Blur confirm European festival dates despite rumours of split

Blur is the first band confirmed for the Primavera Festival 2013 (PA)

Blur have confirmed they will headline at the Primavera Sound festivals in Barcelona and Porto next year despite frontman Damon Albarn hinting in August that their Hyde Park gig would be their last.

They are the first band confirmed for the Spanish and Portugese festival which takes place in May and June of 2013.

Blur will also headline Rock Werchter in Belgium next July.

The nineties band released their debut album Leisure 21 years ago, but they are best known for breakout album Parklife and The Great Escape. Albarn also fronts Gorillaz and recently released the studio album Dr Dee for which he collaborated with the English National Opera.

The band reformed to give an unusually patriotic turn at the Olympics Closing Ceremony. This followed Blur's brief revival in 2009 when they played a series of festivals before going their separate ways.

Bassist Alex James told the BBC in July that the Olympics prompted their reformation. "We may never have done anything again if it hadn't have been for the trigger of being asked to do this show. We felt it was something we couldn't turn down."

But ahead of the performance in Hyde Park Albarn told The Sun: "Hyde Park is definitely our last gig in this country this year and probably for a long time, but that doesn't mean it's the end of Blur. If someone wanted us to do an album for a film I'd definitely be interested in something like that. So that's the offer."