Ongoing History Daily: The Blur Ultimatum

Blur has been around a lot longer than you might think. They used to be known as “Seymour” and they played their first gig at a private party sometime during the summer of 1988. Their first professional gig was as a support act for the New Fast Automatic Daffodils a few weeks later.

After they had played ten or eleven gigs, they were approached by Food Records who said they would sign the band—but only if they changed their stupid name. The guys were given a list of names to choose from. The choices were The Shining Path, Whirlpool, Sub, and finally, Blur.

They made their choice and things have worked out all right, haven’t they?

Monday’s story was on NIN’s mono warning. And don’t forget to check out my podcast The Ongoing History of New Music where you listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google, Stitcher, or wherever you get your on-demand audio.