Blur Records In Downtime

Though Japanese fans were disappointed when Blur had to cancel its trip to the country after the Tokyo Rocks festival was called off, there is a silver lining.

During a recent concert at Hong Kong’s Asia World Expo, leader Damon Albarn announced that since the Japan dates were dropped, the band had some down time and spent some time in the former British territory to start work on their long-awaited new album.

It was about a year ago that Albarn reportedly changed his mind about a new Blur album and cancelled some scheduled recording sessions.

In other Tokyo Rocks-related news, another major group who was slated to play that ill-fated festival, My Bloody Valentine, has decided to play at the Fuji Rock Festival in July instead.

The band’s appearance was confirmed in the latest announcement of acts for the festival, which included Garth Hudson and Jim O’Rourke.

MBV could easily be a headliner at the festival under normal circumstances, so it will be interesting to see when and on which stage they’ll perform, since all the headlining slots have already been filled.