Blur's Graham Coxon to release new album

Blur's guitarist and singer/songwriter Graham Coxon has announced the details of his eighth solo studio album.

'A+E' will be released on 2 April this year and it will contain ten new tracks. Coxon will support the album with a 14 date tour across the UK in the same month.

Coxon described his new album as: "improvisations, experiments in beats, rhythms. A chance to uninhibitedly make some sort of perversely sad, danceable and funny and despondent songs.

Adding: "I didn't want to get caught up in my usual struggle with trying to make things sound really posh. I didn't want lovely '60s-sounding drums and valves."

Coxon enjoyed a successful career as the guitarist in britpop band Blur, especially during the 1990s.

Blur released hit after hit including 'Song 2', 'Beetlebum', 'Girls and Boys', 'Tender' and 'Coffee and TV' during the 1990s, often competing with Oasis.

Coxon released his first solo album in 1998 and he was asked to leave the band in 2003 as he was seen as distant from them.

In 2009, Blur reunited to play two concerts in Hyde Park with Coxon joining them.