Surprises don't come easy, but with Blur's enigmatic frontman Damon Albarn, there's lots to be shocked about. The frontman isn't exactly uncontroversial with his colourful, creative and at times crazy career in the Britpop realm. Here are 5 facts that would totally shock you about Damon Albarn.
1) He had a fling with a Spice Girl
Damon Albarn is rumoured to have a fling with Mel C from Spice Girls back in the 1990s when he was in an on-off relationship with his then girlfriend Justine Frischmann. Spice Girls stars Mel C and Geri Horner were kicked out of a Blur show at the beginning of their career after trying to rush the stage and perform with Damon Albarn. The pair sneaked backstage at the London Astoria gig and decided they'd try to join singer Albarn for a favourite tune, but security guards had other ideas. However, it is rumoured that later on Damon and Mel C just hit off!
2) He and Justine Frischmann had an Open Relationship (yes there was lots of cheating)
Damon Albarn's relationship with Justine Frischmann of Elastica (another hugely successful Britpop band) was nothing but normal. They broke up, got back together, went with other people and cheated on each other multiple times. However, this wasn't technically cheating, because they both agreed to an open sort of relationship. While this escapes us normal folks, it's apparently quite common in the music world. Hey, how else would you date a celebrity?
3) He had a feud with his best friend Graham Coxon
Graham Coxon is an essential part of Blur, but things were not great between Damon Albarn and Coxon for many years after Blur hit their peak. Reportedly, Graham Coxon suffered from substance abuse and Albarn was moving in a different musical direction. The two just didn't hit off and didn't speak to each other for many years after Blur disbanded. Think Tank, Blur's last album, was written without Coxon's input.
‘It’s something we’ve been thinking about for a while and we’re coming back into focus because Graham and I have reconciled our differences which drove the band apart,’ the singer told Absolute Radio back during Blur's big reunion.
‘So that’s why we’re back. It feels like the right time.’ Coxon, who has also had solo projects, said he was prepared to forget the feud so they can delight fans at their July comeback in Hyde Park, London. And it worked!
4) He never got married to the mother of his child Missy Albarn
Damon Albarn does not believe in marriage, nor does his girlfriend Suzi Winstanley. The two are different and very unconventional. Albarn rarely talks about his personal life other than to say that he and Suzi have no plans to marry at all.
“I don’t think she’d marry me. Suzi doesn’t believe in marriage, and nor do I. It’s been so ruined by everybody who’s got divorced.” They've been together for decades and there's no sign of him changing his mind.
5) He used to do lots of drugs
We all knew that rock stars partied and they partied hard- but Damon Albarn was a fan of heroine, cocaine and a variety of mind-altering drugs. Albarn has been asked about this before: in No Distance Left To Run, the documentary released after Blur's reunion in 2009, he talks very cagily about this period – when Britpop's garish colour scheme was replaced by much darker shades – and offers nothing more specific than the observation that "a lot of people's lives were fairly muddied by heroin".
He comes from a bohemian family and has experimented with all sorts of substances, which in part might have helped some of his music. On 13 there was a song titled Caramel, seemingly referring to the brown goo produced when heroin is heated up, and Trimm Trabb, a picture of sedated solitude in which Albarn sings, "I doze, doze away."
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