BLUR will be performing a very special, intimate gig for fans in Colchester.

The Britpop heroes said they will be doing two preview concerts for their hardcore fans, ahead of their summer shows at Glastonbury, Hyde Park in London and Manchester’s MEN Arena.

The Colchester boys are returning to their roots, with a performance at the East Anglian Railway Museum, in Chappel, on June 13.

The venue holds particular memories for the band, who performed their first gig there.

All proceeds from the night will be divided between the museum’s charity fund and the Aldham village hall restoration project.

A second show will take place at Goldsmiths College, in London, where the foursome all studied.

Blur started life in 1989 as Seymour, made up of former Colchester schoolboys Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon and Dave Rowntree and fellow Goldsmiths art student Alex James.

They struck chart success with their second single, There’s No Other Way, taken from their debut album Leisure, but it wasn’t until their third album Parklife that they really hit the big time.

Despite fame and fortune, the group have never forgotten their roots.

Last May, Dave Rowntree threw his weight behind a campaign to get Colchester voted the country’s “Most Musical City”.

Speaking exclusively to the Gazette at the time, he said: “Manchester and Liverpool has its big names, but my experience of growing up in Colchester was the whole town was intensely musical and still is.

“I cannot think of any other place in the country that nurtures musicians quite like Colchester does and that’s because it gives them places to play.”

Tickets for both shows were available only to registered fans on the band’s official website, but they sold out shortly after the announcement was made.

Blur announced they were re-forming at the end of last year.

Graham Coxon will join James, Rowntree and Albarn on stage for the first time since their Royal Festival Hall performance in 2000.

The gig will take place in the old Goods Shed.

Ian Reed, one of the trustees of the museum, said: “We are delighted that they wanted to both come back to where they started from, and that they wanted to put money into some of the local activities.

“They said they felt they wanted to give something back to the location where they started. They did some practices at Aldham Village Hall and their first performance was at the museum. They just felt it would be a fitting opportunity for their reunion to start with a little intimate gig.”

He said the money will be used to rewire the building and fit a new roof.