History Trivia / Blur

* AcclaimedFlop: ''Modern Life is Rubbish'' recieved far better reviews than ''Leisure'', but greatly underperformed commercially in comparsion.

* DistancedFromCurrentEvents: In 1991, the band were going to do a photoshoot where they dressed as the members of Music/{{Queen|Band}}. Following Music/FreddieMercury's death, they instead dressed as the members of Music/{{Blondie}} (replicating the album artwork for ''Music/ParallelLines''), [[https://iconicimages.net/app/uploads/2017/01/KC_BL002.jpg with Damon Albarn as Deborah Harry]].

!![[Music/{{Blur}} The band]]:

!![[VideoGame/{{Blur}} The Video Game]]
* AcclaimedFlop: Received decent ratings, in the eight-to-nine range, but despite this failed to sell, to the point that the developers, after their next game, ''VideoGame/BloodStone'', were shut down by the parent company Activision.
* CreatorKiller: Creator/{{Activision}} ended Creator/BizarreCreations when this and ''007: VideoGame/BloodStone'' didn't sell.
* DuelingGames: Released one week after ''VideoGame/SplitSecond2010'', and the same day as ''VideoGame/ModNationRacers''.
* ScrewedByTheNetwork: The game has been long since pulled from the stores (digital or otherwise) and is unavailable to acquire legally.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: A sequel had entered the conceptual stage before Bizarre's closure. Had it been made, it would have taken the game in a more ''VideoGame/{{Wipeout}}'' inspired direction with cars driving up and along buildings. An early prototype of this game was actually leaked; though very barebones it does feature many tracks in their early blockout forms but are surprisingly detailed and can be driven from start to finish, revealing that the featured locations would've been Detroit[[note]]Steel Works, Car Factory, and Dead City[[/note]], Dubai[[note]]Business Bay, Dubai Island, Construction, and Marina[[/note]], Hong Kong[[note]]Peak Roads, Old Town, and Harbour & Downtown[[/note]], Los Angeles[[note]]these tracks would've returned from the first game[[/note]], Liverpool[[note]]Strand, Cisterns, and Docks[[/note]], Miami[[note]]South Beach, Biscayne Bay, and Everglades[[/note]], North Africa[[note]]Canyon Run, Quarry, Windy Plateau, and Dusty Danger[[/note]], Odessa[[note]]Potemkin Descent, Station Run, and Arcadia Beach[[/note]], and Ski Resort[[note]]Ski Village, Mountain Pass, Ski Slopes, and Ice Cave[[/note]]

* BlackSheepHit: "Song 2", especially in America where it's the band's only song most people know. Ironically the song was written to parody American alternative rock at the time. Right down to the indecipherable vocals. Which isn't as much of a black sheep in the context of that album, which probably changed the course of indie rock music for the next decade.

* ChartDisplacement: Neither of their top-five Modern Rock hits was "Song 2", which peaked at #6 on that chart. And two of those are "Chemical World" and "Crazy Beat", which are hardly among the band's best-known songs. And in UK, their #1 hits, "Country House" and "Beetlebum", are probably less known than the #2 charters "Song 2" and "Tender".

* ExecutiveMeddling: One of the good examples. The band's label disliked what was to be their second album that they asked them to go back and write two more single-worthy songs. The album that resulted, ''Modern Life is Rubbish'', is considered one of the band's best albums. The two "singleworthy" songs, "For Tomorrow" and "Chemical World" were two of the band's biggest (at the time) and most popular songs. Contrary to what's erroneously believed, the band did not cut any tracks from the album to include these, they had simply submitted it without them.

* PermanentPlaceholder: The title for "Song 2" was originally a placeholder when they started sequencing the self-titled album, but the name stuck.

* TheWikiRule: [[https://blur.fandom.com/wiki/Blur_Wiki Blur Wiki | Fandom]]

* DistancedFromCurrentEvents: In 1991, the band were going to do a photoshoot where they dressed as the members of Music/{{Queen}}. Following Music/FreddieMercury's death, they instead dressed as the members of Music/{{Blondie}} (replicating the album artwork for ''Music/ParallelLines''), [[https://iconicimages.net/app/uploads/2017/01/KC_BL002.jpg with Damon Albarn as Deborah Harry]].

* OldShame:
** Despite a generally positive critical reaction upon release, Damon has since referred to ''Leisure'' as "awful". He has similarly dismissed ''The Great Escape'' as "messy".
** Damon considers their cover of Music/TheWho's "Substitute" for the TributeAlbum ''Who Covers Who'' to be the very worst thing the band ever recorded. So much that he refuses to have a copy of it in his house.
** The band disowned their early single "Bang", which was written in less than 15 minutes in response to record company demands for another bankable single. It is almost never played live, and has not been included on either ''Blur: The Best Of'' or ''Midlife: A Beginner's Guide to Blur''. "I don't think we'll ever play that again", Alex James remarked in 1999, having performed it during rehearsals for that year's tour. "Fuckin' hell, worst verse you ever heard. Dannii Minogue gave it "Stinker of the Week" in ''Number One''".
--->'''Damon''': There's just something about "Bang" that is shit.
** Graham Coxon has admitted that the cover versions of "Daisy Bell" and "Let's All Go Down the Strand" (the B-Sides of "Sunday Sunday") marked one of the worst moments in the band's career.
** While he does like some of the songs off the album, Damon has gone on to say that ''Think Tank'' had some "real stinkers on it'', and that he doesn't consider it a proper Blur album.

* ChartDisplacement: Neither of their top-five Modern Rock hits was "Song 2", which peaked at #6 on that chart. However, on the Hot 100, "Song 2" was in fact their highest charter. And two of those are "Chemical World" and "Crazy Beat", which are hardly among the band's best-known songs. And in UK, their #1 hits, "Country House" and "Beetlebum", are probably less known than the #2 charters "Song 2" and "Tender".

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: A sequel had entered the conceptual stage before Bizarre's closure. Had it been made, it would have taken the game in a more ''VideoGame/{{Wipeout}}'' inspired direction with cars driving up and along buildings.

* BreakupBreakout: Damon's other project Gorillaz shot to huge popularity with their second album "Demon Days", which was also the first released after Blur went on hiatus. They acquired such success in America that a lot of people there only became aware of Blur retroactively.

* DistancedFromCurrentEvents: In 1991, the band were going to do a photoshoot where they dressed as the members of Music/{{Queen}}. Following Music/FreddieMercury's death, they instead dressed as the members of Music/{{Blondie}}, [[https://iconicimages.net/app/uploads/2017/01/KC_BL002.jpg with Damon Albarn as Deborah Harry]].

** The booklet for Parklife has a scan of the band's handwritten notes on the album's track order on the last page. "Theme For An Imaginary Film" is listed as a possible track for the album, but was ultimately released as a b-side instead.
** Although Graham Coxon was involved with three tracks in the Think Tank sessions, ("Battery In Your Leg", "Colours" and "Some Glad Morning") the band elected to only include the first of these, with the other two released as fan club singles.

* MoneyDearBoy: Following their first album, the band went on a disastrous tour of America purely because they found themselves in debt to their management.

-->'''Damon''': It's crap. I wouldn't have had it on the album. Balfe thought it was the only song that had a vague chance of doing well in America, so he insisted on it being there.
-->'''Graham''': When we wrote it, it seemed like a good jangly pop song. But it turned out to be an MOR rock song. It didn't have peculiarities. So we were turned off by it.

-->'''Albarn''': I've made two bad records. The first record, which is awful, and ''The Great Escape'', which was messy.

-->'''Albarn''': It's... got some real stinkers on it – there's some bollocks on there.

--->'''Albarn:''' It upsets me, that song. It upset me singing it. [[RuleOfThree Doing that vocal upset me greatly]]. To sing that lyric I really had to accept that it was the end of something in my life. It's amazing when you do have the guts to do that with your work, because it don't half help you.

-->'''Damon''': There's just something about "Bang" that is shit.

-->'''Graham:''' I just put something there because we wanted to fill a gap, and said 'We'll come back to it' and the song developed, so we kept it."

*** The Japanese version of ''Modern Life'' is also different, adding "Young and Lovely" (yet another b-side) and "Popscene" at the end of the album.

!![[Music/{{Blur}} The band]]

** Most of the darker lyrics on ''13'' were directly inspired by Damon's breakup with his longtime girlfriend, Music/{{Elastica}} singer Justine Frischmann, ''especially'' "Tender" and "No Distance Left To Run".

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Whilst the "Blur 21" box set is very comprehensive, it still leaves off a number of tracks - six Seymour tracks that had been b-sides to Sunday Sunday, "I Know" (only the extended version appears), the band's charity CD cover of "Substitute" and most significantly the 2003 fan club release "Colours" (which was one of the only Think Tank-era tracks Graham Coxon played on)

** ''13'' was marked by tense sessions. According to producer William Orbit, "There was a battle between Damon's more experimental direction, and Graham's punk one, and Graham prevailed. If that tension had been growing on previous LPs, it came to a head here." "Things were starting to fall apart between the four of us," drummer Dave Rowntree later revealed. "It was quite a sad process making it. People were not turning up to the sessions, or turning up drunk, being abusive and storming off." "I had songs," Alex James remarked. "I played them to William. He liked them. But I was sulking. I didn't play them to the others… Now I know how Music/GeorgeHarrison felt." Coxon admitted, "I was really out there around ''13'', which made for some pretty great noise but I was probably a bit of a crap to be around."

* DistancedFromCurrentEvents: In 1991, the band were going to do a photoshoot where they dressed as the members of Music/{{Queen}}. Following Music/FreddieMercury's death, they instead dressed as the members of Music/{{Blondie}}, [[https://iconicimages.net/app/uploads/2017/01/KC_BL002.jpg with Damon Albarn as Deborah Harris]].

* OneOfUs: During the band's hiatus, Graham Coxon could often be found on fan forums under the username Tweedo, in which he would answer questions and clear up misinformation. For example, he confirmed that an early tracklisting of Modern Life Is Rubbish (seen in a Select Magazine '95 interview and made primarily up of b-sides) was a complete fabrication by the magazine. The band had simply submitted the album to the label without "For Tomorrow" and "Chemical World".

* TheAlcoholic: All four members were infamous for their heavy drinking, to the point where by 1992 they were a running joke in the music industry for it. The official book 3862 Days makes specific reference to a gig at London Town And Country Club which the band performed audibly intoxicated after having been drinking for 6 hours (it can be heard [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhVSU4wd1lg here]]. This resulted in an intervention from their manager, who stated they should wait until half an hour before going onstage to have a drink. Initially, Dave was considered the worst drinker, but the torch soon passed to Graham, who would drink a whole bottle of vodka a night (a textbook case of alcoholism). His drinking had gotten so out of control by the Think Tank sessions that he ended up in rehab, and still wasn't considered well enough to rejoin the band (which is why he only appeared on a handful of tracks from the period). He has been sober since.

* DuelingGames: Released one week after ''VideoGame/SplitSecond'', and the same day as ''VideoGame/ModNationRacers''.