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Blur music biography continued...

Alex James, with drummer Dave Rowntree joining the lineup shortly afterward. After performing a handful of gigs and recording a demo tape, the band signed to Food Records, a subsidiary of EMI, and released a Top Ten hit in "There's No Other Way" from their debut LP Leisure. Overall, the album was not a commercial success, and Blur would go on to record Pop Scene (1992) and Modern Life is Rubbish(1993) before breaking through with 1994's Parklife, which entered the charts at number one and catapulted the band to stardom in Britain. It yielded the dance-pop single "Girls and Boys," which entered the charts at number five and managed to spend 15 weeks on the U.S. charts, peaking at number 52. In England, the album spawned a string of hit singles, including the ballad "To the End" and the mod anthem "Parklife," which featured narration by Phil Daniels, the star of the film version of the Who's Quadrophenia. The success of Parklife, which ultimately went triple platinum in the beginning of 1995, opened up the floodgates of Britpop, and by the time Blur came out with their follow-up--1995's The Great Escape-- they found themselves overshadowed by bands like Oasis who had found great success echoing Blur's sound. Blur came back with their fifth studio effort, a self-titled album, in 1997 and found great commercial success with it in the US thanks, in part to the single "Song 2." The success in America rubbed off in Britain, where the album raced up the charts and served as notice that Blur would not go quietly.



After the release of the album 13 and their subsequent tour, Blur went on a hiatus as members pursued solo projects. They reunited in 2002 to record Think Tank sans Coxon who had had creative differences with Albarn, as well as an alcohol problem. The resulting album was a departure from the sound that had made Blur famous, and met with little commercial success. In 2008, Coxon and Albarn patched things up, and the band reunited for several performances and with the intentions of recording a new album, delighting fans who had been rooting for them since their glory days.