#graham's behavior

[archivegramon]

““The most important thing now is that there isn’t that same sort of dependency,” Albarn says. “Because with codependency of any form comes vulnerability. We’re not really here because we need to be here. We’re here because we choose to be here. And the door is always left firmly open.”

“Wedged,” Coxon adds drily.

“There isn’t that sense of claustrophobia that there was at one point,” Albarn continues. “Bear in mind that we got to know each other at age 11, and that was continuous until we were 30. And then other shit happened. We had a nice break.”

“I was still 9 years old in my head in the ’90s,” Coxon says. “It was crazy, and I didn’t really have the emotional apparatus to cope with it. Just fucking having tantrums. It’s a bit different now. [The Magic Whip] came out so casually, without any pressure. It was not coaxed or prodded out, in the way that it used to be in the ’90s — that sort of treadmill. It was music that wanted to exist. And it ended up existing.””

Graham and Damon about their relationship for Grantland, 2015.

[archivegramon]

Launch: Have you ever tried praying?

Graham: Do I pray? Yeah, I kinda pray. But I don't pray to God. I think he's old-fashioned. I pray for the better nature of myself. I don't pray to God! Did you hear me? I pray for the better nature of myself!

Launch: What do you ask the better nature of yourself?

Graham: Just to be better.

Launch: To be a better guitarist?

Graham: Oh f**k off! What do you mean? I can't be a better guitarist. I'll become a better guitarist on my own. I don't need whatever shape God is to help me achieve that. What is this, a f**king Christian magazine?

Excerpt from a phone call interview with Graham Coxon, originally published in Launch magazine, 1998. (via panny)

[archivegramon]

“Note one: "Things have become distinctly more cordial. Graham Coxon has asked me to marry him. He is drunk. He asks everyone to marry him. Graham Coxon is great company at the start of the evening, funny and gentle and sharp.

But you have to tread carefully when Mr. Spectacles is on the sauce; there’s a moment when he tips over to splenetic. He has a tendency to insult people to their face. Strangers. Passers-by. Couples quietly drinking in the hotel bar. He is a harsh critic. It is sometimes uncomfortable."

Louise Wener on Graham Coxon’s personality for Just For One Day: Adventures in Britpop, 2011 (via Damon Albarn Unofficial)

[archivegramon]

“A little later, Graham and Damon’s relationship broke down: “There were a couple of times when I just shouted at Damon and hurt his feelings, and I hate hurting people’s feelings, so that made me feel really terrible, and he was feeling terrible, and we were finding it very difficult to talk. So I wrote him this long letter about what I really wanted and he wrote me one back. I wrote that I wanted to scare people and I wanted to make music that’s important, not just like a packet of sweets or something.”

Graham Coxon, about his falling out with Damon Albarn, after The Great Escape, 1999. (via Damon Albarn Unofficial)

[archivegramon]

“When Blur first made Top of the Pops in 1991, that was all Graham’s dreams fulfilled. When they played arenas, on the Parklife tour, that was all his nightmares: “Just kids screaming, not really listening. It’s the most scary noise I’ve ever encountered. And I didn’t think, “Oh great, Beatle-mania.” I thought, “This is hell.””

Graham Coxon about his frustration with success, The Observer, Life, 1999. (via Damon Albarn Unofficial)

[archivegramon]

“But if Blur have realized a bold new sound, relations among the band members have suffered. They chide each other frequently backstage, and even childhood friends Albarn and Coxon admit that they’re not as tight as they once were. “Damon is a self-centered fucker sometimes,” says Coxon flatly. Albarn pins the blame for their strained relationship on the guitarist’s former drinking problem. “It totally wrecked our ability to get on with each other,” Albarn says. “When he was drunk, he’d be likely to tell a journalist to fuck off, or I’d hear reports of him being unconscious at 4 in the morning somewhere in London. That was upsetting because he’s my closest male friend.”

Coxon quit drinking last summer, after nearly getting into a fistfight with Albarn during a drunken sound check. Coxon sings about the experience in “You’re So Great,” the only song on Blur that Albarn didn’t write. “It’s a minor miracle that I stopped drinking,” says Coxon. “Alcohol made me relaxed enough to have the most awful fights with people. I was very negative, and I would lash out because I was angry about feeling terrible all the time. I had lost a part of myself. Now that I’m sober, I’m very glad to have that part back.””

The Independent, 1997. (via Damon Albarn Unofficial)