Damon Albarn and Noel Gallagher collaboration 2013

A recent interview found on the Sziget Festival website quoted Blur's Alex James saying that Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn are working on a "lot of stuff" together. Blur bassist Alex James said the two former enemies are "like best mates now" who had been "working together on a lot of stuff" 

Interesting snippets from the article include:

Blur/Oasis britpop rivalry: "Damon and Noel Gallagher are working together on a lot of stuff, so whatever was back then is not relevant anymore. But we have to add that young bands today are all very nice. We were totally intolerable."

On the early Blur recordings: "Last year we’ve released a collection in which all our previous songs got remastered and we’ve gathered an incredible amount of recordings from the past. We found a 9 minute recording from our very first jam session and if you listen to it you immediately know it can’t be any other band, we were Blur already back then. We got into a room, started to jam and it was this distinctive Blur sound from first moments. We are really happy that the chemistry between us works."

Change since the 1990s British music scene: "If we look back at it now, the 90s were the golden age of music. It's weird for us to look at it from the outside since we were a part of it. From the 60s and even from the mid 50s a lot of cool stuff happened in music."

Noel and Damon ended their long-standing rivalry which started between their bands Oasis and Blur in the 1990s earlier this year. They appeared on stage together for a Teenage Cancer Trust concert in London's Royal Albert Hall, performing an emotional six-minute version of "Tender". 

However, in another radio interview conducted by NME, Noel Gallagher outrightly denied that he is collaborating with Damon Albarn on new music. 

In response to Alex James's comment, Gallagher said: "I read that Alex James said that - [but] it's news to me!" 

Fun fact: The heated relationship between the Blur and Oasis in the height of the Britpop era fuelled fans to term the bands "Blurasis".

Best name for a Blur / Oasis collaboration track
	Coffee & TV & Cigarettes & Alchohol
	Don't look back in Anger
	Live Forever in a Country House
	I'm Out of Time
	Yuko & Hiro & Lyla
	Slide Tomorrow

Blur- Splitting up was best thing we ever did

Blur bass player Alex James says that that best thing the band ever did was split up and that Damon Albarn and Noel Gallagher are now best mates who smoke cigars together.

Blur bass player Alex James says that that best thing the band ever did was split up and that Damon Albarn and Noel Gallagher are now best mates who smoke cigars together.

Speaking ahead of Blur's gig at IMMA, Dublin on Thursday, August 1st with support from Bat for Lashes and The Strypes, James told Today FM's Ray D'Arcy about his new life as a cheesemaker and farmer.

"Blur came to an end in 2003 and at that point we'd been doing the same thing for 15 years and after that amount of time it does become cyclical," he said. "We needed to go off and do other things. 

"We've all worked with other people since then. I think splitting up was the best thing we ever did." 

During the interview, D'Arcy recalled having the old Blur vs Oasis argument with his friends "in Snaffles Nightclub in Kildare" and asked James who did he think eventually won The Battle of Britpop.

"It's funny because these days Damon and Noel are best mates," James said. "They go off and smoke cigars together. I think we realised we were all on the same side eventually."

 The 44-year-old father of five now lives on a farm in Berkshire and makes cheese. "People throw cheese at me when I'm on stage. Some musicians get underwear," he said.

"Ireland is a fantastic place for cheese. I was over there last year looking at Bries. "There are so many great Irish cheeses. Did you know Brie was invented in Ireland? The French monks took it back to Normandy. They stole it!"

Asked what was the most rock `n' roll thing he'd ever done, James said, "We sent a spaceship to Mars."

(Source)

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Exclusive: The End of Blur and Oasis feud - Just in time for Christmas - 2011

So, the year 2011 marks the END OF THE BLUR/OASIS feud for decades. Noel Gallagher from Oasis and Damon Albarn from Blur, two frontmans who battled out their way to the Top of the Charts in the 90s BritPop period has ended their media feuds and public dramas, by celebrating with, in typical English fashion... a beer. 

Quoting NME:

Noel Gallagher has revealed that he has finally made up with Damon Albarn after their spat during the height of Britpop in the mid-'90s.

The pair haven't spoken in over 15 years following the war of words between Blur andOasis which kicked off in 1995 when they went head-to-head in the UK's singles chart and the former beat the Manchester band to Number One with their hit 'Country House'.

But Gallagher, who is currently set to top the UK album chart with his debut solo album 'Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds', said they recently bumped into each other and went for a beer.

He told Shortlist magazine:

Funnily enough, when I was out last night, I bumped into him. I literally haven't seen the guy for 15 fucking years and I bump into him in some club. We both went, 'Hey! Fucking hell!' and then he said, 'Come on, let’s go for a beer.'

The ex-Oasis chief added: "So, we're sitting there, having a beer, just going, 'What the fuck was all that about 15 years ago? That was mental.' Then he said, 'It was a great time, though,' and I was like, 'Yeah, it was a fucking good laugh.'" 

Here's just a little something down memory lane - 

EXCLUSIVE FEATURE 

A tribute to the Battle of the Britpop- Blur VS Oasis Mega Chart Battle - 1995

Exciting feud between the two Britpop Superpowers - Blur and Oasis

Cover of the 12 August 1995 issue ofNME advertising the "British Heavyweight Championship" battle between Oasis and Blur

Spurred on by the media, the groups became engaged in what the NME dubbed on the cover of its 12 August issue the "British Heavyweight Championship" with the pending release of Oasis' single "Roll With It", and Blur's "Country House" on the same day.

 The battle pitted the two bands against each other, with the conflict as much about British class and regional divisions as it was about music

The event caught the public's imagination and gained mass media attention in national newspapers, tabloids, and even the BBC News. 

The NME wrote about the phenomeon, "Yes, in a week where news leaked that Saddam Hussein was preparing nuclear weapons, everyday folks were still getting slaughtered in Bosnia and Mike Tyson was making his comeback, tabloids and broadsheets alike went Britpop crazy.

Blur won the battle of the bands, selling 274,000 copies to Oasis' 216,000 - the songs charting at number one and number two respectively.

Both bands have parted ways now, looks like the war is FINALLY OVER. Peace to Britpop! 

Perhaps this has come at a good time - Oasis split recently and Damon's embarked on more new and exciting projects like Dr. Dee's Opera and possible new African music, and Noel's just chilling out with his life away from the band. What a lovely story. 

What do you think ? Does this signal a new era ? A new beginning ? A beginning to an end? Let us know on our FACEBOOK page or tweet us at @danomind to join in the conversation! 

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