Damon Albarn Is Best Friends with Noel Gallagher

There's something endearing about seeing Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn on stage together. Not only that, but it appears that Damon Albarn has been publicly affectionate about Noel Gallagher, his one-time biggest enemy during the Britpop era.

In an interview by the Rolling Stone, he praised Noel Gallagher for being "funny" and cool.

So how did you get guitarist Noel Gallagher, your Britpop archnemesis in Oasis, to play on "We Got the Power"?
At one point, that track was Noel, me and [Blur's] Graham Coxon. It was the ultimate self-congratulatory Britpop moment. It was the victory lap, these geezers singing about all the power they had [laughs]. I went back and opted to doing it like you play something at the end of a film, as the credits roll. Jehnny Beth was necessary. The testosterone levels were off the fucking scale.

At one point, Damon would have looked at Noel like this

How is it that you and Noel can get along so well now, after Oasis' vicious sniping at Blur in the Nineties?
Noel is not stupid. I love him for that. There was a point when they were set against us. And he had the advantage. He was from the working-class band. He was playing up to that and using it very successfully. I found it difficult to counter. What do you say? It's like when you get called "liberal elite" by right-wingers. The best I can say is "Call me liberal, but don't call me elite."

How easy is it to work with him now? You were both alpha males in your respective bands.
He's really musical. He's got a great tone to his voice. I love his guitar playing. And he's funny as shit. He's fucking brilliant company.

Good on you Damon!

Damon Albarn and Noel Gallagher collaboration 2013

A recent interview found on the Sziget Festival website quoted Blur's Alex James saying that Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn are working on a "lot of stuff" together. Blur bassist Alex James said the two former enemies are "like best mates now" who had been "working together on a lot of stuff" 

Interesting snippets from the article include:

Blur/Oasis britpop rivalry: "Damon and Noel Gallagher are working together on a lot of stuff, so whatever was back then is not relevant anymore. But we have to add that young bands today are all very nice. We were totally intolerable."

On the early Blur recordings: "Last year we’ve released a collection in which all our previous songs got remastered and we’ve gathered an incredible amount of recordings from the past. We found a 9 minute recording from our very first jam session and if you listen to it you immediately know it can’t be any other band, we were Blur already back then. We got into a room, started to jam and it was this distinctive Blur sound from first moments. We are really happy that the chemistry between us works."

Change since the 1990s British music scene: "If we look back at it now, the 90s were the golden age of music. It's weird for us to look at it from the outside since we were a part of it. From the 60s and even from the mid 50s a lot of cool stuff happened in music."

Noel and Damon ended their long-standing rivalry which started between their bands Oasis and Blur in the 1990s earlier this year. They appeared on stage together for a Teenage Cancer Trust concert in London's Royal Albert Hall, performing an emotional six-minute version of "Tender". 

However, in another radio interview conducted by NME, Noel Gallagher outrightly denied that he is collaborating with Damon Albarn on new music. 

In response to Alex James's comment, Gallagher said: "I read that Alex James said that - [but] it's news to me!" 

Fun fact: The heated relationship between the Blur and Oasis in the height of the Britpop era fuelled fans to term the bands "Blurasis".

Best name for a Blur / Oasis collaboration track
	Coffee & TV & Cigarettes & Alchohol
	Don't look back in Anger
	Live Forever in a Country House
	I'm Out of Time
	Yuko & Hiro & Lyla
	Slide Tomorrow

Blur- Splitting up was best thing we ever did

Blur bass player Alex James says that that best thing the band ever did was split up and that Damon Albarn and Noel Gallagher are now best mates who smoke cigars together.

Blur bass player Alex James says that that best thing the band ever did was split up and that Damon Albarn and Noel Gallagher are now best mates who smoke cigars together.

Speaking ahead of Blur's gig at IMMA, Dublin on Thursday, August 1st with support from Bat for Lashes and The Strypes, James told Today FM's Ray D'Arcy about his new life as a cheesemaker and farmer.

"Blur came to an end in 2003 and at that point we'd been doing the same thing for 15 years and after that amount of time it does become cyclical," he said. "We needed to go off and do other things. 

"We've all worked with other people since then. I think splitting up was the best thing we ever did." 

During the interview, D'Arcy recalled having the old Blur vs Oasis argument with his friends "in Snaffles Nightclub in Kildare" and asked James who did he think eventually won The Battle of Britpop.

"It's funny because these days Damon and Noel are best mates," James said. "They go off and smoke cigars together. I think we realised we were all on the same side eventually."

 The 44-year-old father of five now lives on a farm in Berkshire and makes cheese. "People throw cheese at me when I'm on stage. Some musicians get underwear," he said.

"Ireland is a fantastic place for cheese. I was over there last year looking at Bries. "There are so many great Irish cheeses. Did you know Brie was invented in Ireland? The French monks took it back to Normandy. They stole it!"

Asked what was the most rock `n' roll thing he'd ever done, James said, "We sent a spaceship to Mars."

(Source)

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Damon Albarn gets up close and personal to Noel Gallagher in Brit Awards 2012

Damon Albarn snuggled up to Noel Gallagher in the Brit Awards 2012 - on Feb 21st, Tuesday evening.

The two members of Britpop supergroups Blur and Oasis hugged it out on the red carpet, made their amends, reconciled their differences and  even suggested getting "drinks" together in the after-party.

In an NME February interview, Damon said "Yeah, we met up and I look forward to having a beer with him again. He has great charisma. And he didn't slag Liam off once!". He said he "didn't mind" Noel's solo album because "a big chunk of our history is the same".

Noel Gallagher called Damon as "mad as a box of frogs" a few weeks ago (Click to read full article) and said he would like to record with him rather than Coldplay's Chris Martin.

There has been some eventful happenings of that night, and these two weeks have been hectic and exciting. Blur has been compared to "drunkards" on the stage, but they thrilled many long time Blur fans who were happy to see them play. 

Click HERE to read all about the accusatory article and what fans have to say. 

You win some, you lose some- but Blur's record sales went up significantly afterwards. On iTunes's top 10 rock hits, there were 4 Blur songs on, including Country House!  

Blur won 4 Brit Awards in 1995 for their album Parklife, which was hugely successful. Blur then battled it out with Oasis for UK No. 1 single the following year, with a release of their singles "Country House" and "Roll with It" on the same day. Blur won the battle, but Oasis sold more albums in the long run.

Damon Albarn also revealed that Blur were offered the Outstanding Contribution to Music award a few years ago, but "turned it down". The award went to Robbie Williams that year.

Funnily enough, 17 years later in 2012, Blur looked somewhat the same in the Brits stage!

Catch up on the Blur/ Oasis feud HERE. 



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Noel Gallagher would like to collaborate with Blur - Feb 2012

After the Brits, Noel Gallagher from Oasis would like to collaborate with Blur to record some tracks. Taken from an article from Metro.co.uk, Noel described Damon Albarn as "mad as a box of frogs".

The former Oasis guitarist, who has gone solo, told NME that he would prefer to work with Albarn rather than Radiohead's Thom Yorke. 

He said: 'If I was gonna make a record, it would be with Damon. For a start, he's as mad as a box of frogs. Number two, he'd get loads of hip-hop dudes working on it, which itself would be f***in mental. And number three? It would be a better record.'

He revealed that he made his peace with the Blur frontman recently after bumping into a club a few months ago. 

'It was quite a moment. We'd never been in the same room for maybe 10 or 15 years. And I always said to myself if I ever was, I'd go and say, 'F***ing hell, alright man?' and shake his hand and let bygones be bygones and all that.' 

He added: 'It was a great relief. I'm glad I've seen him and shook his hand and apologised for all that s***.' 

Asked if the feud between Oasis and Blur was finally over, Noel replied: 'Yeah. There  you go - that's over and done with now.' 

Looks like after Oasis's split, Noel is way over the feud of the Britpop superstars. Noel's always been the brother that was less public about the feud with Damon Albarn and Blur, so it's not a big surprise about what he says.


Noel is set to perform with Chris Martin from Coldplay in the Brit Awards. Damon Albarn and the band will also perform several tunes for the audience.

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Here at BlurBalls, we've made some more posters to celebrate Blur back at the Brits. We've included a surprise appearance by Liam in these funny memes. Click to download them below!

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