Blur guitarist Graham Coxon and album producer Stephen Street spoke with Beats by Dr. Dre after their secret show in London and you can find the interview on the Beats by Dr. Dre YouTube page through April. On making The Magic Whip, Coxon said "We were in Hong Kong, we didn’t even know we were going to record… We just thought, well, we can do it without telling anyone… it’ll take the pressure off."
The band's March 20th show in London was filmed exclusively by Beats by Dr. Dre and premiered online for one day only. The show featured all the tracks from forthcoming The Magic Whip, live and for the first time, and Blur closed with 'Trouble In The Message Center', one they haven't performed in twenty years. On Friday's show, Coxon had to say, “having an audience hearing them and playing these songs for the first time to a smallish room full of fans… there were moments when I thought we were all going to levitate. It just felt like this sort of power ran through everyone, it was amazing. During ‘There Are Too Many Of Us' when it is at its height, the last chorus just felt like something really special. It’s great to see an audience really, really get it.”
The Magic Whip will be released April 27th on Parlophone and will be available as a digital download, CD, or as a 2-disc vinyl set.
The only artists to play Hyde Park four times, Blur will be the headliner Saturday, June 20th, 2015 as part of Barclaycard presents Summer Time Hyde Park.