Entertainment
Blur star Alex James reveals band only paid off debts for 1992 Leisure tour ‘about two years ago’
Blur have just paid their debts off from their 1992 tour (Picture: WireImage)
Blur have only just paid off the debts from their Leisure tour recently, despite going on the road nearly three decades ago.
The group headed to the US in 1992 for a string of performances, to celebrate their debut LP.
Their record label bankrolled the entire trip when the group, consisting of Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree, got in to financial troubles.
In fact, they had to deal with issues due to an unpaid tax bill, and debts amounting to £60,000.
Recalling the money issues during an appearance on After School Radio on Apple Music Hits, bassist Alex explained it took them all years to clear their debts.
‘I think part of the problem with ‘Leisure’ was that it was as … I don’t know whether you had this with your band, but our first manager was kind of like our mate and it turned out he wasn’t very good at managing after all,’ he told Mark Hoppus.
Blur fell into financial issues before hitting the road (Picture: Getty)
‘And when Leisure was coming out, we realised we didn’t have any money at all. We had to sack the manager and get a sensible business manager, but we had a tax bill that we couldn’t pay.
‘It was really serious, but fortunately, we were on this tiny little indie label called Food Records…
‘Fortunately, I think that our record label were able to apply some pressure to the American label SPK for them to back this enormous tour of America. It was a 13-week, steeplechase, going absolutely everywhere.’
‘But by the fact that the record company would bankroll this incredible tour, which I think we only finished paying off about two years ago. We were paying them for years,’ he continued.
‘So we could get an advance on t-shirts, merchandise royalties, which meant we could pay our debts and get to America and have some fun. But it was really strange.
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‘The four weeks after Leisure was released, Nevermind came out. I think it was the day that we got there for that tour.’
Blur coincided the start of their tour with their song, Popscene, but this wasn’t a popular song with some fans overseas.
In fact, speaking in 1993, following the release, frontman Damon said he thought that some were ‘annoyed’ by how ‘English’ the bop sounded.
‘We felt Popscene was a big departure; a very, very English record,’ he said.
‘But that annoyed a lot of people … We put ourselves out on a limb to pursue this English ideal and no-one was interested.’
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