Versace Mixes Up Blur and Blue For Fashion Show

If you have been a Blur fan for long enough, you'll understand the familiar problem: you search for "Blur" songs and out pops "Blue", another 90s boy band with several hit singles. We have certainly had this problem before, but this time one of the members of Blue has spoken up about just how often the two bands have been mixed up. 

Blue has recently admitted that they once "stole" Blur's golden tickets to the fashion show in Milan. Apparently, Blur was invited to fly via private jet to the esteemed fashion show and was invited to meet Donatella Versace personally. However, there was a huge mix-up which resulted in the band Blue getting chauffeured all the way to Milan- and back. 

Antony Costa from Blue has regaled a hilarious story about his band getting mixed up with Blur near 20 years ago. "In 2001 we released our first single ('All Rise'), it was going really well for us and we got invited to Milan Fashion Week by Donatella Versace.” Costa told Ben Hanlin's Ben Behaving Dadly podcast.

“So we got kitted out by Versace at Bond Street. We got a private plane out there, they flew us out there. We landed, went to the fashion show, and afterwards they were like 'Look, we want you to meet Donatella’.” 

He said: “So we lined up, like we were meeting the Queen, and she looked at us. I said to Simon (Webbe), 'This is a bit weird, we're supposed to be one of the guests. Why wouldn't she want to say hello?' "Anyway, to cut a long story short, when we get back to London, and she had invited Blur and not Blue."

Costa continued: "The mad thing was I meant Alex James years later and he was mucking about and was like 'Oi you. You took or tickets!' I was like 'Mate, I didn't know!'"

Damon Albarn finally passes his driving test at 52

 Damon Albarn has finally passed his driving test at age 52 after not learning to drive all of his life. 

The Sun reported that Damon bought a £65,000 Range Rover as his first car. The Blur frontman, who has a fortune worth £10 million, decided to learn to drive to make it easier to get between his west London pad and his big house in the country in Devon.

His fancy new car goes from 0 to 60mph in eight seconds and has a top speed of 130mph – much speedier than most new drivers’ first set of wheels. 

Damon spent most of the UK lockdown in an isolated farmhouse in South Devon which he bought in 1995 with his “ill-gotten gains from Parklife”. 

He previously told a newspaper: “It was the first time I ever had any money and it was the first thing I ever bought. “Everyone’s been telling me I’ve been mad for years. Why did you buy this remote farmhouse in the middle of nowhere? But now everyone thinks I’m a genius.”

He used the extra free time during the pandemic to practise for his driving test having lost his licence 20 years ago and “never bothered” to get it back.

A friend of the singer, who is now 53, told the Mail on Sunday: “Damon loved his time in Devon during lockdown and would love to spend much more time there. “But getting there on public transport would be a nightmare, so he decided to take the plunge and finally learn to drive himself around.” 

They added he had been practising his driving with his partner Suzi Winstanley,, the mother to their daughter Missy, 21.

Looks like Damon put his free time to good use! 

Blur and Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn given citizenship of ­Iceland as one of only 30 to get a passport

 DAMON ALBARN once sang about living in a very big house in the country, but now he has upped sticks to reside in a very different location. 

I’ve learned the rocker has been awarded citizenship of ­Iceland and is one of only 30 foreign citizens to make the cut.

He asked officials how he could join the country last March during a holiday there and finally had his wish granted on Thursday. The Blur and Gorillaz frontman has spent 25 years as a frequent visitor to the geyser-filled island, which is 1,200 miles from where he grew up in Essex. He has a home in a suburb of capital city Reykjavik. 

A source said: “Damon is thrilled to now officially be a citizen of Iceland because he knows the country so well. “It has been a constant source of inspiration for him and it is a safe haven right now.

“Apart from anything else, Iceland has just a handful of Covid cases so being there is far better than staying in the UK where he would be stuck inside.” The ruling means he now has the right to live and work in Iceland permanently, without any immigration restrictions. 

The star said he was first inspired to take a trip there in the mid-Nineties after learning the country had black sand. 

Damon explained at the time: “I used to have a recurring dream, as a child, of a black sand beach. “And one hazy, lazy day, I was watching the TV and I saw a programme about Iceland, and they had black beaches. 

“So I got on a plane. I was on my own — I didn’t know anybody. “I went into the street in Laugavegur, where the bars are, and that was it.”

Blur then recorded their self-titled 1997 album there, featuring hits Song 2, On Your Own and Beetlebum. In 2006 he described himself as “a frequent visitor, a sort of migratory bird” to the country. If I were him, I’d feather my nest and stay put there for now till things settle down.