Blur New album and tour plans

[Mark87uk]

Hi guys,

I'll probably get disowned for sharing this but i've been told today by a very reliable source
the boys have finished writing a new album and are looking at next summer to release.

They are also planning 3 nights at Wembley next summer, plans are obviously in there infancy at the min

[aldamasta]

all I know to say is... I better start saving my money now to get across the pond. Though what about all the Gorillaz touring? I figured we'd be getting a new Gorillaz record well before a new blur one...

[bugman]

erm gorillaz is going to play gigs all summer, so?

[idreamofpikas]

erm gorillaz is going to play gigs all summer, so?

Yeah, 2022 makes no sense for Damon. February and March he's still touring his current album, April to August it is Gorillaz dates, and you'd have to figure that there will be American dates to add, plus the Le Vol du Boli show in April.

http://www.vblurpage.com/news/tourdates.htm

And another Gorillaz album seems likely to drop next year as well. 2022 seems a year too early for a Blur album/tour. Not unless Damon's figured out how to clone himself.

[aldamasta]

Our good friends at Damon Albarn Unofficial said “ He is about to have a "conversation" with the Blur members to do "something" next year.”…

[John_d]

The gorillaz live machine seems to be in full swing for 2022 and as someone here pointed out it perhaps needs to be to justify the live band being employed.

I would be surprised if new blur material or gigs was at the top of damons priorities. I would welcome a change from Hyde Park for when they do eventually agree some dates - which I think will happen in 2023 perhaps.

I was at Hyde Park in 2012 and had a good time but I can understand why it doesn't work for lots of folk. I assume Blur have a bit of a problem in the UK, in that they are a large stadium sized act in the UK, but an arena or theatre sized act elsewhere, which also isn't willing to do 60 or 70 dates on a world tour. Meaning they don't have their own stadium sized "production". Which means piggy backing on existing "stadium sized" infrastructure eg the build for summer gigs at Hyde Park. (Happy to be corrected on this assumption by someone who understands better how live events are organised.)

[vitekm]

I hope they´ll never do Hyde Park again. There´s so many other options. Big room for them to surprise us. Blur should always be the surprising act.

[stephen]

Are you sure it's not Wembley Arena? Can't imagine blur still have the pull to sell Wembley out 3x over

[thespider]

If it's Wembley Arena, that'll be a real shame. It's easily the worst music venue in London.

[John_d]

I assumed the "3 nights at Wembley" chat was so preposterous as to be ignored . Damon seems to have a great relationship with the o2. 2 or 3 nights there rather than 1 at Hyde Park would be good. Regarding touring, I found it weird back in 2003 that Blur did multiple nights in same cities at 2,500ish venues. For example I attended 2 of the 3 nights at Glasgow Barrowlands. What was the thinking behind that.

[JackS]

At this point, as much as I would love to see Blur again, I don't think I'd buy another Hyde Park ticket. Can't stand the place, and I've now seen Blur there plenty of times.

[essex-dogs]

What makes me more excited is the fact they'll probably come up with new music too. I'm looking forward to this rather than Wembley/Hyde Park dates. It might be because last time Blur toured they didn't come to my country, perhaps I'm keeping low expectations in advance. Nevertheless, it's always magical to hear they're getting reunited, I wonder what their schedules will be like too. "The Magic Whip" was awesome and to me it's always felt like they tried to condense Blur's entire catalogue into one album. Where will they go next? Will it be something new and conceptual like "13" or another summed up album like The Magic Whip?

[stephen]

Purely speculation but I imagine it'll be closer to another Magic Whip rather than a 13. It kind of worked pretty well last time

[northernmonkey]

Graham & Stephen did a great job piecing together TMW but seriously the four of them just need to spend a month in the studio and just bounce idea’s off each other with a load of demo’s/idea’s. I honestly can’t see it happening that way tho, everything just seems so rushed with Damon, I think there would be too much of a tight deadline to allow the band to rekindle the Magic with the next Gorillaz or solo project next on the list.

[jonathas]

I really love the idea of Damon continuing to hand over the reins to Graham, to be honest. If he handed over a bunch of home demos and let Graham arrange and work them up, that would be really interesting. The worst case scenario is that Damon just gets Graham, Alex and Dave to play behind another batch of finished, forlorn, melancholy songs. If Damon doesn't have a month to spend in the studio, maybe Graham does.

Can anyone think of any bands, incidentally, where the de facto 'band leader' has changed? I know Blur won't actually do this, but I appreciated Graham's bigger contribution last time. I remember Screaming Trees changed their main songwriter from Lee Conner to Mark Lanegan towards the end of their career.