Guitarist Graham Coxon admits he and his bandmates sought professional help to ease tensions between them.

Coxon, who quit the group in 2002, says, "Although we shoved it all aside when we got back together, I realised that passions were still slightly high about it all.

"In those years since (leaving the band) I probably said a few stupid things in the press, because the circumstances of why we weren't together as a four-piece were quite unclear. We'd met a couple of times - one was some mediation thing, where we had to go over stuff that was difficult... We were all raw and hurt by it, for quite a while.

"To be honest, the last couple of years when I was in Blur, it wasn't like we were good friends, like we could ring each other up. Everybody was going through management and we all had our own lives, our own problems."

The reunion worked and now the band is back together again, promoting a new album, The Magic Whip, and the guitarist reveals he has a much better relationship with frontman Damon Albarn.

He tells Mojo magazine, "Damon and I have an increased respect for each other because of this record, and we're not ashamed to let each other know about that increased respect.

"But what we also have (is) a lot of history, and our friendship, like any friendship between two people in a band together, has had to go through a lot. It's been put to the test, and we've often let each other down. This record was a way of saying, 'Sorry for being such a pain in the a**e for the last 20 years'."