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Blur. Comments, stories, insults etc. said/told by or about members of the band. var sc_project=7650363; var sc_invisible=1; var sc_security="baad37df";

[fuckyeahblurquotes]

Q: The most popular theory about Blur is that there's a fault line between you and Alex: the dour muso versus the flighty popinjay. Does Damon have his hands full keeping you both on-board?

Graham: Probably, Damon has had a lot on his plate putting on his I'm A Friend Of Alex face and then his I'm A Friend Of Graham face. But it's nothing bad between me and Alex. It's just to do with sense of humour. We're very similar. If he wants to try and be in The Average White Band then I'm going to be in Gang Of Four. I'm cutting against him all the time, because he's, like, a sexy musician and I feel...shy and clumsy. So I try and fuck up his funk. It's basically teenage party jealousy.

[fuckyeahblurquotes]

Is there a word that sums up the mood of [13]?

Graham: I like the idea that we do that in every record, change people's view, or surprise somebody, because we can push it, probably, more than people imagine we can. Maybe we can't, maybe it all just sounds just like Blur in the end and it's only very subtle. It changes, but to us it's fast. I don't know the difference to anyone else hearing it and me. But it's definitely not the Great Escape or Blur. It's gone somewhere, it's slightly eschew. It's a bit twisted.

[damonalbarn]

“It does make you feel very vulnerable when you lose such a huge part of your life.”

Damon on Graham not showing up for the initial Think Tank recording sessions, 2003 (via damonalbarn)

[fuckyeahblurquotes]

...The only reason anyone like me would stay in a band this long, and subject themselves to the sort of routines, the timetables, the schedules and everything is if at the end of everything you've got something that you really feel you can carry for the rest of your life. It's the only reason. I mean, none of us would put up with each other if we weren't satisfying each others desire to make good work.

Damon Albarn, 1999

[fuckyeahblurquotes]

This term 'Britpop,' it's not very cool anymore. You know it's one of those things that is just a bit annoying. I don't trust any kind of scene. It's always an excuse for there to be one or two good bands and lots of people having an easy ride.

Alex James, 1996

[damonalbarn]

“I don’t quite know how we ended up with girls throwing their knickers at us at the end of 1995.” says Damon, cringing. “But it’s not where I want to be in 1997. Of course I don’t mind if they buy Blur, but I’d prefer it if their older brothers or sisters nicked it off them.”

Damon Albarn | Arena 1997 (via damonalbarn)

[fuckyeahblurquotes]

I was furtively admiring all that American stuff. I'd go with my Walkman to my bunk on the tour bus and listen to it in secret, because we had to be proud of being British at that point. Even then, none of my inspirations were British. I always thought Pulp were influenced by old French pop music. So yeah, the rallying behind the flag was built on sand, musically.

Graham Coxon, Mojo Magazine, 2003

[fuckyeahblurquotes]

Are Blur fans tolerant of change?

Damon: Well, they have to be if they are going to stick with us. They have to be pretty, as you say, open-minded. People generally are, I think. I think it's such a fallacy that people listen to one kind of music. It's really strange the way music is brought across to people, it is segregated still.

[fuckyeahblurquotes]

I've written a lot over the last year. It's all gone a bit gay disco in my world. Why? I just like getting drunk and going to discos. I don't think you can beat really big bouncy bass drum gay disco music. Damon writes the words and tunes but it is an organic kind of thing. There's no point in being a band unless it's all of you.

Alex discussing his potential contributions to the album that would become Blur, 1996

[fuckyeahblurquotes]

'Oh yes, ages ago, ever since we started making friends there really. It was just that things went so horrendously the first few times we went there. We were on a record label [SBK, a subsidiary of EMI] with Jesus Jones, Vanilla Ice, and the Mutant Ninja Turtles. I remember they loved stickering records. Slowdive [low-grade Creation records castoffs] had one that said, "Like a hallucinogenic drug without the danger."' He grimaces. 'And ours was, "The most shaggable band on the planet." You can imagine how well that sort of thing went down. We did two tours, lost all our money, and had a fucking awful time, and that was the whole reason I was so antagonistic to America and American music - because the only Americans I really knew were wankers at our first record label.

Damon on Blur's (then) improving relationship with the US, 1997

[fuckyeahblurquotes]

Select: Did the new America angle [of Blur] surprise you?

Alex: I think all the stuff we've done since 'Modern Life Is Rubbish' has deliberately excluded anti-American cultural references, because we thought British culture needed to find it's identity again. Ironically, now it has, we've made our most American-sounding record. But, that's not a complete surprise. Graham's been listening to Yankcore ever since I've known him. The first time I ever met him he was playing a Pixies record.

[fuckyeahblurquotes]

No. It was the only thing we could possibly make without having just stopped and gone our separate ways. I feel Graham had gone a long with with me. I've known him for so long that I couldn’t not be sensitive to his - I write good songs and I have a different kind of musical sense to him, and when the two are put together properly it's really really strong. But sometimes one overtakes the other. We really tried on this record to make a balance.

Damon answering the question, "was [Blur] designed to alienate pop fans?", 1997

[fuckyeahblurquotes]

Q: What did the rest of Blur get up to last year [1998]?

Alex: Dave (Rowntree, drummer) and I have both got our commercial pilot's licenses. Graham's released his album and Damon's been in the press a lot. Damon and Mel C, Damon and Shaznay. I couldn't possibly comment. Damon is gay, that's all I'm saying.

[24hoursofrubbish]

Talk of Blur’s brilliant guitarist, Graham, comes up and Albarn and James reveal how the pressure to succeed is affecting both of them. “Nobody knows how Graham works,” says Albarn. “He’s a very odd person. He has violent mood swings.” James: “He’s the artist in the band.” Albarn: “I always object when you say that.” James: “Alright, you’re the artist in the band.” Albarn: “No, I’m not, but, fuck, you always say that. I don’t know why you fucking say that.” James: “A band like Oasis are not great players, but with them it’s all the song. With us, if we didn’t have Graham in the band, we’d be Queen. We just want to camp it up and…” Albarn: “No. YOU just want to camp it up. You always speak for…” James: “I want to camp it up. Graham wants to camp it down. Dave doesn’t care. I don’t know what you want. You just want to control everything.” “I don’t see it like that at all,” says Albarn. “Alex gives it a looseness and a fluidity. I’ve known Graham since we were 14. He’s not very good at articulating things, verbally, but he always tries to make guitar parts that say all the unspoken things about that character. He does the harmonies live. Sometimes he’s singing while he makes all these ridiculous chords on guitar.”

Raygun. December/January 1996. (via 24hoursofrubbish)

[fuckyeahblurquotes]

"Pop" is a funny word, it means different things in different countries. If you ask somebody in France, they'd give you some kind of weird, arty electronic music. In America, 'pop' is a group like New Kids on the Block. If that's what you mean, then the answer is no, we're not a pop group.

Dave answering the question, "can Blur's music be labeled?," 1999

[fuckyeahblurquotes]

I love writing songs, but I think the older you get, the more selective you get with your subjects. When I was younger, I'd write songs about everything and anything. Now, I can only write about the things that are closer to my heart. I can't just write about getting up in the morning and it being a lovely day. I could write the music, but to actually sing it is harder and harder. By now, I know the things that work for me and the things that don't.

Damon discussing one of the reasons 13 is "rewarding," 1999

[damonalbarn]

The prettiness thing has been a problem. Damon Albarn is one of those people who is supernaturally handsome. He has the upturned nose of an aristocratic 16-year-old girl and big lips, which he licks a lot with a big, fleshy tongue. And, of course, there’s the eyes: fields of bluebells on a summer’s day. But people have a natural distrust of the unbearably pretty. So, in an effort to override the looks issue and get taken seriously, Damon took the objectionable route. In the early days he’d throw up on stage; he’d clamber like a deranged chimp over towering speakers and amps before hurling himself kamikaze-style into audiences; he’d come out with outrageous statements. As Dave Rowntree, Blur’s drummer, once contemplated, “We should’ve taken a Stanley knife to him in the beginning and things would’ve been oh-so-different.”

Minx Magazine, 1999 (via damonalbarn)