Damon Albarn's new composition to hit BBC airwaves

Damon Albarn's newest composition, named "2LO London Calling" has hit the airwaves across 55 BBC Radio stations globally at 5:33pm , on Wednesday, November 14th 2012.  The new song has played across national radio, World Service and the local UK radio stations to mark the 90th anniversary of the BBC yesterday.

Damon created a comissioned musical collage for this special event. It was a mixture of soundbites of radio listeners from all ages all across the UK. More information was revealed via The Guardian's feature:

Albarn's creation, called 2LO London Calling (named after the original 2LO transmitter) is an unconventional affair, featuring Big Ben, bird song and a quote from philosopher Bertrand Russell, relayed in morse code.

It will also feature excerpts from the original broadcast on 14 November 1922 as well as the Greenwich Time Signal "pips".

The broadcast will be "hosted" by Radio 2 DJ Simon Mayo during his drivetime show, live from the Science Museum in west London.

The one-off broadcast, the first time such a wide-ranging simulcast has been attempted by the BBC, could be heard by an estimated 80 million listeners around the world. 

Listen below for Damon Albarn's new song debut. It is an interesting piece of audio, and sounds like a mixture of messages from across the times.

After all, the estimated audience worldwide for the stream was 120 million and each has heard Damon Albarn's 3 minute composition. We particularly liked the ending when music started and the speaking stopped.

Listen and watch the full Damon Albarn interview about his project, inspiration, process and excerpt from the special radio program below. He explains how he tried to collate the soundbites and what it means for him. He even talked a little about Nigeria and his feelings on each sound on the track.

Blur for Spain and Portugal  HERE

Blur confirmed for Poland HERE

Blur Europe Tour News  HERE

Order the new Blur: Parklife (Live at Hyde Park CD / DVD) HERE

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Dave Rowntree to DJ in London - Death2Disco November

Dave Rowntree is set to DJ in a London club, the Notting Hill Arts Club, on the 14th November 2012.

The promotional flyer for this special night writes that there will be a very special guest DJ called 'Dark Destroyer' from Blur - and it is none other than Dave Rowntree who is the man behind the name.

Dave is also DJing in Madrid, Spain on the 17th November. It looks like the drummer's hectic schedule of being a lawyer, drummer and now DJ means he has to fly to and from England! Read the feature here to get the details.

Check out Death2Disco's official Facebook page for more details and for those Blur fans in London this week, make sure you RSPV for the party and a chance to meet the one and only Dave Rowntree (from 7pm - 2am) by clicking here.

* Dave will start at around 11:00pm 

Blur for Spain and Portugal  HERE

Blur confirmed for Poland HERE

Blur Europe Tour News  HERE

Order the new Blur: Parklife (Live at Hyde Park CD / DVD) HERE

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Watch Alex James and Phil Daniels on Pointless Celebrities

Alex James and Phil Daniels appeared on the TV show 'Pointless Celebrities', a game show which aired on November 10th 2012. Watch to learn whether the twosome had enough musical knowledge to win the game.

Fun Blur fact of the week:

 'Song 2' was blasted all across the grounds for the Tennis tournament - ATP Finals Week - in London this week. 

Graham Coxon Interview - November 2012

Graham Coxon was interviewed by Roland UK recently and he had more to say about Blur's Hyde Park Olympics closing ceremony gig from August 2012. The Blur guitarist explains his "madness", creativity, artistic inspirations and reveals what bands he is currently listening to.

Graham also answered some questions about Blur and their recent gigs. He said that the band were "pretty hyper" and that they were glad to prove to everyone that they were not "old clapped out gits". So much for Graham Coxon's idiosyncratic style of speech!

The excerpts about Blur, taken from the original interview (by Jamie Franklin), were:

How do you feel about your Olympics gig with Blur? I feel fine. I feel like it’s about five years away. We haven’t even rehearsed yet so it feels like it’s not for ages.

Do you really need to rehearse? We’ve got to be good haven’t we?! We’ve got to give ourselves the best chance to be good. It’s important for me to know what I’m doing and not play bum notes – not that I often get bum notes these days – and to play at the best of my abilities. I don’t want to feel like I didn’t give it everything.

The Glastonbury and Hyde Park gigs were amazing. What’s it like for you playing these huge gigs? It’s a pleasure to play gigs on that scale. Technology’s moved on such a long way since we were first playing. The sound was louder, the speakers were smaller and the sound onstage was phenomenal. The equipment is incredible now. When you have a nice guitar, a nice amp and you have thousands of people watching you, it doesn’t get much better. [At Glastonbury] It was mental – I thought we were playing better that we ever did.

Picture credited to Essy Syed

Did you feel like you have anything to prove? A little bit. Blur requires a hell of a lot of commitment and energy so I was happy that we could do those shows and do them justice, and not look like old clapped out gits. That’s what Blur performances have always been about – taking us to the edge of exhausting ourselves. We’re all pretty hyper.

At Hyde Park I saw you do a backwards roll whilst playing a riff and you didn’t miss a note. I don’t even think I can do a backwards roll, let alone play guitar while doing it…

(Laughs) You just saw the one that went OK! There have been 50 times before where I ended up flat on my face with a broken headstock on my guitar. It’s always a risk. Yeah, but sod it. Most of my guitars have been broken anyway. My favourite SG was broken before I even played it at a gig, thanks to British Airways.

Last month, Graham Coxon just missed out being nominated on the Mercury Music Prize 2012. He also kept busy with a 4-track collaboration with British rapper Example and is rumoured to be making a new album for release next year. 

Check out the full interview by Roland UK Blog to read all about what Graham Coxon is up to these days, what bands he is currently liking and more technical talk, random musings and guitar chit chat.  

Blur for Spain and Portugal  HERE

Blur confirmed for Poland HERE

Blur Europe Tour News  HERE

Order the new Blur: Parklife (Live at Hyde Park CD / DVD) HERE

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Blur Run-downs - November 2012

There are a lot of Blur-related items and interesting pieces circulating everywhere on the web, and sometimes it's hard to catch up on everything. We bring you a new feature- regular run-downs of the week's must-see, must-watch top Blur lists. Here is our November Blur list 2012. 

1. New picture of Damon Albarn with Kano - posted on Benga, a dubstep producer from London's Facebook page just yesterday. A new collaboration seems to be up for the near future. 

2. DIY: Make your own Beetlebum (Ocean Pacific) jumper - this trademark white jumper with coloured stripes can be easily made using a little paint and any white jumper from your nearest store. (There's also an English version here) 

3. Graham Coxon talks about his love for Fender Telecasters - good to see the cheerful Graham giving a great little interview feature.  

4. End of a Century - A Ukulele Cover - a pure rendition of Blur's single from Parklife. It's a nice cover and his youtube channel has a few more Blur covers that sound interesting. 

5. New Damon Albarn Interview on Persian TV (credits: albarnunofficial) - a 25 minute feature for Pause Magazine Music Week aired this month.




Order the new Blur: Parklife (Live at Hyde Park CD / DVD) HERE
Order the new Blur boxset HERE

Blur first ever 2012 gig-  Maida Vale gig full coverage HERE

Blur for Spain and Porto HERE

Blur Europe Tour News  HERE

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Blur 21 - View Exhibition online

The Blur 21 exhibition has gone digital - now fans can view the gallery and some selected prints online on Blur's official website here. The promotional introduction on the website goes:

Discover 21 years of iconic photographs and artwork 

For three weeks, over 70 images of Blur were exhibited together for the first time at the Londonewcastle Project Space in Shoreditch, London. Featuring images from legendary music photographers, designers and artists including Pennie Smith, Kevin Cummins, Paul Postle, Tom Sheehan, Banksy and Julian Opie, celebrating the band's 21 year career. Whilst the exhibition has now closed, revisit and rediscover a selection of the unique images featured, here. Click the images below to take a closer look.

New images can be found in the galleries and in the shop link below. These include rare or compiled pictures of the band in the studio or for a promotional shoot, all in high quality. Some highlights include:

Blur in the studio recording collage, John Henry Studios, London

What's more, the official photos are available for sale online (http://www.culturelabel.com/shop/s/spotify-presents-blur-21/) They are costly (£600- £1000), but perhaps collectors of Blur or completists would be interested.

Fans can also win some Blur merchandise by entering the exclusive Blur 21 competition HERE. The answer for the question on the form is "YES" - Blur did play Young and Lovely in Hyde Park 2012.

Order the new Blur: Parklife (Live at Hyde Park CD / DVD) HERE
Order the new Blur boxset HERE

Blur first ever 2012 gig-  Maida Vale gig full coverage HERE

Blur for Spain and Porto HERE

Blur Europe Tour News  HERE

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Dave Rowntree spins Blur DJ set in Madrid club - 2012

Party, music and a surprising DJ lineup - the latest Blur news is not too Blur-related, but drummer Dave Rowntree will be the DJ in Ocho Y Medio Club, Madrid, on November 13th 2012.

Dave Rowntree's DJ session for this month isn't his first. A forum member said that Dave also DJed for Graham Coxon's solo gigs in London once, back when he was playing drums for the guitarist.

Check out the Spanish club's official website to see what they're all about : http://www.ochoymedioclub.com/

For Blur fans in Spain or Madrid - here's a chance to see Dave Rowntree hit the turntables and party hard. We wonder what songs will be played - perhaps a Blur rock anthem or tune ? Will Dave go for the sounds that influenced early Blur ? After all, the set couldn't be labelled BLUR dj set for nothing.


Order the new Blur: Parklife (Live at Hyde Park CD / DVD) HERE
Order the new Blur boxset HERE

Blur first ever 2012 gig-  Maida Vale gig full coverage HERE

Blur for Spain and Porto HERE

Blur Europe Tour News  HERE

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If you missed old news, visit the NEWS ARCHIVE to read about past news!

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Damon Albarn - There Could Be a new Gorillaz album

Damon Albarn has hinted at a future new Gorillaz album, and this time it's without Jamie Hewlett.  

In an interview with Shortlist Magazine, Damon Albarn said nothing will change if Gorillaz went ahead and made a new album without Hewlett's illustrations. The only aspect that would be missing is bass player Murdoc's cartoon drawing. 

He said: "It was very much Jamie [Hewlett] did the visuals and I did the music. The music won’t change, so there could be another Gorillaz record tomorrow. It wouldn’t necessarily have Murdoc - the cartoon aspect to it - but musically, no, nothing’s changed whatsoever."

One moment it's over, the other it's on again - Damon Albarn

The Blur frontman also denied rumours that Gorillaz were "over" for good. Damon said that Gorillaz would undoubtedly continue on if Jamie Hewlett and himself reconciled their differences that contributed to their fallout this year. But wait - Damon also mentions how Gorillaz are still going strong in another much earlier interview.

"Jamie wants to do other things and I understand," he said. "But you never know, in a few years he might have a burning desire to draw those pictures again, and as soon as he does that, as far as I’m concerned, there could be another Gorillaz album." 

It seems very likely fans of Albarn and Gorillaz will be getting a new album. It is merely a matter of when the musical pair will agree to work together again. Looks like Gorillaz was, and is not over.

What will be the New Gorillaz sound ?
	Pop - pure bouncy tunes
	Rock - guitars
	World music / African music mixed
	Misc - Albarn's special mixture
	Techno / Electronic
	Other / Don't know

Order the new Blur: Parklife (Live at Hyde Park CD / DVD) HERE
Order the new Blur boxset HERE

Blur first ever 2012 gig-  Maida Vale gig full coverage HERE

Blur for Spain and Porto HERE

Blur Europe Tour News  HERE

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Top 15: Funniest Dave Rowntree Quotes

1. I'm always naked underneath my clothes.
2. I like to be in bed by midnight. Mind you, I like to balloon around the world bathing in a huge vat of lime jelly, and that doesn't happen too often either.
3. [When he painted 'Dave' on his cheek at the 1995 Brit Awards, mimicking Prince's 'Slave'] We have a lot in common. EMI won't release my solo album either.
4. If there's a technical problem with the band I usually get the first phone call. If it's about going to a party then Alex will get the first call, if it's a TV show in Milan then Damon will get the first call and... I can't really think what Graham would get the first call about. I suppose it would be, 'Will you get out of bed, you're late'. That's when Graham would get the first call.
5. There's always a Jimmy from Quadrophenia lookalike at our gigs. Last night's was brilliant. Looked like him, talked like him, wore exactly the same clothes. Never seen the film... (1994)
6. (When asked has he ever kissed any band members) I’ve kissed them all, and most of the crew. Doesn’t mean we’re engaged or anything.
7. I spend about an hour a week answering questions and Alex spends an hour writing his diary. Damon spends an hour picking his nose. I don’t find an hour nearly enough for that
8. We tried to give each other nicknames a couple of years ago, but we couldn’t remember to use them. I was carrot, Damon was ape. The others are lost in the mist of time.
9. I can only live with girls. I have a wife and three girl cats. If I ever have kids I will have the boys adopted. Anyway, there’s less red, and more pink on my head these days.
10. (When asked which musician he’d like to collaborate with, dead or alive) I’d like to collaborate with a dead person if I had the chance. I would get more say in the outcome.
11. "If you want to impress a woman, just say 'barometer'!" - on Women
12. "I don't think anyone who has ever counted drinking amongst their hobbies has never kissed a man." 
13. "I'm sensible and quiet. Alex likes cheese. They're all stereotypes. I suppose if you'd have to reduce your entire existence to one paragraph those words wouldn't be in it." 
14. (Do you smoke? Probably, you do, but have you ever tried to quit smoking?) "I used to smoke. I quit five-ish years ago. Now I run twenty miles a week, and I have nipples as hard as steel." 
15. "That's not how we goof around. In general we don't leapfrog all over each other and carry brightly coloured umbrellas. That's not our normal gooding modus operandi. We're more cerebral when we goof. That is sort of us artificially goofing." Dave - on Parklife's music video, July 2012 (Blur 21 interview).