I wrote new album in secret, says Blur’s Damon Albarn
AS Blur begin their big comeback, singer Damon Albarn is joining the rest of us by asking the burning question.
When will their chief Britpop rivals Oasis follow suit?
With a warm-up show tonight in Colchester, Essex, the place where it all began, and a surprise new album, The Ballad Of Darren, coming in July, Blur are all systems go — but what of Noel, Liam and Co?
“I can guarantee they’re going to reform,” says Damon. “In fact, I’ve put money on it.
“They’re brothers and it would be wonderful to see them reconcile.”
Damon believes the Gallaghers’ relationship “will have changed dramatically” since the announcement of Noel’s impending divorce.
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“The only funny thing is that our two nights at Wembley will be dwarfed by their SEVEN!” he exclaims.
That said, he accepts that “no one else can play Blur songs except us but either Gallagher seems able to do their songs”.
Over the years, Damon has developed a warm friendship with Noel and even got him to co-write and perform on Gorillaz track We Got The Power in 2017.
But he is also keen to set the record straight on the two biggest British bands of the Nineties.
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Our common perception is of brash Manchester lads, Oasis, versus posh Essex boys, Blur.
But Damon says: “The worst aspect of it, and something which needs to be addressed, is that we were sold as privately educated and yet none of us were.
‘Life’s too short’
“Alex (James) went to grammar school because he passed the 11-plus. The rest of us went to sh***y comprehensive schools in the Eighties.
“So it was a total myth. Both my parents were artists. One of them had a job as a teacher and that was it. It was a complete confection. The idea of me being a public school boy . . . what!?”
At this point, he stops himself from descending into rant mode and adds with a wry smile: “Every time I open my mouth these days I sound like a middle-aged, grumpy old man!”
I’m talking to Damon in the top- floor “office” of his Studio 13 in the shadow of London’s Westway and it’s clear that 2023 is shaping up to be a bit of a Blur for this restless soul.
Dressed in a baggy denim skateboarder outfit to go with — despite what he says — his youthful spirit, the 55-year-old explains why he’s one of the busiest men in music.
“Life’s too f***ing short!” he cries. “I still see myself as the guy in Girls & Boys and Parklife videos and I know I’m not. I just need to man up a bit.”
Along with co-creator Jamie Hewlett, he released the latest Gorillaz album, Cracker Island, in February and headlined America’s biggest music festival, Coachella, in April with the virtual band.
Yesterday, Blur announced The Ballad Of Darren, their ninth studio album (due July 21), with single The Narcissist the first enticing slice of what’s to come.
The ten-track songcycle was produced by James Ford, best known for his work with Arctic Monkeys, and is their first studio effort since their last comeback, 2015’s chart-topping The Magic Whip.
Tonight, Blur play the first of four warm-up gigs before an audience of 200 at Colchester Arts Centre, in the heart of their old student stomping ground.
And on July 8 and 9 they headline their first ever gigs at Wembley Stadium, capacity 75,000, proving that our collective thirst for Britpop remains unquenched.
I ask Damon how the reunion is going. “It’s always a little bit weird to start off with,” he replies.
“We hadn’t seen each other for a couple of years, which is how it goes sometimes, but we soon catch up. We’re just a bit more considerate of each other now. Less selfish. Which works!”
One of his main drivers is to keep Blur’s much-loved songs alive — Parklife, Beetlebum, Coffee & TV, There’s No Other Way, Song 2, The Universal, Tender and the rest.
But in order for it to be a truly fulfilling experience, Damon is bringing new music into the mix.
“I’ve been having quite a good run with my songwriting,” he says. “I seem to have hit a vein in my subterranean world. I’ve been digging for a while and I’ve found something.”
If his new Blur songs continue his creative streak, they’ve also caught everyone, including his bandmates, by surprise.
“I didn’t tell anyone I was writing an album. I pretty much wrote it while I was on the road with Gorillaz,” he discloses.
“I even demo’d the songs out there on my travels. I had a studio which came with me everywhere, so I recorded all over the place.”
Then, while back in the UK over Christmas, he “wrote some more” and, “by the New Year, had 24 songs ready to record”.
Next came sessions in London and Devon with bandmates Alex, Graham Coxon and Dave Rowntree.
“We just got down to it and the results are sounding great. I’m very, very excited about it,” says Damon.
In fact, a perverse side of me would quite like to walk out on stage at Wembley Stadium and play a new one.”
He describes The Ballad Of Darren, its name inspired by the notion of an everyman character, as “a truly emotional record”.
And, though he says so himself, he believes the album to be “really good”.
Damon reveals that the band eventually recorded about 20 songs then “absolutely edited them down” to ten for standard versions and 12 for deluxe formats. “We were very hard on ourselves.”
The resulting album comes with an evocative, classically Blur cover photo by Martin Parr, of Gourock lido, Renfrewshire, under glowering grey skies.
In their announcement, the bandmates have each offered a comment. First Damon, who says: “This is an aftershock record, reflection and comment on where we find ourselves now.”
Guitarist Graham adds: “The older and madder we get, it becomes more essential that what we play is loaded with the right emotion and intention. Sometimes just a riff doesn’t do the job.”
Bassist Alex sees it like this: “For any long-term relationship to last with any meaning, you have to be able to surprise each other somehow, and somehow we all continue to do that.”
And finally drummer Dave: “It always feels very natural to make music together. With every record we do, the process reveals something new and we develop as a band. We don’t take that for granted.”
I ask Damon how the other three reacted when they discovered he wanted them to record a new Blur album.
“They were pleased and happy. Recording the new songs then became a great way for us to get into rehearsing the older stuff,” he replies.
Next Damon considers why the time is right for a reunion.
“It’s important to some of the members to play again,” he says.
“Maybe not so important for me in some senses but, you know what, why can’t I play those tunes?
“They’re part of who I am and it’s potentially a very joyous night out. Also, I firmly believe we’ve all improved as musicians.”
When he looks back to those heady days when Blur were sparring with Oasis for chart domination, he concedes: “I was much more of an amateur then than I am now.
“But there’s a lot to be celebrated about amateurism when it comes to making bands.” Damon maintains that public interest in a band like Blur is cyclical.
“The barometer of this country is so all over the place,” he says. “Sometimes the reaction can be underwhelming and sometimes completely overwhelming.”
So what can we expect from the big Wembley shows, the centre- pieces of their European tour?
“I’m trying to keep them as simple as possible,” he says. “I don’t really want huge amounts of other musicians.
“My attitude is: If the songs don’t work, why are we doing them? We might bring out the London Community Gospel Choir for Tender but they’re on the record anyway.”
And he confirms that we can expect Quadrophenia star Phil Daniels to reprise his brilliant “vorsprung durch technik” spoken- word role on Parklife.
Damon knows that Blur hold a special place in the hearts of so many and that this comeback is for them.
“What’s the point of doing it otherwise?” he says. “I’m very aware that it needs to be something that lifts everyone and is positive.
“This is the first really big post- Britpop statement from one of those bands. We’ve had the distance to assimilate and evaluate what we mean to people.”
As for the band’s future, Damon, who always seems to have multiple projects on the go, can’t possibly predict what’s in store.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever make another Blur record,” he says. “I didn’t really expect to make this one.”
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The Ballad Of Darren tracklist
- The Ballad
- St Charles Square
- Barbaric
- Russian Strings
- The Everglades (For Leonard)
- The Narcissist
- Goodbye Albert
- Far Away Island
- Avalon
- The Heights
BLUR – The Narcissist
★★★★★
IT’S got the hooks, the singalong chorus, all the hallmarks of classic Blur, in fact.
But the first single also finds Damon Albarn in reflective mood, looking at himself in the mirror and dwelling on familiar rock star perils . . . the bottle, drugs and ego. It’s raw, honest and thrilling. SC