Damon Albarn

partially taken from blurpoint

Damon Albarn was born on 23 March 1968 in East London. His parents, Hazel and Keith, moved their family to Colchester after a few years. In 1979 he started to attend Stanway Comprehensive school, where he met Graham Coxon. They both liked pop music - particularly The Jam, XTC and Madness. Damon preferred to spend his time birdwatching instead of playing football like everyone else, and started attending East 15 drama college. This turned out to be unsucessful, and decided to move into music. He had already written his first song when he was younger, inspired by a TV documentary about diamond smugglers. He moved to London in 1987 and got some part time jobs - one of which was at a West End hotel where he met The Edge and Bono of U2 (Bono was drunk and insulted him, apparently). He recorded some demos at the Beat Factory studio, owned by Graeme Holdaway and his partner Marijke Bergkamp. After starting off solo, then forming a synth duo called Two's A Crowd with a new friend called Sam Vamplew, and then going solo again, he met up with Graham in 1988 when he started a course at Goldsmiths College in South London. They formed a band called Circus, orginally with bassist Eddie Deedigan who quit acrimoniously, and a heavy metal drummer whose name is unknown. This evolved into Seymour and picked up Dave Rowntree and Alex James along the way. The band would eventually become known as Blur. Damon is the frontman of Blur and writes the vast majority of the music. He also plays occasional keyboards and acoustic guitar. His favourite football team is Chelsea. He is unmarried. Until around 1998 he had a relationship with Elastica's Justine Frischmann. He is now involved with an artist, Suzi Winstanley, and they recently had a baby, named Missy. Like the rest of the band, he has no brothers and one sister, Jessica.

---

Damon's Latest big projects are 'The Good, the Bad and The Queen' and Gorillaz (albums listed below), he has also done film scores for films such as Ravenous and Ordinary Decent Criminal..

---

Damon Pics from the Image Database

---

The Good the Bad and the Queen

If Damon Albarn has the one talent worth recognising, it's that he knows to surround himself with the right people. In his continued quest to shed the redundant image of Damo The Britpop Clown for something more serious, eclectic and influential, the danger that there isn't really enough of him to go around his various projects is constantly present. But in a masterstroke of staging that's never the primary concern. In Gorillaz he aligned himself with the cutting edge, wrapped himself in crayoned-on clothing and took the plaudits as his collaborators made the star turns. But he remained the natural and necessary constant. The Good, The Bad & The Queen (a one-off production rather a proper band, apparently) is an extension of that template, but feels more like Damon's show.

The distractions this time are Clash legend Paul Simonon, who prowls the shadows watching Damon's back, building a strong dub bass back-bone, and Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen whose contributions are subtle but efficient. Oh, and Damon's session player of choice Simon Tong, formerly of The Verve. Together they weave a diverse, often beguiling and generally sombre strand of London-based woe, occasionally lifted by the intrinsic hope of the music like on the swelling sun-rise anthem "Herculean". The songs rarely kick through as with Blur and Gorillaz, instead retaining a steady quality and ambience, lead by Albarn's Small Faces-esque piano foundation, but "80s Life" and "Behind The Sun" are real highlights. --James Berry.

 

---

Gorillaz: Rise of the Ogre

"I tell you what, right, I can guarantee you're going to get some real juicy bits of Gorillaz info. I'll probably slag off loads of people, too. It'll be packed full of great shots from the sets of our videos, gigs, rehearsals, interviews...you name it. It's all in there. So place your order up front kids, this book going to be a scorcher!" - Gorillaz bass-slayer Murdoc Nicalls. This stunning, full-colour hardback will be the most unique rock autobiography ever published. Gorillaz have always been as much about the visuals as they are about the music, and the autobiography will be a feast for the eyes. Featuring brand new art from and designed by Jamie Hewlett, this is the full story of Murdoc, 2D, Noodle and Russel Hobbs for the first time. Included will be their emailing with their motley crew of collaborators, from Ike Turner to Sean Ryder, and accounts of the gigs, the movie (for the first time), the videos and the website - including the low down on Kong Studios, their legendary HQ. It is an essential purchase for a legion of fans.

 

---

Demon Days

Drop an anvil at the recording of Demon Days, the celeb-packed second album from Gorillaz – the Technicolor front for Blur's Damon Albarn, producer Dan the Automator, artist Jamie Hewlett, and rapper Del Tha Funky Homosapien – and you'd probably have crushed a half-dozen B-list musicians, a couple of style icons, and the odd Hollywood star besides. Given that it's been co-produced by Dangermouse, creator of copyright-flaunting hip-hop epic The Grey Album, you'd be right to suspect many of these are rappers: Daisy Age legends De La Soul add zing to the tweaked disco-hop of "Feel Good Inc", while Roots Manuva adds a touch of brooding introspection to the juddering "All Alone". But there's some strange surprises, too: a cameo from Dennis Hopper, whose monologue on "Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head" is an eerie highlight; ex-Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder, who rambles along enjoyably on "DARE" – even though he never gets much further than announcing the song's title; or the welcome return of Neneh Cherry, who joins Albarn in song with a snatch of Salt N Pepa's "Push It" on the menacing "Kids with Guns". A dark return from these dedicated culture vultures, but thankfully, not at the expense of their cartoonish pop presence. --Louis Pattison

 

---

Gorillaz

The Gorillaz claim to have found their motley crew of cartoon characters sleeping in Leicester Square, but Blur's Damon Albarn (a.k.a. 2-D) and cult cartoonist Jamie Hewlett (Murdoc) are not fooling anyone. As the ultimate experiment in manufactured image, the Gorillaz are a virtual, cartoon-character-based hip-hop band which bring together some of the wittiest, silliest lyrics and the most seriously talented musicians. Infectious old school hip-hop rhythms, rhymes and effects courtesy of Deltron 3030's Kid Koala and Del Tha Funkee Homosapien (Russel) are combined with Albarn's passion for chugging lo-fi and edgy melodies to create a seemingly raw but ultimately slick blend of styles which is all their own. This is nowhere more evident than on hit single "Clint Eastwood", which is carried along by the sound of 2-D's slurred voice and a bluesy harmonica melody interrupted by Russel's punching rhymes. But the surprises do not stop there: Ibrahim Ferrer's appearance on "Latin Simone" could have come straight from Buena Vista Social Club but for the obvious Blur-influenced piano style, while the spooky intro to "M1 A1" wouldn't sound out of place on Michael Jackson's Thriller. Backed up by Jamie Hewlett's death wish character on bass, Cibo Matto's Miho Hatori (Noodle) on guitar and occasional hyperactive vocals, and produced by Dan "The Automator" Nakamura, it's hardly surprising that Gorillaz is marked both by a sense of playfulness and a passion for experimentation. --Caroline Butler

 

---

Mali Music

With Mali Music it's possible at last to see how Damon Albarn's foray into Africa has worked out: most members of what Albarn's friend Michael Nyman has dubbed the "world-music police" would probably be happy to give it a qualified thumbs-up. If some of the "Western" tracks are little more than an undifferentiated blur (no pun intended), the echt-Malian ones are a delight.

But it's what lies between that's interesting: what Albarn and his colleagues Afel Bocoum, Toumani Diabate and Ko Kan Ko Sata Doumbia have achieved is best described as "the music of place". In "Kela Village" you can almost see the celebrations going on amid the chirruping of birds and the croaking of frogs; "Bamako City" comes with bags of local atmosphere.

This CD was constructed in layers--after Albarn had edited down his 40 hours of raw material, he created collages with new melodies and beats and then sent his tapes back to Mali, where extra vocals and instrumental work were added. We thus get music that actually feels layered: a typical track will start with a simple groove on kora or ngoni, then it will acquire a voice, then some electronic effects, and it will finally be enveloped in a seductive miasma of local atmosphere.

Apart from some nifty Malian balafon and string work, there's nothing here of instrumental note--Albarn's instrument is a battered melodica--but that doesn't matter, because in this game the final effect is the thing. Disregard Albarn's pretentious guff about this representing the "Africanisation of Western music"--where does the boy imagine jazz came from?--but do regard this CD as a healthy omen. --Michael Church

 

---

Demo Crazy

A limited edition vinyl-only double 10" album, Democrazy consists of two heavy slabs of white and picture vinyl beautifully housed in a lush, scrawled-on cover. Obviously a deeply personal labour of love for the Blur frontman, the album contains 13 brief and raw solo demos recorded in various hotel rooms on the band's last American tour.

Is it uncompromising or purely pretentious? Well, it's a mixture of the two, being at turns equally touching and embarrassing. Alongside moments of genuine emotive power such as "Sub Species of an American Day" and "I Miss You", which expose Albarn's obvious frustration, exhaustion and alienation while on tour, "A Rappy Song" is as truly awful as its title suggests.

Many of the brief musical snippets do provide pleasant late night company but they offer little insight into Albarn's seemingly impenetrable psyche. Gems such as "With the Passing of Time" and "Back to Mali" stumble along with only a languorously strummed acoustic guitar, insomnia-driven vocal and Casio-sounding keyboard, giving the album a more playful than poignant feel. Music stripped to the bone, Democrazy is an enjoyable demonstration of Albarn's songwriting in its embryonic stages and is nothing if not brave. --Christopher Barrett