Blur were recently featured in the latest issue of Q Magazine. Included in the pages are a selection of drummer Dave Rowntree's behind-the-scenes Instagram images from the 2013 Blur world tour and a long article about the band's 'Early Days of Britpop'.
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Blur's latest gig scheduled in Turkey for the 'One Love Festival' have been cancelled due to political unrest. The band's next destination will be Poland, where they are playing a music festival from the 3rd - 6th July. Blur Tour 2013 - Full dates and rundown HERE
Due to the recent political instability and unrest in Istanbul, the Turkish promoters of the Eifes Pilsen 'One Love Festival' have cancelled the show, which was to feature Blur as one of the main highlights as part of their world tour 2013.
A range of music concerts scheduled to take place in June in Istanbul have been canceled due to the ongoing Gezi Park protests that have spanned across all of Turkey. Gezi Park, a rare strip of green space in Istanbul, was the main site of a heavily opposed redevelopment project to build a shopping mall. Turkey has been plagued by violent demonstrations and heavy protests, reflecting the increasing lack of support for it's authoritarian prime minister Recep Ergodan, his leadership regime and the government's failure to provide for citizen's basic and legal needs.
An appropriate poster for Blur fans who were waiting for the show
Cancelled gig originally scheduled for June 2013
Snoop Dogg, Zaz, The National, Bloc Party, The Prodigy and Thirty Seconds to Mars were among the artists to take the stage as part of another festival, the Vodafone Istanbul Calling Event.
The highly anticipated Avea Escape Music Festival has also been postponed.
Blur were reported to be excited about seeing their devoted Turkish fans, but hopes to get another chance to visit the city in the future.
Fans who have bought the tickets in advance will be offered a full refund.
News on Damon Albarn's virtual band Gorillaz had been sparse and few this year, but the latest snippet of information may just make a fan's day. Jamie Hewlett has confirmed that there will be a new Gorillaz album out in the future, but only after Damon's main band Blur has put out their new record.
Jamie revealed the new Gorillaz plans that he and Damon discussed for the future whilst speaking at a launch event for the pair's opera 'Monkey Journey To The West' in New York city recently. A fan that attended the event claims that Hewlett talked about the future of Gorillaz, but admitted he would have to wait for Blur to make their album first.
The fan on Gorillaz fan-site Gorillaz-Unofficial claims that Jamie Hewlett said: "There’s a five- year gap between the albums because they take a long time to do and and they’re very exhausting and when you’re finished you feel like you need to go do other stuff."
Jamie also added: "So Damon’s touring with Blur – he's doing a world tour with Blur at the moment and then they’re working on a new album so there isn’t really time for him, and I’m doing other stuff as well. So I think it’s, um, we’ll come back to it when the time’s right."
The Gorillaz animator and comic artist also talked about how difficult it will be for a new Gorillaz record to be commercially successful. He is reported to have said that "the music industry’s changed so much since we started doing Gorillaz. There’s no money in the industry so you know you get these amazing new bands, like The Strypes from Ireland, kind of 14 years old [sic], you know, the best rhythm blues guitarist you’ve ever seen. Age 14, make songs and film it in their bedroom. It doesn’t cost anything, and so Gorillaz is kind of expensive. It’s expensive to do because it’s animated."
Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett had previously released four Gorillaz albums, including the commercially successful 'Demon Days' in 2005 and their latest, semi-experimental 'Plastic Beach' record in 2010. The musical pair had a fall-out late last year, but is currently reported to be on good terms.
During Blur's world tour show in the Asia World Expo at Hong Kong, Damon Albarn announced to the audience that the band were heading back into the studio. "So we have a week in Hong Kong, and we thought it would be a good time to try and record another record," he said at the time.
Blur are reported to have made a demo tape during their week in the city, using up time that would have been spent rehearsing for the cancelled Taiwan gig.
Additionally, Alex James recently reported that Blur's new recording sessions are going "very well".
What's next for Blur and Gorillaz? Will there be two new studio albums released, one after the other? Or will plans suddenly change yet again? And what about Damon Albarn's solo album that is still the making? The original report is not official, and the confirmation claims are based on a fan comment - to what extend are the rumours true?
All that is official for now is that Blur will be heading to Dublin's Irish Museum of Modern Art on August 1st 2013 to play their only show in the British Isles this year. The date marks Blur's first show in Ireland in four years.
Alex James was featured on a few media outlets this June, and it's not a surprise he had some new things to say about Blur and the band's future, new songs, recording sessions and his new Big Feastival event in partnership with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.
In the RadioTimes interview, Alex mentioned how The Big Feastival "currently has all his attention, but since Blur played in Hyde Park during London 2012, the full band has started touring again."
“We did a bit of recording in Hong Kong and it was brilliant,” says James, “but I don’t know what it is yet. The festival has been the main focus for me. The rest of Blur could also make an appearance at The Big Feastival this year. Graham came [to The Big Feastival] last year. They‘re all invited,” says James. Rizzle Kicks will be one of the guest stars in the music and food festival this year.
Alex James was also quoted in a Contact Music article saying that the "Blur recording sessions went well". BANG Showbiz exclusively reports that Alex said: ''We had a few days off in Hong Kong and thought, 'What the hell, let's go to the studio.' It went very well. The opportunity came and we took it. Any chance to get together and make music is very welcome. It was absolutely brilliant. We were just jamming, but it was good. I hope it happens.''
He also remarked: ''The big bands are getting bigger and bigger and the small ones are disappearing altogether. I think it's very hard to be in an indie band anymore. I think Blur would struggle if we were just starting out now. It's a very different climate.''
Blur forum member '101reykjavik' says: "Alex unfortunately is the one I take least notice of when it comes to pronouncements about the future of Blur. A litany of past quotes 'hoping' something will happen in some respect or other, which in the past have tended to amount to very little."
"If Damon said 'I hope it happens' I would sit up and take notice, but I wouldn't expect Damon to ever make that sort of public statement. Plus Alex arguably has the most need for Blur activity so always seems to be putting the most hopeful spin on things."
Another forum member '2-J' added: "For better or worse, Damon would really undermine his forthcoming solo album (due 2014) if he were to be too committal about Blur."
There has been many arguments as to whether Blur will indeed go forwards with their new album this year. Some say that Damon Albarn will not delay the recording any further after their massive 2013 world tour; some speculate that the Blur frontman will change his mind and focus on side-projects instead of making new music for Blur.
No news about the new album had been announced this month. Blur will continue their world tour and perform in Finland this week. Jamie Oliver and Alex James present The Big Feastival, a feel good festival of food and music for all the family on August 31 – September 1. For more info and tickets, click here.
The latest announcement regarding Blur's 2013 world tour is that Blur's supporting act for the Planeta Terra Festival will be none other than American musician Beck Hansen, a.k.a Beck. The music festival will be held in Brazil at the end of this year.
Both Blur and Beck will also head to Santiago, Chile on November 7th 2013 for a show in the National Stadium Athletic Track. The singer will support Blur and open the show, performing there for the second time since his 2007 debut concert.
Local Blur fans will have the chance to see the band perform for the first time in Chile, as the band have not previously played in the city before.The special gig is scheduled just four days after Blur's gig in Argentina.
Many fans have voiced surprise at the choice of Beck for the supporting act, stating that it should have been "the other way round".
Last year's acts in Planeta Terra included Kings of Leon, Garbage and Gossip. More supporting acts including the rumoured Atoms of Peace and Jack White will be announced in the upcoming months. Read more about the Chile gig HERE.
Damon Albarn was recently interviewed by music magazine Rolling Stone about Blur, his new solo album and on Oasis. The interview was conducted before Blur's performance in the music festival Coachella 2013, California USA.
Damon Albarn is hours away from the first U.S. Blur show in years, but as he kicks back on a hotel patio overlooking a golf course near Coachella, his mind drifts to other things. Like the record he made with Bobby Womack, before the soul legend almost died last year. "He's OK," Albarn says, taking a sip of green tea. "We've actually just confirmed to play Glastonbury – he's got incredible spirit, you know?" Or his spectacular Peking-opera-inspired Monkey: Journey to the West, which is coming to New York's Lincoln Center in July after an acclaimed run in London.
"The exciting thing about productions is they change every time," he says. "I'll have the perspective this time to actually see if it's any good." And he's definitely psyched about his first solo record, which he recently wrapped with XL Records boss Richard Russell. "Richard does the rhythmic side, and I do everything else," Albarn says. "It's sort of folk soul."
Albarn plans to hit the road behind the LP, playing songs drawn from his entire career, including Blur and Gorillaz, for the first time. And a new Blur LP, which the band would record between festival gigs in Europe this summer, is a definite possibility. "We've got a couple of occasions when we're stuck in the middle of nowhere," he says. "So we might make the record in a week. If we can, it would be nice."
What drives you to take on all these different projects? There's Blur; Gorillaz; the Good, the Bad and the Queen; two operas; and way more. I get bored extremely easily. Blur was definitely my Nineties, Gorillaz was my 2000s, and then I've done a lot of different stuff this decade.
How connected do you feel to songs you wrote, at this point, decades ago? I enjoy playing them. A lot of the songs were quite dystopian in their worldview. And a lot of that stuff is much more pressing now than it was then. It seemed like the future then, and now it just seems like every day. So I can kind of get into it.
Is there a song that you think was especially prescient? A song like [1995's] "The Universal," which sings about, "This is the next century, where the universal's free . . . satellites in every home . . . "
Blur is one of the biggest bands of all time in England, but the tune the band is best known for in America is "Song 2," which is pretty uncharacteristic. What's it like to have that in your pocket? The reaction to that song must be so intense. The "woo-hoo" one, yes. Well, thank god! It really is guaranteed to make the whole place explode. Unfortunately, it's only two minutes.
In some ways Gorillaz are a bigger band in America than Blur. Oh much bigger, yeah. It would be nice to play "Clint Eastwood" and "Feel Good Inc." with Blur, but I can't. They won't play them with me! [Laughs] But I've just finished a solo record – when I go tour that, I'll play play stuff from all my different bands.
What's the record like? I've been making it with [XL Records chief] Richard Russell. We worked together on the Bobby Womack record, and really enjoy working together. He's done spectacularly well as a music mogul, but I think he wants to focus his energy on producing records. Making a solo record is can be such a disaster, so I thought if we're going to make a record with my name on it, I should get someone to really produce it – take that responsibility away from myself. Richard does the kind of rhythmic side of it and I do everything else.
How is Bobby doing? He's not the healthiest of guys, but he's able to do gigs and he's got incredible spirit. He doesn't let anything keep him down too long, you know? As soon as he opens his mouth and that voice comes out, he's just transported. It's such a magnificent voice.
What did you learn from that last huge, spectacular tour you did with Gorillaz in 2010? That was the most expensive tour of all time. I had 70 musicians. I toured around the world, played massive venues all around the world. I made about 20 pounds by the end of it [laughs], so I won't be going on another of those. It was incredible fun, I loved doing it, but economically it was an absolute fucking disaster.
Tell me about the opera – the footage I saw online looked incredible. It's very eccentric. It's colorful and youthful and fantastic for kids. I mean it's just a brilliant thing for kids. My daughter was inspired enough by it to start learning Mandarin after she watched it. And it's got this wonderful sort of anti-hero monkey who's just so irreverent and almost . . . amoral [laughs]. Kids love a character like that.
What kind of research went into it? I had four very interesting journeys across China. Like two weeks at a time. We were taken to some very rural, untouched places far away from the crazy commercial growth aspect of China. Back to places that felt positively medieval. I listened to a lot of traditional music, too. One day I had lunch with a music professor in Beijing and I quite earnestly sat down with him and said, "So what advice can you give me as to how to approach this?" And he took me into this library and there were like 1000 books of Chinese folk music notated and said, "Well, you either do it that way or just . . . do it instinctively." So I went for the latter.
The Stone Roses are also playing tonight. Are they friends? We're not friends, but I know them. We Brits always stick together. And all of the animosity of the Nineties is gone. I mean, I was playing "Tender" with Noel [Gallagher] at the Albert Hall two weeks ago, with Paul Weller on the drums. It's all in the past now.
