More Doctor Dee Opera updates - Damon Albarn on NME and interview

Just some more updates on Doctor Dee - Damon Albarn's new opera that's going to premier this July. Thanks to 2-J (Gorillaz Unofficial ) from the forums for the heads up.

From this week's NME MAGAZINE - an article with a few new pictures of Damon, sporting a massive beard and talking about his new opera. Click the scans below to enlarge.

Albarn has written 10 new songs that he's going to perform solo in the opera. Looking forward to that very much, especially as one of them, Apple Carts, has been performed in BBC a few days ago. Check that out HERE. 

And thanks to the Gorillaz Unofficial website, Damon did a little interview about the opera with fan submitted questions. Here is what is on the website:

Last week we gave you the opportunity to send in questions about Dr.Dee (through our blog, forums and twitter) which we'd pass on to Damon. The level of response was great and thanks to all of you who submitted questions - these were the ones that Damon picked out to answer, and his responses. A big thanks to Damon and well done to those who got their questions answered!

1. Is Tony Allen going to appear live in the opera?
Damon: Yes

2. How do you think the change in our concepts of 'science' and 'magic' impact on contemporary culture, particularly British? What's your agenda on that, that you'd like to get across [in the opera]? 
Damon: I like to imagine a reality where we had held on to ritual a little longer in England, bring back tea ladies!

3. What composers influenced you when you composed this opera?
Damon: I don’t know how much rubbed off on me, I hope a bit but I listend to a lot of Notre Dame School French Music.

4.Damon, did you get to handle any of Dee's artifacts at the British Museum? Specifically the Shew Stone?
Damon: There was talk of it but as of now I have not physically held it

5. Is it a comedy or a tragedy?
Damon: I think it might be more of a Requimedy

6. when you were creating the opera's music was it possible to travel back in time and start the composing from Dr. Dee's england? In other words how accurately can you channel your mind to a specific place or time when composing? or does it come naturally?
Damon: Music is time

7. In the trailer for Dr. Dee, the music that is played through-out features an African chime which flows with the imagery in it. Will this style of music be present in your new opera?
Damon: African Chime one of 7
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For More information on Dee check out http://doctorjohndee.tumblr.com/.

Stay tuned and remember to subscribe to Blurballs via email or RSS for the latest, quickest updates on everything Blur, Gorillaz, Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon. 

Graham Coxon's OFFICIAL FACEBOOK FAN PAGE

Attention all Blur fans - Graham Coxon himself has made an announcement recently to all of us, and it's about his new official fanpage on facebook. Here is the broadcast, straight from the horse's mouth :

Click HERE or visit and like his page at : http://www.facebook.com/graham
coxonofficial

Graham also has a twitter account where he posts funny things all the time. Do check it out at:

http://twitter.com/#!/grahamcoxon

Remember to LIKE and Follow him! We support you Graham! 

New Damon Albarn song "Apple Carts" from Doctor Dee Opera - June 2011

We have a surprise after a lack of news lately - Damon Albarn performed a new song from his new opera Doctor Dee in The Andrew Marrs show yesterday. The song's named "Apple Carts" and it is beautifully sounding, with Albarn's deep croning and soft guitar playing, and kind of resembles his style in The Good The Bad and The Queen. Listen to it by CLICKING HERE. 
You can also watch the full interview from BBC website (UK Only) by clicking HERE.

The following commentary was by dougharrison from the Blur forums thread:

The only thing said about the opera that were newly mentioned are that: 

1) Its an exploration of Englishness at the time and Dee is the central character rather than it being purely about Dee. 

2) The show is in 3 sections a celestial plane, where musicians such as Tony Allen, the stage/England presumably and an underworld, where the main orchestra is. 

Damon is still not a huge fan of interviews, didn't seem particularly comfortable. After the part about Dee being English the interviewer said this had been present in previous work and Damon said something along the lines of that it was a totally separate from Blur project, but some songs could have been Blur songs and concluded by saying he didn't know what place i.e. project/band he is currently at and writing for. I probably haven't rephrased that particularly well.

I really like the song, it's a great start to possibly a new album by Damon Albarn after his opera, hopefully like Monkey Journey to the West. It's beautiful and soothing, and a song about Silbury Hill and apples fits Damon's simple British style of music writing.

Doctor Dee the opera will premier at the Manchester International Festival in July 2011, and it will then be staged at the home of the English National Opera as part of London's Cultural Olympiad programme. 


Visit their official website here and follow them! 

Damon Albarn ranked 24th in The Music Power 100 - Guardian May 2011

Damon Albarn features in the Guardian's 'The Music Power 100'  (the most influential people in music today), at a rank of 24. The article writes, and I transcribe directly:

24 Damon Albarn

Artist: Blur, Gorillaz, The Good, the Bad and the Queen

Label Executive: Co-founder, Honest Jon's

Far from the knowing, ambitious rock frontman he was in the early days of Blur, Albarn has revealed himself to be one of British music's most invigorating renaissance men. As well as his involvement in Gorillaz and The Good, the Bad and the Queen, the Honest Jon's label he co-founded has brought African, Caribbean and obscure black American to young, hip audiences, and his experiments in opera are helping to dismantle the barriers between "high" and "low" art.  

Click on the picture below to read the scan full sized (credits to damon4president for the scan). 

I would say it's a pretty accurate and honest description. But he should have been ranked even higher, some of the rankings seem a bit sketchy. And Damon Albarn is definitely help breaking barriers in many many different areas, not just whatever "high" and "low" art is ! Any opinions ? 

Damon Albarn - Doctor Dee Opera 2011 UPDATE

Doctor Dee Opera

Damon Albarn's new opera Doctor Dee has received some press from a double page spread in the 28th May GUARDIAN newspaper, on the guide to Manchester International Festival. 

Quoted from the article, Damon Albarn's new show is a 'modern English opera' directed by Rufus Norris, about Elizabethan thinker and magician John Dee. In Doctor Dee, Damon Albarn will appear as himself, rather than in character, performing with legendary afrobeat drummer (and bandmate in The Good, The Bad and The Queen) Tony Allen. The BBC Philharmonic will be in the pit. There will also be Elizabethan instruments and some ritualistic elements, will be primal, about the life, ambition and belief of John Dee.

Read the whole article by clicking below, thanks damon4president and 2J for the scans.

Alex James talks Blur Reunion 2011

Alex James has spoken on BBC 6 about the possible Blur reunion and whether it's official or not. Looks like it's not, but hey that's not new news. Here's what he said, taken from BBC's twitter account:

Nothing new. Old news. Old news.

Graham Coxon new gigs UPDATE (Summer Sundae + Truck Festival) 2011

Previously I reported that Graham Coxon is going to play Summer Sundae Festival and Truck Festival this year (click on the text to link) and now I've got EXCITING UPDATES for all of you fans reading right now! The lineup and more details have been released by NME yesterday. 

#1 : Summer Sundae Festival

The Maccabees, Graham Coxon and The Bees all among the first acts confirmed forLeicester's Summer Sundae Festival this year.The festival, which takes place in Leicester's Victoria Park on August 12–14, will also see sets from Little Comets, Newton Faulkner and Bellowhead.

Summer Sundae Festival was headlined by Seasick Steve, Tinchy Stryder andMumford and Sons in 2010. See Summersundae.com for more information.

The line-up for the Summer Sundae Festival so far is:

The Maccabees
Graham Coxon
Newton Faulkner
The Bees
Bellowhead
The Cuban Brothers
Wilko Johnson
John Cooper Clarke
Little Comets
CW Stoneking
Liam Bailey
Benjamin Francis Leftwich
Mama Rosin
Raghu Dixit
Skinny Lister
The Black Atlantic
Dizraeli And The Small Gods
Various Cruelties

The Maccabees

#2 : Truck Festival

I covered this in my previous post HERE, but once again, Graham Coxon and Radiohead's Phil Selway are among the latest additions to this year's Truck Festival line-up.

Set to take place July 22-24 at Hill Farm, Steventon, the weekend should be somewhat of a homecoming for Oxfordshire-based musician Selway, who'll play a solo show there.

This year Truck are teaming up with record labels Transgressive, Bella Union andHeavenly to curate the second stage.

Coxon will headline the stage on the Friday, under the Transgressive banner, withSelway appearing on the Sunday, when Bella Union are in charge.

Other new acts on the bill include The Go! Team, Edwyn Collins, Dry the River andGaggle.

See Thisistruck.com for more information.

To check the availability of Truck Festival tickets and get all the latest listings, go toNME.COM/TICKETS now, or call 0871 230 1094.

The line up for Truck 2011 is:

Graham Coxon
The Go! Team
Philip Selway
Edwyn Collins
Truck Festival All-Stars
Tunng
Dean Wareham (plays Galaxie 500)
Roddy Woomble
Justin Townes Earle
Admiral Fallow
Dry The River
Pete Molinari
Alessi's Ark
Sea of Bees
Justin Robertson
Richard Norris (Beyond the Wizard's Sleeve)
Mechanical Bride
Gaggle
The Rockingbirds
Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou
James Walbourne
Lanterns on the Lake
Cashier No9
Two Fingers of Firewater
Gruff Rhys
Bellowhead
Saint Etienne
Johnny Flynn
John Grant
The Duke & The King
Cherry Ghost
Fixers
Trophy Wife
Jonquil
Chad Valley
Caitlin Rose
Marques Toliver
Treefight For Sunlight
Marcus Foster
Jonny
Richmond Fontaine
Dreaming Spires

Graham Coxon last year 

Graham Coxon will also play at Camden Crawl this sunday according to the Blur forums. Plus his album will hopefully get released by the summer! 

Dave Rowntree's 47th birthday

Happy 47th Birthday to Mr. Dave Rowntree of Blur, The Ailerons, Gorillaz (contributor - drums) and politician fame. 

 Here's a funny Q&A I found online from here:

• When is Dave Rowntree's birthday?
• Dave Rowntree's birthday is April 8th, 1964.
• What is Dave Rowntree's horoscope/astrology sign?
• Dave Rowntree's astrology/horoscope sign is Aries.
• How old is Dave Rowntree?
• Dave Rowntree is 47 years old.*
• Dave Rowntree's Biography
• Dave Rowntree was born on April 8th, 1963. 
• (*if alive today)

What's with the last line ? Ha ha ha. [EDIT: 47, he's 47, not 48 years young. I must be posting one year in advance!]

Graham Coxon quashes Blur rumours - NO NEW SONGS

From this month's Q Magazine (May 2011 - credits to 2J from the forums):

Despite saying in February that they have been meeting up to "record a few things", Graham Coxon has told Q Magazine that Blur are not working on new songs. 

"There's no plans for anything at the moment. It's more like a coffee morning where we might get an instrument or two out. But as for formal recording, that hasn't really been happening." he says. "I think if we really wanted to get intense and start writing songs it would have to be something a little bit more committed. Maybe we all have our little percentages of doubt when it comes to Blur." 

Coxon himself, though has been no slouch as regards to recording, collaborating with Paloma Faith and ex- Coral guitarist Bill Ryder-Jones on the recent single Desire (commissioned by the Converse shoe company) and completing two solo albums. One - tentatively titled Accident & Emergency - is "like Van Der Graaf Generator meets Faust meets Syd Barrett" while the other is "more like mid-80s indie groups". 

Click to enlarge

So - this is not new news for the Blur fans... how many numerous times have Damon or Graham spoken to reporters and quashed the tiny glimmer of New-Blur-Material hope that we have been nurturing ? Before, Damon said there would never be Blur again, and that Blur would never reunite. Look what happened in Glastonbury 2009 (in case you don't know, Blur did end up reuniting and playing a one-off massive gig). How many times have we heard Alex James mention busting Dave Rowntree out of law school just so that Blur will get together again ? The answer: countless times.

Personally, I think that the boys just might have grown up a little from their Brit-pop glory days, and have now mellowed and settled into... Midlife (no pun intended), family life and really making music or doing things that they personally like. 

They could start up a new Blur album when all their own projects are done, like Damon with his new opera, and Graham with his solo albums. Speaking of Graham's solo albums, the new one's called Accident & Emergency, and it's probably going to be released sometime this year. I am looking forward to that very much, and hopefully it will spawn a few hit singles or two. 

Graham Coxon's Desire single is out NOW - check out the video I uploaded here and don't forget to subscribe to my youtube Blur channel. 

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