Blur cancel festival date ahead of Wembley Stadium shows due to injury

Virgin Radio

4 Jul 2023, 07:10

Just days before they hit the stage at Wembley Stadium, Blur have pulled out of a performance at a French festival.

The Britpop heroes were due to play at Festival Beauregard this Thursday (6th July), but, as announced on the festival’s Twitter feed, they are no longer appearing after drummer Dave Rowntree picked up an injury.

The tweet, written in French, roughly translates to: “The bad news has just fallen: @Blur will not be able to perform their concert in Beauregard. Dave Rowntree, the drummer, was injured this weekend and must rest for future shows.”

Royal Blood have been drafted in to replace Blur at the festival, which takes place at Château de Beauregard in Hérouville-Saint-Clair, France. 

As yet, there has been no official announcement on Blur’s own social media regarding the cancellation or their drummer’s injury, (which NME reports is a "knee injury"). Nor is it known whether it will have an impact on the band’s Wembley shows on Saturday 8th and Sunday 9th July.

However, despite Rowntree having hurt himself, everything seems to be full steam ahead for the massive London shows at the weekend, as the indie legends have posted about them on their socials. 

Taking to Twitter yesterday (4th July), the band shared a picture of frontman Damon Albarn on stage holding a megaphone, while Graham Coxon throws his guitar in the air in the background. 

The photo is captioned: “Five days, Wembley”, with a link to the final tickets to Sunday’s gig. Saturday is already sold-out. 

Albarn, Coxon, Rowntree and bassist Alex James played some intimate warm-up shows in preparation for Wembley, and are also set to release a surprise new album, The Ballad of Darren, on 21st July.

Bass player James recently revealed why making a new album was something of a “daunting prospect”.