Blurred vision

DAMON ALBARN tells Chris Brown about Blur's new tour and album and the loss of guitarist Graham Coxon.

BLUR are making a welcome return to Liverpool next week - with their first gig in the city for six years.

But it's a very different band however to the one that graced the Royal Court in 1997.

Then was the release of their eponymously titled album, a violent kick against the Britpop scene which had made their name and the rebellious tone of student disco classic Song 2.

Now they are a more relaxed and reflective band. The new album, Think Tank, recorded in Morocco, has a more thoughtful feel about it.

Although fans who were lucky enough to get tickets for the sell-out concert will no doubt notice the biggest change, guitarist Graham Coxon has left the group.

But despite this singer Damon Albarn is happy with the new album and the group dynamic.

He says: "I feel pretty much as it has always been, just minus Graham these days.

"I don't think there's any dramatic change. I think as far as communication it's obviously easier with three than it is with four. There's no rocket science to that, it's just easier to talk to two other people or to make a decision than it is with four or five or six. It would be even easier with two."

The story abut the Graham leaving is still clouded in mystery.

According to Damon they all turned up in the studio to start work on the first day for the album only to discover they were missing their guitarist.

When he returned something had changed in the group and they decided amicably to become a three piece.

Damon says: "What threw us was the fact that we started and the first day Alex, Dave and Damon turned up but Graham didn't. We were given no warning of that and later that day we were informed that Graham wouldn't be around for a couple of months.


"IT WAS a very difficult decision. It was, do we just go home now or do we do something in the studio? And being quite optimistic positive souls we thought - let's have a go. What happened is what always happens when you make a decision like that.

"You do it quite innocently, not thinking that it's a permanent decision that you've made. We just started recording and it sounded great.

"When Graham actually returned it just didn't work as a four-piece any more and it was as simple as that. No one was sacked. There was nothing like that. It was just that it didn't work any more. And the spirit of Blur was more important than the individuals. It could have happened to any one of us.

"We like each other a lot and we have an enormous history together and obviously are very loyal to each other but at the same time we know each other far too well to be blissfully in love, because we're not. We've revealed our unpleasantness to each other far too often for that to be even possible, you know, but when we're actually really making music we're very happy together."

Despite the problems the band jetted off to Morocco to finish the album.

Perhaps it was the peace and tranquillity there that helped the band refine their style and produce the LP.

According to Damon it certainly didn't harm his creative flow.

He says: "I wrote most of the lyrics under a cypress tree in Morocco. 'Jets are like comets at sunset' is an image of the aeroplane and its exhaust fumes at sunset. They just have the light behind them and they look like comets.

"'Caravan' is like when you're looking at the desert every day and mountains, that sort of thing makes a lot of sense, that imagery.

"'The trees are spitting oxygen, it's the rockets we should fear because if we go and destroy them then we will disappear'.

"So Think Tank is all about that and what are you supposed to do as an artist other than express what is going on around you?"

The band have been together since the start of the 1990s and plan to stay around for some time in the future.

It is the their feelings towards what they do that has changed. Damon hints at a band trying to say some-thing and looking for purpose.

He says: "We're not teenagers and even the notion of being in the pop charts now has to have some sense of responsibility otherwise there's no point in doing it. Personally, I have to feel like that otherwise I can't do it, I cannot do it any more unless I feel there's some meaning to it.

"I'm not saying that we haven't felt that there was some meaning to it in the past, we've always felt like that but now we have to be more vocal about it because it's essential for our identity to know that that is the driving force."

- Blur play Liverpool Royal Court on Monday 24 November and Think Tank is out now.

Chris Brown

© 2003 Daily Post

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