how did the idea of coming Getting Back Together come about was it like a a chance
meeting or is there a blessing me is there a blue WhatsApp group
at least long forget it together I mean for goodness sake I was just really excited about
playing the songs again and I didn't really have any inkling that we'd be making any new
music but yeah that sort of like completely changed the perspective of this whole kind
of getting back together again and sort of puts a whole new machine on
documentaries than I have um it's now a drink [Laughter]
well welcome to absolutely radio it's an honor for me to have you here because you
are my favorite band of all time you're the band that I've seen the most in my life which
is an amazing thing I feel like that lad who films himself chasing trains I'm elated and
scared at the same time how does it feel to be back you guys are back how does it feel uh
it's quite a long it's quite a lengthy process it's a lengthy process yeah it is
a lengthy process does it feel new and exciting this era of blur actually it
shows it does because we've made we've made a great records yeah you've got some big gigs at
Wembley coming up which we're going to talk uh about it very very shortly but I mean I love
I love the choice of the warm-up venue so that you guys have picked Eastbourne Winter Gardens
Wolverhampton the Halls uh Newcastle City Hall but the one that is near me in Leon
sea in Essex is Colchester Art Center there you go because those venues remind me of some
of the venues that blur would have played back in the early days a little bit you I mean like
University Refractories that kind of thing do I mean we've all separately done games
when I first met you actually Damon and you played there with some guy in a hat I was called Circus
and I had kind of 80s uh hair gel spiky hair and I remembered coming on and well Graham what did I
say wake up very loudly make putting really making everybody in the room incredibly awkward yeah and
then to make it even more so I came down into the audience which wasn't many and people were like
turning their back and like pure reversing from me it was a complete disaster so that's the last time
I played there speaking of someone who's not from Colchester at all yes it does it does feel like a
really good place to kick things off actually yeah you know your past is always there uh you
can't you can't change it um so but I think it is it's interesting to kind of revisit it and it was
just interesting it was lovely actually we walked up here um down Brewer Street where like right
where it all started yeah um food records number 76 and the Crown Pub and this is lovely memories
that are kind of and I think we probably all would have been well I I was just really excited about
playing the songs again and I didn't really have any inkling that we'd be making any new music but
yeah that's sort of like completely changed the perspective of this whole kind of getting back
together again and sort of puts a whole new sheen on our past did you take it in did you take it all
in at the time just very one final thing on that you know because sometimes people go through an
amazing career like you guys have had and maybe not had a chance to stop and take in what you've
achieved because you've achieved some amazing things and you've got great stuff still to come
but did you feel like you you enjoyed it at the time and you took it in properly the Aftershock
of any big experiences is much is far better understood laterally I don't know about you I
don't spend tend to spend much time looking back you know people just say do do you know do you do
you miss those days but you kind of you know you kind of Miss Father Christmas coming when you're
yeah you've done way more brick pot documentaries than I have um just now a drink [Laughter]
how did the idea how did the idea of coming Getting Back
Together come about was it like a a chance meeting or is there a chance
long to get it together I mean for goodness sake it's been tastes been I mean what is it 2015.
there's another ridiculous it's well start we're just we're just form middle-aged men who have live
in our lives and should have this amazing shared history and you know if we were going to come
out again as a band yeah I think it was really important that we kind of rediscovered each other
and you know the lovely thing about knowing people like Dave Graham and Alex for so long is that it's
you know that there's so much shared experience that is you know it's a pleasure at the moment
do you have a banned WhatsApp group you must have a band come on you must have Shield we
tried that about three years ago I don't have a phone so that's not never going to work with me
in the WhatsApp group you don't have a phone I don't have a phone no is that like how long
have you not had a phone for quite a while I I've tried going off grid a little bit like that is it
good does it feel good like I haven't had a phone since phones I've never really been a
committed phone user to be fair that's fair enough you're a landline kind of guy I well
I mean I'm kind of terrified of the landline because I didn't know who was at the other end
that's fair enough that's good it's uh it's liberating not to have to carry one around well
let's talk about Wembley uh the the gigs sold out uh incredibly quickly we were you nervous kind of
signing back up to do the Wembley gigs there was any trepidation in terms of ahead of them going
on sale I was a bit scared were you a little bit scared yeah you've got to be a little bit it's a
bit like the dream then you go to school when you're up yeah I suppose there's that pajamas
yeah it's a big place yeah and of course I yeah it did sell out really so so fast it was it was
amazing it was unbelievable I never really know like whether anyone still cares until
you actually put a show on sale on I mean I was like flabbergasted that it's sold out so
quickly and yeah because you're all kind of quite private guys and you're not like constantly like
sound bitey out there in the media all the time so Jeremy you're kind of quite I think you're quite
private so you've not kind of been whipping people up for ages with with the idea of whether you're
going to get back together so it was amazing it was brilliant it was it was heartwarming to see
how you know quickly it sold out most interesting thing is that we've made another record yes
um because we obviously have that uh shared Nostalgia with a lot of people yeah you know
um but for us to kind of come into this in a 2023 way when the lot has changed yeah since
we started you know the the whole language that I used in those songs is weird because it kind of
it was very odd back then some of it but now we're kind of sort of more obtrusive things are kind of
manifest in in a weird way so I don't know we need you to connect that to to music now and
make a record that that felt true well let's talk about it the the new record The Ballad of Darren
is fantastic uh listen to it on the way home last night it's absolutely fantastic and it kind of for
me was felt like social commentary you know the way the Modern Life is rubbish was talking about
Britain uh that era is it a social commentary on that where we're at now because it must be
an unusual situation to write about the world it's a window to look out of yeah or a mirror to look
into are these songs that you've had for a while or was it like the writing process kind of like
um short and prolific do you know what I mean like explosive like a lot of songs came quite quickly
yeah I mean that's another whole conversation really but I mean I think I'm making it together
um started in January and here we are now fair enough uh Alex I saw that you tweeted
a video of you playing along to this is a low a bit of practice bit of practice
uh did the songs come back to you and I'm speaking to all you guys now did it
come out to you would you have to learn and it's it's it's what I was yesterday
we the thing is we we spent so many years playing together for hours and hours every day we were
really lucky yeah to kind of learn actually a craft it's a really it's a really really precious
thing that we've got the four of us when we played there was no other way to do it really no pun
intended yeah no right yeah well you're allowed to in those days as well you were allowed to
develop as a as a guitar player or a bass player and develop a touch or style yep and and all of
his bed in our skills that we have very little skills I had but then learning all the time and
that becomes a kind of a weird idiosyncratic way which you play and the four of us play together
um yeah I mean we have our own DNA clearly I mean you're never aware of it yourselves but
yeah obviously there's something but you're an amazing yeah what I mean you know I remember like
back in the day the only way you can get there is by doing it for years and it's a different sound
from anything else you know like people who've been playing together for years and years and
years indeed but new with the odd hiatus but I think that's I think that's good as well
because we all go off and do it oh we'll go from down our rabbit holes you need new fresh carrot
indeed the thing that kind of comes back quickly is like the pocket that we all play
in like the DNA thing comes back at the end of day one really isn't it but the songs have to
be Four Seasons songs have to that's just graft because you must get something you must get gig
type when you're when you're touring obviously so you don't like have to rehearse too much
so how have the rehearsals been like are you rehearsing in like a little small exhausting
but for some of us well all of us we don't live anywhere near where we're nobody lives
to say the least a little erratic it is it is how do you guys pick a set list for the
Wembley gigs we haven't had someone else to do it how on Earth yeah we let somebody else
we give someone a job you Outsource your set list all of that everything really of course and then
we all bright his idea of what the perfect set is graeme's idea Dave's generally quite
programmatic but he's a drummer yeah yeah he's the all-rounder and uh you know I mean we all have to
um and we do trust uh the uh lovely man who does it for us his name is Stuart lowbridge okay
um I mean there are offers so that will already be problematic time checking him but he's been
with kind of with us uh as part of our bigger family since we played Dudley JB's back in 1990
yeah oh wow okay so I was going to ask whether you you've got a lot of our crew go back over
well over 20 25 years oh wow and we've just kept everybody kind of you know together as much as you
can because the first time I saw you guys was the roller coaster wow My Bloody Valentine dinosaur
junior reverse life of the cow yeah where it goes that you remember yeah yeah we're gonna
bring that back at Wembley that is so good we talked about that all the way home on the trains
like a reverse food chain yeah amazing they were such happy that was so that was such happy days
I remember playing bowling with uh William Reed two nights in SoHo haven't you and look at you
uh so uh Graham I I believe you to be one of the greatest guitarists this country's ever produced
and I mean that along with Johnny Marr John Squire I think you're fantastic the new album
in the new album you have a kind of uh I feel like you've changed your sound uh in an amazing
way but it's like quite a refined approach to guitaring rather than I mean there was a quote
from you about sometimes a riff doesn't do the job but it's a different approach it's a lot of music
and a lot of chords and it's very riff resistant music I found it was very difficult to get a sort
of Refuge in there or something like that yeah um so I approached it I mean I just wanted to
follow the chords and let those chords be voiced in such a way as the best that could be done on
the guitar and also you know I'm not never really have been and a sort of a noise Nick as such even
though I'm cool that's why people think that they're getting if they want graham Cox and
guitar sounds but that's not what I've always liked so um I wanted to explore a different sort
of guitars and their capabilities and what they and what that meant with sound but really made
more beautiful sounds yeah because you know if you want to make a horrible sound that's
that's raw and there are those sounds on there as well then it's it's got to sit against what
what else is there well you know have you got less pedals than you had back in the day yeah
use them I wish I could just have a you know
just have a great weekend before and a Les Paul and be done with it all but her life isn't like
that because you know I I do love Twix I don't play the guitar like a guitarist I
use the guitar to make the sounds that I want to make yeah and the guitarist that
was the nearest thing if say the blur was divided into different eras okay so you had like kind of
on the edge blur like you know Plymouth Pavilions
um um you know Leisure era that kind of crazy resurgent blur Modern Life is
rubbish chart storming blower with the Great Escape what kind of era blur are we here
so part life is uh Imperial Imperial blur imperious imperious blur um what what kind
of era blur do you think we've got at the moment are these the rock gentleman years it could be our
fingers I'm not interested in that one although there's there's there is Echoes and little
moments that I think listeners will if they know blow well will recognize from very early
days and will you be a bit nervous before you go on stage at Wembley do you think no nope famous
um Alex you are um that probably will be absolutely now he said that yeah I think
it's about the music really and anything else so yeah that means there shouldn't be any ego in it
and the ego is the only thing that's going to make you nervous well we still have a VHS about
you guys were there for the music anyway yeah so do you know what I mean yeah yeah no items
to happen at those big shows is that you walk on and go oh well this is huge and then if you've
done your job right you walk off and you've shrunk it and it just feels like yeah that's quite a lot
of that's quite a lot of shrinkage that reminds me of a leather jacket I bought I really loved
but you just you get into a Zone don't you know there's more people listening to this and there
will be something no when you when you're when you're doing big gigs you know there's more people
listening to this and they will be listening to Wembley but this just feels like we're having a
better job of of playing at Wembley than dying my jacket I remember I had a CD back in the day
which was uh you guys live in Japan and they went absolutely crazy for you over there are there any
because you did an amazing tour as well as as part of this playing in some in some cool locations
sort of over egg it it says about 12 shows and it's not it's not really no no it's not
crazy but you're playing in some good locations Alex you're kidding yourself
if it's just 12. you tell me it's 12 Alex yeah exactly if it's more than that I'm sorry okay
I just don't think it's 12. I think it's more than that we're playing we're playing South
America we're playing Japan playing Europe it's like four in South America Two in Japan
it's it's I mean I remember probably more than 12 of them I'm less than 20.
we'll see about that guys so then on either this new era um uh what would you want blur fans to
feel when they listen to the new record which is a fantastic thing it's an amazing record what would
you like like for them to take away from listening to that record well that they they feel our pain
and what can people who are lucky enough to who are lucky enough to got tickets for Wembley expect
in terms of a show from you guys even though you have outsourced you're set listen to that guy
uh an extraordinary colitis car Pig amazing journey through the last 34 years I love
that well listen uh it I think it's like a reinterpretation of all of those music
Starlight Express oh listen it's amazing to have you back uh I
appreciate you chatting to absolutely radio blur thank you so much cheers