Britpop band Blur to play two new singles on Twitter

PARIS - Agence France-Presse

British alternative rock group Blur will perform two new singles on Twitter via live worldwide video stream on June 1, their record label said.

The group will play the two songs at 1715 GMT and broadcast them via its Twitter account @blurofficial, EMI said on June 26 on its website.

“Filmed and streamed completely from a secret UK location, the two new songs -- which the band have never publicly performed -- are ‘Under the Westway’ and ‘The Puritan’,” EMI said.

The songs, which were written for an August 12 concert at London’s Hyde Park, where the band will headline the Olympic games closing concert, will be available for download after the live performance, it added.

They will be released on a seven-inch single later.

Blur, which was formed in 1989, is known for popularising the Britpop sub-genre along with rival band Oasis in the 1990s, with hits such as “Country House”, “Song 2” and “Girls & Boys.”

The band, fronted by singer Damon Albarn, had gone dormant after the departure of guitarist Graham Coxon during the recording of its last studio album, 2003’s “Think Tank”, but re-grouped in 2009 for a series of concerts and has been dropping hints of a new album.