Damon Albarn receives blue plaque at Leytonstone

Damon Albarn has received a new blue plaque at his former Leytonstone home.

According to The Guardian, the Blur singer visited his childhood home at 21 Fillebrook Road, Leytonstone, this week. The singerlived in the house until he was nine-years-old and attended George Tomlinson Primary School, in Harrington Road.

 He said: “Its multi-racial population had a very profound effect on me, and the borough has a very particular feel to it, given the proximity to Epping Forest and places like Hollow Ponds. “I remember cows coming down this road on a regular basis. You wouldn’t believe it now what with the A12 extension, but memories like that obviously stuck with me.”

Albarn’s recent Mercury-nominated album, Everyday Robots, recalls his early childhood living in Fillebrook Road and one of the songs is named Hollow Ponds.

Councillor Clyde Loakes, Deputy Leader of Waltham Forest council, said: “This borough has produced talented people from all walks of life and given Damon is such a huge name in the world of music it was right that we should celebrate him as a son of Leytonstone too.

 “Having been privileged to have met him, it is obvious that he has a real affection for the borough, as anyone listening to Hollow Ponds on his new album can hear.

This marks a new place to visit for any Blur fans who is eager to visit Blur-related landmarks around London and the UK.

There will be new Blur and Gorillaz shows- Damon Albarn

Damon Albarn was quoted to be making plans for new Gorillaz album and perform several new Blur gigs. According to various sources, Albarn is ''sure'' that Blur will play live again.

The frontman releases his debut solo album 'Everyday Robots' this month but is still very close to his Blur band mates Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree, who celebrated the singer's 46th birthday together on March 23. And now, he claims that the foursome will take to the stage again.

He said: ''Graham was at my surprise party on Friday, along with Dave and Alex. ''Everything is good between us all. When you get to our age, you accept people for who they are, you know.'' Damon insists it's ''bollocks'' that their planned appearance at Australia's Big Day Out festival later this year, which they pulled out of, was set to be their last gig.

He explained: ''I said it's the last gig of a brilliant period we spent doing these gigs and we didn't want to sully it by going to something that was badly organised and where things weren't as they should have been.

''I'm sure [Blur] will play again at some point. It'd be mad to go for the rest of our life and never play any of those songs again.''

The singer also revealed he could record another Gorillaz album with his music partner Jamie Hewlett as soon as ''next week''.

He said: ''I can definitely see another Gorillaz-esque record at some point, yeah. That will almost definitely happen. I could put a Gorillaz album out next week, I've got enough stuff that I haven't finished. The only thing really that defines a Gorillaz record in my head is when I just play most of it on keyboards.

''I've just been in Paris with Jamie Hewlett. There are points in everyone's relationship where they fall out with people that they're close to and then they reconcile, hopefully, and actually, you know, the relationship's probably in a healthier place as a result of that.''

This is evidently good news for all Blur and Gorillaz fans out there who are waiting for something new in 2014.