The history of Blur can be traced back as far as 1980, when Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon met as schoolboys at Colchester's Stanway Comprehensive. The obnoxious, eccentic 12 year old Damon approached the shy, retiring 11 year old Graham and made a brief yet offending comment on the young boy's new brogues. The Albarn clan were self-confessed summer-of-love, pot-smoking hippees (Damon's parents had runaway to London in the Sixties to become artists). The Coxon family were from a more conservative background and had travelled around Europe, due to Graham's father's Army career. The two boys became an inseperable pair. Time passed. In the mid Eighties, while Damon briefly studied method acting at the infamous East 15 college, Graham enthusiastically joined Goldsmiths College (part of London Universtity) to take an art degree. It was there that he met Alex James, a keen bassist (who had a rather unmusical background - his father a forklift salesman - originally from Bournemouth) who was studying French. They realised they had a great deal in common - namely booze and guitars - and struck a close friendship. It was around the same time that Damon performed a solo gig at Colchester Arts Centre. He and Graham were still good friends, so Graham went along and brought his mate Dave Rowntree (a Colchester boy himself who, prior to landing a high-powered executive job as a computer programmer, had travelled around Europe with one of his bands and returned with a mohican) to see what he thought. Dave, who had previously played drums in various bands with Graham, was impressed. "If you ever need a drummer," he told Damon, "Then give me a call..." Of course, he recieved that call less than a week later. It's hard to say when Dave, Damon, Alex and Graham first played together as their own band. Damon had a job as a teaboy at the Beat Factory studios and although unpaid, he was permitted to have the keys to the studio and have unlimited use overnight. It was there that Seymour formed - a shambolic, drunken art-rock outfit. Named after the troubled lead character in a novel by Catcher In The Rye author JD Salinger, this didn't quite make sense. The character Seymour was a rather despairing, emotionally-challenged man - the band Seymour were noisy, chaotic, rebellious and, to be truly honest, pretty crap... After almost a year of gigging and feeble promotion, Seymour had, suprisingly, caught the intrest of several small record labels. Damon's deal with The Beat Factory was about to expire and so there wasn't any place left to go. Finally, they hooked up with Food - of which EMI was the parent company - and were all set to became "the toppermost of the poppermost". There was just one catch. The name really had to go.
Blur didn't become famous overnight and have had many hurdles to jump - drunken shambles and a near break-up in 92, strong criticism with their many reinventions, Oasis rivalry from 95, Damon's personal problems with ex Justine Frischmann, a recent loss of old fans... But at the moment, Blur seem to be more relaxed than ever. No longer the high profile front-page pop stars of yesteryear, they now appear to enjoy themselves and produce more distinctive and powerful music than before. Ten years in the buisness must have served them well. Their latest LP, "13", has been described as a "sound oddesey"; Blur have recently won a Q Award for "Best Act In The World Today"; and for once, many lovers of the alternative music scene (and indeed, the general music-buying public) are now taking them seriously as an extremely talented band. The main catch with this band is their unpredictability: What Is Next For Blur?
