There will be a special BBC radio show this New Year's Eve (December 31st) featuring Damon Albarn's former music teacher, who will be talking about the Blur frontman in a special documentary about Essex pop stars with number 1 hits in the 90s.
Mr. Nigel Hildreth was Graham Coxon and Damon Albarn's music teacher at Stanway School, Colchester, when the two were 12 or 13 years old. Damon frequently praised Mr. Hildreth for being inspiring, motivating and fantastic. Hildreth also praises and support Damon's side projects, including writing a feature article after watching the frontman's acclaimed 'Monkey Journey to the West' opera in 2007.
"We were incredibly lucky: we had a fantastic music teacher, Mr Hildreth. We did Orpheus, Oh! What A Lovely War – fantastic. We did The Boy Friend – not so fantastic. We did Guys & Dolls – incredible. And we did a bit of West Side Story as well. A really nice cross section."
Damon Albarn on his school days
The BBC feature will be presented by Scott Robinson from the boy band Five. It will be broadcasted on BBC Essex in the end of the year from 11am and 5pm.
Merry Christmas to all of our readers! This article will be centered around the theme of Christmas and will feature some of Blur's holiday-related singles, videos, news and interesting facts. We will also feature several cool items, videos and facts for this year's Christmas season, as well as include some of our own Christmas banners, images and posters. And yes, everything is Blur-related.
1) The first product is a Blur calendar for 2013 , with large pictures of the band, group shots and scans of Damon Albarn in the monthly pages. It makes a nice present or a desktop essential for the year to come. You can order yours (£14.85 from Lulu) by clicking on the link below.
2) Christmas Milky template - the classic 'Coffee and TV' cutout designed by a fan many years ago was given a revamp, this time with a Christmas theme. Get out your scissors and tape, because it is time for a new Christmas DIY project! A forum member, notsoblurry, posted up a fantastic model of the finished product, which you can see below.
3) Shop for some official Blur merchandise - the official shop has stocked up with new gift bundles and packages, for a special price, just for this holiday. The packs include Parklive and Blur 21, as well as t-shirts, CDs and other merchandise worth the purchase for hard-core fans. Visit the official Blur store to check out the Christmas specials by clicking here.
Fun Blur Christmas facts-
1) In Christmas eve in December 1992, Blur were at their lowers point following poor record sales with their debut album 'Leisure'. They were on the verge of being dropped by their record label and in heavy debt, owing lots of money after touring the USA in the previous year.
Damon Albarn spent Christmas eve by getting himself drunk alone in his parent's house. On Christmas morning, his father woke up and heard him playing a melody on the piano - this song later became the hit single 'For Tomorrow' on Blur's second album 'Modern Life is Rubbish'.
2) Damon Albarn gave a quote to Q Magazine in 1995 shortly before Christmas, which was all about Oasis and their Battle of the Britpop loss in album sales (Oasis was selling 100,000 copies per week of 'What's the Story Morning Glory' whilst Blur only managed a meagre 122,000 for 'The Great Escape' in total) published a month later for readers to see: "The only thing we've got in common with Oasis is the fact that we're both doing shit in America." Damon probably didn't have a very satisfied Christmas that year!
3) Alex James made Christmas baubles in December 2008 in a campaign to get everyone recycling plastic. Alex created limited edition Christmas decorations for Coca Cola's campaign to raise awareness for plastic recycling, and each one sold contributed to a climate change charity. Good on Alex's humanitarian efforts, especially for the holidays! Check out the feature article here (with pics) .
4) Alex James' other band Fat Les wrote two Christmas songs - 'Naughty Christmas' and 'Carols on 45'. The British band consisted of bassist Alex, artist Damien Hirst and actor Keith Allen.
5) Damon also presented Top of the Pops in Christmas 1994. This was during the height of the britpop era and 'Parklife' success. Damon's hosting was extremely memorable - watch the video below.
5) Damon Albarn appeared briefly in the music video for the Band Aid 20 single in 2011, which was a song by various top musicians and artists collaborating for a cause. He made coffee in the video, and did not take part in the music.
Band Aid Damon
And finally, some Christmas-related Blur videos.
1) The Wassailing Song - A Christmas song that was released as a limited edition CD, which was given away as a freebie in Hibernian Club, Fulham London, in 1992. Only 500 copies were pressed, but the barrier supposedly collapsed during the handout and a mad scramble took place. Fans who were lucky enough to grab their copy of the special single would later be pleased - it currently sells for£140 GBP each on ebay!
2) Don Quixote's Christmas Bonaza - a Gorillaz christmas tune. Did you know that Gorillaz's iPad album 'The Fall' was released as a free download on Christmas day in December 2010 ? The album was recorded using only the device and several beats, instrumental and recording apps, which ended up costing not more than a total of $120 ! Check out an article detailing all the apps Damon used for the special Christmas Gorillaz album here.
3) For Tomorrow - the quintessential track from Modern Life Is Rubbish. This is Damon Albarn's songwriting at it's best, written one lonely Christmas eve at home in front of his piano. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the song.
Merry Blurry Christmas and a Happy new year to all!
BlurBalls Christmas Logo - available on Deviantart
To read more about Damon Albarn and the owl sculpture, as well as the creative process behind the making, click here.
Tickets for the Hootenanny are not usually available to the public and are invitation-only. However, the show will be available online in BBC iPlayer immediately after the show. Don't forget to tune (to be aired on BBC 2 at 11:10pm UK time).
Blur has officially been announced as part of Finland's Provinssirock Festival 2013. This is the thirteenth tour that Blur has announced for 2013.
Blur will be playing in Provinssirock on June 14-16, 2013. It's time to mark up the calendars, because Provinssirock is one of Finland's biggest international rock festivals, and will feature artists like In Flames, Bad Religion and Down. It draws an average of 55,000 visitors annually.
Finland is the latest destination to the band's 2013 European Tour, where Blur are set to play in Finland's neighboring country- Norway's Oya Festival - amongst other countries in Europe. Exciting dates in other areas such as Latin America and Japan have been confirmed - check out a full list of Blur gigs in the coming year in our tour page.
The news was confirmed on Provinssirock’s facebook page a few hours ago.
The last time Blur played in Finland was in 1999, where they performed a spectacular and lively show in front of a large audience. The band did, however, play in Finland's neighbors - Denmark and Sweden - just before their London Olympics Closing Ceremony concert in August 2012.
2013 is going to be an extremely important year for Blur. They may or may not make a new album, and there's no news on whether there will be follow up songs from their recent single 'Under the Westway'.
But one thing is for sure- 2013 is when the band will play numerous festivals and gigs all around the world. Perhaps - just perhaps - there will be some new material out there soon.
Stay tuned for more updates on the Blur 2013 tours.
BREAKING NEWS: As part of their world tour in 2013, Blur has just been confirmed for Japan in the TOKYO ROCKS festival 2013. Blur will appear in Tokyo's trademark rock festival on the 11th and 12th May 2013 at the Ajinomoto Stadium.
The last time Blur played in Japan was nearly 10 years ago in 2003 for their 'Think Tank' album tour, where they headlined the Summer Sonic festival.
Is 2013 going to be Blur's big year?
Other headliners include My Bloody Valentine and Primal Scream, amongst other local Japanese musicians. More will be announced soon.
This is a very exciting time for the reformed Britpop band, who reunited in 2009 after a series of concerts. Blur had been rather active recently, playing in this summer's London Olympics for the prestigious closing ceremony of the games.
Blur has exhibited their pictures, released a new single 'Under the Westway / The Puritan', a live DVD called 'Parklive' and also released a 21 anniversary box set titled 'Blur 21'. What's more, the band announced a European Tour in 2013, where they will play gigs in Belgium, Norway, Russia, Germany and France.
Blur are also set to play in Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Berlin and a UK charity gig. Now, Japan goes on the list too. For a full list of Blur gigs in 2013, click here.
For more details about Blur's Japan festival 2013, visit the official Facebook page. You can order tickets here.
Blur is continuing to make musical headlines by announcing more dates for their massive European Tour 2013. Blur are confirmed to be the first act in the Sziget Festival 2013, Hungary, next September where they will be playing on the main stage.
The Sziget Festival takes place in Budapest, Hungary every year. Virtual Festivals provided a comprehensive description of the music festival on their article:
The Sziget Festival is one of the largest in Europe and welcomed 379,000 visitors this summer from just over 70 countries. The seven days of partying is fuelled by 1,000 bands, acts and art installations featured across 60 venues on the 266 acre festival site. Uniquely the festival offers a plethora of other on-site activities, including a cinema, theatre, tattooing, volleyball, tennis, football, indoor rowing, rock climbing, bungee jumping and a life-sized foosball.
Sziget Festival 2013 will be on Óbuda Island in the city of Budapest in 5th to 12th August 2013.
Other major headline acts and bands for this Hungarian festival include Placebo, The Stone Roses, The Horrors, Hurts, Snoop Dogg and Friendly Fires.
Click here to purchase tickets for the festival. Visit the official festival (http://www.sziget.hu) website for more information and the full line-up.
Time to say another 'Woo-Hoo', because Blur has just been confirmed as one of the main headliners in Germany'sBerlin Festival 2013 .
Blur will share the main stage as headliners with Pet Shop Boys for this special Germany gig as part of their European Tour 2013. The gig will take place in the 6th and 7th September 2013 for two consecutive days. The last time Blur played in Germany was nine years ago.
The band has also recently confirmed places at festivals in Mexico, Spain, Russia, France and Norway. This was amidst speculations for a Blur world tour, along with rumours of a new album or new songs being released in 2013. Blur are also playing at a Teenage Cancer Trust gig in UK later this year.
Watch the promotional video for a taste of what the festival is like - with Blur in it, it will definitely be a show worth going to for those who can make it to Germany.
Tickets will go up for sale on 14th December at 9am at Eventim. From 21st December on, tickets will also be available from Berlin Festival's official website- visit http://www.berlinfestival.de/ for more information about the Berlin Festival 2013 lineup, news and ticketing information.
And more Blur 2013 tour news keeps on coming! Blur is confirmed to play in Norway for the Oya Festival, marking the first time the band have played in the nation for 10 years.
This announcement came immediately following the band's news to play in France's Eurocks Festival and Russia's Afisha Picnic music festival early next year. Blur has announced a string of new dates in the last month , sparking rumours about their rumoured world tour and new album for the upcoming year.
Another one of our collages - Blur World / Europe Tour 2013
The Oya Festival will take place on the Wednesday, 7th August 2013, where Blur will be headlining the main stage of one of Norway's boldest music pop festivals ever.
This is going to be a landmark, and remarkable gig for the band, who has been long awaited by Norwegian fans.
Visit the Oya Festival's official website for more details by clicking here.
