Gorillaz may only be a cartoon band at heart but they were absolutely huge on both sides of the Atlantic and around the world a years ago. Then Damon Albarn and his fellow collaborators decided to call it day and go off and do other stuff.

This means we haven’t had a new Gorillaz album since Demon Days was released way back in 2005. But fans of the animated satirical anti-band won’t have to wait much longer for new material, with the third album due for release in 2010.
The source of this unofficial announcement is Albarn’s manager Chris Morrison, who revealed …read more

What do you buy the man who has everything? OK, Barack Obama may not have everything but becoming the first ever black President of the United States is sure to have made most of his dreams come true. He’s also got a beautiful wife, and lovely kids. So what to get him?
David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative party opposition to Gordon Brown’s Labour Government, thinks he knows. The New Statesman reports that Cameron gave Obama the gift of British music when the pair met up in July, passing on albums by The Smiths, Radiohead, Gorillaz, and Lily Allen.

The Blur reunion saga, will they, won’t they, has been almost as long-running and confusing as the Led Zeppelin reunion debacle.
The latest news on Blur comes from former lead singer, Damon Albarn, who has stated that a Blur reunion is very possible, but not for a while.
It was over a year ago when the first rumblings of a thawing in the relationship between the band members became apparent.
The four original band members met up for lunch, and Albarn and Coxon, the two whose relationship fallout was claimed to be the main cause for the break up of the …read more

It’s been almost a year since I last wrote about Blur, mainly because the band doesn’t exist at the moment after going on an indefinite hiatus in 2003. Last October saw the four original members of the band meet up for lunch but that was as far it went, with no hint of a studio return since.

Graham Coxon leaving (or being asked to leave) Blur in 2002 was the start of the end for the band, and since then, they have all gone their separate ways and partaken in various side projects, some successful, others not so. But, there is …read more

Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett are the innovators and, dare I say it, geniuses behind the animated satirical anti-band Gorillaz. But while that is their best-known collaboration, with the band having two hugely successful albums, and worldwide fame, both are also famous for other things.
Albarn is of course the former lead singer of Blur, one of the two biggest Britpop bands, alongside Oasis. It may be telling that while Oasis are still going, Blur split long ago, and Albarn has moved on to many other projects. One of which, The Good, The Bad and The Queen, are still going strong. …read more

The fabled Blur reunion that has been rumoured for months now has finally happened, but all it consisted of was a pleasant lunch and nothing more.
The four original Britpop band members met up again on Monday Oct 1st for what has been described as “an enjoyable lunch” but there’s no hint that they will ever get back in to a studio together.
Instead the band issued a statement through their official website explaining “there are currently no other music plans for Blur”.
Well what a huge disappointment that has turned out to be. I was really hopeful of a Blur reunion …read more

Blur are set to record together as a four piece again for the first time since 2002. That was the year guitarist Graham Coxon left the inspirational Britpop band, and decided to do his own thing.
While Coxon and Damon Albarn have had varied success (but success nonetheless) since, there’s been a groundswell of support for some new songs from the band, and it seems it may now be about to happen.
It looks like it is now all up to singer Damon Albarn to put the plans in to action. Coxon told NME.com:-
“Dave, Alex and I are all talking. I …read more