Artist News Gigs & Festivals Releases

New Blur album announced ahead of warm-up show at Colchester Arts Centre

By | Published on Friday 19 May 2023

Blur

Blur will release their first new album in eight years, ‘The Ballad Of Darren’, on 21 Jul it has been confirmed. The first track from it, ‘The Narcissist’, is already streaming.

The new record was announced ahead of a series of warm-up shows that the band are playing around the UK this month, kicking off at the Colchester Arts Centre later today.

Those shows, which also include gigs at Eastbourne Winter Gardens, The Halls Wolverhampton and City Hall Newcastle, precede a summer of festival appearances plus the two dates at Wembley Stadium on 8 and 9 Jul.

And now some quotes from the band…

Damon Albarn: “This is an aftershock record, reflection and comment on where we find ourselves now”.

Graham Coxon: “The older and madder we get, it becomes more essential that what we play is loaded with the right emotion and intention. Sometimes just a riff doesn’t do the job”.

Alex James: “For any long term relationship to last with any meaning you have to be able to surprise each other somehow and somehow we all continue to do that”.

Dave Rowntree: “It always feels very natural to make music together. With every record we do, the process reveals something new and we develop as a band. We don’t take that for granted”.

Darren was unavailable for comment. As usual. And to think, they even wrote a ballad about him.



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