BLUR NEWS: Damon Albarn had an interview with The Quietus two days ago and a chat about Blur's future plans - or shall we say, Blur's non-existent plans. Damon Albarn has exclaimed that Blur's current reunion
for the London 2012 Olympics gig in Hyde Park does not mean "a
rejuvenated, long-term return for the band".
“FunnilyenoughI’ve
done a new tune for Blur, I don’t know if it will ever see the light of day but
it’s really traditional… it’s something I’ve had knocking about for years and
didn’t know what to do with it," he said.
Damon through the years
"Initially I wrote it as a slightly wistful national
anthem for my house, I had this idea of getting it made intoan old 78 record
andmaking a flagand then justplayingit-justbeing reallysilly. ButI hadthesechordsand Iended up writingthistune aroundit…"
Albarn went on to say that although the bandare back
together for this summer's live appearances, "I don’t really do anything
with Blur any more - there’s thisconcert this yearbutitsnotafulltime thingat all. Maybe this tune’salast littlecodato the whole story.”
Blur holding The Great Escape records
The Quietus had previouslyreviewed Mr Albarn'sDr Deemusicalup in Manchester, and had found it
rather lacking, something Albarn has taken squarely on the chin. “Oh it
certainly lacked narrative! No shit Sherlock! Ha ha! But I mean, you know, what
do you do… ? I’m quite comfortable with presenting a work in progress and I
know we made some stinkers as decisions, but you can’t really move forwardsunless you make those mistakes. Hopefully it will be a more rounded and
satisfactory piece, narrative wise, this time around. I sincerely hope so,
otherwise I’ll be very disappointed."
Damon has been quite contradictory about Blur in recent years. Before their 2009 reunion, he has said that Blur are definitely over, but then the reunion happened and Damon and the boys have all said different things. Graham and Alex says maybe, Dave says maybe not.
Damon's new supergroup Rocket Juice and the Moon released their album today. Listen HERE.
Guess we will have to wait and see what's next.
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Damon Albarn (born 1968- 44 years old), the singer-songwriter-keyboardist
person, singer, actor, vegetarian,
musician, activist, musical act, composer, person that is the musical composer
for a film, band member, person that was nominated for an award, honour or
prize, aries person
Here are
10 facts about Damon Albarn, quoted from a brilliant archived article from DS.
1. Damon was born on March 23,
1968 to Keith and Hazel Albarn. Keith was an Art College headteacher, BBC
presenter and the manager of jazz-rock outfit Soft Machine, while Hazel was a
theatre set designer.
2. Albarn's
strong anti-war political beliefs stem from his relationship with his
grandfather, who was imprisoned as a conscientious objector during World War
II.
3. Before
forming Blur and becoming a global popstar, Albarn performed with synth group
Two's A Crowd, attempted a career as a mime and worked at the Beat Factory
studio as a tea boy.
4. Damon
had the opportunity to meet then Labour leader Tony Blair for a chinwag in
1997. Oasis's Noel Gallagher went along, but Damon declined, citing his
disillusionment with Blair's political shift. "I sent him [Blair] a note
to the House of Commons saying, 'I'm sorry, I won't be attending as I am no
longer a New Labour supporter. I am now a Communist. Enjoy the schmooze,
Comrade. Love, Damon'."
5. Reality
talent shows such as The X Factor are among Damon's pet-hates.
"Celebrity culture sends out all the wrong messages," he says.
"It's creating a mindset that suggests you can get something for nothing
and that it's easy to acquire status and fame. We need to dismantle very
significant parts of our culture... I think for a start you have to get rid of
things like The X Factorimmediately." Best not tell Damon
about Alex James's stint on Orange unsignedact!
6. At
the height of Blur's fame in the '90s, Damon attempted to turn his hand to
acting with a cameo on the crime thriller Face. Sadly his
performance, alongside Robert Carlyle and Ray Winstone, didn't prove as
successful as his pop-writing career. Damon was also featured in the 2007 film
‘Anna and the Moods’ and has even played a character called Bull in a radio
play about The Beatles called ‘Up Against It’.
7. Albarn
has achieved chart and critical success with Blur, Gorillaz and The Good, The
Bad And The Queen, but as a schoolboy he did prove that he wasn't always so
perfect. The cheeky singer failed his 11+ exams, meaning he had to attend a
comprehensive in Colchester.
8. On
the plus side, Albarn's educational failure ensured that he went on to meet
future Blur bandmate Graham Coxon. The singer apparently caught Coxon's
attention with his confident performance in the school's production of West
Side Story.
9. It wasn't just the Gallagher
brothers that took a dislike to Albarn during the '90s. According to his close
friends, pretty much everyone objected to his cocksure attitude. "Damon
was so cocky he found it difficult to go anywhere without getting
punched," said Food Records pal Tony Wadsworth.
10. Even
from February 2008, Albarn insisted that there was no chance of a Blur reunion.
"I had dinner with the guys recently and it was a laugh but there’snoway they want to work with me again - they all hate
me," he said. What changed, Damon!
And of course, here are 10 meaningful, insightful and funny quotes from
Damon Albarn, our front man, on music, songs, art, drunkenness, Graham Coxon
and family life.
1.“I once owned up to flooding the
toilets when it wasn't me. I got the slipper from the teacher for it, too. No
one else would own up and we weren't allowed to go home, so I just owned up. I
can't remember whether it was for anyone in particular, or whether it was a
random act of chivalry - or just play stupidity.” – 1995 Damon Albarn
2.“We were young, good looking and in
the best band in the world.” – on Blur
3.“The things that make me happy most
are my family and working.”
4.“No, every album is something like a
snapshot. It only shows one moment in time. It shows what we feel and think
right at that point in time, nothing more and nothing less.”
5.“As soon as it sounds fine, I'm on to
the next thing, man.”
6.“The most drunk I ever got was at a
private view for a college art show. I think I had two bottles of tequila and
completely lost about ten hours. I woke up in a cell and, when my vision
cleared, I found myself staring at a Nepalese soldier in full uniform. He
didn't speak any English and he was just very alarmed that I was in there with
him. When I asked the coppers what had happened, they said, 'Well we found you
at Euston station, unconscious and surrounded by a group of tramps, so we
thought we'd bring you here for your own good.' I'd had all my money taken, so
I had to walk home.” 1995
7.“I am genuinely inspired by my mum. I
love and respect my mum and I think she's great. She always makes me laugh and
I trust her totally. Both my parents are artists and I grew up in quite a
liberal home; I was allowed to do what I wanted, but all based on a strong
moral foundation. I think it's really important that parents allow you to do
what you like when you're young because you're more likely to get it all out of
your system. I do love my mum.”
8."There's always been a bit of a
hip-hop element to my trousers." - Damon.
9."We've always seen ourselves as
putting on white coats and going into the lab."– Damon on Blur.
10.“He always looks like he’s crying.
that’s his style…”– on Graham Coxon
A very happy birthday to Damon Albarn!
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Exclusively brought to you by BlurBalls.com, now you can listen to Blur's new track "Under The Westway" with lyrics in an experiential, experimental video we made. This was requested many times to us, and what came out of it was a grainy, washy, and best of all - a moving video instead of the usual lyrics-on-screen-with-a-typewriter.
Check out the full lyrics and the video for the song below.
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Graham Coxon's new single What'll It Take released a great new video at the end of last month. The video, featuring clips of fans dancing and spinning to his 80s sounding, heavy guitar track is one of the most unique audio visuals we've seen.
What'll It Take is made up of featured moves sent in by 85 fans from 22 countries all cut together by director Ninian Doff. The music video is entertaining to watch, and the idea of integrating fans into contributing is brilliant - the video has been received well by fans.
According to an article from Contact Music, Graham Coxon decided on this idea to collaborate fans and artist because he dislikes music videos and thinks they are "horrible". As quoted from the article:
Graham Coxon thinks music videosare ''horrible''.
The guitarist has invited fans to copy dance moves posted on YouTube to create their own routines, with the clips then edited to make the promotional film for his track 'What'll It Take' and says the ''experiment'' stemmed from his hatred of appearing in them himself.
He said: ''It's kind of.. videos are horrible so if there's an interesting idea for a video then I think that's kinda good'' he said. ''I'll just see how that turns out as an experiment, really.''
Graham - who will perform a special concertinLondon's Hyde Park with his band Blur in August - is also currently preparing for a solo tour and decided to select different local bands to support him at each show.
While he has promised to look at a variety of different acts, he thinks it will be a challenge selecting the ones he wants to take to thestagebefore him each night. He added in an interview with Clash Music: ''I suppose with getting bands to support from all the different towns is just to ease the boredom, I guess.
''I thought atmosphere-wise I thought it would be quite good. I've just got to choose 'em - it's going to be a job!
''It's a way also of people presenting their band and it's not the usual support. It's not the usual guitar-y that you might expect to support me. I was interested in lots of different things.
What'll It Take is the first single taken from the New Graham Coxon album A+E. For exclusive pre-order offers and for a free download of album track The Truth (scroll down to listen), visit the official website HERE.
In an interview about A+E for Q (click to read full), Graham Coxon spoke about his inspirations and views on this radical new sounding album. Coxon has had a varied solo career after departure from Blur in 2003. Each of his albums feature a different sound style, and Coxon describes his solo albums as something from his "rucksack" of sound.
Graham Coxon, avid artist, also does his own album artwork
In the same interview, he also spoke about Blur and William Orbit, in response to the band winning a Brit Award last month. When asked about which Blur album all four members still think is good, he said:
"I think the freedom that we had during 13 was really good. They were quite fraught sessions, but to machine gun the tape with everything you had was great. They were mega jams that would just go on for two hours.
Then they would have to edit them down into more coherent chunks. I always thought William [Orbit, producer] could have made 13 another four times and make the same songs completely different. It might be an interesting thing to do, there's so much stuff there.
I don't think he slept for a month sifting through it, just surviving on broccoli. I think we'd all agree that was quite an experience.
To come back each day after a whole night of editing, to hear it tidied up, it was the only time I could listen to Blur as a band that I didn't know. It was new to my ears. That was really exciting and I still listen to that album and think, Bloody hell there's some lovely stuff going on.
Like the end of Bugman, at that time my tolerance for noise was really high. Now I think, That's a lot of racket for racket sake! But that's why I love William Orbit his perversion for sound is similar to mind.
We're sound perverts!"
Read the full Q interview HERE and listen to The Truth (available for free download) from Coxon's new album A+E below. It's a brilliant track, and it seems that this could possibly be Coxon's best album yet. The album is set for release on April 2nd 2012. Graham will tour around UK- the first gig will be in Oxford.
Visit Graham's official website HERE for more information and don't forget to check out Graham's solo works for some amazing songs. His solo works are very varied and experimental, as well as creating pop tracks he also tried folk and alternative (The Spinning Top) amongst other styles. This latest album takes inspiration from 80s guitar sounds.
Read all about Blur being BASHED AT THE BRITS HERE, Blur talking about their future HERE Check out Blur's rumoured new album HERE.
New tear jerker song HEREand check out their newest track HEREand read our REVIEW HERE.
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