blur announced that they will be headlining Coachella in California, USA just this week. The news was met with cheers from the fans who are in America. However, fans in other parts of the world have not been too pleased with the news.
For months before, fans from around the world have been petitioning Blur to perform in South America as part of their 2013 semi-world tour.
Facebook petitions such as 'BLUR Tour North & South America - Petition' have been making an online presence within the fan community. The group also met success with a campaign to push the hashtag #BlurArgentina and #BlurLatinoAmerica2013 to trend on twitter earlier this month.
And the efforts seem to be working - Blur has replied "We hear you" to the fan's private messages and words for a new tour venue.
The Blur fans from Chile and Argentina also managed to get their own trending topic, asking Blur to visit them again.
Photo credits to the Blur fan from Argentina
Sara-m-a, an active fan on the official Blur forums, is one of the main leaders of the petitions. She speaks a little about why the cause is important to her and her fellow fans:
Blur has just been confirmed to be the top headliners in this year's Coachella festival 2013. The massive music festival will be held in California, United States in the last weekend of April - from 12-14th April and 19-21st April 2013.
Other top lineups include Phoenix, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Lou Reed. Beach House, Modest Mouse and Grinderman will also be playing, as well as Nick Cave and Vampire Weekend.
The announcement came after months of speculation and rumours about whether Blur will be the headlining act - and the news has just been officially confirmed. Damon Albarn and the other members of Blur previously played Coachella in 2003, 2009 and 2010.
It seems that Blur is indeed doing a world tour in 2013 because they have confirmed festivals as far as Japan, Germany, Berlin and Norway for this year. Now that America has also been announced, the big question remains - what will come out of this world tour ? A new album perhaps ?