Graham Coxon has spent much of his career hiding side doors inside already successful buildings. Best known as the guitarist and restless engine room of blur, Coxon’s solo catalogue has long offered a parallel story: rougher, stranger, more intimate, and often harder to find. Now that body of work is being reopened, beginning with the first-ever release of a previously unheard album.
Castle Park, recorded in 2011 and shelved for over a decade, will finally arrive on June 19 via Transgressive Records. The record was made during the sessions that produced A+E and was originally intended as its follow-up before renewed blur activity in 2012 diverted the path. Rather than disappearing entirely, it has waited in the wings until now.
Produced by Ben Hillier, Castle Park reportedly leans into Coxon’s classic mod instincts across ten tracks. Lead single Billy Says, already familiar to fans through live performances, now receives an official release for the first time. It is the kind of archival find that feels less like leftovers and more like a missing chapter.
The album also launches a wider reissue campaign covering Coxon’s complete solo catalogue over the next twelve months. That includes early landmarks such as The Sky Is Too High and The Golden D, alongside later records including Crow Sit on Blood Tree, The Kiss of Morning, Happiness in Magazines, Love Travels at Illegal Speeds, The Spinning Topand A+E. Soundtrack work for The End of the F***ing World and Superstate will also return to circulation.
The announcement came with another notable detail: Coxon will headline O2 Forum Kentish Town on November 28, marking his first full-band live performance in more than a decade. For an artist whose solo work has often been overshadowed by the scale of blur’s legacy, it feels like overdue recognition.
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Coxon’s appeal has always sat in that tension between melody and abrasion, pop instinct and experimental impulse. Whether through collaborations with Paul Weller, Pete Doherty, English Teacher or recent work with The WAEVE alongside Rose Elinor Dougall, he has rarely stood still. Castle Park suggests there are still corners of that story left to uncover.
