Songfacts®:

• "Bang" served as the third and final single from Blur's debut album, Leisure, following "She's So High" and "There's No Other Way." Inspired by a longing for human connection in a world growing more disconnected, "Bang" was reportedly written by the band in 15 minutes after their record label insisted on them delivering another hit single. (Unfortunately, Blur failed on that front, with "Bang" charting at a disappointing #24 in the UK.)
• Blur isn't a fan of this song and consequently never perform it live. "There's just something about 'Bang' which is s--t," frontman Damon Albarn admitted in an interview with NME in 1995. "I don't think we'll ever play that again," bassist Alex James added to Select in 1999. "F--kin' hell, worst verse you ever heard."
• Directed by Willy Smax, the official video for this song follows Blur through late-night London using a mixture of time-lapse effects and black-and-white filters. While Albarn told biographer Martin Power that it made for "a fine advertisement for the city," the clip is perhaps the least known of all of their videos.
• Blur performed this song on Top of the Pops in 1991. Albarn spent a large part of the broadcast goofing around on stage with a huge cardboard chicken head, the same one that can be seen on the front cover of "Bang."
• Leisure catapulted Blur into the mainstream, entering the UK chart at #7 in 1991. Nevertheless, Albarn has repeatedly expressed his personal dislike for the album. He told Q in 1996: "It was a s--t album. There's a few good songs but I was an appalling lyricist. Lazy, conceited, really wooly. I hadn't read enough. Or rather, I'd started reading a lot of books but hadn't finished them."