Speaking to the BBC; Damon Albarn has hinted that a Blur reunion could be on the cards after he recently met up with former guitarist Graham Coxon.

The singer said the pair had lunch and he is thinking about returning to his original band.

He said: “It’s very possible I’ll go back to Blur, it really is very possible.

“The truth be known Graham and I have been hanging out together a bit. We had lunch the other day.”

Coxon left the band in 2002 to pursue a solo career while the remaining members went on to record their last release Think Tank, a year later.

Bassist Alex James hinted at a reunion in August 2007.

But when the band met up two months later they revealed on their official site that they “met up for an enjoyable lunch” but there were no “other music plans for Blur”.

Albarn said it was good to see his old band member again.

He added: “He’s great, it’s fantastic to get my old friend back. So it’s good but I can’t really say any more than that.”

Over the last five years, the Blur frontman has become heavily involved with side projects The Good, The Bad And The Queen, Africa Express and his other band Gorillaz who he is currently working with on a new album.

“I’m halfway through the next Gorillaz album at the minute,” he said. “That’s going to be interesting and different again.

“This next time around there will be a lot going on in it.”

Albarn is also in the process of bringing his opera Monkey: Journey To The West back to London after it enjoyed success at the Royal Opera House over the summer.

The show, which is performed entirely in Mandarin, is to be staged in the confines of the 02 Arena from 12 November.

Damon Albarn said: “After we staged it at the Royal Opera House there was the question of what do we do with it next.

“There was definitely the interest and demand to come back to London.

“We needed to find somewhere else and we were approached by the 02. They asked whether we would like to work with them and bring it back to London.

“So we decided to build our own tent and make our own world. For kids it’s a magical other world and for adults they can relax and enjoy themselves.”

The opera is based on ancient Chinese stories which feature the character of Monkey, a monk called Tripitaka, half man-half animal Piggsy and Sandy the water demon.

It was turned into a cult TV show in the 1970s.

via BBC News

Blur have no current plans to record together again, despite confirmed reports of a full band meeting earlier this month.Damon Albarn, Alex James and Dave Rowntree are understood to have held a reunion lunch last week, with estranged guitarist Graham Coxon.

The group have now released a statement confirming the appointment but denying that it will lead to new music from the definitive line-up.

It reads: “In light of recent press speculation, blur.co.uk would like to confirm that Alex, Damon, Dave and Graham met for an enjoyable lunch on Monday, but there are currently no other music plans for Blur.”

The last Blur album, 2003′s “Think Tank“, was the first not to feature Coxon, who left during sessions for the album, choosing to pursue his solo career.

via Yahoo! Music

Via www.blurcentral.co.uk

(from this week’s NME, cover date: 3 March 2007) Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon look closer to revealing plans to work together again, after NME confronted the Britpop legends.

Last week (February 17), Coxon declared he’d been thinking about a Blur reunion, so when we were given a chance to talk to Albarn about The Good, The Bad & The Queen this week, we couldn’t help but enquire about his old band.

With a single and more live dates planned for GBQ, along with an ‘opera’ and new anti-nuclear weapons website, Albarn has plenty on his plate, but we still sneaked in a Blur question. Here’s what he had to say…

Read the full interview over at www.blurcentral.co.uk

Some people have said Alex James is being too ambitious by stating that he wants Blur to make one final album with their original line-up.

Guitarist Graham Coxon left the indie band in 2002 after being told his services were no longer required – and since then has frequently said that he has no plans to do anything with the rest of them.

But James, who covered for Nemone this afternoon (10 November) on 6 Music, says it’s looking likely that things will get going next year. James was joined on air with another fellow band member, David Rowntree, who claimed that if it was up to him then the band would already be back together:

“The days of Blur doing a tour will not happen, most of the band have kids now, and when you’re a touring band you have to make a choice, so there will never be a return to that, but we have been talking about doing an album next year, we have even set a date for it.”

Previously James said that Graham was also warming to the idea:

“I think we’d all like to make another record. We’d all like to do it with Graham, we may have to beg him a bit though.”

Blur’s members are known for their side projects. Damon Albarn has recorded as Gorillaz plus The Good, The Bad and The Queen, while Coxon has a solo career and James has worked with Stephen Duffy and Keith Allen among others; Rowntree reckons with all that going on it’s too difficult to say what a revived Blur will sound like these days,

“There’s no master sound for how a bands or albums will sound, it’s not like Harry Potter, we didn’t have the concept first and then go and write the books!”

via BBC – 6 Music

Damon Albarn has been speaking to Xfm about his plans for a brand new “aggressively laid back” Blur EP to be released before the end of the year, plus the possibility of some low key live dates.

Following reports that the new Blur material will be more lo-fi and stripped down than their previous work, Albarn spoke to Xfm and explained that fans will probably be able to hear new material from the band pretty soon (if they can find it).

“I think we’re gonna do an EP first, sometime by the end of this year,” he confessed, “But you probably won’t know about it. It’ll just ‘come out’. It’ll be so, sort of, underplayed. It’ll come out but you won’t know it’s us as it’ll be so, well, not us.”

“We’ve got the songs but we’re gonna record them in a few hours and just be very laid back about it. But not musically laid back. It’ll be aggressive. Aggressively laid back. It’s the total opposite of Gorillaz.

“I can’t really make another Blur record that’s a big landscape sort of thing, due to my very basic guitar ability. Cos I want to sing and play so it has to be three chords. I can only do three chords and not look at the guitar.”

Albarn also kyboshed the idea of getting a new guitarist to replace the long departed Graham Coxon saying, “What’s the point? We’d never be able to get one as good as Graham.”

He also admitted that Blur would be playing some live dates towards the end of the year, saying they’d, “Probably do a couple of pubs round Christmas. To be honest with you, it’ll be nice.”

Xfm