Blur's triumphant return to play two sold-out shows at London's 90,000-capacity Wembley Stadium last year is documented in a new full-length film, To The End, which is screening in cinemas in the UK and Ireland from today, July 19. And in a new [paywalled] interview with The Times, the band - vocalist Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree - speak about their joy at the fact that they still enjoy making music together, some 35 years after they first got together.
“I get nothing out of Albarn or Coxon year to year,” Alex James says. “Send the fuckers cheese on their birthdays, send them nice cards at Christmas. And then we get back in a room together and suddenly it’s magic. It’s just like putting the Blues Brothers back together every time. Graham said, ‘Can you stop saying that, Alex?’ But it is exactly like that. What band can even fucking stand the sight of each other 35 years in?”
The key to Blur's revival, the band say, is taking a more 'minimalist' approach to band activity.
“There’s a limit to how long you can write, record, tour,” Dave Rowntree tells The Times. “We discovered that when it nearly split the band up.”
“We’ve always wanted it to be special,” adds James, estimating that the band have done just “three or four dozen” gigs in the past 20 years. “What a wonderful thing to be able to dip in and out — why wouldn’t we want to keep doing that for ever?”
“Maybe when we’re 120 we’ll be wheeled on in bath chairs and play music with the power of our brains, Rowntree suggests. “And it’ll be just as good as ever.”
Read the full interview in The Times. And watch the trailer for To The End below.
