The history of BLUR can be traced back to circa 1980, when
Damon Albarn (b.1968) and Graham Coxon (b.1969) met as schoolboys at
Stanway Comprehensive School in the fair city of Colchester in Essex,
where they sang together in the choir. Both were drawn to music: Damon,
a Londoner by birth (Whitechapel Hospital), was the son of Keith
(a former luminary of England's late-1960s psychedelic rock scene that
yielded Soft Machine and others) and Hazel (a stage designer for
Joan Littlewood's theatre company). Arriving in Colchester in the late
'70s, the young Damon began studying music (the piano) and drama.
Graham, who had been born on an airbase in Germany, was the son of
a bandsman and he had gravitated to Colchester in 1977. Graham was
encouraged at Stanway to learn the saxophone, an instrument which - some
15 years later - he would play for the first time as a member of BLUR on
'Jubilee' (on 'Parklife'). Aged 12, Graham also began to play the guitar.
Alex James grew up in Bournemouth on England's south coast, coming to
London in the late '80s to study at Goldsmith's College, where he first
met Graham.
Colchester-born Dave Rowntree, the son of a BBC sound engineer and
a mum who played piano in an orchestra, "took up" the bagpipes at a
young age of "very youthful indeed", graduating to drums not long
afterwards.
These four men formed a bizarre, Brechtian art-punk band called
Seymour - Damon on vocals (and occasional keyboards), Graham on guitar,
Alex on bass and Dave on drums. After playing a dozen or so shows in
and around London, they re-named the band BLUR in 1989. BLUR signed to
Food Records in late 1989.
The first release from BLUR was the single 'She's So High,' in 1990.
The story really began to gather speed with the next single, 'There's No
Other Way,' a sizeable hit in Britain in the Spring of 1991. The song saw
BLUR working for the first time with the legendary producer Stephen
Street (The Smiths, Morrissey, The Cranberries). Street has produced the
bulk of BLUR's music ever since, including all but one track on
'Parklife' and every song on 'The Great Escape' and 'Blur.'
'Leisure,' BLUR's debut album, released in August 1991, was an
enjoyable collection of songs influenced by Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd,
the explosive guitars of My Bloody Valentine and vocal harmonies
reminiscent of 'Revolver'-era Beatles. A Number 7 hit in Britain,
'Leisure' was soon outgrown by BLUR, who announced a complete change
of attack on their great, 'lost' single 'Popscene' in March 1992:
furiously-paced, with blaring horns over punky guitars.
Damon had undergone a major transformation as a songwriter: from
reticent by-stander to caustic commentator, and BLUR greedily
stockpiled the songs that would make up their sophomore album, the
critical break-through 'Modern Life Is Rubbish.' Named after a piece of
graffiti scrawled on a wall near London's hallowed monolith Marble Arch,
'Modern Life Is Rubbish' (released in May 1993) was a total sea-change.
Flying in the face of fashion, it was a huge pop encyclopaedia of
England (from Julian Cope to XTC, from The Beatles to Madness). The
album's witty and touchingly parochial songs (variously bolstered by
use of string sections, brass sections and cor anglais) aimed for,
and acheived, a quintessential English sound not heard since the
1965-68 heyday of the Kinks.
This modern view of urban England was developed on the third
BLUR album, 'Parklife' (a number one chart entry in April 1994), which
took an analytical, often complex look at England's foibles and
misfortunes. The music created by BLUR - guitars, bass, saxophones,
drums and insane plastic keyboards - drew from many classic English
influences (Kinks, Madness, Bowie, Magazine) to create a palette that
was inspirationally fresh and defiantly colloquial. The band won four
BRIT Awards for 'Parklife' in early 1995.
Some months ago in the making, the much-misunderstood 'The Great
Escape' was BLUR's worldwide coming of age. Its musical reach far
outstripped trafitional pop: banjo, mellotron, curdled waltzes and
zonked-out keyboards all took a bow in the band's ingenious
arrangements. The album would have sounded novel in whichever country
it was heard. It spanned every age group (BLUR are the first group
ever to receive frontcover stories in the teen mag Smash Hits and the
thirtysomethings' monthly Mojo.)
'The Great Escape' shot straight into the British album charts at
number one - it sold over 1 million copies in the UK alone - and is
to-date BLUR's biggest-selling album worldwide. A tour of British
seaside resorts followed, during which BLUR played to small audiences
for one last time.
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