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Blur – The Ballad Of Darren (black) T-Shirt
£10.99
Formed in December 1988, the band who would become Blur performed live for the first time in summer 1989 in the goods shed of the East Anglian Railway Museum at Chappel & Wakes Colne. In November, Food Records’ A&R representative Andy Ross attended a Seymour performance (the name the collective were still going under at the time) that convinced him to court the group for his label. The only concern held by Ross and Food was that they disliked the band’s name. Food drew up a list of alternatives, from which the group decided on Blur. Food Records finally signed the rechristened band in March 1990.By the mid-90s, despite previously dismissing it, Damon Albarn grew to appreciate Graham Coxon’s tastes in lo-fi and underground music, and recognised the need to significantly change Blur’s musical direction. He subsequently approached producer Stephen Street, and argued for a more stripped-down sound on the band’s next record. Coxon, recognising his own personal need to “work this band”, wrote a letter to Albarn, describing his desire for their music “to scare people again”. After initial sessions in London, the band left to record the rest of the album in Iceland, away from the Britpop scene. Blur, the band’s fifth studio album was released in February 1997, and while the music press had predicted that the lo-fi sonic experimentation would alienate Blur’s teenage girl fan-base, they generally applauded the effort. Reviewers ultimately felt the band had come to accept American values during this time – an about-face of their attitude during the Britpop years. Despite cries of “commercial suicide”, the album and its first single, ‘Beetlebum’, debuted at number one in the UK.After the success of Blur, the band embarked on a nine-month world tour, which took in a number of dates in the US where the new album had proved their best seller to date. In the summer of 1998, the band played 3 gigs in the UK labelled the ‘Glastonbury Warm-Up Tour’, following which, on 27th June 1998, Blur played the festival itself, headlining the main stage on the Saturday night to the delight of most of the 100,000 revellers attending that year.
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