Blur frontman says Coachella show was ‘last gig’
Damon Albarn has cast doubt on the future of Blur after telling the Coachella that “this is probably our last gig” during the band’s set at weekend two of Coachella 2024 on Saturday.
Playing on the festival’s main stage for the second consecutive Saturday night, the Britpop legends, who sold out two hometown Wembley Stadiums shows last summer, reportedly experienced a lukewarm response from the Coachella audience across both weekends.
Blur’s appearance during the first Coachella weekend saw Albarn blasting an unenthusiastic audience that refused to respond to his calls to join in with a rendition of ‘Girls & Boys’. “You’re never seeing us again, so you might as well fucking sing it…” he told the crowd.
Faced with a similar quiet gathering on the second festival weekend, Albarn took the opportunity to address fans before launching into the last song of the set, Tender. “In the spirit of clarity and truth, this is probably our last gig,” he stated.
“I’m not saying I won’t do it again, it was a beautiful success, but I’m not dwelling on the past.
Despite being portrayed as an onstage tantrum, the statement backs up earlier hints that the current run for Blur has come to an end.
In December 2023, Albarn revealed the band would be going on hiatus after meeting its campaign obligations for album The Ballad of Darren. “It’s too much for me,” he reportedly said. “It was the right thing to do and an immense honour to play these songs again, spend time with these guys, make an album, blah-blah-blah.
“I’m not saying I won’t do it again, it was a beautiful success, but I’m not dwelling on the past.”
The reaction of the crowd would not have come as a surprise to Blur, as Albarn had noted in a radio interview prior to the band’s first Coachella show, “It’s a weird one Coachella when it comes to audience you know. It’s hard to know sometimes because they’re quite sort of on their own planet really.”
And while the backlash is being reported in the mainstream media as the end of the band, the Coachella appearance on 20 April was scheduled to be Blur’s final show for 2024, according to their own website.
Coachella 2025 has been confirmed for the weekends of April 11-13 & 18-20.
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Birmingham catches the Britpop bug with new Shiiine On fest
Bucket hats at the ready: hot on the heels of Cool Britannia, Britain is getting yet another Britpop-themed festival this summer, in the form of a new one-day Shiiine On event at Genting Arena in Birmingham.
Complementing the flagship Shiiine On Weekender at Butlin’s in Minehead, the one-day Shiiine On festival will take place at the 16,000-seat arena on 8 September 2018, and feature performances from Orbital, Shed Seven, Happy Mondays, Cast, Black Grape, Embrace and more.
The launch of the festival follows January’s news that famed outdoor venue Knebworth will this summer host Cool Britannia, a three-day ’90s-themed event also hosting sets by Happy Mondays, Embrace and Cast, along with the Lightning Seeds, Dodgy, Toploader and Ocean Colour Scene. Cool Britannia takes place around a week before Shiiine On, from 31 August to 2 September.
“These are the artists that soundtracked a golden era of music”
“These are the artists that soundtracked a golden era of music, and to have them all play this one day line-up is going to be epic,” says the Genting’s senior venue sales manager, Alex Ginever. “The Genting Arena is becoming a firm favourite as an alternative festival location for organisers and we’re sure that gig-goers are going to love it.”
Tickets for Shiiine On are on sale this Friday (4 May) via the Ticket Factory, priced at £66.65 for a standard ticket.
A full line-up is pictured below:
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Britpop to return to Knebworth with Cool Britannia
Knebworth House will this summer host a large-scale rock festival for first time since 2014 with Cool Britannia, a new three-day Britpop-centred event promoted by David Heartfield’s Heartfield Entertainment.
Twenty-two years after 250,000 people descended on Knebworth for Britpop’s high watermark – Oasis, with support from the Charlatans, Cast, the Prodigy, Kula Shaker, Manic Street Preachers and the Chemical Brothers – a who’s who of Britpop greats, including Happy Mondays, Ocean Colour Scene, the Lightning Seeds, New Order’s Peter Hook, Dodgy and a returning Cast, will help transform ‘Britain’s biggest venue’ into a ’90s time capsule in the last weekend of August.
The 250-acre Knebworth Park last hosted a major rock show in 2014, when Iron Maiden and Metallica headlined the final UK edition of Kilimanjaro Live’s Sonisphere.
“This will surely be a great addition to our 44-year history of hosting some truly memorable events”
Martha Lytton Cobbold, managing director of Knebworth owner Lytton Enterprises, tells local paper the Welwyn Hatfield Times: “We are delighted to welcome Cool Britannia to Knebworth Park. With such a fantastic line-up of era-defining acts, this will surely be a great addition to our 44-year history of hosting some truly memorable events.
“We are looking forward to working with the Heartfield Entertainment team over the coming months to bring you a spectacular fun-filled weekend of music.”
Heartfield’s Impresario Festivals previously promoted South West Four, Field Day, Boardmasters and ’80s festival Rewind, which were acquired by Global in October 2016.
Tickets for Cool Britannia go on sale on 2 February. A full line-up is pictured below:
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