Blur played Mexico City's Vive Latino Festival on March 16th 2013. According to many fans who went to watch the band live, the show was an exceptional one - the "best Blur had ever sounded".
Damon Albarn - Looking young and hip at Vive Latino 2013
Damon waving a Mexican percussion instrument - "Almost hitting his face" said a fan
Blur drummer Dave Rowntree also did an exclusive 15-minute interview with Radio Ibero (Ibero 90.0 FM) about the 2013 shows. The drummer sounded positive and high in spirits, exclaiming that the show had a "packed audience, jumping up and down. That's why we do this really, it's lovely. You can see it was the real fans, everybody from the front to the back knew all the words, it was just lovely." He also mused on Blur's current popularity high. "We got more famous by releasing less music", Dave said. "Last time we weren't selling tickets out in 10 minutes, we weren't playing big festivals. Mystique as been growing around us."
"We became way better known and more popular for doing nothing. I can't explain it."
- Dave Rowntree, 2013 Tour
He seems to be ambiguous about a new Blur album. "It was all really good fun" he said, when asked to describe the 2013 gigs. "This is an extension to that. We did a few shows leading up to [Hyde Park] and we thought it really wasn't possible to do something in London. So why not do some wider touring, for the longer-suffering fans around the world who hasn't seen us in a decade". So it seems this tour is merely to please the wider fans, but not to make a new album.
So why now? Dave said it was a "logical progression" to "try things out" this time, and that previous tours didn't satisfy the global demands of Blur fans. They have recorded some things, but there seems to be no plans to release more future songs so far.
Listen to the audio recording of the excellent interview below.
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