Blur dates for Australia concerts confirmed - Big Day Out 2014

It's official - Blur will be playing in one of Australia's biggest music festivals, the Big Day Out festival from January 17th - February 2nd 2014. That's right, Blur will be extending their World Tour and head to Australia right from the start of the new year.

In several recent interviews, Blur Bassist Alex James says: "We had a great time in Australia last time, so I think it's going to be crazy. I'm having my mind blown by travelling all over the world again with the band, it's fantastic, and we're playing better than we ever have before."

“It’s hugely exciting and there’s something for everybody there,” Alex also said of the Big Day Out. “It’s a while since we’ve played festivals, but everything about festivals has got better … the only thing you can’t guarantee is the weather.”

"I didn't think it was going to happen, because [frontman] Damon Albarn wanted to focus on his solo album next year and we were still negotiating with Arcade Fire," said festival promoter Ken West said in an interview with News.com.au. "Then, both bands said yes, and there was no way I was going to knock back Blur."

Blur will be the last band to perform at the event, taking to the stage as Pearl Jam wrap up. Blur will playing on a new main stage, dubbed The Love Stage

Other leading artists lined up for Big Day Out include Snoop Lion, Mudhoney, Pez, Diiv, The 1975,  Major Lazer, Steve Angello, The Naked and Famous, Dillon Francis, Toro Y Moi, Portugal The Man, Northlane, Flume, The Lumineers, Tame Impala, Mac Miller, Cosmic Psychos, The Algorithm, Peking Duk and Ben Morris.

The festival starts in Auckland, New Zealand on the 17th January. Blur will then head over to Australia's Gold Coast on 19th January and ends in Perth on 2nd February. Tickets for Big Day Out will be on sale from August 9th and the Sydney shows on August 8th.

Big Day Out 2014 dates

Friday, January 17 – Western Springs, Auckland

Sunday, January 19 – Metricon Stadium & Carrara Parklands, Gold Coast

Friday, January 24 – Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne

Sunday, January 26 – Sydney Showgrounds, Sydney

Monday, January 27 – Sydney Showgrounds, Sydney

Friday, January 31 – Bonython Park, Adelaide*

Sunday, February 2 – Claremont Showgrounds, Perth*

Will Blur head over to any other countries after the show? Will the setlist be different this time? Will there be any more Blur-related stage antics like the previous shows? Who knows- what is for sure is that Blur will be pleasing thousands of fans in Australia this year - especially since their last visit 'Down Under' was sixteen years ago in 1997.

For Australian dates and ticket info click here

Blur Tour 2013 - Full dates and rundown  HERE

Blur's new rumoured concert in Florida USA

Blur are rumoured to be playing in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA, on Saturday August 10th 2013 (12:00 a.m). The news was brought up by a fan, who saw a notification on Pollster about this new show.

The gig is listed to be held in 200 W Broward Blvd, the address of a local concert and musical venue Revolution Live. The website Tktsnow also posted a sales link for the Florida concert one day ago. The new show has also been listed in various other gig websites.

Blur have just finished a concert in Budapest, Hungary on August 5th 2013 for the Sziget Festival. The rumoured new date in Florida does not clash with the band's hectic schedule, as the band are currently on a month-long break in-between touring. Blur's next big show will be on September 6th-7th in Germany.

However, no further information about a possible USA date can be found on search engines, websites or the band's official social media pages. It also seems unlikely that Blur will fly over to the USA again after playing in Coachella a few months ago.

The ticketing website also looks incomplete, with the outdated picture and the gig listed as "sold out".

Blur live in Florida - True or Not ?
	True
	False
	Don't think so
	Don't know / Don't care

Blur Tour 2013 - Full dates and rundown  HERE
Blur @ Coachella- video and image gallery HERE 

Blur confirmed for Mexico HERE

Blur Europe Tour News  HERE

Order the new Blur: Parklife (Live at Hyde Park CD / DVD) HERE

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Milky joins Blur on stage in Milan, Italy Concert

Strange things have happened in past Blur concerts, whether it be during the Britpop heydays or the recent Blur 2013 World Tour (notably the Damon Albarn mask, which interestingly, Damon Albarn wore for a large portion of the Russian gig on July 13th). 

For the band's show in Italy's Rock in Roma event held in Milan on July 28th, there was yet another surprise on stage. A fan dressed up in a milk carton inspired by Blur's music video for the hit single 'Coffee and TV' jumped on stage and joined in the band, dancing along as Damon sang the lyrics to the audience. 

The picture was taken by none other than Dave Rowntree, Blur's drummer, who was undoubtedly in a prime position to shoot the epic moment from his view behind the drum kit. Dave Rowntree regularly tweets (@Dave Rowntree) images from the backstage of Blur shows to the fans. 

Blur previously played in Italy during 1993, 1995, 1996 and 1997. They last toured in Alcatraz, Milan in 20013 to promote their latest album Think Tank. Graham Coxon also performed in Milan during 2004. 

Scroll down to watch footage of Damon Albarn singing alongside Milky during the song 'Coffee and TV'. 

Past bizarre Blur concert moments 

• Extra-large Milky Carton on show during Hyde Park 2009

• Damon Albarn wearing a cut-out mask that he borrowed from a fan in Afisha Picnic, Russia 2013 

• Damon crying more than usual during Glastonbury '09 

• Damon Albarn loses his special bracelets in Spain and threatens the crowd

The setlist was reported to be:

Setlist:

   (Theme From Retro)
   Girls & Boys
   Popscene
   There's No Other Way
   Beetlebum
   Out Of Time
   Trimm Trabb
   Caramel
   Coffee & TV
   Tender
   To The End
   Country House
   Parklife
   End Of A Century
   This Is A Low
Encore: 
   Under The Westway
   For Tomorrow (Visit To Primrose Hill
      Extended)
   The Universal
   Song 2

Read a lively review (in English) of the Blur Italy show by Indie Nation here. Alternatively, check out a local review (in Italian) here.

Blur Tour 2013 - Full dates and rundown  HERE
Blur @ Coachella- video and image gallery HERE 

Blur confirmed for Mexico HERE

Blur Europe Tour News  HERE

Order the new Blur: Parklife (Live at Hyde Park CD / DVD) HERE

SUBSCRIBE NOW!

If you missed old news, visit the NEWS ARCHIVE to read about past news!

Remember to subscribe to RSS and "LIKE" BlurBalls on Facebook.

Win TWO pairs of free Blur Sunglasses !

We are launching a series of very cool new Blur giveaways - this month's giveaway is for not just one, but TWO pairs of free, extremely cool Blur sunglasses made by Iamkamty, a stylish online shop. 

To celebrate Blur’s first live performance in Hong Kong in May 2013, Hong Kong based designer Millie Chiu has created this set of hand-drawn Blur shades! These colorful plastic sunglasses have tiny holes on them. So not only can you to see through them, the tiny holes actually can help short-sighted or long-sighted vision by filtering out indirect light sources – the result being sharper vision! 

The winner will be able to win two pairs of the exclusive, one-off Blur sunglasses made by Millie. The design features the artwork of the 'Blur The Best Of' CD and comes in four colors, one on each eyepiece of the sunglasses. 

Seeing how Damon Albarn loves fan-made masks and milky-outfits on stage in the recent tour gigs, these glasses would make excellent eyewear for fans who want to stand out in future Blur concerts. 

Iamkamty.com is an online shop based in Hong Kong. Millie would like to create fun and unimaginable things out of ordinary objects. She thought to herself, “what if sunglasses could be colorful and vibrant instead of plain black shades?” And so, these wacky hand-drawn shades are created!

The shades are available in a wide range of cute, outrageous, vibrant designs, including Space Invaders, Pac Man, TV color bar and much more!

Check them out at her Etsy shop (iamkamty): https://www.etsy.com/shop/iamkamty . Like the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/iamkamty. 

Millie created the Blur sunglasses especially to celebrate Blur: Live in Hong Kong on May 6th 2013. 

You can also see more of her work and buy any of the sunglasses from the Etsy shop if you can't wait to see if you have won the competition. 

Enter now in the Giveaways page.

Remember to tune in every month for the chance to win a fun new Blur item!