By Adam Hollingworth
Britpop band Blur have released two singles on Twitter after a live performance on the roof of frontman Damon Albarn's West London studios, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to get back together.
“The chance to just play your new music and then it be out immediately and there be none of that sort of process of review and anticipation,” says Albarn.
“I just think it's very nice, it's natural, it's what it is.”
Downloads weren't around in Blur's heyday but industry commentators say releasing music live on Twitter gives them control.
“They don't need to rely on a magazine publisher or a radio owner to set these songs right and do them at the right time to the right audience. In a way they're controlling their own media. And we're seeing that more and more with artists,” says Music Week editor Tim Ingham.
In the nineties Blur dominated the Britpop scene - along with arch rivals Oasis - releasing seven acclaimed albums, but ten years ago it was all over bar the shouting.
Frontman Albarn then went virtual with Gorillaz.
After a handful of Blur concerts three years ago – one in Hyde Park which sold out in two minutes – there'll be one more to mark the end of the Olympics.
“We've spent more time in Hyde Park over the last decade than anywhere else. So it's the place that we seem to play and we wanted a song that might work in that environment,” says Blur drummer Dave Rowntree.
But what to make of these singles - recorded live on a rooftop in homage to the Beatles - but also giving rise to speculation they have a future together.
“The answer you're going to get is how that person's feeling on the day, that's why the answers are always different to that question,” says Rowntree.
While they’re waiting for that feeling at least Blur fans have two new songs to enjoy in the interim.
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