“It’s very possible I’ll go back to Blur, it really is very possible”

[Alchemy]

Two threads by Alchemy today! How could I not post about this?

Link. (http://consequenceofsound.net/2008/11/06/damon-albarn-likes-the-idea-of-a-blur-reunion/)

Damon Albarn likes the idea of a Blur reunion
By Alex Young on November 6th, 2008

What’s this about the Damon Albarn discussing the prospects of a Blur reunion? Between the Monkey shenanigans and forthcoming Gorillaz release, it seems almost unfathomable to think the British musician is considering taking on another high-profile project. But in a recent interview with the BBC, the former Blur frontman hinted at just that - a reunion of his main outfit.

After recently having lunch with former bandmate Graham Coxon, Albarn now believes a reunion of Blur could “be in the cards.” While previous get-togethers among members of the group were downplayed as nothing more than “enjoyable lunches” and even resulted in one such response by the Grammy-award winning frontman that proclaimed “Blur is over” after rumors began to suggest the contrary, it now appears the 40-year-old Albarn has a change of heart.

“It’s very possible I’ll go back to Blur, it really is very possible,” Albarn told the BBC, though he refused to go into any specifics, “the truth be known Graham and I have been hanging out together a bit. We had lunch the other day…He’s great, it’s fantastic to get my old friend back. So it’s good but I can’t really say any more than that.”

Coxon left Blur in 2002 and shortly thereafter the band disbanded following the release of 2003’s Think Tank. Since then, the guitarist has had a fairly successful solo career, which most recently included a collobartion with Pete Doherty for the former Babyshambles frontman’s upcoming solo album.

Before the idea of a Blur reunion is entertained however, Albarn appears firm in finishing his current endeavors, which includes the release of the Gorillaz’s long-awaited follow up to 2005’s Demon Days. “I’m halfway through the next Gorillaz album at the minute,” he went on to explain in the interview. “That’s going to be interesting and different again. This next time around there will be a lot going on in it.” The album is rumored to see release in March.

[frozen pilgrim]

oh man. sweet. gorillaz 09, and blur '10

[orbit]

i think this source is a little more reliable


http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/music/newsid_7710000/7710537.stm

[amyzzz]

Great news!!!!

[Sonicifyouwantit]

blur reminds me 2003, when one could simply walk up to the front of the main stage.

[Tylerdurden31]

i saw blur at Field Day in 03...it was one of the few good things about the festival

[bballarl]

I am 100% for Blur.

[Boourns]

2010 will be the year of Pulp and Blur reunions, and when Daft Punk and Arcade Fire return.

[Ardentbiscuit]

That would be very cool...

It really, really, really could happen
Yes, it really, really, really could happen

[miscorrections]

Ooooh, yes please.

[TeamCoachellaHellYeah]

Gorillaz new album in March? Def a shoo in for Coach....maybe next year for Blur...

[mvanwinkle]

would much rather see the gorillaz. I love the gorillaz(top 10 bands) and i love gbq but i have never for some reason listened to blur.

[humanoid]

would much rather see the gorillaz. I love the gorillaz(top 10 bands) and i love gbq but i have never for some reason listened to blur.

maybe you should check them out

in my mind, Blur and 13 are artistically ambitious masterpieces, that stray far from their early Britpop roots, with Parklife very nearly behind those two

[bballarl]

If you want to truly understand Blur, listen to Parklife.

[shakermaker113]

how many times have there been "it could happen" and "it won't happen" headlines since 2003? fuck. don't the press ever get bored of rotating between those two stories fuck. I wish they'd just wait until there's actually something to talk about.

[Backwater]

in my mind, Blur and 13 are artistically ambitious masterpieces, that stray far from their early Britpop roots, with Parklife very nearly behind those two

Yep. Those are the three best. I would love to see Blur, even more than Gorillaz.

[ADrunkPoet]

Gorillaz album, tour(?), then Blur reunion...

Doesn't seem that unlikely of a timetable.

[TeamCoachellaHellYeah]

If you want to truly understand Blur, listen to Parklife.

truly their best work.....

[jazzz]

I always go back to BLUR.

[Alchemy]

would much rather see the gorillaz. I love the gorillaz(top 10 bands) and i love gbq but i have never for some reason listened to blur.

Gorillaz is really great, and so are all of Albarn's other projects.

However...

Damon Albarn's full power is only unleashed when Graham Coxon is present. Which is why Blur transcends all levels.

They have a pretty good compilation: The Best of Blur (the cover looks like my user image). I recommend Parklife and then Blur and then The Great Escape and then 13 and then Leisure and then Modern Life is Rubbish. All are different, all are great.

Think Tank has some cool stuff too, but Graham Coxon is like... in 1 song "Battery in Your Leg"... which is one of the best Blur songs at any rate.

[shakermaker113]

pitchfork said it well:

"There won't be another [Gorillaz] pop record."

-- Damon Albarn to BBC2's Steve Wright, April 19, 2007

"Gorillaz is making an album."

-- Damon Albarn to CBC's Sarah Liss, September 17, 2008 (and to Pitchfork, more or less)

"Blur is over."

-- Damon Albarn to Argentinean newspaper Clarín, September 5, 2008

"It's very possible I'll go back to Blur, it really is very possible."

-- Damon Albarn to the BBC this week [via Idolator]

SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP THIS MAN, CLEARLY HE IS VERY CONFUSED.

and that only spans two years. if you look back longer, the trend continues.

[amyzzz]

Damon Albarn is quite possibly the yummiest frontman ever in the history of yummy frontmen. Oh yeah, and he's talented. And apparently manic depressive.

[paulb]

Blur>Gorillaz

I need to see Blur one day.

[Kool-Aid Man]

First reunion setlist....








She’s So High
Girls And Boys
Tracy Jacks
There’s No Other Way
Jubilee
Badhead
Beetlebum
Trimm Trabb
Coffee & TV
Tender
Country House
Charmless Man
Colin Zeal
Oily Water
Chemical World
Sunday Sunday
Parklife
End Of A Century
To The End
This Is A Low
———
Popscene
Advert
Song 2
Out Of Time
Battery In Your Leg
Essex Dogs
For Tomorrow
The Universal

[jazzz]

First reunion setlist....








She’s So High
Girls And Boys
Tracy Jacks
There’s No Other Way
Jubilee
Badhead
Beetlebum
Trimm Trabb
Coffee & TV
Tender
Country House
Charmless Man
Colin Zeal
Oily Water
Chemical World
Sunday Sunday
Parklife
End Of A Century
To The End
This Is A Low
———
Popscene
Advert
Song 2
Out Of Time
Battery In Your Leg
Essex Dogs
For Tomorrow
The Universal

Damn I want that!!

[rskapcat]

I would die!

[Kid B]

Country House and Sunday Sunday? Holy shit.

[Alchemy]

Oily Water!!!

[BlackSwan]

In honor of Blur being back, I am going to have a Blur day... Haven't listened to them in ages.

[bballarl]

I want to see them so fucking bad.

[sonofhal]

They are playing at Rough Trade East tonight doing an instore. Wristbands were given away from 11am this morning at Brixton Academy. There were only 170 of them, but they didn't get rid of them all until around 3pm. If i'd known they would last so long, i'd have popped over and got one.

Oh well. I only have to wait two more weeks.

[BlackSwan]

I want to see them so fucking bad.

Holy shit, I forgot how good they were... I now second this.

[bballarl]

This is a lowwwwwwwwwww

[BlackSwan]

I'd love to stay here and be normal... But it's just so overrated

[buddy]

Reunion Concert
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6cz4XT2Kfg4&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6cz4XT2Kfg4&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9oiIUaQCrkI&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9oiIUaQCrkI&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AN9Hp9Ov0mA&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AN9Hp9Ov0mA&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-UnlqFU6vfk&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-UnlqFU6vfk&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

[BlackSwan]

Just got to Think Tank... Fuck, another British band I have to use up my will power to get to come to the US.

[Alchemy]

They HAVE to come to America!

[Still-ill]

Great clips buddy. Thanks, they sound really good here. They were a little shoddy live back in the day.

[stuporfly]

Had to beg off seeing them in Hyde Park next month, much to my great disappointment. I desperately hope they make it over to the US before their little money grab reunion is over. And I even more desperately hope by the time they do, Damon's got his ass back in his pants.

Fuck, they sound so good with Graham back...

[BlackSwan]

So, is the reunion really over?

[rage patton]

When is the new Gorillaz album comming out?

[sbessiso]

When is the new Gorillaz album comming out?

GODFUCKINGDAMMIT

He needs to get his ass back on that shit

[amyzzz]

need US tour.

[rage patton]

Gorillaz for Coachella 2010!

[BlackSwan]

When is the new Gorillaz album comming out?

Not until 2010. It isn't done yet, and Damon isn't rushing it.

[shakermaker113]

So, is the reunion really over?

I was wondering that too. "last show" is awfully vague. if so, then I'm really glad I made it out to hyde park. I still have my hopes for a US tour or maybe coachella appearance though. nothing Damon says seems to last.

also wondering whether Graham's hospital visit might have encouraged Damon to think it would be their last.

[Boourns]

Coachella 2010!

[humanoid]

Coachella 2010!

absolutely...only if it includes Graham though

[shakermaker113]

I would be surprised if blur did anything without Graham again.

[BlackSwan]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blur Have No Plans to Continue
They're not saying it's over. They just haven't discussed it.

Blur's much-celebrated reunion has brought the Britpop originators to big and small stages across Britain this summer, leaving droves of delirious fans in its wake. Last month, guitarist Graham Coxon and bassist Alex James got our hopes up by claiming that the band has been jamming together, which opened the door to the idea that maybe they'd record and release some new music. But now it's looking more likely that it may not happen.

Talking to BBC News (via the Guardian), James said, "That was what we said we'd do and we did it and it was great. It hasn't been mentioned the idea of doing anything else but hey, it was great." Boo.


http://pitchfork.com/news/36025-blur-have-no-plans-to-continue-reunion/

[amyzzz]

Well, that just sucks. I can see why they wouldn't come here though. America hasn't been all that great to Blur.

[Alchemy]

Pitchfork might be jumping to conclusions. That seems to be saying that Blur has no plans to release new music, not that they aren't going to visit America.

I'm going to stop holding my breath though and buy a ticket for the Pixies when they go on sale, and hopefully an Ocean Rain - Echo & the Bunnymen ticket.

[Boourns]

I figured they would do this.

[shakermaker113]

blur's plans change every two weeks. only time will tell.

but there's certainly not much light at the end of this tunnel. every day I am more and more glad that I got to see them at hyde park.

[BlackSwan]

There are conclusions, and I am jumping to them.

[Alchemy]

Magic America is waiting for you, Blur.

[amyzzz]

I hate this thread.

[Boourns]

Sigh, I shall nevar 4get...

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y200/frankatcoachella/1089.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y200/frankatcoachella/1097-1.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y200/frankatcoachella/1084-2.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y200/frankatcoachella/1082.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y200/frankatcoachella/1098-1.jpg

[Kid B]

*Jealousy*
The second and last ones are amazing.

[shakermaker113]

look inside america...

[Boourns]

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y200/frankatcoachella/007-1.jpg

[Alchemy]

Siiiiiiiiigh...

[BlackSwan]

Yeah... *sniffle*

[shakermaker113]

god damn you damon albarn.

gorillaz will fill this void.

[fikus222]

gorillaz will fill this void.

It's about friggin time.

I'm not too sorry about Blur, I saw them in '96 and wasn't blown away or anything (I know, blasphemy).

[shakermaker113]

I got an email saying the live in hyde park mp3s are ready! downloading now.

interestingly enough, the email says we get 160 kbps mp3s. then I noticed the file name ended with _Low.zip. I removed the _Low from the file name and it started to download a larger zip file. hopefully better quality.

then I changed the file name to include the date for friday's gig (which I didn't purchase) and it started to download that too.

good security, sandbag.

[Alchemy]

Gorillaz will not fill this void. They're a completely different kind of band...

[BlackSwan]

I wish the people who took videos of the newest shows and posted them on YouTube could hold their camera still.

[shakermaker113]

I wish the people who took videos of the newest shows and posted them on YouTube could hold their camera still.

I tried, but it's difficult when people are being pulled out of the crowd to your left/right/right over your head every few minutes.

I screwed myself with the downloads this morning. my download of the thursday show got interrupted, now the link it tells me I've used the validation code too many times. I succesfully got the one I had no right to, but failed on the one I legally purchased. rofl. emailing them for help now...

[buddy]

http://www.nme.com/news/blur/46544
Blur could play more shows. Guitarist believes the band could continue with gigs abroad
August 6, 2009

Graham Coxon has said there could be more Blur gigs.

The guitarist said the band might follow-up their shows in June and July by staging more concerts abroad. The comeback shows were almost all in the UK and Ireland, apart from one in France, in Lyon on July 5.

"We're talking about doing some more shows abroad... I'm not sure how much I can say about that, but we're definitely talking about it," he told XFM.

Coxon added that the band had also considered writing some new songs.

"I think I said that'd be quite good fun. That's as far as it's gone," he said of Blur's future plans. "We didn't bother really talking about it, we were just having a good time. We didn't want to put any adverse 'Gs' onto it."

As previously reported by NME.COM, Coxon said that he was interested in writing and recording another Blur album, but the band had yet to discuss the idea.

The guitarist also indicated that any new material would be unlikely to surface in the near future.

[Alchemy]

Hmm... Well, I put more into the words of Graham Coxon than any other member, so maybe Blur will come after all, and I would love a new album.

[buddy]

Hmm... Well, I put more into the words of Graham Coxon than any other member, so maybe Blur will come after all, and I would love a new album.

It would be great if they finished it off proper with graham on board for another album, after think tank.

[buddy]

i'd be happy with a tour state side, though.

[shakermaker113]

they're talking about it. let's be happy.

next week there will be another nme article on how nothing has happened in a week and the band must be over forever. it's like a childish drama with that publication.

[buddy]

next week there will be another nme article on how nothing has happened in a week and the band must be over forever. it's like a childish drama with that publication.

this is true.

[humanoid]

Hmm... Well, I put more into the words of Graham Coxon than any other member, so maybe Blur will come after all, and I would love a new album.

Graham is absolutely imperative if they intend on writing anymore music...I loved the Gorillaz first album ,but I think the second is dreadfully boring....

Think Tank had it's interesting moments, but it clearly lacked someone with the ability to play guitar on it....

[Alchemy]

Graham is absolutely imperative if they intend on writing anymore music...I loved the Gorillaz first album ,but I think the second is dreadfully boring....

Think Tank had it's interesting moments, but it clearly lacked someone with the ability to play guitar on it....

Yeah, Think Tank is a good album, but in relation to Blur albums, its the weak link. "Out of Time" is such an amazingly, beautiful example of the genius that is Damon Albarn though. "Battery in Your Leg" is also brilliant, but that is Graham Coxon in it, so it's also like a painful example of what could have been...

[BlackSwan]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

kKn5aMQ-Dho

[shakermaker113]

unnecessary bumps to this thread are cruel. :-(

[BlackSwan]

Graham Coxon: 'No more from Blur for now'

Guitarist says there's nothing on the cards for the foursome

Graham Coxon has confirmed that Blur have no further plans to play live together or do "anything else" as a band following their reunion this year.

The four-piece reunited to play live earlier in 2009, headlining Glastonbury festival and T In The Park as well as playing their own shows. Now Coxon has told NME.COM, in an exclusive video interview which you can watch by clicking on the right, that they have no plans for further Blur events.

"We're in touch and we say 'Wotcha' and all that but nothing has been mentioned about any more shows or anything else," he said. "Everyone's slipped back into what they do when the Blur creature isn't heaving around. Law and cheese and music, I suppose."

Although the guitarist had no Blur plans, he has geared up his solo career following the band live dates. He is set to play live with musical guests under the band name The Graham Coxon Power Acoustic Ensemble in November.

http://www.nme.com/news/blur/47568

I'm going to find a puppy to kick.

[rskapcat]

Fuck.

[stuporfly]

Fuck.

I concur.

[RedThom]

damn

[rage patton]

SCORE!

GORILLAZ COACHELLA 2010!

[rskapcat]

Yeah Josh...just rub some more salt in my wounds.

[amyzzz]

oh fuck. this sucks. :( I am hoping for the Gorillaz though. I've been lucky in that I've gotten to see Blur live quite a bit, but not the Gorillaz.

[rage patton]

Yeah Josh...just rub some more salt in my wounds.

Sorry Becca. :( And sorry for everyone who was really pulling for Blur at Coachella. I certainly wouldn't be oposed to it... I just really want to see Gorillaz!

[stuporfly]

Sorry Becca. :( And sorry for everyone who was really pulling for Blur at Coachella. I certainly wouldn't be oposed to it... I just really want to see Gorillaz!

I was all set to revoke your nice guy status and everything...

[bebop]

are gorillaz a possibility?

[rskapcat]

I like Gorillaz...but I have no emotional attachment to them whatsoever.

[BlackSwan]

I have an emotional attachment to Damon so as long as he is at Coachella I will be happy.

[stuporfly]

I have an emotional attachment to Damon so as long as he is at Coachella I will be happy.

Same here, and as such I've seen him in a variety of live settings performing pretty much with everyone but Blur and Gorillaz. I've fucked up.

[rage patton]

Gorillaz self titled was the very first album I bought with my own money. To say the least, I have an emotional attachment to Gorillaz.

[sbessiso]

SCORE!

GORILLAZ COACHELLA 2010!

My thoughts exactly

[rskapcat]

Take it to the Gorillaz thread, Sally. This is a place for mourning.

[Boourns]

SCORE!

GORILLAZ COACHELLA 2010!

Not exactly. Just because Blur is no more doesn't mean we will get Gorillaz. Most likely it means a slot that could have gone to one rare act that actually had a slight chance of playing will end up going to someone everyone has already had the chance to see a hundred times.

Pulp is more likely than Gorillaz at this point. Gorillaz seem to be a pipe dream like Neutral Milk Hotel or The Smiths.

[BlackSwan]

I am pretty sure Damon won't want to do the Gorillaz show at Coachella.

[sbessiso]

Thats right, I forgot you guys have personal conversations with Damon and his plans for 2010

[liquidsnake28]

I am pretty sure Damon won't want to do the Gorillaz show at Coachella.

So am I.

This fucking sucks but on the bright side it leaves a headlining spot open for (assuming any of them are willing to do it) Outkast, Daft Punk or Radiohead.

[Boourns]

Well...
1. Gorillaz never played festivals
2. Damon likes to do weird things in unusual places with his cartoon band
3. Damon doesn't give a fuck if most of the fans never get the chance to see them
14. Festival setting is incompatible with a Gorillaz live show if it is anything like previous ones

[BlackSwan]

What Boourns said.

[shakermaker113]

I'm excited for their law & cheese careers.

[shakermaker113]

going to hyde park was one of the best decisions I have made all year.

also there's no reason why gorillaz couldn't play a festival.

[suprefan]

Well if they had done the hologram thing yes its a problem. some drunk idiot wouldve thrown a beer at a hologram projector and it wouldve gone dowhill from there...

[shakermaker113]

right. there's all sorts of problems with that. but that was tv appearances only, they never did that at live shows.

[rage patton]

I don't think Gorillaz will ever do the halogram show in a live setting. When they tour next, I bet it wil be somewhat similar to the Demon Days tour setup.

And Boourns...
1. Gorillaz never played festivals
Neither did Prince. Or Roger Waters or Madonna. Not a valid argument.
2. Damon likes to do weird things in unusual places with his cartoon band
Coachella would be a weird event in an unusual place for Damn and his cartoon band.
3. Damon doesn't give a fuck if most of the fans never get the chance to see them
Coachella is a relatively small festival. This would be another perfect opportunity for him not to give a fuck.
14. Festival setting is incompatible with a Gorillaz live show if it is anything like previous ones
Not true. I can't see any reason why the Demon Days set up would not be feasible at Coachella.

I think you actually just listed 4 good reasons why Gorillaz could be at Coachella.

[shakermaker113]

they evaluated doing a full tour with the holograms and decided against it. there's too great a chance of things going wrong, and they have to keep the music too quiet. they say that the tv performances were nerve wracking, and they are lucky they went off without a hitch. and apparently they were a lot quieter in person than they seemed on tv -- if the music was louder it would make the plastic vibrate and the "holograms" wouldn't look right.

[BlackSwan]

Either way, it's fucking awesome they tried to make a hologram band.

I really hope no Blur means he is all into Gorillaz now.

[Boourns]

The difference between Gorillaz and Waters/Madonna/etc is Gorillaz is a contemporary act that is expected to be at festivals that cater to the young and irresponsible. The others were all surprises and a lot of people were all "zomg this isn't the state fair because McCartney = Styx because both are oooollllddd." They could have easily played Coachella 2006 but did not want to. It's possible they will change their mind in 2010 but not likely. Let's see if that album even comes out.

[stuporfly]

If neither Blur nor Gorillaz are going to make Coachella, I'd love it if Damon brought his Honest Jon's Chop Up to the festival. I saw the show at Lincoln Center last year, and it was absolutely brilliant.

This particular performance is from 2002, but is a fair representation of what it was like on the stage when they broke into one of my favorite songs from the Mali Music album. I don't know what the reaction would be from the general crowd to this, but I know I'd be in total bliss...

U99V9thn_Xw

[shakermaker113]

I never took to mali music.

[Boourns]

Did anyone see The Good, The Bad & The Queen in 2007? I was tired and didn't feel like sticking around.

[rage patton]

They were good. Not amazing, but definately a good way to end the night. However, the best part of the set was Damon's comment about Tiestio.

[BlackSwan]

WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYY????????????

From Facebook:
Blur: New site is now live at www.blur.co.uk!

[stuporfly]

WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYY????????????

From Facebook:

I saw that, and it felt like a cheap taunt.

The bastards...

[Boourns]

It means they are confirmed for Coachella!

[buddy]

i hope it does mean they're coming to coachella. pavement and blur would make it a lock for me. i made this many moons ago for those interested

Blur - Various B-Sides

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f373/reyflores6p2/BlurB-Sides.jpg
(http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?kzygbdmryji)
1. Bone Bag
2. Day Upon Day (Live)
3. Down
4. Got Yer!
5. The Horrors
6. Inertia
7. The Man Who Left Himself
8. Mr. Briggs
9. My Ark
10. Peach
11. Sing
12. A Song
13. A Spell For Money
14. St. Louis
15. Tame
16. Threadneedle Street
17. Woodpigeon Song

[paulb]

Blur need to play Coachella just 1 more time....if only it could go down as great as the Glastonbury set was.

[shakermaker113]

is the new site supposed to do anything? or just say 'blur'?

[shakermaker113]

oh I see. that's a loading screen.

yeah the record execs just want to sell a few more copies of midlife. woop de do.

[devachan]

Hey guys. Hopefully it'll include some backstage stuff from Glasto.

6iYxdghpJZY&feature=player_embedded

Also, I just saw this over at the Guardian...an interview with Damon Albarn: Multi-tasker of the Decade (http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/nov/29/damon-albarn-paul-morley).

[shakermaker113]

the new gorillaz album is named Plastic Beach???

he has a trio with Flea and Tony Allen??

he had a girlfriend when he was 5?

that was a really cool interview. thanks for posting that.

also, doesn't look too bright for blur's future:

"And then after the last gig in Scotland I got on the train and left it all behind. That's it, I haven't thought about it since. "

[shakermaker113]

OH SHIT! I just watched the youtube. there's going to be a documentary or something!! kick ass

[devachan]

Yeah it looks badass. Supposed to be in theaters in January but maybe that means only in the UK? Maybe we'll hear a bit more about it this coming week.

[Dale Gribble]

I want to see Blur. :mad:

[shakermaker113]

yeah I doubt they would release it in theatres here. hopefully they show it free online like they did with bananaz.

[Boourns]

Europe is the only continent that matters, obviously.

[TeamCoachellaHellYeah]

they just take their music much more seriously there.

[shakermaker113]

europe is the only continent where they can break even showing a blur documentary in the theaters. if you had a theater would you be willing to take a hit to show a blur documentary?

[Boourns]

I mean moreso in relation to the whole reunion tour itself.

As for the doc, hmm, they've shown less marketable things at art house theaters. In NY and LA. For a week.

[buddy]

Hey guys. Hopefully it'll include some backstage stuff from Glasto.

6iYxdghpJZY&feature=player_embedded

very cool. coachella 2010 please.

[shakermaker113]

oh my... I just realized there is a whole audio interview on the guardian page that goes far FAR more in depth than the written part. apparently Damon didn't want the glastonbury performance to be filmed because he was worried about screwing it up.

I mean moreso in relation to the whole reunion tour itself.

in terms of the tour itself, Alex said since reforming they have received all sorts of offers from america that they would never have had before. I think they could have come to the US, if they wanted.

[shakermaker113]

here is the complete transcript, stolen from gorillaz-unofficial:

PM: Let me ask you first of all whether the Blur reunion has given you a better or different understanding of your place in the pop firmament.

DA: That was really strange because it was a very disciplined time. I stopped drinking entirely. I stopped making this Gorillaz record, which has been all-consuming, for three months as well, because I’d got to a point where there was no way I could do that and that at the same time. And bit by bit we got back up to the level we were at when we were at our prime. Where it was stadiums, and everyone was singing, and it was very euphoric. And then after the last gig in Scotland I got on the train and left it all behind. That’s it. I haven’t thought about it since. I haven’t watched any of the gigs, I haven’t watched Glastonbury. I had to approve a few of the live things that inevitably come out of that sort of thing, but I haven’t given it any thought. For me it was so nice to do that again and know that I left on a good note with Graham, Alex and Dave. I didn’t come offstage thinking “I’M A ROCK STAR!” at all, I really didn’t. It was really strange. I enjoyed it, I loved every second of it, it was incredibly emotional, there was a real resonance, I really felt the songs had lasted and in a way they’d been a vision of Britain as it is now. So all of that stuff. But when it finished it was like well, we’ve all got to get on with our lives now, don’t think this was... it was a really nice holiday, a real treat, a real honour to be able to experience. You can’t underestimate the feeling of 120,000 people at Glastonbury just singing every word back to you. It’s an incredible feeling. It’s unbelievable. I suppose the only thing that’s come out of it maybe is that I’ve worked a lot harder making my lyrics and my melodies clear on this Gorillaz album. That’s probably what has come out of this summer’s experience.

PM: Because I was going to ask you, if there was a weird sense with putting Blur together that you were recreating a sense of what happened first time round when you were in a group and then the disadvantages for you as a musician in a group enabled you then to set all those other things in motion. I wondered if part of it would sort of imply that going back into it you’d come out of it again...

DA: Well I thought I was over running around and jumping up and down but it didn’t seem to stop me this summer. I was right back at it and loved every minute of it. I had my mate Smoggy who’s been there in the pit and whenever I went into the audience, pulling me out . And it was all great. And we loved every minute of it. And it was very sober, except right at the end when it went a bit pear-shaped actually, the night before the last gig, but that’s another story. Not me, but as a group we all slipped back. It was good that we stopped at that point!

PM: Let’s think about what they’ve now called the noughties. Did you have all these things in your head?

DA: I was at Shepherd’s Bush last night, as I said, and there were all these adverts for this “I Love the 90s” club with a picture of Jarvis looking young and slightly wasted. So that’s there, that’s what that is now, it’s as much nostalgia as everything else. But it’s funny that Blur songs were about that inevitable nostalgia that the country is weighed down by. So it’s kind of funny you know, Pop will eat itself.

PM: But do you shape things into decades and think of it like that, like the end of a ten-year period, and then you look back at what you’ve done and work out whether you’ve achieved, and satisfied your goals?

DA: Er no, not really. I mean I’m just, ..I’m a musician now. I say that in the sense that though I did write the majority of the stuff in Blur and in the studio played the stuff but on stage I was always just a frontman really.. and the gap between Graham’s musicianship and mine now is ridiculous, he’s so... he’s just spent twenty years playing the guitar and he’s just incredible. Whereas I’m just jack of all trades. But you know it’s alright, it’s okay. I’m getting to do another opera at the Royal Opera House so I can’t be doing too badly.

PM: But that’s your decade then, isn’t it? That’s the decade you became, officially, the jack of all trades.

DA: Yeah, I went back to a lot of things that I’d put on hold, like writing music like orchestral music, and thinking about dramatic stuff. But I would like to think that in the next decade... although we don’t look at decades in the cosy way we used to look at them because things are so uncertain...

PM: Well that’d be nice... a bit of uncertainty.

DA: Well there’s a lot of that. It’s everywhere. The Noughties is all about the realisation that we are absolutely at the end of our imperial phase. The Nineties was the last embers.. this is the beginning of the austere cold winder. It was the autumn of our empire, the nineties. And now we’re definitely in the winter.

PM: So you could detect a kind of pattern then, if you think about it?

DA: Yeah. Well there is always a pattern. What I was talking to my dad about last night, my dad’s finishing his book which he’s been working on for something like ten years on, called Pattern and Belief, which isn’t about that, it’s his master work and it’s nearly finished, I was just talking to him, it doesn’t matter what you achieve in life, old age brings a sense of your complete insignificance, it doesn’t matter what.. in fact the more you create, the more you realise that! But isn’t that kind of beautiful, in a way? [laughs] I thought that was kinda nice.

PM: So if you look at the Jack of all Trades Damon that emerged Damon, I was interested in you’ve got your Mali Express [sic], you’ve got your group The Good, The Bad & The Queen, you’ve got Gorillaz, you’ve got Blur, going out, coming back again, how are they in your head? How do you hold them in your imagination? What do they mean to you?

DA: They’re all the same thing, you know. Having done Monkey, and knowing the constraints I had, with what Shi-Zheng brought to the table with his circus troupe and what he wanted... at the moment, bless him, at the moment he’s directing China’s version of High School Musical, so, he’s gone that way [laughs]

PM: That was your fault! [laughs]

DA: His agenda with Monkey was obviously that he wanted to make some money and I didn’t really see it in those terms so the fact that I got the chance to do something else on another incredible subject means that I will see that as being very public, a bit of an education and will approach it in a less dilettante way the next opera. I might even go and go back to school for a bit.

PM: You say that they’re all the same thing but they’re kind of not, not the same thing in a way. They’ve got very different parameters to them, very different presentation, so they’re not the same thing. So they are not the same thing, you are holding different things , it is an unusual thing to do, isn’t it, different models, ways of making music and presenting it to the world, all going on at the same time.

DA: I suppose so but I don’t see it like that. I just see that I’ve got massive interest in every aspect of music from the most kitsch to the most hermetic.

PM: Do you have a favourite model in your head. Like, they’re all your kids but you can’t but help feeling occasionally that one of them is your favourite?

DA: I fall in love with them all at the time... I suppose with the Blur thing this summer I was able to walk away with it. It was the first time in my life that I had accepted nostalgia, as which was something unavoidable really, and actually important. It’s ritual. It was ritual. Ritual is nostalgia, the whole.., from the aborigines calling on the ancestors continuously every day, that’s nostalgia.

PM: We have a weird anxiety about nostalgia don’t we, largely because in many senses it takes over the commercial world but on the other hand it ruins the idea of repetition of certain, like you say, rituals which are important.

DA: Yeah, the rituals are important, and I felt at Glastonbury we elevated art performance to the level of ritual. Which was what we had to do. I’d had a massive ongoing fight with the BBC up until a few hours before we went onstage that I didn’t want it filmed, because I just felt, this is the moment, if I can’t get it right at this time, if I can’t evoke that spirit, then I’m never going to be able to do it. I don’t need it to be filmed, because it will stay anyway.

PM: The other thing that’s happened with music is that there with there being so music, so much consciousness about music, everyone’s talking about music, that thing that you were trying to create there, almost a secrecy if you like, it’s impossible nowadays, as soon as something happens it seems to be completely co-opted and some of those secret moments and secret knowledge.

DA: Exactly.

PM: What’s it like when you start a new project Damon, and you just get stuck in, and you just do it?

DA: But it takes an awful long time. This whole Gorillaz album ‘Plastic Beach’ which is nearly finished now, started off as Carousel and this room and it was about the mystical aspects of Britain but obviously as it’s Gorillaz it’s moved into a different place but it still maintains a lot of the melancholy. So things move. You can’t be sure when you start something that there’s going to be any resemblance to the finished thing.

PM: And what about what you’ve done in the past, do you feel there’s any sense in which you have to outdo that? Does that become a burden on you? Do you try and rinse that away? Do you have a perception that people have a sense of who you are and will expect certain things and by satisfying that you’re repeating yourself but on the other hand you don’t want to go too far away?

DA: Well you have a nature don’t you, and that you can’t lose. So that’s the link isn’t it.

PM: So what do you think your nature is? What comes through, whatever happens?

DA: Well I’ve got... I’m quite good at capturing that collective sense of melancholy. With Gorillaz there’s a lot of Hip Hop and I have to work as a complete innocent when I’m making it because if I try to make it sound cool it’s disastrous .

PM: And do you think that those... you know we were talking about patterns in the noughties, in the last ten years, just to go back to that for a second, what is your reading of it as a fan of music and someone who is such a fan of music that you ended up doing it in the way you did it, and for a while there seemed to be a narrative to pop music and the way that it moved forward. What do you think happened to it in the last few years?

DA: Rock music hasn’t fared very well in the sense that there hasn’t been much, unless I’ve missed it, in the way of new ideas about what rock music is. Urban music has become mainstream music and the traditional ideas of pop have become so saccharine and it’s become so poor and manipulated by a small group of people, to mention no names...

PM: Do you feel any responsibility to keep putting forward the alternative to that?

DA: Well that’s why I do Gorillaz records. That’s why I’m making this one the most pop record I’ve ever made in many ways. But with all my experience to try to at least present something with some kind of depth.

PM: So when you use the word ‘Pop’ then, what do you mean? Because the word pop has been taken away a little bit from what, when we were growing up, the word ‘Pop’ meant. When Louis Walsh, I’ve mentioned a name now, says to someone ‘you look like a Pop star’, I don’t know about you but I...

DA: You can’t avoid that subject, can you?

PM: No, I’m sorry about that... [laughs]

DA: But you can’t avoid it, can you. I suppose what I’ve done with this Gorillaz record is I’ve tried to connect pop sensibility with ... trying to make people understand the essential melancholy of buying a ready made meal in loads of plastic packaging. People who watch X-Factor might have some emotional connection to these things, this detritus that accompanies what seems to be the most important thing in people’s eyes, the celebrity voyeurism.

PM: What about your relationship to celebrity? It’s quite a complicated one, because you’ve got it, and your name is something, and it’s out there and you’re playing Glastonbury, but on the other hand you’re trying to stay in the shadows and lurk about...

DA: Yeah as much as possible, totally. I have no interest whatsoever in engaging with it now because it doesn’t mean anything anymore. There was a time when being a pop star was a kind of other-worldly thing... did I feel like a pop star when we went onstage at Hyde Park and Glastonbury? The applause.. was connected to that, but no, I just felt like myself, a father who is passionate about music .

PM: Is it possible to maintain that hold, though? In those circumstances, that kind of objectivity, when...

DA: Yeah, yeah, yeah...

PM: [laughs] Are you sure?

DA: Yeah, well I was able to, definitely.

PM: You don’t feel an allure? A sway, pulling you back into...

DA: I thought I might, but I didn’t.

PM: And you were prepared to take the risk were you, in a way?

DA: Well I had to take the risk. Because I would never have addressed the demons that were lurking.

PM: What do you mean by that?

DA: Well... had I reversed the process when we kind of finished Blur, or when we changed its nature from being very brash and pop into something more dark, was that because I just couldn’t handle it or was it because I was genuinely interested in other things? And I know it was because I’m genuinely interested in other things now. Because I definitely embraced it again.

PM: So it was just a nervousness...

DA: Yeah it was my inadequacy, and I couldn’t actually deal with it...

PM: So the Blur reunion was like a grandiose form of psychotherapy?

DA: Most definitely, thank you very much everyone [both laugh]

PM: They’ll be thrilled... who was the patient?

DA: .. All of us [laughs]

PM: What about the African side, the other side, what do you think has changed and happened with our sensibility of that, has it just been absorbed?

DA: Well I think Africa Express has done a little bit towards getting people working together. There are a lot more musicians working together. So that. That was happening anyway and this is such an unbelievably multiracial country now. It’s funny, I was finishing a mix, and it was that Tuesday when they had that that... I’ve forgotten his name now, that BNP member...

PM: Nick Griffin...

DA: Yeah, Nick Griffin. So it was going on down there and I was watching it on the telly and was sitting there doing nothing and just watching the news. So I got my bicycle and I went down there. It was really interesting. The first guy to come up to me was a black guy and he said ‘what do you think about this Damon?’ and I was going ‘look at the crowd here they’re all white. It’s all Socialist Worker syndrome, bless ‘em’. I experienced all that during the anti-war stuff, and it’s a group of people who will protest about everything forever. It’s a way of life, it’s a culture in itself. So they were there. So we had a bit of a laugh about it. We agreed, they should not be here, just let this guy make an idiot of himself, he will make a fool of himself anyway, and the people on there are very qualified to make sure that happens. And don’t make a fuss about it, don’t give any energy to this because a lot of what it breeds on is that antagonism. So anyway I’m standing there and then these two lads come up to me and go ‘what are you doing here? You’re with us aren’t you?’ And I said ‘who are you?’ and they said ‘BNP’. But it was okay, we talked about it and I said ‘I’m not in any way with those protestors there but I’m not with you either. At all. I love this country as much as you do, but I like this country as it is. If you’re talking about are there too many people in the country – maybe. But it’s irrelevant where you come from, that’s just economics.’ I thought it was going to go into something but it just defused... and then they went down the pub. And then the BBC, they had realised I was there so they just left because they were going to ask me to do interviews and I wasn’t going to.

PM: So there you are you see. You turned up, you just wanted to be you, but you couldn’t.

DA: No way. I know that, so that’s why I left.

PM: But is that annoying, that you can’t hide the celebrity thing, you can’t be a witness anymore can you?

DA: I can’t be in this country anyway, no. So... Africa links to that in a way.

PM: Was that partly a reaction to what happened to you in the ‘90s? Because it was very white in a way, Blur was very white, the whole thing was very white. And your next steps was that part of your wondering what the hell was going on with it?

DA: Well I suppose so. We all react to it in different ways. So if as you were saying what was the difference in the Noughties for me was that I addressed what had always been part of me, that I had carried from a very young age, being into that feel, that cultural feel, that sense of openness and expressiveness which was not always apparent in white culture.

PM: And then what about that other thing, that you called Jack of all trades, and the potential, I think we’ve talked about it before but we can officially seal it now, the decade is officially over, the Stingo [??] thing, you know, the dilettante thing, a bit here a bit there...

DA: Well I’ve never myself like Sting but if people...

PM: Do you know what I mean? There’s China, there’s Africa, to tick off, is there a little element, sometimes, that you feel that that could be how it’s perceived, that you’re not completely absorbing yourself in it but you’re skimming surfaces...

DA: Well I’m still... I’m making another record with Tony Allen and Flea actually, which I’ve nearly finished. Hopefully, at the end of this year, if I finish this in time, I’m going back to Africa again in January or February or whatever it is, and then I’m going to do another record with my old friend Afel Boucoum, hopefully in the desert, that’s next year. So I don’t feel like I’m in any way... you know. I just don’t do it all the time. It’s not entirely my thing. But opera isn’t my thing all the time but I’m coming back and doing another one and, you know, I’d like to do another Good, The Bad & The Queen album actually, if we get the chance, because we’re still really good friends and we only just started that but it’s a case of, I always had to go back and do the Blur thing, at some point, so I’ve gone and done that. After four years, or five years, I started another Gorillaz thing so I feel like I don’t have the time, physically, to do it all at once. So I have to sort of...

PM: If we could go back to the psychotherapy thing again. What do you think it ultimately is that drives you to want to do these things?

DA: I want to be a better person in every aspect. I really don’t feel like I’m anywhere fulfilled my potential [sic] in every aspect of my life. I really don’t want to fall off without at least feeling, you know, I’ve been,.. I’m a good person, you know? A simple motivation really.

PM: And is that connected to any form of anxiety about how people perceive you? Do you care about how people perceive you? Do you worry that sometimes people will perceive you as something that you think is underestimating or misinterpreting you? Because sometimes you get yourself in little eddies, you know..

DA: I’ve worried about that an awful lot in my life but I’d just like to think that I’m less preoccupied with that now. Maybe I’m wrong but I sincerely hope so.

PM: It’s a weird thing you know, I get the feeling, we talk about The Good, The Bad & The Queen and Gorillaz, Mali Express [sic], the Mali records, everything you’ve done, I think there’s a tendency for you to think, when you talk about them – and Monkey – , that you might be showing off a little bit,.. you seem to therefore go the other way.

DA: I know. I have a reputation really badly... I hope it’s not quite as.. well you can’t really ever lose those tags, that’s always going to be there.

PM: But is it just in Pop and Rock, that constant change, I mean you look at someone like Clapton, it’s almost like he’s never listened to any music since 1967...

DA: I know, I never understand that. Barry Gibb as well.

PM: Do you think that’s been important in a way? I was going to ask, in terms of the Gorillaz record, there were certain things you involved in the first sonic area of Gorillaz, but have you been incorporating new things into it as well, because a lot of people stop don’t they?

DA: Yeah.

PM: So you have..? So what...

DA: I did so much orchestral stuff for it believe it or not. I’m only going to use a fraction of it. So I did that, and I did loads of orchestral stuff with the Syrian National Orchestra. I managed to get bits of all of them on the record but essentially I’m trying to make a pop record so it can’t be totally orchestral.

PM: Hence Barry Gibb. What do you think he thinks of you?

DA: He didn’t even know what Gorillaz was. And knows now.

PM: Did he know you?

DA: Who knows. He lives in Miami in a marble palace. Why should he know about me? [laughs] No, I don’t actually know, I haven’t spoken to him. Bobby Womack had no idea but now we’re great friends. Snoop, because he’s [on] there, he knew about Gorillaz. He was a big fan. So it was very easy to get him. Lou Reed, he knew about me, Mos Def, I’ve known him for years. Well, Bobby Womack got into it because his youngest daughter was a big fan. So that’s how he got into it, and had it all explained to him. But I think Barry Gibb was was completely oblivious of everything. But you know, he’s Pop... [Damon searches for a term to describe Barry Gibb] what’s the most valuable thing on earth? [laughs] He’s that, isn’t he. He is on that pantheon of sublime Pop music. For whatever reason.

PM: And what kind of kick is it for you to be able to do that? To tell your own history of popular music in a way?

DA: Well I didn’t get all of them. I didn’t get Engelbert Humperdink. But you know, you win some you lose some...
PM: But what kind of kick is it?

DA: Well it’s not as easy as you think, you get these people and you get the result. Because a lot of the time you can’t actually be with them when they’re doing it, and it’s actually, to start off with, a bit of an anti-climax. Because you’ve built it up and then you’ve got to work on the track, and edit, and turn it into something that works.

PM: Do you have a greater sense of wanting to leave things behind. You’re talking in that way, that happens after a while, your legacy, do you have a big enough ego for that, to want some of the stuff that you do to stick around as a document as where we’ve been in this time?

DA: I’d love to think that but I don’t know whether I’ve done anything good enough for that yet.

PM: So just thinking about you as the Pop star at the moment, with the100,000 at Hyde Park, Glastonbury and everything, and ask a few questions along those lines as if that world still exists. So what was your highlight of the Noughties?

DA: Well many highlights. Being a father, number one. Discovering Africa, having the chance to hang out in the most sublime, ancient places.

PM: I love that thing you were saying about Africa almost being futuristic, more futuristic than we think...

DA: It is. It’s our future. The first time I went to Mali I was taken to the huge great recycling market / massive rubbish landfill. And the way there, where they drop everything off this cliff, it’s this huge great valley that’s just full of rubbish and people are on there every day, in the 100 degrees, taking every little bit, a little bit of fabric to the fabric regenerators, or the metal and the cans to the ironsmiths and the aluminium recyclers, and it goes on and by the time you get to the road, they’re selling stuff. Then I went into a landfill outside London on Friday, I got permission, because you can’t just walk onto these things , to go and record the seagulls. Because plastic beach needs seagulls in abundance, all over the place. And I’d been recording them down on the beach that’s next to my house in Devon, where I got the idea for Plastic Beach, I was just looking for all the plastic within the sand, that’s where it came from. So I recorded them there. But I thought, I needed my dystopian seagulls so I went and recorded them but you know, this place obviously, having the juxtaposition of the Malian landfill and the way they’re dealing with it there, and here it was the wildlife that’s dealing with it... you know they’ve got more snakes... like adders, grass snakes, slow worms, toads, frogs, newts, all kinds of roadents, all kinds of squirrels, a massive amount of squirrels, a massive amount of foxes, and obviously, seagulls. Seagulls that they’ve tracked, that come from as far as away as Russia. This is part of the new ecology. And for the first time I saw the world in a new way. I’ve always felt, I’m trying to get across on this new record, the idea that plastic, we see it as being against nature but it’s come out of nature. We didn’t create plastic, nature created plastic. And just seeing the snakes like living in the warmth of decomposing plastic bags. They like it. It was a strange kind of optimism that I felt... but trying to get that into pop music is a challenge, anyway. But important. The two things that I’m really passionate about, obviously, are the effects of our waste, and the healing properties of Africa.

PM: So just to go back to the highlights. So fatherhood and Africa so far.

DA: Fatherhood and Africa, and I’ve just sort of grown up. I started off in a very bad state.

PM: And who have been your favourite pop stars of the Noughties?

DA: Dizzee Rascal, fantastic. I found myself really get that old pop buzz going off that La Roux song, Going In For The Kill, I just thought that was what pop music was like when I was a kid, it was brilliant, it was like that. Loads of great Hip Hop and Pop thrills. I thought Buena Vista Social Club was an amazing moment in time, unfortunately they’re virtually all dead now. That was amazing pop in the sense that it worked and became very popular and was incredibly expressive. But it was men with five, six years, literally, left. And that was the one and only gig of my life – and I think it happened in 2000, so right in the beginning where I saw them in the Park and I cried from the beginning to the end of the show, just floods of tears. That’s never happened to me before or after. Meeting people like Tony Allen. Becoming friends with people like Tony Allen and Paul Simonon. Just all those people I’ve met. From Dennis Hopper to Ibrahim Ferrer. He had a massive effect on me, I still think about him every time I have a drink, because when we did the thing we shared a bottle of whiskey at my old studio and it was the day my grandma died as well, actually. It was a very emotional day but... meeting people like De La Soul. And I suppose just latter [sic], realising that it was possible to write longform stuff, going to China, a massive influence on me, just getting out of the Christian-Islamic-Judaism Philosophic [sic] mindset, and getting into the Buddhist, and the Hindu, and Zen, Confucius, all of that, brilliant.

PM: In a way, one of the patterns I would have detected in the Noughties was a shattering of values almost,

DA: ... an obliteration...

PM: Yeah, an obliteration. So it’s very hard to explain the importance of values, and why pop music was one of those great things that happened in a commercial setting, that still held true to value, and how there could be Dylan, and there could be Anita Harris or whatever, but there was Dylan. Now it’s almost as if the two... so Cheryl Cole can be put a record and it’s almost like that’s a Gang of Four album, or something, which is ridiculous. And you’re not saying people shouldn’t have fun. So it’s a very difficult area to be in, isn’t it.

DA: I think maybe, in the past, if Rock musicians had been able to have a bit more fun, we wouldn’t be in this situation.Essentially they were all very fun people but the way they came across, the way the NME wrote about music was not the way to write about it... I don’t know.
PM: It’s probably a bad example, Gang of Four. But I was trying to say, to talk about X Factor who just enjoy it with their kids if you like, you know, as a game show, and you’re getting paranoid about its ultimate influence on...

DA: Because of the value of music... we instinctively know it’s ritual, it’s so anyone who’s got any understanding of that whether cognisant of it or not, feels that anxiety because it’s like this can’t be the right ritual. And a place like the NME in the old days, not now, I wouldn’t read it now...
PM: What do you mean by the old days?

DA: [in a funny voice] The good old days! You know the old days! Long ago, it was so aware of the value of the ritual and how important it was. I just don’t know we manage to get so many magazines saying absolutely nothing. How did that happen?

PM: I guess the different thing that happened in the Noughties in a way was the different way that music was made available to people. And the fact that the internet means that everybody can get up and have a say...

DA: But I’m as much responsible for it as anyone else. Because in the nineties when we were all getting famous and breaking the old pop mould , the stagnation of the late eighties and those horrible drums and Phil Collins and all of that, and it was exciting, we were like trying to get on as many covers as possible. There weren’t enough covers to get on at the time! And everyone went ‘we need more, more!’

PM: What kind of impact has that one form of disintegration of music had on you, and the way that the internet has changed everything? Because on the one hand we’re still talking about music in the same way. But on the other hand the landscape of it has totally changed in the Noughties, in the way people use music on their phones, and they download it, and they approach it in a totally different way. But they’re still approaching the kind of music that’s still rooted in the vinyl-era mentality, aren’t they?

DA: God knows. God knows what it’s going to be like putting out a [record]... I mean the world’s changed since I last put out... Demon Days was 2005, one of the last massive selling albums. Probably literally one of the last ones. And there are still a few massive selling records, but at what price, you know? I don’t know, maybe we can do it again. Maybe we will be the exception to the rule and we’ll still be able to have the global success and still be really... you know... but why is Jay-Z with Chris Martin and U2 now? Why are they ubiquitous when you put the names together? That’s desperate on both sides, isn’t it? Two sets of people who blatantly don’t know each other’s culture. But I’m optimistic. Especially today, you’ve got me on a roll. A really up day! I feel like it’s worth... there’s nothing else to do but get up there and give 100% more than you were yesterday, and just keep trying to do that. Somedays you’ll fail miserably, but just don’t give in.



Additional comments:-

On supplying an alternative to those who debase pop
That is why I do Gorillaz records, and it's why I'm making this one the most pop record I've ever made in many ways, but with all my experience to try and at least present something that has got depth. I think pop music is a great place to get new ideas across ... The only danger is knowing when you are doing good work, how many people might be affected by it ... and you try not to become too knowing, which is really hard to avoid. When I did the first Gorillaz records I allowed my original guide vocals to stay, to say, "Hey, it don't mean much, they don't say much," but this time I thought, "Fuck it, I might not say things totally successfully, but I've got to get clear again."

On his arrival in/on/through/beyond Africa
I had a black girlfriend when I was five and, first of all, I lived in a very mixed area with Jamaicans, Pakistanis and Brazilians. Then moving to Essex where it was white and feeling very foreign, in a way, in my own country, and then slowly getting closer and closer to black music, and then actually going to Africa and having a fantastic experience, being yourself and feeling music and having no intellectual responsibilities ... Getting into it, not having to understand the words, just feeling the rhythms ... If you are saying what was different for me in the Noughties, I addressed that thing that had always been part of me and I had carried from a very young age.

[shakermaker113]

they started announcing screenings of the film around europe:

Current confirmed cinema listings can be found here: http://alternative.artsalliancemedia.com/cinemas/film/16/ with more countries to be listed shortly.

maybe. fingers crossed.