Blur - Dave Rowntree, Graham Coxon, Damon Albarn & Alex James. Photo by Brian Rasic/Getty Images
He might have been overshadowed by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood when it came to ‘90s guitarists who turned the Britpop sound on its head, but Blur’s bespectacled guitarist Graham Coxon has led his own formidable, quiet revolution since the band’s formation more than 30 years ago. Listen to some of the band’s biggest hits and it becomes quite obvious: while frontman Damon Albarn is cadging about like an East London scamp or singing melancholy tales of grey subsistence, Coxon sounds like he’s in a different band altogether. A fan of Sonic Youth, Bikini Kill and Mission Of Burma, his guitar playing adds an otherworldly accompaniment to Albarn’s wistful tales. To celebrate Coxon’s 50th birthday this week – his golden jubilee, if you will – here are some of the guitarist’s most important moments.
Sing (1991)
Released on a demo in 1989 when Blur were still known as Seymour, the official 1991 version of Sing features a fascinating guitar contribution by Coxon. While the pounding piano suggests the influence of “I Wanna Be Your Dog”, Coxon’s swirling, droning guitars fade in and out like My Bloody Valentine subversively sneaking into a private boys’ school. The song later popped up on the Trainspotting soundtrack, while Blur would also return to the shoegazing fuzz and feedback on 1997’s “Bustin’ + Dronin’”.
This Is A Low (1993)
You’d be forgiven for thinking Coxon was playing it safe backing frontman Damon Albarn with a finger-picked, acoustic guitar sound for this lush, romantic-sounding ballad from Modern Life Is Rubbish. Not so fast. While the initial portion of the song finds Coxon cordially restrained, by the three-minute mark he’s broken out of his straitjacket with a snaking solo that adds to the majestic nature of it all. It remains a highlight during the band’s live sets to this day, too.
Song 2 (1997)
A shock to the system when released as the second single from the eponymous 1997 album, “Song 2” shed the Britpop skin of Parklife and The Great Escape by expertly utilising the quiet/loud dynamic of the Pixies. Coxon’s guitar style sounds like a ferociously lean descendant of “Popscene”, the band’s unloved 1992 single which in retrospect sounds like a dry run for this electrifying jolt. Little more than a killer riff repeated for barely two minutes, it was the song which broke the band in the US, albeit briefly. Like its classic music video directed by Sophie Muller, it’s still able to blow away the cobwebs 22 years later.
Bugman (1999)
“Listening to 13 now, some of the extremes of sound are quite shocking,” Coxon reflected when the Blur catalogue was reissued with bonus tracks in 2012. “It’s pretty outrageous.” If the self-titled album of 1997 found Coxon pushing his bandmates into surprisingly heavy and experimental alcoves, 1999’s follow-up album 13 found the quartet pushing even further away from the laddish pop of “Girls & Boys”. A mess of static and dissonance, “Bugman” is a scratchy experiment that sounds like a sonic warfare version of Kid A (which was, lest we forget, still a year away). Were Blur more revolutionary than Radiohead? We’ll leave that discussion for another day.
Battery In Your Leg (2003)
“Graham used to say that he wanted to make an album that nobody would want to listen to,” Blur drummer Dave Rowntree said in 2012. By 2003, Coxon was closing in on his wish, having grown distant from the band he’d formed 15 years earlier. When Blur reconvened following Albarn’s 2001 side-project success with Gorillaz, “Battery In Your Leg” ended up being Graham’s only appearance on the resulting Think Tank album. While opinions differ on his departure from the band, “Battery In Your Leg”’s guitars are a touching sonic exit – a howl of sadness, a ghostly fade from view. Thankfully the band’s reunion with Coxon for live shows and the excellent 2015 album The Magic Whip leaves the door open for more guitar glories to come.
There are plenty of other classic Coxon moments worth exploring in Blur’s catalogue including “Yuko & Hiro”, “Beetlebum”, “Trimm Trabb” and “Tender” – not to mention Coxon’s solo albums such as A&E and Love Travels At Illegal Speeds – but this list is simply meant as a taster. Check out This Is Blur on Spotify for a deeper dive. Happy birthday, Graham!
