September 13, 2024

Top 20 Damon Albarn Quotes About His Music And Life

Here are 20 quotes by Damon Albarn, reflecting his thoughts on music, life, and creativity:

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  1. "The things that make me happy most are my family and working."
  2. "If you don't see something as a career but as an important part of your life, you don't know how you're going to feel about it." 
  3. "There's always been a hip-hop element to my trousers." 
  4. "I have to wear a new T-shirt every night. I throw them into the audience. One day I'm going to go around the world and reclaim all my T-shirts." 
  5. "What you learn from working with other performers and musicians is invaluable, really, and can only help you grow." 
  6. "Each individual has their own opinions about whether war is an answer to any problems. Personally I think it's a waste of time." 
  7. "No, every album is something like a snapshot. It only shows one moment in time." 
  8. "Yeah. You've seen The Sun today; I've got myself a big house, settled down. Apart from the odd night out with the New Fathers' Club, I'm a family man now." 
  9. "The whole Gorillaz concept is one for mavericks; it's a way for people who never have a chance to work together being able to ally behind the cartoons." 
  10. "Every time I go to Africa, I see the future. I see what the Western world is going to become. It's a very futuristic place." 
  11. "Trying to write music that's sensitive to 400 years ago takes a bit of madness, as it's such a long stretch of time."
  12. "I've always been inspired by different cultures and their musical traditions. Diversity is what makes our world so beautiful."
  13. "My goal is to constantly evolve as an artist and explore new sounds and ideas." 
  14. "Music has the ability to transport you to different places and evoke a wide range of emotions." 
  15. "The best songs are the ones that connect with people on a personal level. They become a part of their lives."
  16. "Failure is just a part of the creative process. It's through our mistakes that we learn and grow." 
  17. "I believe that art should challenge people's perceptions and make them think." 
  18. "Being in Blur has allowed me to travel and hear the music that’s being made all over the world." 
  19. "It’s not like my old self – I’m not in character anymore, I’m me. I’m not hiding behind that anymore." 
  20. "The cartoon is a metaphor really for the fact that it’s almost impossible in our celebrity obsessed culture to move around genres and sort of change your ideas, change your face, you know?" 



 


June 5, 2021

Best Damon Albarn Quotes Of All Time

Damon Albarn has always had a way with words. He has said so many memorable things over his musical career. Here are some of the highlights from the man himself. 

1. "I must admit that I always found it incredibly easy to get off with girls. When you’re a teenager, picking up girls is a bit like getting run over by a large vehicle. You see a juggernaut approaching and you have to know when to throw yourself under it. I always seemed to know when to throw myself on the floor and get what I wanted." (on getting girls)

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2. "I don’t feel anything with a passion. I’m not a very passionate bloke. I can’t bring myself to actually believe in passion." (on his interests)

3. "Life is very different in my home. My status is extremely different. I’m not taken very seriously, in a good way. I walk around in my pants, which my daughter finds highly embarrassing. I’m just a normal, down-to-earth dad." (on fatherhood)

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4."I’m actually really passionate about puppets. I had these puppets made of me when I was in Jakarta. I originally wanted to use them in a video for a song on the album, 'Hollow Ponds', which has a strong dateline of me growing up. So now I’ve got these ten puppets of me at home – and one of Barack Obama. I may turn it into a puppet show for kids. I love puppets." (on his passions)

5."That’s just been lost this year. I think that, even though we’re not necessarily aware of it at the time, we all evolve when something like this happens." (on Covid lockdowns)

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6."When you’re in an indie band it’s like a marriage, you know? You’re married to everything about it. I was just at the front being a fucking knobhead frontman for quite a long period of time." (on Blur)

7."I was always accused of being a bit of a dilettante back in the day. I never really saw it like that. I was just interested in lots of different things, and I wanted to see how I could somehow articulate my own thing through other things. No one actually comes up with something that reinvents music." (on music)

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8."Rock is the easy option. You can write mediocre songs, mumble words, put a lot of attitude into it and be successful. But pop is so much more of an expose. If 'Girls and Boys hadn't had something to say and the sounds that we used hadn't been thought through, it would have been embarrassing." (on writing pop songs)

9. "I don't think anybody understood the irony. I seriously doubt it. Modern Life Is Rubbish [1993] and Parklife [1994] were angry records. The Great Escape [1995, number one in the UK, and Blur's biggest-selling album worldwide to date] was a rather cynical album, everything seemed to be going down hill, and I was cynical, too cynical." (on his albums)

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10. "We were together for eight years. Eight years are a long time, a very long time. Especially if the relationship is as public as our relationship was. I went through a phase where I thought I've got to justify my feelings, everything I invested in that relationship. As a musician usually music is your way out." (on his ex-girlfriend Justine Frischmann)


May 7, 2021

The Most Scandalous Damon Albarn Interview You'll Ever Read

Today we are taking a time machine and travelling back to 1994, where Damon Albarn gave a very scandalous and revealing interview to Loaded Magazine. The interview was re-published in 2015 to celebrate the magazine's anniversary. 

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Pork Life

Damon Albarn gives (probably) the best interview you’ll ever read – on bisexuality, cunnilingus and self-pleasure.

Bisexuality, shagging the queen, fancying Adam Ant, the wheelbarrow position, cunnilingus, losing his virginity, period sex – and eating live ladybirds.

Welcome to (probably) the best interview ever given by a musician, courtesy of Damon Albarn. The Blur frontman may have confessed last year to taking heroin.

These days it’s unlikely you’ll get Albarn, 47, to talk about much beyond his love of African music and his arthouse musicals such as Dr Dee and the recent Wonder.land.

Thankfully, things were different when the singer sat down with Loaded in September 1994 to be interviewed for the magazine’s fifth issue.

He was 26, it was just after Blur released Parklife, and Albarn didn’t give a toss about what he said.

Some of Albarn’s answers were obviously tongue-in-cheek. A lot of his interview was about sticking his tongue in cheeks. Some of his chat was about how he used to eat live ladybirds.

Here’s the sometimes startling interview reprinted for the first time – it will make you mourn the fact media training has killed such chats.

Loaded Were you artistic as a kid?

Damon Albarn I was more autistic than artistic. I was extremely slow in learning to walk and talk. My mum took me to the doctor and he said quite solemnly, ‘I wouldn’t expect too much from Damon’, like I was backward or something. I used to get away with murder though, as I had big blue eyes and a blonde fringe. I’d be wheeled around in this pram and grannies would queue up to tweak my cheeks and say nice things about me. Throughout my childhood, I felt a bit like the kid from The Tin Drum. Not that I was a psychotic midget, but I had this amazing clarity of perception about everything that was going on around me. I suppose that was the direct result of an alternative upbringing. My dad was an environmental sculptor. In our back garden in Leytonstone we had this 20-foot pea-pod made out of fibreglass. Things like that gave me a different perspective from most kids of my age.

L As a kid did you find yourself doing odd things like staring at wardrobes hoping you could will them to move?

Nah, I didn’t spend much of my time experimenting with wardrobes. The oddest thing I did was eat ladybirds, which I did up until the age of 12. It’s just something I started to do to get attention at a young age, and I suppose I developed a taste for them. I’d swallow handfuls of the things. I’d put them on my tongue and swallow them. But there was never any chewing.

L Who was the first pop star you wanted to shag?

D The first pop star I fancied was Adam Ant, but I wouldn’t have wanted to shag him. That was never on the table, or in the bed for that matter. I never went through that latent homosexual phase. I never even thought of sticking a carrot up my bottom or anything like that. I’ve always been more of an intellectual bisexual. I wouldn’t get a hard-on looking at another bloke, but I like the idea of bisexuality. It’s just that I’m not physically capable of coming up with the goods. I’ll say this though – I’m more homosexual than Brett Anderson. Always have been. As far as bisexuality goes, I’ve had a little taste of that particular fruit, or I have been tasted you might say. But I’ve never been able to get very excited about all that. When you get down to it, you can’t beat a good pair of tits.

L What about wanking?

D I was never that experimental when it came to wanking. I never went at it with raw liver or a loaf of bread with the middle gouged out. The only wanking anecdote I have is that there was this buzz at our school about bottles of Vosene. They reckoned that, if you cut the bottle in half and slipped it over the end of your dick while lying in the bath, the suction power would bring you off. If you had a particularly small dick, you’d cut the bottle at the top. If you were more generously endowed, you’d slice it off in the middle where it started to widen out. Sadly, it never did much for me. Though it did leave me slightly chafed.

L Were you a particularly enthusiastic masturbator?

D Not really. You’d get these kids who would beat themselves off seven or eight times a day. I couldn’t understand that. Never felt the need. I was never a Guinness Book Of Records candidate in that respect. As far as I’m concerned, that kind of over-activity is the sign of a vacant mind. People who wank seven times a day have got no more between their ears than Mrs Smith who lives next door with her cats.

L Who were your teenage heroes?

Herman Hesse, Terry Hall, Suggs, Marilyn Monroe, Jimmy Stewart – people like that. They were the closest I got to role models. I was never drawn to the depressed, tragic types. I liked The Smiths but I despised all Smiths fans. All my mates became vegetarians and started acting all moody and suicidal because of Morrissey. I thought that was pathetic – a load of bollocks. At that age, between 15 and 19, kids are very vulnerable. They’re leaving their family environment, finding their sexuality, trying to figure out what to do with their lives. They’re full of late-adolescent paranoia. So many bands like Joy Division, The Smiths, The Cure, Depeche Mode and Suede consciously play on that. I had those feelings of insecurity myself, but I was never going to sit in a room listening to fucking Morrissey or fucking Robert Smith or fucking Brett fucking Anderson. It’s all a big con to me. It’s selling the audience short in the worst way imaginable. That’s why I can understand kids who are into rave music these days. They can dress up and go to clubs. They’re attractive and the dancing is very sexual. The whole attitude is very positive. It’s all so much healthier than stuff like The Cure and bands like that who I regard as a malignancy. Thank god kids these days have got someone like me to look up to.

L Were you always successful with girls?

D I must admit that I always found it incredibly easy to get off with girls. When you’re a teenager, picking up girls is a bit like getting run over by a large vehicle. You see a juggernaut approaching and you have to know when to throw yourself under it. I always seemed to know when to throw myself on the floor and get what I wanted. I always seemed to attract older girls. I was into drama and music. I used to walk around with a volume of Karl Marx under my arm. This seemed to set me apart from the Dennis Wise types that populated the Essex area where I lived. I must have seemed sophisticated, and most of the older girls saw me as this kind of romantic Byron figure. And, consequently, wanted to shag my brains out. I had few complaints about that, obviously.

L How did you lose your cherry?

D I lost it at the age of 15 in a semi-detached house at the back of my school in Stanway, Essex, to a 17-year-old girl called Jane, who was the daughter of a district nurse. I’d been going out with her for four months and, because she was the oldest, she called the shots and decided the time was right. We lay down on a very clean bed, did the business, and then I walked home and had a nice cup of tea and a fancy bun. These days, I could write a thousand songs about an experience like that. I just didn’t have any perspective on it then. I just remember walking out of her house, rubbing my hands and thinking, ‘Well, I’ve done it at last!’ The earth didn’t move. I was just relieved I didn’t fuck a virgin.

L Any other memorable sexual experiences?

D Nipping over the garden fence after a maths lesson, drinking a bottle of Baileys and having a good shag. You can’t beat a bit of sex when you’re supposed to be doing double physics. There’s a touch of anarchy about that.

L How did you feel when girls first wanted to shag you because you were famous?

D It helped a lot that I was at ease with my sexuality before I became famous. So I was never like a child let loose in a candy store. A lot of pop stars who are sexually inexperienced tend to get a bit fucked up when the whole groupie thing starts. My message to Loaded readers is to get it all out of your system before you even think about settling down and having a few kids. I’ve sown a fair few wild oats in my time and I feel all the better for it. But I wouldn’t think about settling down until I was completely spent. It quickly becomes blatantly obvious that a girl only wants you because you’re famous. It becomes the easiest thing in the world, but the sex is shit. And it does fuck all for the ego. The sex doesn’t become devalued as such, but it doesn’t give you the sense of well-being that you need. The problem is that, as soon as you become well known, you have this illusion that you’re irresistible to women. It’s a bit like walking down the street really fast and forgetting that you’re wearing roller skates – which puts you at an unfair advantage.

L How would you define the sexuality of Blur?

D The good thing about Blur is that we don’t make a virtue of the fact that we’re quite sexy. Mick Jagger is considered sexy because he announced the fact that he was sexy. I find all that quite amusing. Madonna’s the best example of that type of thing. We’re talking about a woman with miserable skin who’s considered to be the world’s greatest sex symbol. She’s living proof of the fact that there’s nothing less sexy than sex, especially when it’s being waved in your face 24 hours a day. What she does with her sexuality is like the equivalent of Super Mario Bros. It’s all a massive overstatement. I’d like to think Blur are much more subtle.

L Cunnilingus. Is it all it’s cracked up to be?

D I’m quite ambivalent about cunnilingus, though I can see that it’s an important arrow in any man’s quiver. I think its appeal has a lot to do with how many drinks you’ve had and whether a woman has washed down there recently. If you’ve had a skinful, it doesn’t matter so much that she hasn’t been near the bath of late. But I’m no expert on the subject. I mean, I don’t need a diagram to show me where the clitoris is, but I’m quite a long way from mastering the art of going down. I reckon a 65-year-old pensioner is always going to be far better at it than someone of my age. It’s a case of practice makes perfect.

L How about going down on a lass when she’s got the painters and decorators in?

D I think it largely depends on how much you’re into giving pleasure to someone else. It also depends on how heavy the flow is. If we’re talking Niagara Falls, you might want to explore other possibilities for the time being. There are advantages though to that time of the month. For a start, a woman’s tits are biggest when she’s having a period, so you might fancy concentrating on them for a bit.

L Favourite sexual positions?

D
 I’m up for anything, basically. The classic wheelbarrow position is always a good one to fall back on. My own particular favourite is the ‘French Maid’ position, which, for the benefit of the uninitiated, involves a fair bit of bending down and picking up imaginary feather dusters. You can’t go wrong with the French Maid in my opinion.

L Describe the kind of women who give you the horn.

D As far as celebrities go, there’s Nanette Newman who’s always worked wonders for me. Also Neneh Cherry – I think she’s very nice. I like Caribbean girls, Indian girls, African girls and Mediterranean girls. I don’t like Orientals at all. Well, I like them, but I never fancy them. I’m not a legs man or a tits man. I think that’s a terribly restrictive way of looking at a woman’s body. That’s what porn does to you. A lot of blokes have this perspective on a woman’s body which has been learned from the camera angles in porn films – the way a woman’s body is panned over and lingered on. Personally, I prefer the whole package. Porn films have never done much for me and I’ve never had much time for things like Carry On Up The Khyber. I never found the women in Carry On films remotely attractive, even Barbara Windsor. They were always too Anglo-Saxon and plump-thighed for my liking. I prefer to watch Spanish films like Golden Balls that take their time over things. If they’re going to focus on a penis or breast, they don’t rush it. That always seems more effective somehow.

L Given the chance, would you give the Queen a good seeing to?

D I have to admit that I quite fancied the young Elizabeth Regina. I’d have been happy to have given her one when she first came to the throne. Not just because she was the Queen. I just thought she was very sexy. The same goes for that Princess Margaret who seemed like a bit of a goer. They’ve both lost it a bit recently though. I don’t honestly think I’d be too tempted these days. And would I shag Prince Philip? Nah, he’s a Greek isn’t he?

L Tell us what sorts of things move you to tears.

D Stars In Their Eyes always makes me weep. Also things like Good Fortune with David Frost. That really chokes me up. Jackie Collins and Jilly Cooper films always have me in floods. See, I love crass emotion. It does me in every time and brings out these previously unknown sentiments in me. One of the most profoundly moving experiences of my entire life was watching the last scene in Planet Of The Apes when he sees the top of the Statue of Liberty. I practically had to be stretchered off after watching that.

L What do you hate with a passion?

D I don’t feel anything with a passion. I’m not a very passionate bloke. I can’t bring myself to actually believe in passion. But there are things I hate. I hate bands like Gun. I hate people who do cover versions, get to No 1 and have the audacity to go on Top Of The Pops and act like they wrote the bloody song. I’d hate a lot of showbiz types but I’m far too showbizzy myself so I can appreciate all that stuff on a kitschy level. I hate Dick Francis books but I’d probably love the film adaptations ’cos there’d be all these sexy birds running about in jodhpurs, and you can’t go far wrong with jodhpurs in my opinion. Oh, I also hate Manchester United, Arsenal, Tottenham and anyone who’s not a Chelsea fan, except QPR fans, because they’re too inoffensive to get worked up about.

L What difference has being in Blur made to your life?

D Until Blur came along, I didn’t have a context. I was into all the wrong things. I was into Karl Marx, Bertolt Brecht and Erik Satie when cool kids were getting into The Jam and J. D. Salinger. But I’m quite grateful for the fact that I kind of did things the wrong way round. I never went to football when I was a kid. Now I’m an official Chelsea fan who gets interviewed by 90 Minutes and Shoot. A lot of kids start out with those things and get into art and literature later. But I started out reading Nabokov and now I’m into football, dog racing and Essex girls.



May 19, 2016

Top 10 Damon Albarn Quotes - New Blur Quotes 2016

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Damon Albarn is known for his short, snappy interviews, mysterious ways and sometimes awkward and outlandish suggestions. This is, of course, bearing in mind that he is one of the greatest musicians in England at the moment. Here are some insightful and beautiful quotes from some of his latest interviews in 2015 and 2016.

1. "Everyone was using the flashes on their cameras, so there was this moment, like a mania, when everyone started flashing-flashing-flashing and you could see it down the coast. In itself, it was kind of a magnificent event" - on the last solar eclipse of the century in 1999.

Albarn always has his way with words. Nostalgic Albarn is even more sentimental.

2. “When I’m lonely, I press play." 

Self-explanatory really, though don't get misled from the sexual innuendo. No, we don't think Albarn means something in another context. Really. Albarn admits it in one of the album's singles, the jet-lagged video for which he shot on his iPad.

3. "Actually, a lot of Gorillaz songs were very personal. I mean, that’s why it was interesting, because it wasn’t music being made for a cartoon. It was something different. It was a much more emotional affair. I wasn't necessarily thinking in the third-person then."

4. "Let’s say I believe in the presence of other things. But have I seen a fairy? I’m not going to tell you ...” - when asked whether he believed in fairies in Hong Kong.

5. “No, nothing about Alex annoys me. He’s one of my dearest friends, but I don’t know what Alex’s political views are. We do music, not politics. We’re not a four-piece political act. So whether we agree or disagree is neither here nor there. Besides, I don’t surround myself with people who agree with me. Where’s the fun in that?” - on Alex James's quirks.


6. "Religiously, 10:30AM-5:00PM. I get anxious if it gets to quarter to six” - on his schedule. We see the perfectionist creeping back out of him.

7. "We’re in a moment of extraordinary transition as a species, and what is the outcome of that? Are we going to become closer to ourselves or are we going to become more distant?” - on Everyday Robots and its inspiration. We think Damon is going on a bit of a rant here.

8. "Do you spend all your day talking to everybody as opposed to actually doing something? Is that something that just teenagers do, or will people grow out of it? It only really just occurred to me and it’s probably just a load of old bollocks, but I have been thinking that the reason we had so many big cults back when I was younger is because there was no social media, and that was a way of feeling you were in a community. But now to become part of a community is so much easier." - on questioning the existence of social media.

9. "I have great respect for anyone who makes a fantastic musicial... but I never said that I hate modern musicals." - on BBC Breakfast, defending his hatred for modern musicals.

10. Not a quote- but a little clip:




Do share!


April 23, 2013

Blur quotes - Funny Blur quotes

"I made a point of drinking two bottles of champagne a day for eighteen months. England only imports something like 100,000 bottles a year so I reckon I drank 1 percent of England's total champagne import."Alex.

"We rarely actually finished a gig, completely. There was always a point where everything... I either got trashed, I'd be sick, or somone'd get hit over the head, or the electricity would go. It was almost a sort of failure if we got to the end of a gig, really." - Damon on the early days.


"Pop stars shouldn't act, just like actors shouldn't sing." - Robert Carlyle, leading actor in Damon's film debut "Face".


"We were totally convinced of our genius, but are getting less and less so as the years go by." - Alex.

"We're bigger than the holes in Swiss cheese." - Graham.

"Alex is God with a fringe." - Adam Benzine, member of Blur fan club.

"Irony is just saying things that aren't true for comic effect. But people then assumed that everything we were saying A) wasn't true and B) we were just saying to be funny." - Dave.

"There's always been a bit of a hip-hop element to my trousers." - Damon.

"Graham Coxon is a total wanker [because he didn't kiss her on the cheek when they met]. He has a confused mind and he can stick it up his tiny arse"- Justine Frischmann, to which Graham responded: "Kissing people on the cheek is so last century."

"It was more Levis than the other chart stuff which was kind of cyber wear." - Graham on "Tender".

"["Tender" is] a tribute to how important something was in my life. It's a celebration of love found and lost but not forgotten." - Damon.

"I saw these four lunatics jumping all over the place, falling over, and thought: 'Don't know why, but this is good!'! - Andy Ross, Food records, on first seeing Seymour.

"The best thing about being in a band is that you can allow your insanities to develop. And get paid for it." - Alex.

On the time at Goldsmiths with Damien Hirst and Sam Taylor-Wood- "We spent two years staying up all night, doing performance art and talking about Willem de Kooning. We used to say in a snidey way "there's a lot of genius wandering round here", and in a way, it turned out there was." - Alex.

"...Iggy Pop fronting the Monkees..." - "What's on" magazine describing Blur in 1990.

"I'm very sexy in the morning." - Damon.

"When you're young you don't mind being pretentious, but it gets a little bit embarassing as you get older."Graham.

"I'm really enjoying my thirties. I spent my whole twenties going nuts, but being completely pissed isn't such a good look when you're 32 as when you're 22. Wait til you're my age and you'll be running round the park." - Alex.

"What do i think of the new Blur album? It's brilliantly patchy. I think 'Trimm trabb' is amazing. 'Coffee and tv' is my kind of song. And I think 'Caramel' is amazing. Even with my naive knowledge of drugs, Caramel must stand for drugs. It's a good career move - distancing themelves from the rat race. They seem a bit more mythical for doing it." - Nicky Wire, Manic Street Preachers.

"In our minds we were making reasonably left-field, arty pop music. And yet we were getting screamed at as if we were a bunch of tough guys singing ballads with a dance routine. Graham got upset. Alex liked it. I just thought it was really inappropriate." - Dave on the "Parklife" hysteria.

"We're contemptible show-offs. We change with the wind. We're good-looking and we say we are. We're clever and we say we are. We're not clever and we say we are." - Alex.

"Great company is the most precious thing there is." - Alex.

"Graham is a real fan. He hardly dared talk to me. But the French magazines sitll managed to make up some story about us. And Damon is so cute, he looks just like my son." Francoise Hardy.

"Be careful doing that floatie thing!" - Graham.

"...when Kurt Cobain died, one of the things that surprised me was how upset everyone was - whatever their background. It showed me how fragmented the world is all the rest of the time, and if there's a key to the Nineties I think it's that perpetual insecurity. Never have people thought so hard about their lives and come to such indecision, or felt further apart. We're powerless and confused - by politics and work and sex and even things like morality. It there's going to be an epitaph for the Nineties, it will be 'By the end, we all felt like victims'." - Damon.

"Working with Graham Coxon, it began to dawn that I had met the best guitarist I'd worked with since Johnny Marr. I rate him as the best guitarist around. He plays things Johnny wouldn't even think of." - Stephen Street, Blur's (ex-)producer.

"It's got more to do with working hard than being a genius, that's the thing that gets to me. I thought you just had to be a genius." - Alex.

"We couldn't really play that well when we were signed. We could hardly get through a full show without Damon being sick or things getting unplugged and ruined. God knows why we were signed on the strength of that." - Graham.

On Damon and Graham's daughters - "For every baby song, I'm gaving an aeroplane song. - Alex.

"In their bass player Alex they have a dickhead of such magnitude that even Gazza seems bearable." - some Scottish magazine in 1990 (see "3862 days").

"Women are f**king amazing creatures." - Damon.

"I think all music is good really." - Alex.

"Blur are really pretty good. But it ain't the future. Blur are merely the present of rock and roll." - Andrew Collins, NME reviews "Leisure".

"We just can't resist being silly." - Graham.

"I've always known I'm incredible special and if I didn't think we were the best band in the universe I wouldn't bother."Damon

"I don't mind Blur, they're a good pop group. I know they beat us to Best Indie Band in the Smash Hits poll, I'm glad they did. We're not a bloody indie band - we're a rock group. And anyway, we've only been at it a few months, whereas Blur have been going for four years, and they've only just got Indie band of the year this year. That's sad. They beat us to Best Album as well? Aw, we'll come back and get 'em next year." - Liam Gallagher to Smash Hits in 1994.

"What is 40 ft long, has no pubes, and screams dead loud? The front row of a Blur concert!" - Alex.

"When I'm 60, I want to be a cool old man." - Graham.

"Blur did great. I was looking at them thinking, 'Look how drunk they are!' Good luck, Blur, man. Excellent. Nice one."Marti Pellow of Wet Wet Wet on the Brit Awards 1994.

"The first time I stayed at Damon's, he took me for a drive and crashed, and then told me he didn't have a driving license - so I had to tell his mum I did it." - Alex.

"[on William Orbit] I didn't get told to f***ing grow up, which I have done in the past. So I liked him." - Graham.

"They're a great pop band. "Girls and boys" was a good pop song, you know? But they're not as good as us." - Liam Gallagher.

"Once you've mastered the basics of one instrument, you discover that they all speak the same language. It would be great to go on the road with them all, but it's not exactly rock. Plus, you can't smoke while you are playing them." - Alex.

"I don't think anyone who has ever counted drinking amongst their hobbies has never kissed a man." - Dave.

"Damon's such a pop tart!" - Justine Frischmann.

"Being in a band is rubbish." - Damon.

"The thing I really like about this band is that every time I walk out of my door I bump into Graham, no matter where I am! That always reassures me." - Alex.

"He's so attractive, oh really he is... Ahhhh... How nice-looking is he!" - Francoise Hardy on Damon.

"When our third album comes out our position as the quintessential English band of the 90's will be assured." - Damon in 1990 (and how right he was!)

"Being in a band is like being a matador. You go out there and if you pull it off the glory is quite spectacular. But at the same time noone's going to feel sorry for you if you get gorged in the stomach." - Damon.

" "I go to sleep" features a piano accompaniment by Damon. Isn't he good?"Chrissie Hynde, The Pretenders.

"Mr [Bernard "Suede"] Butler was Blur's guitar roadie for two years... he spent hours crying on my doorstep for us to take him on tour." - Graham.

"We're just boozers, really."Damon.

"Blur are genetically incapable of being crap" MelodyMaker (?).

"Up until Parklife we were bunking the tube." - Alex on Blur's poorer days.

"I never got along well with the lads at school, I was always called gay." - Damon.

"I hate Blur and Stereolab and all those art school knobheads."Mani of the Stone Roses.

"Rick Astley was quite affable." - Alex.

"We've always seen ourselves as putting on white coats and going into the lab." - Damon.

"Their great strength is they are a band. They hang out together naturally and whatever they do together works." - Stephen Street, Blur's (ex-)producer.

"I don't mind kissing men at all." - Damon.


September 29, 2012

21 things you didn't know Graham Coxon said - Quotes

Graham Coxon, the quiet, shy guitarist from Blur. Contrary to what most people think, Graham has actually said a good many things that are hilarious, deep and memorable. Sometimes they are downright strange! Here's our list of the top 21 things you didn't know Graham Coxon has said.

1. "Watching Noel Gallagher play, he has too much fucking respect for the instrument. To get the best out of a guitar, you've got to fucking hate it as well."


2. "There we're so many weird things going on at that time, if Damon turned into a lizards with a mod suit I wouldn't have been surprised" - On Britpop 

3. "We can make good music together but God knows what might happen if we tried to make music individually, it'd be shit." 

4. " Alex used to say such awful things. When he would be booking a hotel he would say that his name was Alex Frombler and that depressed me and when we were doing Budokan he would tell me how much we were getting paid for the show. Those things ate away at me" 

5. " We rode the pop-horse until it dropped dead"

6. "Damon will always have extremes. When we were at school together, he would always be duffed up in the toilets. We used to go out on the town and he'd get beaten up by the New Model Army crew. We used to go to a pub called The Cups, and every time I went there with Damon he'd go to the bog and he'd have his beating up. And he'd go: 'Graham, Graham, I've just been beaten up.' And I'd go: 'Oh my God.' So he'd go: 'I'm going'. And I'd say: 'No, stay, have another drink.' And then he'd go, and I'd stay behind and get drunk with the people who beat him up."

7. "I used to have a cat called Bastard. He ran away."

8. "I like it when girls go "Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me." - a very young Graham

9. "It seems that Damon and I are going to be in each other's lives musically forever, in some way or other. Whether it's with Blur or without Blur or sort of like the Old Gits, probably. Which is quite an amusing thought. We just get on very well, especially musically." 

10. "I only eat beef when I'm in Texas." 
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11. Dave is a mid-21st-century kind of guy. Alex is definitely late 20th. I can imagine Damon strutting about in the 18th century, wearing tall powdered wigs, lace ru es on his shirts. I'm quite medieval compared to them, especially about technology. I think most technology is rubbish. It's supposed to improve our lives but it just makes it worse. (on why the four members of Blur are from different centuries. )


12. Of course I'm a hedonist, what else is there to live for? The rest is just killing time.

13. Most of America don't even listen to music probably. They just go raccoon hunting or something.
14. He didn't really have any friends. He had it hard because of his name too, which people would make jokes about. 'All Bran' and stupid kids' stuff. The skins would kick him about in the toilets and hold him down and write '666' on his forehead. That's probably why he's so scared and such an emotional wreck. I thought he was a really great bloke. I'd never known anyone like him. That kinda happens with me except its chavs that do it to me and they draw glasses and a scar on my head because of my name Harry, and those 'smart' people call me Harry Potter. I can relate to Damon in many ways, its ashame that's one. I know how he feels...

15. 'Pikachu, it's just saying it's own name, like Craig David, over and over again. Little egoist' - MTV Cribs 

16. "My next album is only going to be understood by a certain race of elves." 

17. “Damon and I especially have done that. I’d give him lovebites and he’d give me lovebites. A cruel trick. But it’s never really soberly. And after kissing him… it’s a bit like when farmers force sheep into sheep dips. When they come out the other side they’re probably quite similar to how I feel after kissing him. To quote Justine, he’s a washing machine mouth. He’s got a very large tongue, you see, and I haven’t.”  - On Kissing Men

18. "I've never stuck with any particular look. I want long and short hair - at the same time" - on Looks 

19. “My new album, A+E, is very English. If it was an outfit, it would be some battered Oxford brogues with a toe cap, a Velvet Underground T-shirt and any old Levi’s.” - on A+E

20. “I’m one of those self-conscious people who needs drink before I can [dance]. I used to dance a lot to The Smiths when I was a teenager. And The Jam, I used to go to a lot of mod clubs and stuff. But as soon as I got mildly famous it just stopped. I got self-conscious, I dance at home…” - on Dancing and Shyness 

21. “My hobby is my job…. it’s a jobby!” - on being a musician 


More Blur quotes coming on this page

Check out our Top 30 Damon Albarn quotes HERE 


September 16, 2012

30 things you wish you've heard Damon Albarn say - Quotes

"Mr-Quotable" Damon Albarn said many things in his 20+ year musical career, given outrageous interviews, given thoughtful speeches and uttered many very, very memorable phrases. Here's our top 30 Damon Albarn quotes of all time.

 1. "I've got people camping outside my place in Kensington. In sleeping bags. It's not that irritating, except we haven't got any curtains in the front room, so we can't walk round in the nude." - height of Blur fame. 

 2. "Yes, I am a middle-class twat“. “I’ve got a PhD in tits" “It’s good to read a book and get a hard-on at the same time (December 1995 interview) 

 3. "It’s a very romantic idea, to go on a cobbled-together trip on a train with an African diner and rehearsal rooms and sliding doors that allow for playing on to platforms, and people meeting and planning concerts for the evening and watching the English countryside pass by. It’s a beautiful thing." - Africa Express 2012 

4. Have I ever punched anyone in the band? Oh yeah, all of them! I used to punch Alex a lot. He used to say really annoying things deliberately. I almost think he liked being punched. (2000) 

 5. "We'll always be friends now. I like the idea of seeing each other being really old and doddery." (On Graham, Select, 1994) 

 6. I'm a mixed up person. I've got this real essex man vibe...I cant help it... i cant stand the idea of being a sad lonely bed-sit poet... I'd rather be perceived as loud and arrogant. 

 7. "There's always been a hip-hop element to my trousers." 

 8. In the sixties people took acid to make the world weird. Now the world is weird, people take Prozac to make it normal. 

 9. "My guaranteed way of sending myself into deep depression is to read music trade papers and watch MTV." 

 10. "What do we stand for?So we don't lie down all the time!" 

 11. "I find computers to be sort of uncharted seas. And as soon as you set out on them, you're lost." - on Technology and why he doesn't use computers 

 12. "I had a Black girlfriend when I was five" - on women 

 13. "It's weird because with guys it's not a long thing ,it's more of a "let's be mates,let's get on stage and ,woargh,nice one!"sort a thing .It's funny , I really love that.If that's as far as I ever get in communicating with people,that's great .I just like the idea of everyone cuddling each other" 

14. "My fantasy Glastonbury would be to be 18 again and to go with a girl that I've just met and that I was really, really into. Either that or go with my mates and meet a girl there. I certainly wouldn't want to go with any famous people. I'd just go and take loads of drugs and watch all my favourite bands. I'd drink, smoke spliff, drop an E and watch The Silver Apples. Er, this is the 18-year-old Damon, not me now talking, of course." (Damon in 1997)


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    15. "My mum thinks I'm ultra-conservative in the way I dress. Hippy parents just don't understand why you want to wear a shirt and smart shoes." - on Fashion 

    16. I really try to avoid all photographs now,I don't know why, I was so into it when I was younger. But let's face it, if you're a good-looking young male with talent you're not going to get taken seriously. I do feel that looks are something you have to get over... It was a great day when I realised I didn't need to see myself any more. I knew who I was... (On aging and looks)

    17. "I'm very sexy in the morning." - early Blur interview 

    18. "Aww man... Aw, I'm so sweaty I can't play properly any more... And I have difficulties playing anyway, so this just makes it virtually impossible for me. I wanna do this song justice as well." - Just before 'Young and Lovely', B-sides gig 

    19. (What will you be if you were not a singer?) A farmer My grandad and uncle were farmers.I used to spend my summers in Lincolnshire on the farm.I'd to get up at 5.30am,and sit on my grandad's tractor. I loved it. 

    20. "Cheeky, confident, insecure, sharp, direct." - Albarn on 5 words to describe himself 

    21. "There were reports in the papers of people breaking up their relationships, because one liked oasis and the other one liked blur...One woman left her husband because he put our CD in the microwave." - on Blur and Oasis's chart battle 

    22. "I have to wear a new T-shirt every night. I throw them into the audience. One day I'm going to go around the world and reclaim all my T-shirts" - on his live shows 

    23. "Yeah, Write Songs" (When asked for any tips on songwriting by a budding young songwriter) 

    24. "I love the whole atmosphere here.The other day I was walking past the cementery and I could hear singing coming from inside.After a while I realised it was a West Indian family singing a spiritual song.The rhythm sounded so incongruous,yet amazing at the same time.That's what is so special about round here.It's such a rich of cultures and images." - On the Cemetery 

    25. "WE ONLY HAD THREE THINGS TO SAY IN OUR FIRST INTERVIEWS: WE'RE GREAT WE'RE NOT AN INDIE BAND AND DON'T JUDGE US NOW - JUDGE US IN FIVE YEARS' TIME. AT LEAST NOW WE'VE DONE SOMETHING THAT LIVES UP TO MY BIG MOUTH." - on Blur interviews 

    26. "I've been self-destructive over the years. Anyone who's interested in me will have a rough idea that i've kept a lot of things quiet. I choose not to define my low points." - Q Magazine 2006

    27. “Brothers is a much better word. There are moments when we absolutely and utterly connect without even having to say anything and there are other times when we might as well be on other continents. Like now, for example.” - On Graham Coxon, 1997

    28. "I'm turning into a croaky old singer" - Hyde Park 2009

    29. "I've swapped my youthful promiscuity for something a bit more middle aged" - on getting older ".

    30. "My mum’s been having a go at me since I was a teenager about pulling my trousers up. And I have tried, I really did, to keep my trousers up and they always just… drop. Does anyone else have that problem? Am I not alone?" - Margate Winter Gardens  gig 2012 
    More Blur quotes coming on this page

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