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Already en route to New York for an April 30 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Blur will treat fans to a free performance of the just-released The Magic Whip (Warner Bros) in its entirety on May 1 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, NY as part of Converse Rubber Tracks Live music program. The early evening, all-ages show will feature the first time in 15 years that Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree have performed live as Blur in New York.
This intimate pop-up show is only the second time the band have done this, the first time being in a small club in London a few weeks prior to the release of The Magic Whip. Support will be provided by Honduras, who has recorded at the Converse Rubber Tracks Brooklyn recording studio, and was chosen as the opening act for this special show.
Registration for free tickets will be available beginning Wednesday, April 29 at 12 p.m. EST for fans at Converse-Music.com/Blur. Fans who receive a confirmed “ticket” will be allowed to enter the venue on a first come, first serve, with admission based on capacity day of event. No hard or downloadable tickets will be distributed in advance.
Its release this week heralded by a 4-star lead review in the current Rolling Stone, The Magic Whip started life in Hong Kong during an unexpected break in touring in May 2013. The band spent five days at Avon Studios in Kowloon before putting the recordings aside, before carrying on with their live dates and ultimately returning to their respective lives: Dave to his day job as a lawyer, Alex to his Oxfordshire farm, Telegraph column and the hosting duties on The Big Feastival that he shares with Jamie Oliver. Graham, who has released eight critically acclaimed solo albums to date, continued to work on his own material and, in 2014, Damon released and toured his Mercury-nominated debut solo album Everyday Robots.
Graham revisited the tracks in November 2014 and, drafting in Blur’s early producer Stephen Street (Leisure, Modern Life is Rubbish, Parklife, The Great Escape, Blur), worked with the band on the material. Damon then added lyrics to the 12 tracks, completing The Magic Whip—Blur’s eighth album and first since 1999’s 13 to feature the original Blur lineup.
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