Solo artist Child of Lov is a 25-year old musician from the Netherlands. The mysterious musician and self-proclaimed "warrior of funk" has not made much information about his music or biography available to the public. However he has managed to secure Blur's Damon Albarn to collaborate together for two tracks on his upcoming debut album this year. Child of Lov's new album 'The Child of Lov' will be released in May 2013, and features Damon on tracks 'Heal' and 'One Day'. His funky and hip-hop style have caused critics to compare his music with those of Prince and Jai Paul.Other featured artists on Child of Lov's new release includes big names- DOOM and Thundercat.
'Heal', the first single from the album, features a funky and deep baseline that Damon Albarn composed. The track is idiosyncratic and portrays Child of Lov's own brand of electronica-funk, very much like the 80s soul / funk sound. The falsetto vocals and catchy guitar work compliment the song well and matches the tune's beat. Damon Albarn's contribution is signifiant - The result is a ridiculously catchy, jumpy track which sounds not unlike a mixture of Gorillaz and Blur. Blur's experimental last album 'Think Tank' in 2003 also contains traces of heavy, catchy bass and synthesised vocals ('Crazy Beat') . Visually, the music video is brilliant. It features children running and playing in a suburban town, complete with old-school antics like bizarre fashion, lots of sunshine, smashing up a bike, and funky dancing in rollerskating arcades. Overall, a successful and emotional artistic attempt - 3/5.
Double Six Records will release a limited edition 7-inch single of “Heal” on November 26th 2013. You can pre-order that 7-inch here. Check out the video (directed by Focus Creeps, the company who created some Arctic Monkey music videos) and listen to the song below.
Damon Albarn's other collaboration feature on the album 'One Day' is currently not available online. Watch out for a review of the track once it's out.
Blur has just been confirmed officially as one of the main stage headliners at this year's Leeds Festival 2013. The news was announced today and broadcasted on BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe show live to the public, where the host announced 6 new acts to the famous music festival. The 6 new acts joining the festival are: Biffy Clyro, System of a Down, Bring Me The Horizon, Jake Bugg, Other bands confirmed earlier include Eminem, Deftones, Sub Focus and Alt-J.
Blur are also confirmed another massive music festival in the UK - the Reading Festival 2013.The band is no stranger to the pair of festivals - Blur took the stage in the Reading / Leeds festival in 2003, 1999, 1993 and 1991 as part of their tours. The two "twin" festivals will take place on the bank holiday weekend, from Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th August 2013. Reading Festival takes place at Little Johns Farm, Richfield Avenue, Reading, Berkshire, and Leeds Festival takes place at Bramham Park, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Visit Reading Festival's website to check out the full 2013 lineup and much more here.
Tickets for Leeds Festival 2013 goes on sale at 9am on Friday 30th November 2012. It costs £197.50 for a weekend ticket and is available for a limited time until Monday 31st December 2012. Additional costs for a car park pass £5, with campervan passes costing £60, and lockers for £15.
Day tickets will be sold in the new year.
Tickets can also be secured with a £50 deposit with the full balance paid by Sunday 31st March 2013.
Click here for Leeds Festival's official website and ticketing links.
Blur are not confirmed to be amongst the 6 new acts to headline the READING FESTIVAL and LEEDS FESTIVAL 2013. The band is no stranger to the pair of festivals - Blur took the stage in 2003, 1999, 1993 and 1991 as part of their old album tours in the UK.
However, it looks like Blur aren't going to be taking the stage at this year's Reading / Leeds Festival. The 6 new acts to join in the festival was broadcasted to the public on February 5th 2013, live on the BBC Radio 1 Zane Lowe show at 7:35pm.
These headliner acts are: Biffy Clyro, System of a Down, Bring Me The Horizon, Jake Bugg, Foals and the reformed Fall Out Boy.
Looks like Blur's not playing this year's Reading or Leeds Festival
Other confirmed headliners and acts included Eminem, Deftones, Sub Focus and Alt-J, the latter few having been announced earlier last month in the same radio show.
Blur has been the subject of rumours and speculation about who is going to take the main stage at this year's Reading Festival 2013. The band was amongst the top favourites as to who would headline the mains stage this year, along with Black Sabbath and The Stone Roses. Blur were also strong contenders for another massive music festival in the UK - the Leeds Festival 2013. The two "twin" festivals will take place on the bank holiday weekend, from Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th August 2013. Reading Festival takes place at Little Johns Farm, Richfield Avenue, Reading, Berkshire, and Leeds Festival takes place at Bramham Park, Leeds, West Yorkshire.
Tickets for Reading go on sale on Friday 30th November. To buy tickets (priced: GBP 197.50 for the weekend) for Reading Festival from Seetickets - click here.
Tickets for Leeds Festival 2013 goes on sale at 9am on Friday 30th November 2012. It costs £197.50 for a weekend ticket and is available for a limited time until Monday 31st December 2012. Additional costs for a car park pass £5, with campervan passes costing £60, and lockers for £15.
Day tickets will be sold in the new year. Tickets can also be secured with a £50 deposit with the full balance paid by Sunday 31st March 2013.
There's still hope, however, for the Britpop legends this year.
There is still ONE headlining act to be confirmed for this year's Reading and Leeds festival. Could it be Blur ? The festivals are perhaps the best chance for Blur to play a UK date, with their European and World tour in full swing starting in March 2013. There has been a lack of dates in the UK - could there be a big surprise in store for Blur fans ?
Alex James was interviewed recently in a new feature article from the Daily Mail. The piece, dating February 1st 2013, was about the Blur bassist's farm life, children, his latest antics, new shoes and of course - his (relatively) new cheese.
Alex talked about his farm's lavish music room, where his children have been experimenting with making music.
"My wife Claire and I bought this farm on our honeymoon nine years ago, and we all use this room to relax"
Alex talks about running with his new pair of spikes, his new lifestyle and joys of being a father. He also reminisced about the early Blur days, when the band had fun "clubbing in Studio 54 in New York", USA during one of their first ever tours.
"Running is like the opposite of drinking. You feel awful while you’re doing it and great afterwards." - Alex James, Feb 2013
By now you may have realised that Alex's childrens' names are all related to space and stars. What's more, Alex also appeared on a video where he takes his 2013 Freelander 2 to Oxfordshire in search of the perfect spot for star gazing. Watch the short, but interesting clip below.
Don't forget to read the full Alex James interview for February 2013 by clicking HERE.
Stay tuned for more Blur updates because new festival lineups will be announced in the coming week!
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 ?
Head's up - Blur has made a re-appearance in the NME Awards of 2013 by being nominated for two awards.
Yes, that's right - Blur have been nominated for the "Best Re-Issue Award" and the "Best Live Band" of 2013 Award in the prestigious music ceremony, to be held in East London on the 27th February. Other contestants for various awards include MIA, Noel Gallagher, David Cameron, One Direction and The Rolling Stones, amongst other high profile stars.
Blur are up against the following artists for their two awards:
Best Re-Issue
Manic Street Preachers, 'Generation Terrorists'
Blur, '21'
Prodigy, 'The Fat Of The Land'
Interpol, 'Turn On The Bright Lights'
Smashing Pumpkins, 'Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness'
Ian Brown, 'Collected'
Best Live Band
The Maccabees
The Cribs
Blur
Biffy Clyro
Foals
The Rolling Stones
The band is no new-comer to the NME Awards; Blur first performed on stage at this very show in 2009 (a rusty, raw and slightly emotional version of 'This is a Low') for their comeback announcement during their reform, and have been nominated for awards nearly every year where they released new material.
Cast your votes for Blur by heading over to NME's voting page HERE (Ends on February 20th). And let us know what you think by voting in our poll below. Winners will be announced the week after at the East London venue in Troxy.
Music mega-store HMV recently announced that they are entering administration, having suspended their stocks on the stock market and ending talks with creditors.
Blur's Graham Coxon reacted to the store's announcement, and wrote on Twitter: "One day they might come up with an alternative to shoving everything into a computer.. Eggs.. Baskets.. Digital is a con."
Graham also tweeted a popular tweet about the store's status: "They'll be closing down musicians soon.. It ain't gonna get any better."
Other musicians have also voiced out their opinions about HMV's bankruptcy and debt situation . The Cribs also created a storm on Twitter, and tweeted - "Regarding all those theorizing Payola may be our final album, in light of the HMV news it certainly seems that way...#downloadsarentalbums."
"I'm really sad about HMV. Say what you want about it, but I'm genuinely sad" tweeted Ellie Goulding in another tweet.
One reason why the music store has gone bust is because of the technological age of music - the largest retailer in music is digital, and stores like iTunes have been one of the most popular sources for downloading music. With digital music being available to everyone with internet, it is of little surprise stores like HMV are unable to sustain business.
Blur's frontman Damon Albarn, however, is an avid supporter of digital music, having made the new Gorillaz album 'The Fall' available for free digital download. Much of his recent work and all of the Blur re-issues have been made public on digital purchases.
Check out Graham Coxon's recently revamped Twitter page and follow the Blur guitarist's musings by clicking HERE.
Diana Vasquez is a vibrant and dedicated Blur fan from California who creates and uploads some of the most interesting Blur videos in cyberspace. Many of the Blur, The Good The Bad and The Queen, Gorillaz and other band footages circulating around are uploaded by her using her alias “TracyJackAlbarn”.
We interviewed her recently about her devotion for Blur, video editing, Blur t-shirts and got to know a bit more about why she got into the band’s music in the first place and became a lifelong fan of the band.
1) To start off, tell us a little about yourself.
My Name is Diana and I'm 20 years old. Though most people online (either from Youtube, Facebook etc.) know me as the huge blur fan "TracyJackAlbarn" who uploads archive Blur videos and old interviews of the band. Frequently, a lot of people think that I am from London, England because of my huge Love for Blur but I'm actually born and raised in Los Angeles, California, the city of stars! 2) How did you get into Blur ? First Blur memories ?
I got into Blur through my sister's music collection 5 or 6 years ago. My sister has always had a brilliant taste in music and always had awesome concert experiences (she once shook hands with Jack White - I’m so jealous!) Back when I was 14 or 15 I didn’t have a developed music taste and was completely into cheesy pop music, pop singers, boy-bands- you name it.
The first Blur memory I had was when I first listened to 'There's No Other Way' from Leisure. It completely blew my mind. It sounded new and different to me and I became curious to know who the band was. Afterwards, my sister showed me one of Blur’s music videos- "She's So High" was the first music video I ever watched by Blur and I instantly fell in love with their music and their lead singer Damon Albarn!
A Leisure-esque Blur - Their first top 10 single was 'There's No Other Way' in 1991
3) You have a popular Blur-related Youtube channel - can you tell us about that ?
Yes. Actually I have my main channels ('TracyJackAlbarn' and 'TracyJackAlbarn2') that I use everyday. These contain mostly rare video footages of band, with Blur interviews, concert live performances, movie clips from the Blur shows and so much more. There’s even the making of some Blur music video footages, Damon on Bowie and old game shows that Blur featured in, and lots of old interesting clips.
And of course, I make funny Blur parodies, tributes and even birthday videos to celebrate Damon Albarn’s annual birthdays, as well as extra series episodes. My main channels have grown in popularity these few years. This is a pleasant surprise because I didn’t think that people like to watch these funny Blur videos in their free time! I always receive kind "thank you " comments or responses for creating Blur-related videos, and that gives me a good feeling inside.
4) Damon or Graham ?
Damon. He is definitely my favorite. Well... I don't want to brag too much about his good- looks, but besides that I think Damon is probably one of the most talented human being in the musical scene that I have ever encountered. Damon has made many pieces of art that should be appreciated - from his work on Dr.Dee to DRC Music and the many other solo projects that are separate from Blur and Gorillaz, he has always created excellent music. That said, Graham Coxon is definitely a very gifted and excellent guitarist. I've also admired Graham's solo work very much and would love to see him live in concert someday!
5) Favourite Blur song and why ?
Favorite Blur Song? Now that's a hard one, because it always changes from time to time. I think Blur’s B-side hits had always been on the top my list. At the moment, my favourite Blur tracks are 'Trimm Trabb', 'One born every minute', 'Don't Be' and 'Hanging Over'.
Blur 'Hanging Over' poster made by a fan -
Blur are known as a band with "brilliant b-sides"
6) Strangest thing you did related to Blur and the band
Well there are quite a few! From having a picture of Blur on a birthday cake when i was 15... dressing up as Damon for Halloween once during my sophomore year of highschool (though my sister mistook my costume as Pete Doherty from The Libertines!). The strangest thing I ever did relating to Blur was probably making South Park parody videos a long time ago. It was a Youtube hit but I guess they were a little weird for those who watched it.
7) Have you ever seen Blur live ?
Sadly, I have never seen Blur Live. However I have seen Gorillaz live in concert back in 2010. But since the recent upcoming dates have confirmed for a long tour for Blur this year in 2013, I just hope and pray that Blur will come to tour in the USA. If so, I'll surely be the first in line once the Blur boys has landed to LA.
Blur are set for a massive tour in 2013 but
there are no plans for American fans just yet
8) How has Blur changed you ?
Blur has definitely changed the way I listen to music nowadays. Because of Blur, I've now become more of a stable optimistic indie listener and I listen to a wider variety of music genres.
I've gotten more into Jack White, Gotye, Yuna, Augustus Pablo, Paul Weller, Johnny Marr, The Kills, Little Dragon, Elastica & many more. In a way, Blur “saved” me from the cheesy-ness of mainstream pop music and expanded my range.
9) What Blur items do you own ? Any blur merchandise ?
I have a few books, magazines, DVDs, & CD's from Both Blur, Gorillaz, Damon Albarn's solo projects. I also own some documentaries and copies of movies that Damon Albarn starred in (only 'FACE' & 'Anna and the Moods'). Just recently this year, I got my first Blur Vinyl & CD single of "Under the Westway/ The Puritan”!
As for Blur Merchandise, I do have two Blur shirts and one of them has a picture of Damon in the front. I also bought quite a few buttons featuring Blur and Graham Coxon. This sounds quite little but I have a feeling that my collection of Blur items and merchandise will be growing bigger and bigger in the future and ask they continue to release new music!
10) Any last words ?
I would also like to take this opportunity to announce that starting early January of 2013, I'm going to start My first VLOG channel. It'll be full of random miscellaneous videos where viewers can get to know me more. I’ll also include quite a few Blur humor here and then. It's truly an honor and privilege being interviewed for BlurBalls! Thank you so much!
Check out more of Diana’s Blur videos on herYoutube Channel (we can't get enough of this live video of the MAKING OF BEETLEBUM by Blur). There’s a lot of archive Blur interviews and cool pieces to watch.
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