Tender Single

The release date for Tender, has been brought forward a week and will now be released on 22nd February.

 

The cover of new single Tender

 

Damon on the phone (part 2)

Damon will yet again be on the phone to Radio 1. This time, Damon will be speaking to Zoë Ball on her Breakfast Show on Friday morning sometime between from 6:30 and 9am

 

Dotmusic Blur Special
Dotmusic have got an excellent exclusive on the new album. Well worth a visit. Thumbs up lads, nice one! click for dotmusic blur special

 

Local & Direct
Damon will be on the phone to Steve Lamacq on Monday 25th January's Evening Session, talking about the new material.

 

News
Blur will be playing at Oxford Brookes Student Union on 3rd February. It was announced at Oxford Brookes, and then by NME. By the time blur fans had found out about it, tickets had unfortunately sold out.

13 New Tracks
The new single 'Tender' is a hand-clappin' tambourine soul song featuring a 40-peice north-London gospel choir. "Tender is the touch, of someone that you love too much...Tender is my heart, for screwing up my life, Lord I need to find someone who can heal my mind...Come on, get through it...Love's the greatest thing.' Beyond the country blues gospel of 'Tender' there's a berserk 'Suffragette City' - stlye extended meltdown ('Bug Man'); and enchanting acoustic caper ('Coffee and TV'. lyrics written and sung by Graham); dreamscape distortion ('Battle', written alone on a tiny island in Indonesia where Damon felt somehow, "Welsh"); death-metal 'n' vocoder bedlam ('B.L.U.R.E.M.I'); clangy keyboard chaos ('Trailer Park': "I'm a country boy, I got no soul, I lost my girl to the Rolling Stones"); scary, claustrophobic Nirvana ('Trimm Trabb': "All us losers on the piss again/I just dose away, that's just the way it is...I sleep alone"); and the closing, simple, country lament, 'No Distance Left To Run', the most explicit love song Damon's ever written. 'It's over. there's no need to tell me/Hope you're with someone who makes you feel safe in your sleep...When you see me, please turn your back and walk away/I don't want to see you..." 'Caramel', is a psychedelic odysseey through a Pink Floydscape. "written in Iceland after a couple of days of being really hungover", a really Hippy anthem and one of Damon's favourites. The album also contains tracks called '1992', 'Optigan', 'Mellow Song' and ironically, 'Swamp Song' which also happens to be the name of an Oasis instrumental. The album, believe it or not has 13 songs, and lasts exactly 66 Minutes and 42 Seconds.

13 - the cover of the new album

 

 

The Face
Damon is on the front cover of the February 1999 issue of The Face. It features an excellent article, with some new pictures of the band.

 

TOTP
Blur will be performing on Top Of The Pops on the 5th March broadcast.

 

News

We finally received the official blur press release which was faxed to us. Here's the info.

 

New Single Tender will come out on 1st March with the following:

CD - Tender, All We Want, Mellow Jam

Enhanced CD - Tender, French Song, Song 2 Video

Cassette - Tender, All We Want

7" Blue Vinyl - Tender, All We Want (available from 8th March)

The new album '13' will be released on 15th March. These were a few of the songs from the album mentioned on the press release: 'Tender', 'No Distance Left To Run', 'Coffee and TV', 'Battle', 'Mellow Song', and 'Trailer Park' (originally written for south park.) There is also apparently a song called 'Bugman', but there was no mention of it.

Other News

Blur will be launching the album at a function on 11th February at a place called Münchenbryggerie in Stockholm. Blur will be performing and talking about the new album. Tickets are needed for the show and are still available.

 

*Exclusive info*

-Blur will be playing live on The Evening Session on Radio 1 on the 15th February.

-The first airing of Tender will take place at 10pm on Thursday 28th January also on The Evening Session

 

Tender

Blur's new single will be released on 1st March. At present Tender is over 7 minutes long, and there are to be two CDs of the single. Tender features The London Gospel Community Choir backing lyrics such as " Come on, come on, get through this," and "Love's the greatest thing."

 

New Album title & latest news

Blur's new album is to be called '13'. Meanwhile, Radio 1 announced that an exclusive airing of Tender will be played on air at the end of January. The single will then be released in February. The album will then be out in March. Reports that it will be released on 23rd March, which also happens to be Damon's birthday are false; albums and singles are always released on a Monday, 23rd March is a tuesday. The exact date at the moment, has yet to be decided. Meanwhile, Q magazine say that Tender will be released on 1st March.

It's got Nufink to do with ya Name-sprung, dodgy technique ya know!

Since NME's recent 'tell tales' of blur's latest, the supposed next single has been renamed by the music press from the Scott Fitzgerald novel 'Tender is the Night' to simply 'Tender'. The new album has also been rumoured to be called 'TBA' short for 'The Blur Album' but this has also proven to be false.

 

Beam me up Davey!

Alex James and Dave Rowntree are to write the music for a cartoon about the European Space Agency's mission to Mars, Beagle 2. The mission is set for 2003, and the Blur men are expected to be involved in fundraising on account of their ginger drummer's love of flying: "Space is the final frontier, and we have a chance to get there for peanuts," he said.

 

NME.com news

BLUR's new single, entitled 'Tender', set for release in February next year is one of the strongest tracks the band have made in years and is possibly their best single yet.

The first taste of new Blur material since their eponymous fifth album in 1997, 'Tender' is a downbeat, almost folky track with an infectious chorus, backed by a gospel choir and acoustic guitar. The tone of the song is similar to late 60s/early 70s ROLLING STONES, reminiscent of 'Wild Horses', a languid, strung-out sound. It's another fairly radical change of direction for the band, though less unapproachable and more unashamedly chart friendly than much of the material from 'Blur'. The as yet untitled album, was recorded this year in London's Sarm Studios with producer WILLIAM ORBIT. It is expected to be released in March. - See NME dated January 2 (on sale December 30) for release date.