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. 

Don't forget to subscribe, via RSS or email, to this site to receive the latest, most up to date and exciting Blur, Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon and Gorillaz news! 

Graham Coxon to play Glastonbury 2011

According to THIS LINK, Graham Coxon will be playing at Glastonbury this year! He will share the Park Stage with ...

The Park Stage

Wild Beasts
James Blake
Special Guests
Tame Impala
The Walkmen
Graham Coxon
Those Dancing Days
About Group
Baelearic Folk Orchestra
Ellen & The Escapades


Awesome news for us fans. Perhaps he'll play something from his new album ?  

Graham looking suave at last year's Blur mega glastonbury gig

New Damon Albarn Demo with Kid Koala

Damon Albarn is not the kind of guy who can sit still and leave a couple of years (or more) in between albums. 


He’s just finished with Gorillaz, more rumors of further Blur dates keep surfacing, and now it appears he’s been working on new material with Dan the Automator and Kid Koala. 


The latter just appeared on Tim Sweeney’s Beats in Space radio show, where he dropped this as-yet untitled demo, which is a choppy, trip hop-style collaboration between the trio. 


Albarn’s plaintive vocals help increase the already-downcast nature of the track, which is wrapped around a neat stuttering framework. Is this a long-term project for these three artists? We don’t know yet, but this demo certainly sounds promising. 


Listen HERE.


It sounds quite unfinished to me! Apparently it's just a modified version of a song released 4 years ago...






Hmm, why wasn't this released ever ? I think this is the only Gorillaz song I don't own yet!
What do you think ?

Graham Coxon - DESIRE with lyrics

Remember when I promised I will upload Graham Coxon's new song "Desire" featuring Paloma Faith and Bill Ryder-Jones if I get permission from Converse? Well, I did get permission from their lovely Internet Team and I uploaded a lyrics video for the awesome new song.

Check it out HERE or watch below.



For those of you who don't know, I have a youtube channel that uploads everything Blur, Gorillaz, Damon and Graham....with bits and pieces of Alex and Dave. I'm making sure my account does not get suspended or removed, because there will be much less Blur in the cyber-sphere if I do get deleted.

So I'm chuffed I get to share with all of you and the world this amazing song DESIRE.

Do subscribe, rate and comment please! Keep me going!

Graham Coxon NEW SONG - "Desire" with Paloma Faith

Put Paloma Faith, Graham Coxon and Bill Ryder-Jones together in a studio and what do you get? Desire.

This track was created by this trio as the next in line of exclusive music collaborations for Converse Shoes's advertising campaign. Graham collaborated with different musicians to promote their campaign and music. 

Listen HERE

The video will be out soon, and I think it's going to be pretty amazing. Beautiful pictures though... I love the last shot of Graham behind his guitar. 

Love Graham 's guitar work in the song, and it really brings out the energy in Paloma Faith's voice. Graham is simply the most awesome guitarist ever. Paloma Faith actually collaborated with Blur in "Kissing' Time" and some old Blur b-sides. Does anyone know whether it's uploaded or not? On youtube?


I am actually trying to upload the song to my youtube channel UKTAHHH but I already have 2 strikes. One more and I'm out of youtube yet again (for those of you who know me, I had an account called "Uktah" that had all the videos I have now, but uploaded a year earlier, the account was deleted due to copyright issues). I emailed Converse about this, and if all goes well, I will have permission to upload it and share to you guys. For now, just listen on the website and enjoy the awesome interface. 

What do you think of the new song? 


EDIT***


I uploaded it on youtube with permission. Here it is: