Fans of Britpop icons Blur were undoubtedly given a huge surprise on Friday night, with the group reuniting for the first time in almost four years.
Ever since they first formed back in 1988, Blur have enjoyed a legacy as one of the finest Britpop acts going around.
Following a well-documented rivalry with Oasis, and a number of hit songs and albums, the group called it quits in 2003, following one album without guitarist Graham Coxon.
By 2009 though, Blur were back together, playing shows around the world, and eventually releasing their latest album, The Magic Whip, in 2015.
However, since then, things have been a bit on the quiet side.
While Damon Albarn has been hard at work with Gorillaz and The Good The Bad & The Queen, he did note that he’d be up to recording new music with the band, explaining that “whenever Graham [Coxon] is around, I’m up to playing music with him.”
Nevertheless, with no official word of more shows or recorded material, fans were wondering when, if ever, we might see another Blur reunion. Now, it seems we’ve received our answer.
As Stereogum notes, Damon Albarn’s Africa Express: The Circus made its way to East London on Friday night, delivering a wide variety of sounds with a wide variety of diverse musicians.
Obviously, fans were excited to hear sounds they might not have expected from an icon of the genre. However, they probably weren’t expecting a highly-anticipated reunion to go down.
Inviting Dave Rowntree, Alex James, and Graham Coxon onto the stage, Damon Albarn led a reunited Blur in a three-song set of classic tracks, and one deep cut.
Kicking things off with the live debut of 1994’s ‘Clover Over Dover’, the group were joined by the London Community Gospel Choir for ‘Tender’, before closing things out with the ever-popular ‘Song 2’.
“Do you wanna hear a really stupid short song?” Albarn asked the crowd before the final track. “It was so rubbish we didn’t even give it a title.”
Of course, despite this being the first time all members of Blur have appeared onstage since November of 2015, this isn’t the first time a couple of the band’s members have performed together.
Back in October, Graham Coxon appeared onstage during a Gorillaz set to perform the classic guitarwork of ‘Song 2’, serving as something of a taster for this weekend’s impromptu reunion.
While we’re not sure if this will be the first of many reunited Blur shows to come, we can’t help but wish we were in that crowd, witnessing a bit of musical history on Friday night.
Check out Blur’s ‘Song 2’:
