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1998-2000
William Orbit
on 13, solo works and The Best Of
January
1998 - Blur are nominated for four awards at the
annual NME Awards.
February
1998 - Graham is to launch his own
record label, Transcopic, with the first release
scheduled for March. The label would probably
release music from the bands picked by Graham
himself. "It will be what Graham really
likes" a spokeswoman for the label says.
William Orbit,
Adrian Sherwood and Thurston
Moore are among those contributing to Bustin'
+ Dronin', a Japanese double album of
remixes plus a live set recorded for John
Peel.
Damon records a cover of
Noel Coward's "London
Pride" with classical composer Michael
Nyman.
March
1998 - The band will begin to work
on the new sixth album in July after the World
Cup. Damon and Alex are both set to release World
Cup singles this summer.
May 1998 -
It's been announced that Graham will be putting out a solo album
later this summer on Transcopic.
June
1998 - William Orbit, whose work
Blur liked the most on Bustin' + Dronin',
may be a co-producer on the new album. The band
plays at Glastonbury Festival, where they perform
one new song written for the South Park
soundtrack. (Later, the song wasn't included on
the soundtrack, but on the new album as
"Trailerpark"). Before Glastonbury,
they play a few warm-up gigs around the UK. Damon
and Graham remix the new Massive Attack single
"Angel".
July
1998 - The recording of the new
album has begun. The band also records a track
entitled "Cowboy Song" with Dust
Brothers for Dead Man On Campus movie.
August
1998 - Graham's debut solo album The
Sky Is Too High is released.
"The music ranges from
angry and puerile to depressing and rural.
Influence: Yo La Tengo, Dinosaur Jr, Leonard
Cohen, Nick Drake, Terry
Callier, Thurston Moore, Thee Headcoats
and probably more," describes Graham the
album, which charts
at Number 31
in the
UK.
September
1998 - It's been confirmed that
William Orbit is producing the whole of the new
album. Damon Albarn remixes a version of Cornelius' new single
"Star Fruits Surf Rider". He is also to collaborate with Michael
Nyman yet again to record a score for the new film called Ravenous.
November
1998 - The recording of the new
album has finished. There are rumours that a
track called "Tender Is The Night" will
be the first single. Damon joins forces with Ronaldo
to present the Best Album award at the MTV Europe
Music Awards in Milan. The band are happy with
the work of the new producer William Orbit.
December
1998 - The new single, entitled
"Tender", is set for release in
February. Alex and Dave are helping to promote
the new British space mission, which will hunt
for traces of life on Mars. Damon is rumoured to
be planning a duet with Shaznay Lewis
of All Saints.
January
1999 - Blur's new album is to be
called 13. The first airing of
"Tender" will be at the
end of January on BBC Radio 1. Alex and Dave are to
write the music for a cartoon about the ESA's
mission to Mars, Beagle 2.
February
1999 - Blur play the majority of the new album to
the public at the place called Münchenbryggeriet in
Stockholm. On February 22nd, the new single "Tender" is
released. It "only" goes to Number 2 in the UK charts, though
over 170,000 copies were sold in the first week.
March
1999 - Blur's sixth album 13
is released. It gets mixed opinions from fans,
but mainly good reviews from the press. Blur's
music style has changed radically again. The
album goes straight to Number 1 in the UK charts
and stays at the top for two weeks. On the
release date, Blur play the BBC gig at
the London Hippodrome. At
the end of the month, they fly to USA and Canada
to play there a few gigs and do some television
appearances.
April
1999 - It's been finally confirmed
that "Coffee & TV" will be the next
single from 13.
Due to Graham's unwillingness to
sing the song at gigs over and over again, the
single was originally planned to be
"Bugman", and then "Trimm
Trabb".
June 1999
- "Coffee & TV" is released. It
only manages to reach Number 11 in the UK charts
in its first week. Blur manager Chris Morrison
demands the chart re-run, because of 30-40% of
sales were lost accidentally. Blur make their
second appearance at the Tibet Freedom
Concert and play at several festivals around
Europe.
July
1999 - To celebrate Blur's 10th
year anniversary in September, a special 22 CD
box set is to be released soon.
Also, 3862 Days:
The Official History of Blur, written by Stuart
Maconie, is out this month. Blur
continue playing at the festivals.
August
1999 - Blur play at the Reading Festival and deny
the rumours of splitting-up.
September 1999
- The band celebrate 10th Anniversary by releasing the box set
and staging an special exhibition Blur:X at Lux Gallery
in London. The box set includes all 22 singles in order with
B-sides. Blur:X includes original artwork and lyrics
for each album, rare footages and a collection of familiar Blur
probs. The Observer is celebrating ten years of Blur,
by giving its readers a limited edition CD full of Blur songs.
Blur play a special B-sides gig at the Electric Ballroom in
Camden. The gig is broadcasted live on the Internet.
October
1999 - Damon's partner Suzi
Winstanley gives birth to a baby girl.
November
1999 - "No Distance Left To
Run", the third single from Blur's platinum
album 13, is released. Its highest UK chart position is
Number 14. Blur will make a history when one of its B-sides will
be send to Mars with space mission Beagle 2. The band gets the
Best Act in the World Today award at the Q Awards. William Orbit
also wins an award there for Best Producer for 13.
Blur also win the Best Video award for
"Coffee & TV" at the MTV Europe
Music Awards in Dublin. Damon is presenting there
one award with Mary J. Blige.
December
1999 - Blur play A-sides gig at Wembley Arena to
mark their ten year career. Before that they play a
few warm-up A-sides gigs around the UK. The first
Blur DVD, No Distance Left To Run (The Making
Of), is released. The band do well in many music
magazine's "best of the year" polls
like in Melody Maker, where 13
is the second best album, "Tender" is
the second best single and "Coffee &
TV" the third best single.
January
2000 - An unreleased song called
"Hippy Children", written and performed
by Damon Albarn and Graeme Holdaway under the
name Circus in 1989, is available to download
from the Over 18s Records' Internet site for a
small charge. A month later the same Internet
site has been ordered to close by Damon Albarn's
lawyers.
February
2000 - Blur win Best Single ("Tender"), Best Video
("Coffee
& TV") and Best Band award at
NME Awards.
March
2000 - News reports that William Orbit, the
producer for 13,
won't produce the next Blur album due to his busy
schedule. The soundtrack for the new Kevin
Spacey film, Ordinary Decent
Criminal, gets released. It includes five
tracks written by Damon.
April
2000 - It's been confirmed that Blur will play their only gig in this year
at Meltdown Festival in July. Damon Albarn is
working with hip-hop producer Dan The
Automator.
June
2000 - Graham's second solo album,
the heavy metal influenced The Golden D
is released. Unlike his last album, it doesn't get to Top 40 in the UK. Blur are set to release a greatest
hits album later this year.
July
2000 - Blur perform a new song
called "Black Book" at Meltdown
Festival. It's meant to be the next single and
will be on the band's forthcoming "best
of" album. "Coffee & TV" is nominated for Breakthrough
Video at MTV Video Music Awards. Graham Coxon plays a few gigs in
the UK to promote The Golden D.
August
2000 - Damon Albarn visits Mali in
West Africa, where he plays with many traditional
musicians. The trip is part of the education
project On The Line, founded by Oxfam.
September
2000 - Blur will release "best
of" album in late October. The new song,
"Music Is My Radar" (an original B-side to
"Black Book"), will come out as a
single to accompany the album. Damon Albarn
contributes vocals to a Dan The Automator track
"Time Keeps On Slipping", which appears
on Dan The Automator's hip-hop project Deltron
3030's self-titled album. Damon is also involved
with the band project called Gorillaz and sings
on a few tracks on their "Tomorrow Comes
Today" EP. Graham Coxon remixes an Idlewild
track "Rusty".
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Blur-radio.com |
October
2000 - Blur's 23rd single,
"Music Is My Radar" is released. It
goes to Number 10 in the UK charts and gets mixed
opinions from fans. Two weeks later Blur: The
Best Of is released and goes to Number 3 in the UK. Blur
launch their own radio station on the Internet. Blur-radio.com
features a 12 hours set of concerts, rarities, unheard demos and
a documentary tracing their career. Dave Rowntree programs a
special mobile ringtone version of "Music Is My Radar" and a
mobile icon for Iobox.com.
December
2000 - Alex James joins cult '80s band Zodiac
Mindwarp for a comeback gig, while Damon Albarn appears with the
London Gospel Community Choir at their Christmas concert. Damon
also hosts a programme on BBC Radio 4, about his recent visit to
Africa with Oxfam. Blur are planning to go back to studio to
record their seventh album in February (these sessions were
later aborted). Chris
Potter, the producer of Verve and
"Black Book", is set to produce the new
album.
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