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Blur have finally started recording their new album, NME.COM can exclusively reveal - putting paid to rumours of fall-outs amongst the group and fears they had finally split.

Damon, Graham, Alex and Dave started writing together in Damon's own Ladbroke Grove studio last week after months apart following the phenomenal success of Damon's side project Gorillaz.

Damon admitted to NME.COM last week that he had been there for the past few days and a spokesperson also confirmed that work had started on the follow-up to Blur's last album, '13', which was released in March 1999. Much of '13' was also recorded at the same studio.

Blur bassist Alex James has contributed to the forthcoming issue of 'The Idler' magazine.

The new issue of 'The Idler' is published on December 3, and features James writing on the subject of card games.

Also in the issue, which has a general 'Hell' theme, are writings from Michael Moorcock and punk performance poet John Cooper Clarke.

To promote the launch, Idler contributors are planning to repeat the stunt of sitting in the window of Tower Records in London's Piccadilly Circus. On the release of the last issue, James spent over an hour in the window of the Tower Records store.  

Graham Coxon has been added to the bill of the 'Mind Your Head, A Sonic Trip On The South Bank' festival in London next week.

The Blur guitarist will appear on October 10th at London's Royal Festival Hall with the evening's hosts, Hawkind, along with Arthur Brown and Add N to (X).

The festival runs from October 3-19, and is aiming to celebrate the weird and wonderful in music.

Blur singer Damon Albarn has responded to scathing criticism from Liam Gallagher over his Gorillaz side project claiming if "it's got Liam upset again so it must be doing well."

Albarn would not be not be drawn into a war of words with the Oasis frontman, saying he didn't "have a problem" with Liam tagging Gorillaz as music for three-year-olds. "We live in very trying times and I think there should be an emphasis on understanding and multi-racial communication and transfer of ideas and emotion," he said, obliquely. "There's no room for that kind of bullshit anymore, where are we going to go if people have that kind of attitude?"

Speaking to BBC Radio 1, Albarn also said he finds it "weird" that Gorillaz are currently bigger than Blur.

"You end up being in competition with yourself which is a bizarre scenario. I would like to just see it as progression and if we make another Blur album, it would be a progression from that," he said.

Albarn also confirmed Blur would go into the studio in November to begin work on a new album. Fatboy Slim has been mooted as producer on the record.

Portraits of Blur are set to go on show in the National Portrait Gallery in London today (September 6).

The four pictures of each member, used originally on the cover for Blur's Greatest Hits collection 'Blur: The Best Of' were created by Turner Prize winning artist Julian Opie. He has described them as "digital drawings".

Blur will enter a recording studio next month to record their contribution to the forthcoming album by Marianne Faithfull, NME.COM can reveal.

Bassist Alex James told NME.COM that the Damon Albarn penned 'Your Time Will Come' will be sung by Faithfull, with the possibility of Albarn providing backing vocals on the song.

James said: "We're going in next month to do this thing for Marianne Faithfull, it's for her (album). The song's a new one called 'Your Time Will Come'. I don't think it'll be a duet though."

Faithfull is working with a number of high profile musicians on her new album, the follow-up to '99s 'Vagabond Ways'. NME.COM previously revealed that ex-Smashing Pumpkins vocalist Billy Corgan is involved, while other bands linked with the record include Beck, Pulp and Eurythmics guitarist Dave Stewart.  

Blur bassist Alex James has spent the afternoon (June 21) pretending to be a shop dummy in a central London record store!

James spent over an hour in the window of the Tower Records store in Piccadilly Circus to promote the current issue of lifestyle magazine The Idler, to which he contributes.

The bassist, dressed in a pink shirt and green combat trousers, spent the first 25 minutes sleeping in a leather armchair, before picking up the latest issue and reading it from cover to cover.

James' appearance in the window came to general bemusement of many onlookers. Of the thousands of people who passed by the store, only a handful noticed his presence, with even less recognising him as famous.

One onlooker told NME.COM: "It seems a strange way for anyone to spend an afternoon, let alone the bassist in Blur!"

However, a grinning James told NME.COM after he finished that it was an experience he had enjoyed. Joking that sitting around smoking and reading was what he had done all his life anyway, he commented: "It's nice and warm in the window. There's a bit of a piss smell when you put the fan on, but that's just Piccadilly Circus for you, isn't it?!"

"I just love The Idler, It's been going for eight years and it's ideologically very sound. They've never compromised anything. It's got a small circulation but all the people wrote for it in the beginning have gone on to big things. People like Damien Hirst and Louis Theroux."

In the current issue James interviews astrologer Patrick Moore in a brief overview of the solar system.

Various other stars will be sitting in the window of the store this evening and tomorrow, including John Moore from Black Box Recorder. Tomorrow, comedians Adam and Joe will make an appearance.

Blur bassist Alex James is to make his TV show host debut on LWT next month.

James will front '24 Hours In Soho', a programme which will focus on the Soho area of the city.

The six-week series starts on July 13, and airs on LWT at 11.35pm.

Blur’s Graham Coxon has recorded another solo album to be released in July, NME.COM can reveal - and he recorded, mixed and mastered the entire project in just two weeks!

Speaking exclusively to NME.COM, Graham described the new album, called 'Crow Sit In Blood Tree' as having a "therapy vibe" and said it had been recorded as catharsis to a "general malaise" he had been feeling.

The album will be released at the end of July through Graham's own Transcopic label, through which he released his last two solo albums. Again, he is responsible for the cover art and he's also making five short films to go with a selection of songs from the record.

"It's quite a precious record to me," he said. "I always seem to write songs at some sort of crisis point...that's why I recorded it very fast. I finished it last Friday (June 1)."

However, Graham refused to be drawn on what exactly had created his personal crisis this time.

"There's always something, isn't there?" he mused. "I dunno, it was just sort of, general Camden psychosis I think. It was written in a general malaise - pretty much in the deeper depths of the dark little sea of me."

The full interview will be published in NME.COM features later today - click back to read what Graham has to say about fatherhood, the Lou Reed influence on 'Crow Sit In Blood Tree', Blur and Gorillaz...

Graham Coxon has hit back at Luke Haines’s recent verbal attack on him, dismissing it as "very boring".

Last week, Haines slated the Blur guitarist for aligning himself with the Green Party in the run-up to today's (June 7) General Election.

He said: "I was saddened to see my fellow musician and neighbour Graham Coxon aligning himself with the Green Party - something about not being able to skateboard on the pavements of Camden", referring to previous NME.COM article in which Coxon's voting intentions were revealed. "Well Graham," he added, "if I want to be mown down by a man with the charisma of a sick pet in hot car, I'll let you know."

Now Coxon has criticised him for resorting to "Jerry Springer"-style tactics and taking his gripe to the press.

He told NME.COM: "What Luke Haines said is very boring, and it's very typical of this Jerry Springer kind of culture. That somebody would go to a national publication to have a dig at somebody who he sees about three times a week on the street. That's all I want to say about it."

Blur vocalist Damon Albarn's film score for the Icelandic movie '101 Reykjavik' gets its UK release later this month.

The score, which has been written in conjunction with Sugarcubes founder Einar Orn, is released on May 28 via EMI. The film of the same name gets its UK release on June 1, before touring around the country.

Albarn co-wrote and helped produce the instrumental score for the film, which is set in the postal district of 101 Reykjavik. The black comedy follows the character Hlynur, who is forced to come to terms with his mother's lesbianism, and his own sexual complexities.  

Blur guitarist Graham Coxon has announced his support for the Green Party's parliamentary candidate who is standing in his London home, Camden.

Coxon has previously spoken about his battles with the Labour-controlled Camden Council. He complained that the borough's pavements were in such a bad state that it was impossible for him to use his skateboard.

Rob Whitley, a 28-year-old psychology student, is standing as the Green Party candidate in Holborn and St Pancras, the London constituency which includes Camden. The current MP is Labour's defeated mayoral candidate, Frank Dobson.

Coxon has announced his support for Whitley and has even signed the Green prospective parliamentary candidate's nomination papers.

Whitley told NME.COM: "Graham is supporting me because we share the same views about what is happening in Camden - which is really a microcosm of what is happening all over the world - where small businesses such as the Electric Ballroom are being driven out to make way for more Starbucks."

The Green candidate is also a musician who plays mandolin in his own band called Lucy Broadwood.

"Over the last few years Graham and I have been pretty good friends," said Whitley. "He said he wants to support my campaign and stick a few posters up."

Blur singer Damon Albarn previously campaigned for Labour dissident Ken Livingstone as London's mayor, but has not shown his hand for the General Election.

For the full story on musicians' involvement in the forthcoming UK general election, see this week's NME, out in London today (May 22) and nationwide tomorrow.

Fatboy Slim has been talking about the forthcoming collaboration with Blur and insisted that the band have no firm intention to go dance, NME.COM can reveal.

As previously announced on NME.COM, the DJ and producer had been approached by the band to help in the studio sometime in the coming months.

"Blur approached me about working on their new album," Fatboy said. "I agreed on the condition that if it doesn't work out, we don't use it. So we're going to give it a try and see what happens. No ties."

He added: "No, they're not going to go dance! No more than they did when they worked with William Orbit . I think my role will be more like what I did with the Beautiful South, giving them help and advice on beats and breaks rather than giving them the big beat makeover."

Damon Albarn had previously said that though Blur had written "ten or so" songs for the record, there was no intention to release an album in 2001.

"There will be a couple of singles this year. I wanna keep it fresh and fun. I don't wanna make an album at the moment," he said.

Damon Albarn has spoken out in support of a new campaign attempting to change American policy on global warming.

According to www.ananova.com, the Blur frontman met Edinburgh South Labour MP Nigel Griffiths last week, to discuss his lobbying of the US on air pollution policy.

Earlier in the month press reports claimed US president Bush was opposed to the 1997 Kyoto treaty, which aims to cut the greenhouse gases which lead to global warming.

Following the meeting, Albarn said: "I care deeply about the future of our planet and we have to get every country to play a part in cutting greenhouse gasses and other pollution. Nigel's campaign deserves everyone's support."

Griffiths added: "We are delighted to have Damon's support, which shows the widespread appeal of the campaign and reflects the urgency of the cause of global warming."  

A forthcoming Kinks album may feature a version of 'Waterloo Sunset' performed by Ray Davies and Damon Albarn, according to US reports.

According to the All Star news service (www.cdnow.com), the track is being considered for inclusion on the album, which has a working title of 'This Is Where I Belong'.

A UK spokesperson for Albarn was unable to confirm his involvement this morning (March 28).

Other bands rumoured to have been recording tracks for the record are Queens Of The Stone Age ('Who'll Be the Next in Line?' ), Lambchop ('Art Lover') and Fountains Of Wayne ('Better Things').

The record is scheduled for release in the US in mid-summer via Praxis Recordings.  

• David and Helen Balfe were awarded £300,000 today (March 7), after a judge at the High Court in London ruled that EMI owed them royalties from releases by Blur and Shampoo.

  As reported on NME.COM yesterday, David and Helen Balfe, owned 75 per cent of the shares in Food Records Ltd when it was sold to EMI in 1994.

  Under the terms of the agreement, they were entitled to £475,000, plus a payment of royalties on the sales of up to two albums from each artist signed to Food, including Blur and Shampoo.

  The dispute was over from which albums they would be entitled to royalties. The first Blur album from which they were entitled to royalties was 1995's 'The Great Escape', which sold 2.14 million copies in 57 countries. EMI claimed that the second was 'Blur Live At Budokan', which had a restricted release in Japan and 13 other countries, but was never released in the UK or USA, and sold 80,000 copies.

  The Balfes contested that the second qualifying album should be 'Blur', which sold 2.4 million copies in 50 countries.

  Similarly, EMI claimed that Shampoo's 'Delicious', a Japan-only release which contained re-recordings of songs from their first album, 'We Are Shampoo', was their second album. The Balfes contested that 'Shampoo Or Nothing', also known as 'Girl Power', which was released in the UK and around the world as their second album, should apply.

  Their QC Robert Englehart said: "To the ordinary member of the record-buying public in the UK, 'The Great Escape' would obviously be the first and 'Blur' the second available after 12 April 1994. Such a person would hardly describe 'Blur Live At Budokan' as the second Blur album, when he would never have had the opportunity of buying it in a record shop here, and probably would never have heard of it."

  Judge Boggis dismissed EMI's argument that the albums contained new material, saying: "It flies in the face of the wording of the clause and it lacks commercial reality." He awarded the Balfes £250,000 in royalties and £50,000 in costs.

  However, in those countries where 'Blur Live At Budokan' and 'Delicious' were released, the Balfes will be paid royalties for those albums, not for 'Blur' and 'Shampoo Or Nothing'.

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