Big big news, boys & girls: BLUR will be playing at Lokerse Feesten on Tuesday August 8! The legendary band will reunite for a summer tour in 2023, including 2 already sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium, and will return to Belgium for the first time since 2013 (headliner Rock Werchter).
BLUR were formed in 1989 by Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree and signed with Food/EMI the same year. Announcing their arrival with debut album Leisure in 1991, BLUR continued to revolutionise the sound of English popular music with second release Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993). Five successive UK #1 albums followed – with Parklife (1994) and The Great Escape (1995) helping to propel the band to mass popularity in the UK and beyond. The eponymous Blur was released in 1997 and seventh album Think Tank (2003) was Blur’s first as a three-piece after the temporary departure of founding guitarist Graham Coxon. Twenty one years after the release of their debut album, 2012 saw Blur 21: The Box, the band’s body of work compiled and gathered together into one box. Their most recent release as a four-piece, the critically acclaimed chart-topping studio album The Magic Whip (2015), started life in Hong Kong when the band had an unexpected break in touring in May 2013.
In 2009 BLUR played a series of UK shows including two sold out dates at Hyde Park and a historic Sunday night appearance at Glastonbury. A film about Blur No Distance Left To Run was made that summer and released the following year. In 2012 the band received a BRIT Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music and wrote two news songs ahead of their massive sold-out show in London’s Hyde Park to mark the closing of the Olympic Games. The songs ‘The Puritan’ and ‘Under The Westway’ were debuted live on Twitter via a worldwide video stream from a London rooftop.
A 2013 world tour saw the band play to fans around the globe, with shows across Asia, Europe, South America, as well as a headline slot at the Coachella Festival in California. And 2015 saw BLUR bring their acclaimed live show to London’s Hyde Park in June, ahead of a triumphant return to Hong Kong where recordings for The Magic Whip began, for a headline set at the Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Centre, as well as shows at iconic U.S. venues Madison Square Garden and the Hollywood Bowl.
One of the most successful British bands of the last two decades, Blur have won a total of five BRIT Awards, and were twice nominated for the Mercury Music Award.
The 48th edition of Lokerse Feesten will take place from Friday August 4th till Sunday August 13th 2023. More names will be announced soon.