MADISON SQUARE GARDEN – OCTOBER 23
Tickets To Only U.S Appearances By Iconic Band On Sale June 20 athttp://www.blur.co.uk/tour
The Magic Whip Out Now
Travel to Hong Kong with Blur Comic Book Out Now
“Ong Ong” Official Video Live at https://www.youtube.com/
“Blur’s classic lineup—singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree—has made its first new album in 16 years, one as quixotic and seductive in its modern searching and subversive pop highs as those Nineties winners… Blur have returned with inspiration to spare.” — ROLLING STONE
With 5-star rave live reviews for recent shows* and a historic fourth headline appearance at London’s Hyde Park set for this weekend and having recently performed its new album The Magic Whip at an exclusive NYC Converse Rubber Tracks Live gig, the classic Blur lineup–Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree—has confirmed a pair of iconic dates at two of America’s most famous venues: October 20 at the Hollywood Bowl and October 23 at Madison Square Garden.
Tickets to the shows–the biggest standalone headlines Blur has ever played in the U.S. and the band’s only currently scheduled Stateside dates—will be on sale 10am local time June 20 at http://www.blur.co.uk/tour.
In other Blur news, the band has released its official comic book Travel to Hong Kong with Blur. Created by famed Hong Kong artist Kongkee of Penguin Lab and inspired by The Magic Whip, Travel to Hong Kong with Blur is available for purchase at http://shop.blur.co.uk/ and will be sold at the U.S. dates.
Released April 28, The Magic Whip (Warner Bros) entered the Billboard 200 at #12—the highest U.S. chart position of Blur’s career—and generated unanimous critical raves, including:
“Something special happens when these four get in a room… Blur’s always been puckish in spirit, its greatest gift the identification and gleeful subversion of listener expectations, and in moments like these it re-emerges, untarnished by the passage of time.”—PITCHFORK
“A weird, lovely return to form… immersive, complex, and understatedly lovely… Sharp and uncompromising, The Magic Whip is here to deliver some good news: Blur is once again a four-letter word.”—NEW YORK
“The members of Blur have been connected — in some form or another — for four decades. Now, they’re officially reformed, in more ways than one, and as great as they’ve ever been.”—GRANTLAND
“It is hard to overstate how well the four core members of Blur complement each other… a communion of all that makes Blur indispensable in rock.”—ESQUIRE
“There isn’t a bad song in the bunch, and several are as good as anything they’ve ever done… there’s real joy here, too, the joy of a successful reunion… taps into the 1 + 1 = 20 chemistry that distinguishes the best rock bands.”—THE NEW YORK OBSERVER
“Most rock ‘n’ roll reunions are accompanied by great fanfare and, let’s face it, lousy music. Blur has turned that equation on its head.”—ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Magic Whip started life in Hong Kong in sessions during an unexpected break in touring in May 2013. The band spent five days at Avon Studios in Kowloon before putting the recordings aside and carrying on with their live dates and returning to their respective lives: Dave to his day job as a lawyer, Alex to his Oxfordshire farm, newspaper column and the hosting duties on The Big Feastival that he shares with Jamie Oliver. Graham, who has released eight critically acclaimed solo albums to date, continued to work on his own material and, in 2014, Damon released and toured his Mercury-nominated debut solo albumEveryday Robots.
Graham revisited the tracks in November 2014 and, drafting in Blur’s early producer Stephen Street (Leisure, Modern Life is Rubbish, Parklife, The Great Escape, Blur), worked with the band on the material. Damon then added lyrics to the 12 tracks, completing The Magic Whip—Blur’s eighth album and first since 1999’s 13 to feature the original Blur lineup.
For further information, contact:
Steve Martin/Perri Cohen
nasty little man
perri@nastylittleman.com
* The Times, June 11th 2015 Blur Barrowlands, Glasgow