Graham Coxon was interviewed by Roland UK recently and he had more to say about Blur's Hyde Park Olympics closing ceremony gig from August 2012. The Blur guitarist explains his "madness", creativity, artistic inspirations and reveals what bands he is currently listening to.
Graham also answered some questions about Blur and their recent gigs. He said that the band were "pretty hyper" and that they were glad to prove to everyone that they were not "old clapped out gits". So much for Graham Coxon's idiosyncratic style of speech!
The excerpts about Blur, taken from the original interview (by Jamie Franklin), were:
How do you feel about your Olympics gig with Blur? I feel fine. I feel like it’s about five years away. We haven’t even rehearsed yet so it feels like it’s not for ages.
Do you really need to rehearse? We’ve got to be good haven’t we?! We’ve got to give ourselves the best chance to be good. It’s important for me to know what I’m doing and not play bum notes – not that I often get bum notes these days – and to play at the best of my abilities. I don’t want to feel like I didn’t give it everything.
The Glastonbury and Hyde Park gigs were amazing. What’s it like for you playing these huge gigs? It’s a pleasure to play gigs on that scale. Technology’s moved on such a long way since we were first playing. The sound was louder, the speakers were smaller and the sound onstage was phenomenal. The equipment is incredible now. When you have a nice guitar, a nice amp and you have thousands of people watching you, it doesn’t get much better. [At Glastonbury] It was mental – I thought we were playing better that we ever did.
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| Picture credited to Essy Syed |
Did you feel like you have anything to prove? A little bit. Blur requires a hell of a lot of commitment and energy so I was happy that we could do those shows and do them justice, and not look like old clapped out gits. That’s what Blur performances have always been about – taking us to the edge of exhausting ourselves. We’re all pretty hyper.
At Hyde Park I saw you do a backwards roll whilst playing a riff and you didn’t miss a note. I don’t even think I can do a backwards roll, let alone play guitar while doing it…
(Laughs) You just saw the one that went OK! There have been 50 times before where I ended up flat on my face with a broken headstock on my guitar. It’s always a risk. Yeah, but sod it. Most of my guitars have been broken anyway. My favourite SG was broken before I even played it at a gig, thanks to British Airways.
Last month, Graham Coxon just missed out being nominated on the Mercury Music Prize 2012. He also kept busy with a 4-track collaboration with British rapper Example and is rumoured to be making a new album for release next year.
Check out the full interview by Roland UK Blog to read all about what Graham Coxon is up to these days, what bands he is currently liking and more technical talk, random musings and guitar chit chat.
Blur for Spain and Portugal HERE
Blur confirmed for Poland HERE
Blur Europe Tour News HERE
Order the new Blur: Parklife (Live at Hyde Park CD / DVD) HERE
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