Blur: To the End review – sentimental journey for four likely lads on their way to Wembley
The latest documentary about the Britpop Monkees finds them reassembling for a stadium gig, though we’ll have to wait to hear complete songs
December 2023
Best music of 2023
The 50 best albums of 2023, No 8 – Blur: The Ballad of Darren
Blur’s ninth album is a perfect combination of middle-aged regret with swooning pop, a powerful career summation
June 2023
Festivals now feel like a cross between a spa and a gastropub – what about the music?
Daniel Dylan Wray
With fancy food, political talks and curated experiences becoming the norm, music – and working class fans – could become an afterthought. It’s time to go back to basics
January 2023
Blur’s Dave Rowntree: ‘I still wake at 3am thinking I’ve frittered my life away’
Drummer, lawyer, composer, politician… Blur’s busiest member on the troubled childhood that influenced his new solo album, and the band’s summer reunion gigs
November 2022
Blur to reunite for one-off Wembley show next year
Band will headline at the London stadium on 8 July for their 35th anniversary, supported by Slowthai, Self Esteem and Jockstrap
September 2016
Books blog
Bruce Springsteen is a great songwriter – but that rarely makes for great memoirs
After 18 albums, the star is publishing his autobiography. Precedent suggests he’ll be hard pressed to make his book match the quality of his music
November 2015
Blur: New World Towers review – press-kit-style documentary
Concert bits get across the group’s charismatic energy as performers and evoke the rapture of live performance, even if the film is serviceably thin
September 2015
To the end: Blur’s Parklife and me
Christopher de Bellaigue was working abroad when he formed an intense attachment to Blur. Two decades later, he reflects on a musical passion, homesickness and the extent to which the London of Parklife is not the city of today
July 2015
Readers recommend
Readers recommend: songs about farming
The G2 interview
Blur: 'We used to take it in turns to punch each other'
April 2015
Alexis Petridis's album of the week
Blur: The Magic Whip review – friends reunited for a beautiful comeback
Blur’s made-in-Hong-Kong album, their first for 12 years, overflows with lovely songs and touchingly reveals a band now happily reconciled
February 2015
Blur announce The Magic Whip, their first new album for 12 years
Album features full quartet of Albarn, Coxon, Rowntree and James, and fans can celebrate with summer gig in London’s Hyde Park
January 2015
Sophie Heawood's Weekend column
Sophie Heawood: please Madonna, step away from your smartphone
Lost in showbiz
Thought the Chipping Norton set had disbanded? Along comes Alex James to shatter the illusion
July 2014
The hot tickets
The hot tickets – international Ibsen, Late Turner and Rupert Everett
Line up for Ibsen at the Barbican, Turner at the Tate, Jamie Oliver's Feastival … and a last chance for Rupert Everett in Chichester's Amadeus
June 2014
Greenslade
The Sun marks the World Cup by giving away 22m papers to English homes
Special issue distributed free across England
March 2014
Celebrities and their dogs, portrait auction – in pictures
Stars of stage and screen pose with their pets for The Company of Dogs – a portrait exhibition raising money for Dogs Trust
January 2014
The Guardian's Music Podcast
Music Weekly podcast: Dan Hancox's pick of Soca, Afrobeat and Zouk bass
We've got new music from Wild Beasts, Cashmere Cat and Neneh Cherry in Singles Club. Plus, Dan Hancox gives us a kick up the parochial backside with his pick of world beats
Blur bassist Alex James plans to release drinks range called Britpop
Pop star turned cheese maker has applied for use of Britpop trademark to brand forthcoming range of drinks
Pass notes
Could Alex James's Britpop drink turn out to be made of cheese?
The cheese-obsessed former Blur bass player wants to create a drink named after the 90s musical fad. He'll be going up against Oasis again, then
