Fans of 1990s Britpop could get excited by the possibility of a Blur reunion.Lead singer Damon Albarn has revealed to NME magazine that members of the band have been “regularly” meeting up and even recording new material.
Albarn told the magazine that Blur has recorded a spoken word piece about the threat that London’s Notting Hill Carnival would be cancelled, written by poet Michael Horovitz. But it may never actually see the light of day.
“If they’d have cancelled the carnival – and thank God they didn’t – maybe we’d have put it out,” he said.
“It had its moment: it was a perfect plea to reinstate the carnival. So it wasn’t relevant – it was relevant for about 12 hours.”
The singer did state, however, the possibility of the band going on the road together next year, saying he still gets an “amazing feeling” when he plays with the gang.
There are certain obstacles to overcome, though, as each member is busy with their own projects. Albarn himself has formed a new ‘supergroup’ with Red Hot Chili Peppers member Flea and legendary drummer Tony Allen. Named Rocketjuice To The Moon, the band played their first gigs last weekend.
He is also still recording music with The Good, the Bad & the Queen and this year wrote an opera called Doctor Dee, which premiered at the Manchester International Festival.
Albarn and bandmates Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree have reunited in the past to play tracks from their seven albums. They had their first creative hiatus in 1999 and Coxon left the band in 2002 before Think Tank was released.
The band then reformed for a series of gigs in 2009 and had not recorded any new music since 2003 apart from a limited release of single Fool’s Day, which came out in April 2010.