December 31, 2012
December 27, 2012
Damon Albarn's former music teacher speaks about Blur - BBC Radio
There will be a special BBC radio show this New Year's Eve (December 31st) featuring Damon Albarn's former music teacher, who will be talking about the Blur frontman in a special documentary about Essex pop stars with number 1 hits in the 90s.
Mr. Nigel Hildreth was Graham Coxon and Damon Albarn's music teacher at Stanway School, Colchester, when the two were 12 or 13 years old. Damon frequently praised Mr. Hildreth for being inspiring, motivating and fantastic. Hildreth also praises and support Damon's side projects, including writing a feature article after watching the frontman's acclaimed 'Monkey Journey to the West' opera in 2007.
The BBC feature will be presented by Scott Robinson from the boy band Five. It will be broadcasted on BBC Essex in the end of the year from 11am and 5pm.
Don't forget to listen online at www.bbc.co.uk/bbcessex.
Click here to read what Nigel Hildreth said about Damon and Graham after they became famous.
December 24, 2012
A Christmas Blur Special
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Available for purchase £14.85 from Lulu |
1) In Christmas eve in December 1992, Blur were at their lowers point following poor record sales with their debut album 'Leisure'. They were on the verge of being dropped by their record label and in heavy debt, owing lots of money after touring the USA in the previous year.
Damon Albarn spent Christmas eve by getting himself drunk alone in his parent's house. On Christmas morning, his father woke up and heard him playing a melody on the piano - this song later became the hit single 'For Tomorrow' on Blur's second album 'Modern Life is Rubbish'.
3) Alex James made Christmas baubles in December 2008 in a campaign to get everyone recycling plastic. Alex created limited edition Christmas decorations for Coca Cola's campaign to raise awareness for plastic recycling, and each one sold contributed to a climate change charity. Good on Alex's humanitarian efforts, especially for the holidays! Check out the feature article here (with pics) .
4) Alex James' other band Fat Les wrote two Christmas songs - 'Naughty Christmas' and 'Carols on 45'. The British band consisted of bassist Alex, artist Damien Hirst and actor Keith Allen.
5) Damon also presented Top of the Pops in Christmas 1994. This was during the height of the britpop era and 'Parklife' success. Damon's hosting was extremely memorable - watch the video below.
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BlurBalls Christmas Logo - available on Deviantart |
December 23, 2012
Damon Albarn and Womack to perform on New Year's Eve
Damon Albarn and Bobby Womack will perform together on Jools Holland's New Year's Eve Hootenanny on Dec 31st 2012.
The special programme will be the 20th anniversary of Jool's Hootenanny. To mark this celebration, many top artists including Emeli Sandé, Professor Green, Lianne La Havas, Petula Clark and Jake Bugg are lined up to perform.
Bobby Womack, who released his newest album 'The Bravest Man in The Universe' recently, will be joining the stage with Damon Albarn to perform several songs. Damon will also bring in a special guest - Kwestral the great horned owl, which he commissioned artist Ruben Marcos to make.
To read more about Damon Albarn and the owl sculpture, as well as the creative process behind the making, click here.
Tickets for the Hootenanny are not usually available to the public and are invitation-only. However, the show will be available online in BBC iPlayer immediately after the show. Don't forget to tune (to be aired on BBC 2 at 11:10pm UK time).