Damon Albarn

by Martin Roach

  Chapter 10

  EVERYTHING’S GOING JACKANORY

  Blurmania continued into 1995 whilst the band were already writing and demo-ing new material for the next album. Damon appeared on The White Room to sing a version of ‘Waterloo Sunset’ with Ray Davies, after The Kinks frontman had been on a European TV show with them and liked their material. Damon didn’t care that the impromptu ‘Parklife’ they also sang was rather painful, and later told NME: “This is one of the most exciting things I’ve done. He is as much an influence as anyone else for me. He’s fundamentally a part of what I do. What he did is just in my blood, it’s a part of my upbringing.” Of Davies’ most famous song Damon said, “Without a shadow of a doubt, it is the most perfect song I could ever wish to write.”

  Damon’s childhood interest in Two Tone meant he was delighted to work with Terry Hall at the start of the year along with the enigmatic Tricky, on some material for the latter’s new project Durban Poison. The cosmopolitan Tricky had also been a rude boy in his youth, so there was much common, ground (although Damon’s contribution, ‘I’ll Pass Right Through You’, was eventually removed from the record at his own request). Damon also appeared on an Amnesty International video called “Use Your Freedom” alongside Gary Lineker and Andy Peters which coincided with the 34th anniversary of the organisation.

  Blur won several NME Brat awards and shared the limelight uncomfortably with Oasis, and then played a short but blistering three-song set at The Forum for the corresponding live show. Damon also made a special guest appearance with The Pretenders at an acoustic show in London, joining Chrissie Hynde on piano for a version of Ray Davies ‘I Go To Sleep’, and even edited the NME for a week. Absolute fame and fortune were finally guaranteed with a cartoon series on Blur in the News Of The World Sunday magazine, whose readership was over 11 million. Although a little factually incorrect, the captions were hilarious: “Four lads from Essex, unheard of a year ago, have blown pop apart to become Britain’s hottest band. Blur have catapulted to instant stardom.” For Damon and his band, 1995 had begun as 1994 ended – how would it progress?

  * * *

  The new campaign started brilliantly with Britpop’s finest hour, Blur’s 27,000 seat show at Mile End stadium in London’s East End on Saturday June 17. First, an amazingly shambolic warm up date at Camden’s Dublin Castle was played, arguably the smallest London venue on the circuit. Understandably, due to the size of the gig, and the fact it was Blur’s first UK show since selling out 7,000 tickets at the Ally Pally, the 200 or so tickets were in ridiculous demand and secrecy was paramount. Despite having been regular giggers at the trendy Camden Falcon, Blur had never actually played the minute Dublin Castle, and found that the small size and bad PA meant the show had to revolve around the more savage punky numbers, although two new numbers were also aired, namely ‘Globe Alone’ and ‘Stereotypes’. Regardless of the technical difficulties, it was an extraordinary event, one of Britain’s biggest bands playing one of the country’s smallest venues.

  It was all a far cry from the massive shows they were now used to playing, and for that reason the band loved it. Several celebrities were in attendance, including Elastica, Pulp and Menswear (who claimed listening to Blur had made them form a band in the first place – they later recorded a spoof western track called ‘26 Years’ especially for Graham’s birthday).

  The day of the Mile End gig finally arrived and so did the summer rain. It was a grey, windy and overcast East End that greeted the thousands of Blur fans, but this did nothing to dampen the spirits. Outside the venue, fears were expressed about a large gathering of skinheads and Hells Angels who were congregating ominously, but nothing unsavoury transpired. Inside the stadium, the cast of pop celebrities was endless, and even Prince Edward was rumoured to be in attendance. The excellent Shanakies opened the show (featuring Eddie Deedigan from Damon’s school days) and made life difficult for a drab Cardiacs, whose set paled in comparison to the hard guitar driven music of the openers. After that, Dodgy confirmed their place amongst the country’s finest bands, after years of being outsiders, then the newly fashionable Sparks played their quirky electro pop to mixed responses. Neither they nor the Cardiacs seemed entirely appropriate for the day. There were no such reservations when The Boo Radleys took to the stage – in the past they had played their fair share of awful live shows, but now the songs that gave them a No.1 album with Wake Up Boo were greeted wildly, and whetted the crowd’s appetite for the show to come.

  Red flares signalled the start of the second half of the show, but the double decker bus which Blur were rumoured to be driving on stage in never appeared. Instead, Damon entered in a blonde wig and a fake pot belly for the opening ‘Tracy Jacks’, set against the backdrop of giant hamburgers, neon lights and video screens. Only three new tracks were aired, the two from the Dublin Castle show and a third one called ‘Country House’, but despite the scarcity of new material, no-one minded. This was Blur’s moment, the peak of their career perhaps, and nothing could take that away from them. When Phil Daniels emerged from a box marked ‘Daniels’ to perform yet another ‘last ever’ rendition of ‘Parklife’, the cheers were almost painfully loud. The encore of ‘Daisy Daisy, Give Me Your Answer Do’ and then ‘This Is A Low’ capped what was a generation defining performance.

  As if to confirm their ability to perform on this level, Blur supported REM at the massive Milton Keynes Bowl in late July. Blur flew in by helicopter, and despite initial reservations about these style of shows, they performed well and seemed comfortable with the huge surroundings. Doubts that their quirky English soundscapes would translate to a stage that often demanded bland sloganeering proved groundless, although the jingo-istic chants of “Enger-land” that worryingly followed Blur everywhere were again present. This was very much REM’s gig, and hardly America’s finest being challenged by Britain’s champions, (as some said Damon wanted it to be), but nevertheless it confirmed the arena-filling potential that had first been seen at Mile End.

  One criticism of Blur at this time was that they were manipulating the working-class for their own gain, by focussing and mimicking their lifestyles. The subject of class had plagued Blur almost since their inception. Many writers derided them as middle-class softies toying with working-class imagery. The band’s further education (even though they attended comprehensive not private schools) and particularly Damon’s fascination with literature were seen as a sign that any sense of working-class in Blur is purely fake. Damon claimed to have never read a rock biography and instead hailed many literary greats. He thanked Herman Hesse, Lobsang Rampas and D. H. Lawrence on the sleeve notes for Leisure. He paraphrased Beckett in ‘Repetition’. Even their T-shirts, often the reserve of ‘fuck you’ statements, were emblazoned with book covers of classics like ‘The Thin Man’. Despite performing poorly in his ‘A’ levels, Damon was quickly picked up as a pop intellectual and his own comments reinforced this view: “Herman Hesse was the first writer who actually had any effect on me. He was always trying to define a spirituality but at the same he stayed clear of any sex or dogma. He was one of the first urban pagans.” For Modern Life Is Rubbish Damon cited Douglas Coupland’s Generation X as his key inspiration and, as mentioned, he went on to revere Martin Amis’ London Fields novel for Parklife.

  Despite this intellectualism, they played gigs in the East End, they drew on Music Hall as an influence and Damon openly exaggerated his accent for dramatic affect. For many, this was like The Rolling Stones, middle-class boys who convinced the world they were East End yobs, when arguably all they were really doing was feigning a working-class persona. To some, Damon would never be a real lad, real working-class, a real 1960s beat musician nor a real East-ender.

  However, this angle was rather tiresome. Damon had readily admitted he was fascinated by working-class lives, but claimed that his work was much wider than that – he felt that the broader focus of Parklife was often missed: “Not all the characters are bloody working-class, the majorit
y of that record concerns itself with the worst things I hate about middle-class people. The only real references to working-class culture are the cover of the album, the greyhounds, but too much has been made of that image.” At the Mile End show he said, “I’d better make sure I haven’t got a Cockney accent ’cos I’m not allowed.” He later dismissed the issue as tedious: “There was a time when any pop star who even admitted to enjoying books was dismissed as a middle-class twat. They’ve virtually given up calling me that because I have actually admitted “Yes, I am a middle-class twat!”

  * * *

  Blur had been working on their new album since late 1994, and by the New Year they had thirty songs in demo form. This created problems in itself, as they had to constantly switch from writing the new work to promoting the still-active Parklife. In keeping with their ceaseless work ethic, this third album in three years was completed ahead of schedule, recording at a consistent rate of three songs per week. Alex explained: “There’s no mystery why we’ve got better, we just work hard. Very few bands work as hard as we do, and if you work very hard you will get better. I don’t think it’s about being clever. Academic cleverness doesn’t really come into pop music.” Stephen Street agreed, as he told Mojo: “They are incredibly prolific. All the great acts have gone through a period of intense creativity, like Bowie in the early RCA years and The Smiths who produced a load of great singles as well as albums.” One major benefit of this prolific nature is that Blur’s B-sides always offered interesting diversions from the lead track – ‘Peach’ (from the ‘For Tomorrow’ single) is just one of many examples of a flip side track that was easily strong enough to released as a single in its own right.

  Deciding which tracks finally made it on to the fourth album was difficult – deciding the first single was a lot easier. The response to ‘Country House’ at Mile End had been overwhelming, so it immediately usurped ‘Stereotypes’ as the first recorded taste of the new album. It was a jaunty pop song with superb musicality and a dark side that made it a stand-out, addictive Blur single. The multi-layered nature of the song contrasted the pop sensibility and the darker lyrical sub-text. The scene was set in a country mansion Damon had visited in Suffolk as a child, and concerned an escapee from the rat race who survives on Prozac and panic attacks – twelve months ago this could easily have been Damon. Its obvious mass appeal also made it a perfect contender to follow up the huge success that had been Parklife.

  Unfortunately, the considerable musical merits of the new single were lost amongst the furore that erupted when Oasis’s single ‘Roll With It’ was released simultaneously on August 14, creating what was dubbed ‘The Battle of Britain’. With a seemingly endless supply of classic pop singles and a smash debut album, Oasis had won popular approval at a startling rate. Add to that their boozy, drugged excess and the Gallagher brothers’ volatile relationship and Britain was captivated. Glastonbury headline slots and three No.1 singles were accomplished with swaggering Mancunian ease and arrogance. When Oasis released their first single ‘Supersonic’, Blur were preparing to release their all-conquering Parklife album – now the Mancunian band were a very serious threat to Blur’s British music supremacy.

  Their relationship with Blur had started off well, with Damon championing their cause several times, but things had soon started to turn sour. In The Good Mixer one night, Liam spotted Graham and harangued him so much he was thrown out – the ceaseless berating later continued in The Underworld Club. At an autumn 1994 radio interview in San Francisco, both bands were booked at a conniving radio station at the same time, and the only greetings that were exchanged were “Wanker” and “Geezer”. Liam had initially said “Blur are a top band”, but at the Brat Awards photo sessions he refused to be snapped alongside Damon. Although Noel gladly took part, Liam was later incensed when Graham sneaked a kiss on his cheek, and from that moment on the two parties were at each other’s throats. Noel retracted his earlier praise of Blur, saying he had been out of his head on drugs at the time. So when it was announced that both bands were to release their new singles from new albums on the same day, the battle commenced.

  The battle, like Britpop itself, was gleefully fuelled by the media. The bands had to take a large portion of blame, because they didn’t have to take part, they could have changed release dates. Opposing sides claim the others caused the fight, and the truth will probably never be known. Damon later said he had called the clash after Liam was abusive to him at a celebration party for Oasis’ No.1 single ‘Some Might Say’. So the rough Northerners with a belt full of No.1 singles but less musical acclaim lined up opposite the art school Londoners with a No.1 album and a cupboard full of awards, but no No.1 single. Some said it was the biggest battle since the days of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, but these two legends had in fact staggered their releases for mutual benefit – despite the huge volume of singles both bands put out they did not clash. The Clash and the Sex Pistols, and The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays were always plagued by rumours of rivalry, but nothing from those periods eclipsed this.

  Blur seemed more equipped for battle than Oasis. They had brilliant fake estate agents boards pronouncing ‘For Sale: Country House. Enquire Within” erected outside London record shops. When Damon appeared on Chris Evans’ Radio 1 morning show, he sang Status Quo’s ‘Rockin’ All Over The World’ over the lead line of Oasis’s track, and christened them Oasis Quo. Even in the single’s lyrics, Damon made a sly reference to Oasis’s forthcoming album title (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? Also, Blur’s formatting was more astute, with live versions of Mile End tracks being available on alternative CDs, causing many people to buy two singles, whereas Oasis could only offer £1 off. Damon was also anxious to remind the public who had been around the longest, as he told Melody Maker “As far as I can see, Oasis have everything to gain and nothing to lose. Everything for them is just a bonus now, they’re a household name now and I don’t think they were before.”

  Blur’s video was far more entertaining than Oasis’s rather dry black and white performance footage. Damien Hirst, the acclaimed Turner Prize winning artist, directed what was a bizarre Benny Hill-on-acid-style promo, complete with busty Page Three girls, surreal board game and general cavorting and titillation. Hirst had attended Goldsmiths with Alex and Graham and had even considered managing Blur after seeing them perform at a college exhibition where he was showing his latest piece of art, a cupboard full of medicine. He had not really noticed their success until bumping into them at the celebrity haunt The Groucho Club one night and realising he went to school with them. The sexual overtones and tabloid nature of this video perfectly fitted the nature of the week’s mayhem and received considerably more air play than Oasis’s offering.

  Oasis meanwhile were playing the ‘We’re so hard we’ll be No.1’ card. They had opened the stakes by premiering their single at Glastonbury to 100,000 people, but after that they were less direct. Less flashy videos, less subtle media manipulation and decidedly less subtle soundbites – Noel said to one paper, “Blur are a bunch of middle-class wankers trying to play hardball with a bunch of working-class heroes.” For the whole week they were touring Japan as well, which put them at a distinct disadvantage. Still, they had a massive database of 130,000 fans and had already achieved the No.1 spot, unlike Blur.

  Both bands were shocked by the media hysteria that took hold the week of release. Despite continued atrocities in Bosnia, VJ Day and Mike Tyson’s release from prison, all the tabloids were involved with The Daily Sport producing the best headline of “Blur Job”. All the major television stations also joined in, with even the Six O’Clock News running a feature. Magazines as far away as Brazil were phoning up to get the latest, and bookies reported brisk business on the outcome.

  It rapidly became a wider issue than just the music. According to some, this was North vs South, middle-class vs working-class, rock vs pop, intelligence vs brawn. It was also EMI vs Parlophone, Food vs Creation, even one press agent against anot
her. Tabloids battled for scoops with 0891 phone-ins, and the resulting haste produced much misinformation, including one hilariously erroneous story about mods against rockers.

  All week it was neck and neck, with contrasting reports from media sources and record shops claiming first one band then the other were in front. Blur hastily retreated from the Pandora’s box they had opened – Damon was on holiday with his parents in Mauritius. Dave had been okay at first but as the week progressed he couldn’t sleep, so he flew to France with his wife. Graham went AWOL for the week. He hated the whole ludicrous affair, and even thought about buying 300 copies of each single to sabotage the contest. He later told NME, “I went into a state of shock and I don’t think I got out of it. It’s a circle of freaks and I don’t want to be involved in it.” Only Alex seemed more than happy to stay at home and watch the spectacle. Despite withdrawing from the frenzy, Blur were by now desperate to win. Damon told The Face, “If I come back on Sunday and we’re not No.1 someone is going to suffer some sort of grievous bodily harm. We haven’t had a No.1, and they wouldn’t have if we hadn’t got the ball rolling in the first place. We exhumed the corpse of pop music.”

  Damon needn’t have worried – when the charts were announced on Sunday evening, ‘Country House’ hit No.1, with Oasis straight in at No.2. Records sales had hit their highest peak for ten years, and of the 1.8 million singles sold, nearly 500,000 were from these two bands. Blur outsold Oasis’s 220,000 by 22%, some 270,000. The Battle Of Britain had taken over so much that Britain’s biggest selling pop band, Take That, was easily dethroned, and Madonna’s new single went virtually unnoticed. Blur’s triumph was reinforced by also hitting No.1 in Ireland, Belgium and Portugal.