The history of Blur can be traced back to 1980 when Damon Albarn (b.1968) and Graham Coxon (b.1969) met as schoolboys at Stanway Comprehensive School in Colchester, Essex, where they sang together in the choir. Both were drawn to music. Damon, a Londoner by birth, was the son of Keith Albarn, a former luminary of England's late-1960's psychedelic rock. Arriving in Colchester in the late '70's, young Damon began studying music.

Coxon, who was born on an airbase in Germany, was also the son of a musician. He moved to Colchester in 1977 and was encouraged to learn the saxophone and guitar at Stanway.

Alex James grew up in Bournemouth on England's south coast, coming to London in the late '80's to study at Goldsmith's College, where he first met Coxon.

Colchester-born Dave Rowntree, whose father was a BBC sound engineer and whose mother played in an orchestra, "took up" the bagpipes at a young age and graduated to drums not long afterwards.