Blur life and biography

Blur are a rock band formed in London in 1989 as Seymour, the group consists of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree. Blur's debut album Leisure (1991) incorporated the sounds of Madchester and shoegazing.

Following a stylistic change—influenced by English guitar pop groups such as The Kinks, The Who, The Beatles and XTC—Blur released Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993), Parklife (1994) and The Great Escape (1995). As a result, the band helped to popularise the Britpop genre and achieved mass popularity in the UK, aided by a famous chart battle with rival band Oasis dubbed "The Battle of Britpop".

Blur as we know it was born in 1989 when the band signed to Food/EMI. Debut album Leisure (1991) announced the arrival of a band with pop suss warped by an art-punk eccentricity. Yet Blur had more in them: namely, a revolution in the sound of English popular music. Second album Modern Life Is Rubbish reintroduced the idea that English rock music could be cool, and by the time their third album Parklife emerged in 1994, the rest of the UK had caught up.

The Great Escape (1995) refined the sound palette of Britpop, but Blur were already moving on. 1997′s Blur was an about-face – scuffed and noisy and un-English. Follow-up 13 was an even a more radical adventure in sound as William Orbit refereed a truce between organic punkpop and new-fangled technology.

Seventh album Think Tank (2003) was Blur’s first as a three piece after the temporary departure of founding guitarist Graham Coxon, featuring an eclectic variety of rhythms and textures and glorious melodies.

In 2009 Blur reconvened as a four-piece to play a series of UK shows including two sold out dates at Hyde Park and a historic Sunday night appearance at Glastonbury. A film about Blur, No Distance Left To Run, was released in 2010.

In January 2010, No Distance Left to Run, a documentary about the band, was released in cinemas and a month later on region free.In November 2009, Blur were the first act to be recognised with a Heritage Award by PRS for Music. A plaque was erected at East Anglian Railway Museum, the location of Blur's first gig.

In April 2010, Blur released their first single and the first studio recording with the original line-up since 2003, "Fool's Day", for the Record Store Day event as a 7" limited to 1000 copies. This was released as a free download on their official website the next day.

In December 2010, No Distance Left to Run was nominated as Best Long Form Music Video for the 53rd Grammy Awards. It is the first time Blur has been nominated for a Grammy Award. In February 2011, Coxon told the NME that while "Every now and then we [Blur] like to meet up and record a few things", the group did not have plans to record an album any time soon. "I suppose it might turn into an LP in six years or something", Coxon said.

In November 2011, Blur recorded a spoken word track with poet Michael Horovitz sparked by the news that the 2011 Notting Hill Carnival would be cancelled due to the August riots in London.Albarn described the track as "a perfect plea to reinstate the carnival." He stated that the track "was relevant for about 12 hours" until it was confirmed that the carnival would not be cancelled.

In February 2012, Graham Coxon announced to the Daily Record that Blur will be recording a new album. On 19 February, Albarn and Coxon premiered a new track together live, "Under the Westway".On 21 February 2012, Blur were awarded the Outstanding Contribution to Music award at the 2012 BRIT Awards. They went on to perform 5 tracks: 'Girls & Boys', 'Song 2', 'Parklife', 'Tender' and 'This is a Low'.

Blur will headline at Hyde Park, with New Order and The Specials, to celebrate the closing of the 2012 Summer Olympics on 12 August 2012.

Discography:
-Leisure (1991)
-Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993)
-Parklife (1994)
-The Great Escape (1995)
- Blur (1997)
-13 (1999)
-Think Tank (2003)

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