From the Battle of Britpop with Oasis to becoming Lifetime Achievement Award winners at the Brits, Blur have become British music royalty. Kent is where they will kick off their journey to the closing concert for the London 2012 Olympic Games writes Chris Price.

It is the gig everyone in Kent has been talking about. “Every one of these shows will be very special and we can’t wait to get cracking,” said Blur’s Alex James, as the band head to the seaside for their first concert since picking up the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Brits earlier this year.

The bassist is leaving his side venture as a cheese maker behind as he joins Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon and Dave Rowntree for the band’s warm-up tour, leading up to their Olympic Games closing concert at Hyde Park.

Everything about Blur’s four-date sold-out preamble to the Olympic finale has been shrouded in secrecy. If you didn’t queue from the early hours for the 300 tickets that went on sale at Margate’s Winter Gardens on Monday, May 14, then you missed out – whether you are punter or press.

The Parklife and Beetlebum foursome made it clear they wanted no tickets to be allocated to the media, setting tongues wagging over just how much of their Hyde Park plans they are preparing to test out on the Margate crowd.

There is a four-day gap between this gig on Wednesday, August 1 and their next shows at Wolverhampton Civic Hall on Sunday, August 5 and Monday, August 6. Quickly followed by Plymouth Pavilions on Tuesday, August 7, it hints Blur’s Margate gig will be the one where the band try out lots of different ideas, before spending a few days brainstorming and fine tuning their set on the final three dates.

Added to all this mystery is the “will they, won’t they” over a new album, with Graham telling newspapers in February that the band were planning on making a record, only for producer William Orbit to come out and say Damon had scrapped everything the band had recorded. With the Britpop legends becoming the first to debut new material in a live gig on Twitter earlier this month – performing their new songs Under The Westway and The Puritan, written for the Hyde Park concert – it all seems a bit manic.

“I wrote these songs for Hyde Park and I’m really excited about getting out there and playing them for people,” said Damon before the online gig from a secret London location, and with Alex tweeting: “I love being in the studio with Blur”, back in May, it all just serves to tantalise fans.

Whether the willingness to make an eighth studio album is there, only time will tell.

Many will suggest the rumour mill is just a way of drumming up interest ahead of the release of their Blur 21 boxset on Monday, July 30.

It contains all seven records, 65 previously unreleased tracks, three DVDs and a seven-inch vinyl from the band’s days under the name Seymour in the late 1980s.

Sounds fun, but it will break the hearts of Britpop devotees everywhere if Damon, Graham, Alex and Dave decide to call it a day after Hyde Park on Thursday, August 12.

No matter what, come this Wednesday, each one of those 300 ticket holders who queued for hours back in May will be able to say they were a little part of music history.

Blur perform at Margate Winter Gardens on Wednesday, August 1. Tickets £35 (returns only.) Box office 01843 296111. Blur 21, the boxset, is released by EMI on Monday, July 30.