Blur announce French festival date ahead of Wembley reunion show

15 November, 2022

Blur have announced details of a 2023 reunion gig at London's Wembley Stadium. Credit: Kevin Westenberg

Blur have announced plans to perform at a French festival next summer ahead of their massive reunion gig at London’s Wembley stadium.

The Britpop icons will warm up for their July 8 show with a performance on the opening day of the Beauregard Festival in Normandy two days earlier (July 6).

Tickets for the bash, which will take place across four days from July 6-9 and will also include a performance from Alt-J, are available to purchase here.

Tickets for their Wembley show meanwhile, will also go on general sale from 10am GMT this Friday (November 18) and will be available here.

The gig will be the band’s first UK headline show since 2015 and first ever at the iconic venue.

Speaking to Apple Music 1, host Matt Wilkinson noted to Damon Albarn that when the individual band members – Albarn, Dave Rowntree, Graham Coxon, Alex James – are often asked about reforming, the response tends to be unanimous about “if the time’s right” and “if we don’t hate each other”.

“It’s not a big deal. It’s a real joy when we do it,” Albarn replied. “And obviously the reason why I’m talking to you here is because of those three other musicians.”

He continued: “It was a massive part of my life and their lives. So we all cherish those memories, but we wouldn’t want to ruin them.”

Wilkinson replied that the band “haven’t done” with all “the stuff that Blur have done since”.

“To date, we haven’t. Well, I know they work, so I don’t have to worry about that,” Albarn said.

“It’s just, can we play them with the integrity that they deserve because it’s kind of like time travel, isn’t it? And people don’t really want to see you mess about with that stuff. It’s like, no, hey, we’re going to a whole concert, but there’s like reimaginings of all our songs. No, no one’s interested in that.”

Meanwhile, drummer Rowntree also described the comeback gig as a “bucket list” dream while bassist James yesterday also teased on the possibility of new music from the band.

The news of the reunion comes after Albarn previously claimed to NME that the band had been in talks and “had an idea” of how to make their comeback.

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