50 Fun Facts About Blur

Who plays drums in Blur?

Dave Rowntree. Away from the drum kit he retrained as a criminal solicitor during the band's long break, and in 2017 he was elected a Labour county councillor in Norfolk.

Which Manchester band were Blur's chart rivals in the 1995 'Battle of Britpop'?

Oasis. Blur deliberately moved their own single's release to the same day to force a head-to-head, and the chart race ended up on the national TV news before Blur took the week.

Blur's Albarn and Coxon met as schoolboys where?

Colchester. The pair met at Stanway Comprehensive there, so when Blur returned in 2023 they began with a small homecoming gig at Colchester Arts Centre, a converted church.

Which instrument does Alex James play in Blur?

Bass. Alex James later swapped the rock-star life for a 200-acre Oxfordshire farm, where he makes cheese, including a blue named after a New Order song.

What is the title of Blur's 1991 debut album?

Leisure reached number seven in the UK, but Damon Albarn later disowned it, calling it 'awful' and one of only two bad records he had ever made.

In Blur's award-winning video for Coffee & TV, what sets out across town to find a missing band member?

A milk carton. Known as Milky, he carries the missing bandmate's face on his side, braves traffic and trampling feet to track him down, and won the band Best Video at the MTV Europe awards.

Which Blur track is known for its 'woo-hoo' hook and heavy use in US sports and games?

Song 2 began as a working title for its slot on the album and simply stuck. Fittingly, it is the second track, was the second single, and peaked at number two in the UK.

What was the band called before they took the name Blur?

Seymour came from a J. D. Salinger story. The label that wanted to sign them disliked it so much that it drew up a list of other names, and the band picked Blur from the list.

Which artist created the cover of Blur's album Think Tank, a couple embracing in deep-sea diving helmets?

Banksy. He usually turned down commercial jobs, so a record sleeve was a rare exception, and his original painting of the image later sold at auction for tens of thousands of pounds.

Blur's Girls & Boys was inspired by a holiday Damon Albarn took in which Spanish resort?

Magaluf, on Majorca. Albarn watched young British holidaymakers pair off in its nightclubs and said he loved the herd-like spectacle, so he wrote it up as a chant rather than a sneer.

Which British artist directed the video for Blur's 1995 single Country House?

Damien Hirst. He filmed a Benny Hill-style chase with comedian Matt Lucas and a cast of models, and the band's own guitarist later wrote that the result made him angry.

Which single went head-to-head with Blur's Country House in the August 1995 'Battle of Britpop'?

Roll With It lost the week by 216,000 copies to 274,000, but its parent album went on to outsell Blur's by millions, so the press said Blur had won the battle and lost the war.

Which 1995 album completed what became known as Blur's 'Life' trilogy?

The Great Escape went straight to number one, but Damon Albarn soon turned against it, later calling it 'messy' and the sound of a band trying too hard to repeat a success.

Which English actor delivers the spoken-word verses on the single Parklife?

Phil Daniels, the star of Quadrophenia, recorded his part in about forty minutes and chose a cut of the royalties over a fee, a gamble that paid off when the single went top ten.

Which producer worked on Blur's early hits and the Britpop-era albums?

Stephen Street, who had made his name with The Smiths, was paired with Blur when they were stuck for a second single, and their first song together, There's No Other Way, went top ten.

Which XTC member briefly produced sessions for Blur's second album before being replaced?

Andy Partridge was Damon Albarn's first choice, but the sessions were scrapped after a few songs, and he later admitted he had taken the job 'for the wrong reasons, the flattery and the money'.

Which producer, known for his remix work, produced Blur's 1999 album 13?

William Orbit, fresh from making Ray of Light with Madonna, won the job because the band loved a remix he had done of one of their songs for a Japan-only collection.

Blur finished recording their self-titled 1997 album in which country?

Iceland. After starting in London the band decamped to Reykjavik to get away from the Britpop scene, and liked it enough to return there while making their next album.

Which Blur single was the lead single from the 1997 self-titled album?

Beetlebum went straight to number one in the UK, and only years later did Damon Albarn admit on film that its drowsy, dreamy lyric was about heroin.

Which country did Blur tour in 1992 in an attempt to clear their debts?

The United States. The band were so homesick and miserable on the two-month tour that Damon Albarn began writing songs with 'an English atmosphere', the start of their Britpop sound.

Which 1992 single did Blur leave off their next UK album after it stalled at number 32?

Popscene. The flop stung so much that the song stayed off every UK Blur album for 17 years, until a 2009 compilation finally found room for it.

Which Modern Life Is Rubbish song did Damon Albarn write over Christmas 1992?

For Tomorrow. The label had just rejected the finished album for lacking a hit, so Albarn went home for the holiday and wrote one, and it became the lead single.

What was Blur's first single, released in October 1990?

She's So High stalled at number 48, with a nude pin-up riding a hippopotamus on its sleeve, and the band's top-ten breakthrough only came with the follow-up six months later.

As of 2025, which Blur single has climbed highest on the US Billboard Hot 100, peaking at number 59?

Girls & Boys reached number 59 in 1994. The band's best-known song in America arrived three years later, but it only ever charted on Billboard's airplay and rock lists.

Blur formed while Graham Coxon and Alex James were students at which London art college?

Goldsmiths. Twenty years after forming there, the reunited band went back to warm up for their 2009 comeback with a show in the college's tiny student union.

Which pop single kept Blur's Tender off the top of the UK chart in March 1999?

...Baby One More Time. Britney Spears's debut kept Tender at number two, but the song had a second life: at Glastonbury in 2009 the crowd went on singing its refrain after each of the reunited band's encores.

Which band member left during the sessions for Think Tank in 2002?

Graham Coxon is heard on just one song on the finished album, Battery in Your Leg, and he stayed away from the band until the reunion of 2009.

Simon Tong, who joined Blur's touring line-up in 2003, had been a member of which band?

The Verve. Tong was brought in there after a split, to fill the place of a bandmate who had not rejoined, then stayed on when he returned, so stepping into a band mid-crisis was familiar work.

In which Moroccan city were parts of Think Tank recorded?

Marrakesh. The stay fed Damon Albarn's growing interest in African music, and the finished album swapped the band's guitar pop for a blend of dub, dance and African sounds.

Blur recorded a tune meant to be played by which spacecraft once it had landed?

Beagle 2 fell silent on reaching Mars in 2003, so the tune never reached Earth. Photographs released in 2015 showed it had landed intact after all, but its solar panels had failed to open fully.

Which animated band did Damon Albarn create with Jamie Hewlett?

Gorillaz. What began as a cartoon side project sold millions within two years and ended up far bigger than Blur worldwide, above all in America.

Whose break-up with Damon Albarn shaped the lyrics of Blur's 1999 album 13?

Justine Frischmann, the singer of Elastica, later said she cried the first time she heard the album's single Tender, then felt embarrassed and angry before she came round to it.

Which 1999 single was the first Blur release with Coxon on lead vocals?

Its number 11 peak prompted manager Chris Morrison to demand a chart re-run.

Blur's 2009 reunion was announced with a concert at which venue?

Hyde Park. On stage there Damon Albarn told the crowd that he had come up with the idea for Parklife in that very park, when he lived nearby and walked through it.

What honour did Blur receive at the 2012 Brit Awards?

Outstanding Contribution to Music. Blur closed the show, and to make room for their set the host cut off Adele's speech for best album, at which she raised a middle finger on live television.

The Magic Whip was conceived over five days in which city after a cancelled show?

Hong Kong. A cancelled festival in Japan left the band stranded there, so they jammed in a cramped studio, and Graham Coxon later reworked the tapes with their old producer into an album.

What is the title of Blur's ninth studio album, released in 2023?

The Ballad of Darren is named after Darren 'Smoggy' Evans, the band's longtime bodyguard, and a photograph of him is hidden inside the album's sleeve.

Where did Blur play their two-night 2023 comeback headline shows?

Wembley Stadium. Both nights were recorded, and the following summer the shows came out as a live album that put the band back in the UK chart.

Which US festival did Blur play in 2024 after a late call and a five-minute decision?

Coachella. When the crowd met his Girls & Boys singalong with silence, a frustrated Damon Albarn told them they were never seeing the band again, so they might as well sing.

In Parklife, the line 'Vorsprung durch Technik' borrows the advertising slogan of which car maker?

Audi. The slogan means 'progress through technology', and the sneer at it fits a song that many took as a salute to Englishness but that the band said they meant as sarcasm.

Which British pastime is shown on the Parklife cover?

Greyhound racing. Much of the album's artwork was shot at Walthamstow Stadium, a London dog track that closed in 2008, though the famous cover image itself was taken somewhere else.

Parklife lost the 1994 Mercury Prize to which act?

M People won with their dance-pop album Elegant Slumming. Blur's consolation came a few months later, when Parklife helped them carry off four Brit Awards in a single night.

Which Martin Amis novel did Albarn cite as a major influence on Parklife?

London Fields. Damon Albarn said the book changed his outlook on life, and he pictured the album as the travels of a 'mystical lager-eater' watching the world and passing comment.

In 2010 the Parklife cover appeared on what?

A UK postage stamp. Royal Mail picked it as one of ten classic British album covers, and Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page launched the set, which included one of his own band's sleeves.

The video for Blur's 1995 single The Universal pays tribute to which Stanley Kubrick film?

A Clockwork Orange. The band dress in white like the film's gang and lounge in a replica of its gleaming white bar, with Damon Albarn in the anti-hero's eyeliner smirking at the camera.

According to Coxon, Song 2 was originally intended as what?

It was a joke on the record company: Coxon expected the label to find the track far too short and extreme for radio, but to his surprise the executives loved it.

Which football video game series opened its 1998 edition with a Blur track?

FIFA. An EA executive later recalled that when the band were asked to name a price they said they had plenty of money already and wanted tickets to the 1998 World Cup final instead, and that they got them.

Alex James of Blur co-wrote which 1998 England football anthem as part of the group Fat Les?

Vindaloo. James co-wrote it with the actor Keith Allen as an unofficial World Cup song, and it left the official England anthem far behind on its way to number two.

In the Parklife video, the narrator and Albarn play what kind of salesmen?

Double glazing. The pair cruise around Greenwich in a 1970s Ford Granada while the rest of the band pop up as characters from the song, one of them in drag.

Before which London football club's home matches has Parklife long been played?

Chelsea. Damon Albarn and the actor who narrates the song are both lifelong fans of the club, and the song has rung around Stamford Bridge before kick-off for years.