Damon Albarn's Solo Album to feature Natasha Khan

At a recent August press interview, musician Natasha Khan who is known for her stage name Bat for Lashes said that she recorded a new song for Damon Albarn's solo LP.

In the article Khan describes how she recently recorded a track with Damon Albarn: “If I could go back and tell the 15-year-old me that I’d just sang with Damon for his new record, she’d probably wet her pants with excitement,” she said. “I had such a massive crush on him when I was younger.”

Bat For Lashes is the pseudonym of British songwriter and singer artist Natasha Khan. Half English and half Pakistani, Khan's music style is bold, colorful and loud. Her songs often feature thunderous marching band drums, desert guitar, ballet school piano, harpsichord, sub-bass snarls, hand-claps and naive beats, with the women fluidly switching and swapping their instruments between songs.

It's not a wonder why Damon picked Bat for Lashes as one of his collaborators. Her track on Damon Albarn's new solo album is bound to be interesting and dynamic, and will likely reflect her usual varied style of instrument choice and beat.

Damon himself is also fond of using myriad instruments and sound devices to create his music, often with experimental elements embedded in the songs.

There have been no further news on when Damon's new album will be released. For now, the Blur frontman is busy with band tours all across the world.

For those interested in more about Bat for Lashes, check out her official website here.

Blur rocks out in Hungary - Revisiting the Szeiget Festival 2013

Blur headlined the Sziget Festival in Budapest, Hungary three weeks ago on August 9th, playing a memorable greatest hits show where audience saw Damon Albarn performing an entire song standing inside the crowds. It was a memorable show where fans saw a very cheesy sign, a soaked Damon Albarn, Blur performing "Happy Birthday To You" for a special someone, Alex smoking a cigarette and Damon's underpants.

Blur fans are creative- a Cheesus Christ sign at the Hungary show

The show began at 9:30pm, when Damon Albarn emerged donned in his signiature denim jacket and jeans, pumping the air with his fist and saying "First time" referring to the fact that the band had not played in Hungary before.

The Britpop legends then launched straight into 'Girls & Boys'. Wearing shorts and a red neckerchief, Bassist Alex James, performed his baseline with a cigarette hanging from his mouth. "It's been a very hot day," exclaimed a sweaty Albarn whilst spraying water over the audience in the front rows.

Afterwards the band played 'There's No Other Way' and 'Beetlebum', the latter which Damon performed with an acoustic guitar as he pounded his feet on the drum podium.

Damon still seemed fixated on the day's hot temperature as winds whipped up around the festival site. "They say there's a storm coming," he shouted. "Cool air! Rain! Yeah!". A rendition of 'Out Of Time' followed his short speech, before the fan favourite 'Trimm Trabb' was sung, which Albarn sang through a megaphone.

Guitarist Graham Coxon took lead vocals for the hit 'Coffee And TV', during which Albarn wandered around the stage with his acoustic guitar before joining the band's backing singers for a dance. "You're really making this a pleasure for us," he said afterwards.

Blur then played 'Tender' and 'To The End', which was performed with a brass section. They then picked up the pace with 'Country House'. Stalking around in the pit and shaking hands as he sang, he leapt over the barrier into the crowd, who sprayed him with water.

The band played a fast-paced version of 'Parklife' and 'End Of A Century', which was followed by a solo rendition of 'Happy Birthday' to a member of the band's road crew when Damon returned to the stage after the break. The rest of the group then joined him to play 2012 single 'Under The Westway'.

'For Tomorrow' came next, after which Albarn scanned the array of flags in the crowd and said: "There's a lot of people from a lot of different countries out there. That's a very positive thing." He then spotted a sign asking him to take his pants off, and exposed some underpants in response.

Blur then finished their encore with 'The Universal' and 'Song 2'.

Photo Gallery - Highlights at the Blur Szeiget Festival 2013

Credits to virrb, chromecoveredclone, agatics.zvjezdana, chainstore, cncrd

View the Full Gallery (36 photos) by visiting our Facebook page. 

Setlist - Blur in Hungary 2013

   (Theme From Retro)
   Girls & Boys
   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:
   Happy Birthday
   Under The Westway
   For Tomorrow (Visit To Primrose Hill
      Extended)
   The Universal
   Song 2

A new interview featuring Alex James and Graham Coxon was also made available after the show, where the pair talked about the Blur and Oasis rivalry, new music and their gigs so far. You can read it by clicking here.

Watch the Entire Show - Blur live in Hungary 2013

Finally, some good news for those of you who want to view the show - the entire set was recorded by a fan in very high quality video which you can watch by clicking here. 

Wacky Blur GIFs

A small collection of the funniest, wackiest Blur related gif animations. 

Blur fans are a creative bunch indeed. Know any more animations we can feature next time? Feel free to leave a comment and link below. 

Damon Albarn and Noel Gallagher collaboration 2013

A recent interview found on the Sziget Festival website quoted Blur's Alex James saying that Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn are working on a "lot of stuff" together. Blur bassist Alex James said the two former enemies are "like best mates now" who had been "working together on a lot of stuff" 

Interesting snippets from the article include:

Blur/Oasis britpop rivalry: "Damon and Noel Gallagher are working together on a lot of stuff, so whatever was back then is not relevant anymore. But we have to add that young bands today are all very nice. We were totally intolerable."

On the early Blur recordings: "Last year we’ve released a collection in which all our previous songs got remastered and we’ve gathered an incredible amount of recordings from the past. We found a 9 minute recording from our very first jam session and if you listen to it you immediately know it can’t be any other band, we were Blur already back then. We got into a room, started to jam and it was this distinctive Blur sound from first moments. We are really happy that the chemistry between us works."

Change since the 1990s British music scene: "If we look back at it now, the 90s were the golden age of music. It's weird for us to look at it from the outside since we were a part of it. From the 60s and even from the mid 50s a lot of cool stuff happened in music."

Noel and Damon ended their long-standing rivalry which started between their bands Oasis and Blur in the 1990s earlier this year. They appeared on stage together for a Teenage Cancer Trust concert in London's Royal Albert Hall, performing an emotional six-minute version of "Tender". 

However, in another radio interview conducted by NME, Noel Gallagher outrightly denied that he is collaborating with Damon Albarn on new music. 

In response to Alex James's comment, Gallagher said: "I read that Alex James said that - [but] it's news to me!" 

Fun fact: The heated relationship between the Blur and Oasis in the height of the Britpop era fuelled fans to term the bands "Blurasis".

Best name for a Blur / Oasis collaboration track
	Coffee & TV & Cigarettes & Alchohol
	Don't look back in Anger
	Live Forever in a Country House
	I'm Out of Time
	Yuko & Hiro & Lyla
	Slide Tomorrow