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50 free Blur trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Blur went from a Goldsmiths art-school band called Seymour to the group that, for one August week in 1995, had the whole of Britain watching a singles chart. Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree made Britpop's defining record with Parklife, beat Oasis in the Battle of Britpop, then tore the whole thing up for the lo-fi self-titled album and a two-minute song with no real name that American stadiums still play. These 50 questions run the full arc: the rejected band name and the label that signed them, the £60,000 debt that sent them to America, the Phil Daniels cameo on Parklife, the sales figures of Country House against Roll With It, the Iceland sessions, Song 2 as a prank on the record company, William Orbit and 13, Coxon's departure during Think Tank and the song written for a Mars lander. The later rounds cover the Hyde Park reunion, the Olympic closing show, The Magic Whip's Hong Kong origins, The Ballad of Darren and the Wembley and Coachella shows that followed. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss. Play it solo, or print it for a Britpop pub quiz.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who plays drums in Blur?
Dave Rowntree
Rowntree had joined Albarn's band Circus in October 1988, before Alex James arrived and the name changed to Seymour.
Q 02Which Manchester band were Blur's chart rivals in the 1995 'Battle of Britpop'?
Oasis
The two singles were released on the same day; NME billed it as the British Heavyweight Championship.
Q 03In which year was Blur formed?
1988
Alex James joined Albarn's band Circus that December and the group became Seymour.
Q 04Which instrument does Alex James play in Blur?
Bass
James later became better known for making cheese on his Cotswolds farm.
Q 05What is the title of Blur's 1991 debut album?
Leisure
It drew on Madchester and shoegaze sounds and reached number seven in the UK despite mixed reviews.
Q 06How many Blur studio albums in a row topped the UK chart, Parklife through The Magic Whip?
Six
Only Leisure and Modern Life Is Rubbish missed the top; The Ballad of Darren later kept the run going.
Q 07Which Blur track is known for its 'woo-hoo' hook and heavy use in US sports and games?
Song 2
It runs two minutes and two seconds and was track two on a self-titled album; the working title simply stuck.
Q 08What was the band called before they took the name Blur?
Seymour
The name came from J. D. Salinger's Seymour: An Introduction; Food Records disliked it and supplied a list of alternatives.
Q 09Which record label signed Blur in March 1990?
Food Records
Food's A&R man Andy Ross had seen the band play as Seymour in November 1989.
Q 10Which band did Blur open for on a British tour from March to July 1990?
The Cramps
They used the dates to test new songs before releasing She's So High that October.
Q 11Roughly how many copies did Country House sell in the Battle of Britpop week?
274,000
Oasis's Roll With It managed 216,000 in what was the best week for UK singles sales in a decade.
Q 12Which Oasis single went head-to-head with Country House in August 1995?
Roll With It
The NME cover of 12 August 1995 billed the clash as the British Heavyweight Championship.
Q 13Which 1995 album closed what Albarn called Blur's 'Life Trilogy'?
The Great Escape
It sold nearly half a million copies in its first month, then the press turned on the band.
Q 21Which 1992 single did Blur release to coincide with that American tour?
Popscene
It stalled at number 32 and its failure delayed work on Modern Life Is Rubbish.
Q 22Which song did Food ask Blur to add as a potential hit to Modern Life Is Rubbish?
For Tomorrow
It became the album's lead single and reached number 28.
Q 23What was Blur's first single, released in October 1990?
She's So High
It reached number 48; the follow-up There's No Other Way went top ten and made them pop stars.
Which Blur single is their highest-charting hit on the US Billboard Hot 100?
Q 14Which English actor delivers the spoken-word verses on the single Parklife?
Phil Daniels
He had originally been approached to recite a poem for The Debt Collector, which became an instrumental instead.
Q 15Which producer worked on Blur's early hits and the Britpop-era albums?
Stephen Street
Street returned for The Magic Whip in 2015 after Orbit produced 13.
Q 16Which XTC member briefly produced sessions for Blur's second album before being replaced?
Andy Partridge
The Partridge sessions went badly; a chance reunion with Stephen Street put him back in the producer's chair.
Q 17Which producer, known for his remix work, produced Blur's 1999 album 13?
William Orbit
The band picked him after admiring his remix on the Japan-only collection Bustin' + Dronin'.
Q 18Where did Blur record most of their self-titled 1997 album after early sessions at home?
Iceland
The band wanted distance from the Britpop scene; the album's lead single Beetlebum still went straight to number one.
Q 19Which Blur single was the lead single from the 1997 self-titled album?
Beetlebum
Both the album and the single debuted at number one in the UK despite predictions of commercial suicide.
Q 20Which country did Blur tour in 1992 to recoup a £60,000 debt?
United States
The homesick two-month tour pushed Albarn toward writing deliberately English songs.
Girls & Boys
It peaked at number 59 on the Hot 100, though Song 2 was the bigger US radio hit.
Q 25Which art college did Albarn, Coxon and James attend?
Goldsmiths
The 2009 reunion included a five-star-reviewed show back at the college.
Q 26Blur's first live show in 1989 took place in the goods shed of which kind of venue?
A railway museum
It was the East Anglian Railway Museum at Chappel & Wakes Colne in Essex.
Q 27Which band member left during the sessions for Think Tank in 2002?
Graham Coxon
He appears on only one track of the finished album; former Verve guitarist Simon Tong filled in on tour.
Q 28Which former Verve guitarist toured with Blur in 2003?
Simon Tong
Tong also went on to play with Albarn in Gorillaz and The Good, the Bad & the Queen.
Q 29In which Moroccan city were parts of Think Tank recorded?
Marrakesh
The sessions moved from London to Morocco and then to Devon.
Q 30In 2002 Blur recorded a song meant to be played by which spacecraft on landing?
Beagle 2
The lander was lost after reaching Mars in 2003, so the call sign was never heard from the surface.