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:
"Since Blur gave us hints that the band could do a extensive tour, the long forgotten and neglected fans from Latin America have been making several campaigns on the internet. It's remarkable the number of fans club and webpages dedicated to the band. It seems that people are trying to get their pleas to the band all the way from South America. Lets not forget that Blur visited México just twice and Brazil and Argentine just once, during '99 tour. No wonder latin fans feel ignored." Since the Blur tour dates have already been decided long ago by their management, it is not surprising that the announcements are rolling out in a controlled, one-by-one basis. Having heard all the positive energy from the fans' online campaigns, the management has slipped out another piece of good news for the band - a new tour date to wrap up 2013.
Stay tuned and remember to subscribe for more details about this new tour.
To join in on discussions and other Blur-related chat, check out these Blur fan pages and fan clubs:
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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The Blur frontman has had thirty bikes stolen in the past few years. The reason is because Damon "can’t be bothered to lock them up".
Blur's Damon Albarn has reportedly spent £18,000 on replacing bikes that he has had stolen from him.According to The Sun, Damon Albarn, who is a fan of "old-school style racers that cost about £600", refuses to chain the bikes up when he is not using them, leaving the vehicles open to being stolen by anyone who wants to take them. According to the tabloid, Albarn has spent over £18k replacing around 30 bikes he has had stolen since 2007.
"Damon’s wild for having his bikes nicked," an unnamed source told the paper. "He always buys old-school style racers that cost about £600 a pop. He’s spent around £18,000 since 2007 getting his stolen bikes replaced. It’s all because he can’t be bothered to use a lock. Staff asked him to use a lock but he said, 'I can’t be arsed'. They even offered a lock installed with satellite tracking technology but he refused it."
Quoted from Source: NME
Damon Albarn was nominated just hours ago for a Brit Award 2013, for Best Producer of the year. He produced soul legend Bobby Womack's latest album 'The Bravest Man In The Universe' and also featured in several tracks in the album.
Damon is not unfamiliar with the Brit Awards - having been an iconic musician for more than two decades, he saw Blur being nominated (and winning) for some twenty Brit Awards from years 1995 to 2012. His second band Gorillaz were also nominated for nine Brits in the past.
Blur won the Outstanding Contribution to Music at the Brits in 2012
The British Producer of the Year Nominees are as follows:
• Damon Albarn
• Jake Gosling
• Paul Epworth
Perhaps this year Damon Albarn will once again take the stage for this award in the Brits 2013. Maybe he'll even do another long, lengthy speech thanking everyone he knows. Or perhaps his speech will cut off another famous singer and spark much online fury yet again. Will he win ? Who knows.
