In May 1991, a young band with roots in Colchester entered the UK Top 10 for the very first time. That band was Blur. The song was “There’s No Other Way”, and Damon Albarn remembers the surreal moment they first heard it on the radio. The band were climbing into a little Transit van to drive to a gig in Nottingham when they switched the radio on — and suddenly their own record came blasting out. For Damon, it was the first real moment of: this is actually happening. Released during the height of the so-called Madchester era, “There’s No Other Way” fitted remarkably well alongside the sounds of The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and Inspiral Carpets. Producer Stephen Street helped push that groove even further, adding a funky drum loop underneath the track to give it more swing. But Blur’s story had begun long before their first Top 10 hit. Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon and Dave Rowntree already had connections going back years, while the arrival of bassist Alex James in 1988 completed...