Blur are an English rock band formed in Colchester in 1989. The band are comprised of vocalist/keyboardist Damon Albarn, guitarist/vocalist Graham Coxon, bassist/backing vocalist Alex James and drummer/backing vocalist Dave Rowntree. The group became one of the biggest bands in the UK during the Britpop movement of the mid-1990s.
Blur's original influences on their debut album, Leisure, included contemporary British alternative rock trends such as Madchester and shoegazing. Following a stylistic change in the mid-1990s, influenced by English guitar groups such as The Kinks, The Beatles, and XTC, the band released Modern Life is Rubbish, Parklife and The Great Escape. As a result, the band helped to popularise the Britpop genre and achieved mass popularity in the UK, aided by a famous chart battle with Britpop rivals Oasis.
By the late 1990s, with the release of their fifth album, Blur, the band underwent another reinvention, influenced by the indie rock and lo-fi style of American bands such as Pavement and R.E.M., in the process gaining an elusive American success with the single "Song 2". The final album featuring the band's original lineup, 13, found Blur experimenting with electronica and gospel music.
In May 2002, founding member Graham Coxon left the band early in recording sessions for Think Tank, the band's seventh and latest album. Blur continued in his absence, seeing both the album and a tour through. Since the end of their 2003 tour, the band is inacti...