Blur Debut New Song At Brits Warm Up

Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon performed live together tonight (19th February) – playing new song ‘Under The West Way’ – ahead of Blur’s appearance at the 2012 Brit Awards later this week.

Taking to the stage together for the first time since 2009, the duo played the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire as part of charity War Child’s annual Brit Awards Gig, performing a short, three song set. Blur are set to receive the Outstanding Contribution To Music award at this Tuesday’s (21 February) Brits and with the full band scheduled to perform at the ceremony at London’s O2 Arena, Albarn and Coxon used the charity show to reacquaint themselves with some fan favourites, plus debut the new song. You can hear a sketchy recording of the track from the link at the bottom of the page.

Entitled ‘Under The West Way’ the duo played the new track, a stripped down version on just guitar and piano, after ‘He Thought Of Cars’ and ‘Strange News From Another Star’.

“It’s a new song we wrote just up the road a couple of weeks ago,”

Albarn told the crowd of the new track.

“It’s got a lot of words, not as many as Ed Sheeran but a lot.”

Along with Tuesday’s award, Blur are strongly rumoured to be playing live this summer, while members of the group have indicated they intended to follow-up 2010’s Record Store Day release Fool’s Day with more new recordings.

The gig also saw War Child showcase several of the acts who are in the running at this year’s Brit Awards, with sets expected from Critics Choice winner Emeli Sande and the four-time nominated Ed Sheeran. Dry The River, Labrinth and Fatoumata Diawara also played the gig, which is staged annually by the charity around the British music industry’s annual awards. When the ceremony was held at the nearby Earls Court Arena in previous year,s the War Child shows took place after the Brits ceremony with the likes of Coldplay, Kasabian, U2 and The Killers all taking part in the past.

Since the event’s move to Greenwich the gig now takes place just ahead of the ceremony, which this year is expected to see live performances from Florence + The Machine, Noel Gallagher, Coldplay and Rihanna along with Blur and several others.

Graham Coxon & Damon Albarn – ‘Under The West Way’ MP3