Damon and Graham met at Stanway Comprehensive in Colchester, Essex. Their first words to each other were about their shoes. Graham was wearing some copy Brogues and Damon walked up to him and said, "Those are crap, these are the proper ones!". Strangely enough they managed to become friends despite their inauspicious start, and 17 years on they are still the best of friends.

Graham met Dave when he joined Dave's band "Idle Vice" in Colchester before he went off to University.

Alex was also in various bands during his year off before University in Bournemouth, such as "Mr Pang's Big Bangs" and "Age of Consent".

When  Graham first arrived at Goldsmiths University in London the first person that he met was Alex. (Graham was studying Art and Alex was studying French - neither completed their degree, but instead opted for the life of a pop star.) Allegedly Graham's first words to Alex were, "So how long have you been playing the git then?". To which Alex replied, "4 years" and then they proceeded to go and get drunk together, and so began their alcohol fuelled friendship.

During this time, Damon had enrolled in East 15, which was a drama school, but left after they told him to dress up in drag. After that he enrolled on a part time course at Goldsmiths , and was introduced to Alex by Graham.

Not long after Graham introduced Dave to the others and Dave said that if they ever needed a drummer then he would drum for them, they called him up, and so Seymour was born.

They can't actually remember when their first gig was but think it was at Goldsmiths after a summer show in 1988. Their subsequent gig was a complete disaster after bouncers sprayed Damon with Mace after he got his dick out on stage (Damon wrote the song "Mace" from this experience).

After a year and a dozen drunken gigs they signed to Food Records. Food was run by David Balfe (ex-keyboardist for The Teardrops Explodes) and Andy Ross (ex-Sounds journalist). Food only agreed to sign them if they changed their name from Seymour to Blur, and if Dave agreed to stop wearing his stripy pyjama bottoms whilst playing gigs.

In October 1990 they released their debut single "She's So High", which had been included on their demo tape to Food. "There's No Other Way" made it to number 5 in April 1991, and their debut album "Leisure" made it to number 2 in the album charts. Things were starting to come together for Blur.

However, when "Popscene" was released in April 1992, it only managed to make it to number 34 in the charts. This disappointment was later compounded by their second album "Modern Life is Rubbish" only managing to sell 50,000 copies. The press began to turn against Blur and the constant touring and the inevitable drinking to relieve the boredom, led to the band almost falling apart. Not to mention Graham being told to abstain from alcohol for a while to let his liver recover.( You only need to watch the "Star Shaped" video to see this.)

Scenes from "Parklife" video.

Then came their breakthrough album "Parklife". The first single, to be taken from this album was "Girls and Boys" which made it into the top five. Finally Blur were starting to get the recognition they deserved. This was shown by them winning countless awards including a Mercury Music Prize nomination and an unprecedented 4 Brit awards (for Best Single and Best Video - Parklife, Best Album and Best Band), which they drunkenly accepted. It was at this ceremony that Damon acknowledged that their soon to be rivals Oasis should have won too.

However those sentiments soon turned sour and the animosity between the two bands grew with each passing day. In August 1995 Blur and Oasis released their singles ("Country House" and "Roll With It" respectively) on the same day and the media turned it into a race to see who would emerge the bigger band. Blur won the race, but they were soon to learn that it was to be a shallow victory.

Blur receiving their Brit awards in 1995

When their album "The Great Escape" came out they lost out to Oasis in the album sales war as "What's The Story Morning Glory" sold more copies and once again the Blur backlash had begun.

Blur became fractured and they were on the brink of a collapse with stories about their almost inevitable split circulating around the band, watching them play had become almost painful.

Then Damon discovered Iceland and managed to persuade the band and Steven Street to relocate there. The album "Blur" came about from this sejour to Iceland, and the new and improved Blur came about. It was hailed as being "Graham's album", due to the change in musical direction which was more in line with Graham's notoriously American hardcore record collection.

They celebrated their second number one single in January 1997 with "Bettlebum". Spirits and communication within the band were much better, and they had once again started to play together as a band instead of as just four musicians playing at the same time.

After this came "Bustin' and Dronin'" with a new producer, William Orbit (he also produced Madonna's "Ray of Light" album). When it came time to record the new album, Steven Street was sacked and William Orbit was drafted in as the new producer (Graham admits that he cowardly let Damon do the dreadful deed). The result was the album "13". This was hailed as "Damon's heartbreak album", as a result of the lyrics being about Damon's split from his long-term girlfriend, Justine Frischman (Elastica).

In March 1999 their single "Tender" was released and went straight to number 2, only held off from the top spot by Britney Spears' "Hit Me Baby (One More Time)".

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