Blur

Blur formed in London in 1988 as Seymour, four Goldsmiths students who signed to Food Records and changed their name before releasing their debut single in 1990. The early records were baggy and Madchester-influenced — pleasant enough, but giving little indication of what was coming. The pivot to Britpop on 'Modern Life Is Rubbish' (1993) was a deliberate artistic decision, Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon reacting against American grunge with a very English set of references.

'Parklife' (1994) was the breakthrough — a kaleidoscopic portrait of English life that ranged from the mundane to the surreal. Phil Daniels's spoken-word title track, the euphoric 'Girls & Boys', the melancholy 'This Is a Low' — it was an album that felt genuinely ambitious about what pop music could do. Four Brit Awards followed. Blur were suddenly the acceptable face of Britpop.

The battle with Oasis in August 1995 — both bands releasing singles on the same day — was the defining moment of Britpop as cultural spectacle. Blur won the chart battle with 'Country House'. Oasis won the war. But the rivalry obscured what Blur were actually doing: quietly preparing to abandon Britpop entirely.

'The Great Escape' (1995) was the last Britpop album, and it showed the seams. But 'Blur' (1997) was a revelation — lo-fi, American-influenced, and completely unexpected. 'Song 2' became their biggest global hit almost by accident. '13' (1999) went further still, Albarn processing a painful breakup through noise and gospel. It remains one of the most underrated British albums of its era.

The reunion in 2015 and 'The Magic Whip' — recorded in Hong Kong during a cancelled tour — was a genuine late-career triumph. Albarn's parallel work with Gorillaz and various collaborations had kept him at the centre of British music, but Blur's return confirmed that the band dynamic produced something none of his solo work could replicate. Their 2023 Hyde Park show was one of the great British concerts of recent years.