Damon Albarn has written a new song especially for Sunday’s (28 Oct 2007) “Plague Songs” event being held at London’s Barbican centre.

Acts performing at the event include Imogen Heap, Kenny Anderson (King Creosote), Rufus Wainwright and many more. The show is being curated by David Coulter who was the musical director on Monkey: Journey To The West.

It is still to be confirmed whether Damon will actually perform at the event. For more info and tickets, visit the Barbican website.

Via blur.co.uk

Damon Albarn won the Q Inspiration Award at the Q Awards held in London. The award was presented to Damon by Zane Lowe and Kano. View Damon’s acceptance speech here.

Other winners this year include Paul McCartney, Ian Brown and Kylie Minogue. Tony Wilson was awarded the Q Hero.

The full list of winners can be found at the Q Awards website.

Damon Albarn has made a rare public reference to his former band Blur, during his indie rock supergroup The Good, The Bad and the Queen’s headlining set at Latitude Festival tonight (July 14).

With the recently reported news that the original line up of Blur are due to reconvene in the studio for the first time since 1999, Damon Albarn took the opportunity to reference their classic single, “Song 2″ while introducing The Good, The Bad & The Queen song, “A Soldier’s Tale“.

“I met a squaddie who’d been in Iraq,” he told the Obelisk arena audience at Latitude.

“He told me that they used to play ‘Song 2‘ before… you know” –the suggestion being before they went into combat — “so I guess this is for him.”

The Good, The Bad & The Queen – featuring Clash member Paul Simonon, played their debut album in its entirety, closing the second night of this year’s sell-out Latitude festival.

via Uncut

Damon Albarn has criticised Kaiser Chiefs in the strongest possible terms – by comparing their new album to Blur’s famously underwhelming 1995 record The Great Escape. The singer said: “I’ve made two bad records. The first record [Leisure], which is awful, and The Great Escape, which was messy.

“The Kaiser Chiefs’ new record (Yours Truly, Angry Mob) sounds a bit like The Great Escape in that it sounds a bit empty. Sometimes records are like that if you try too hard to repeat your success.”

It’s quite a change of heart for Albarn. Two years ago he was so moved by a Kaiser Chiefs gig at Leeds Metropolitan University he burst into tears (“I think it was a compliment,” said Kaisers drummer Nick Hodgson at the time).

Kaiser Chiefs – who Liam Gallagher once unfairly dismissed as “a bad Blur” – have made no secret of the debt they owe Albarn and co. What’s more, Ricky Wilson and Damon Albarn have hung out together several times (they even went together to watch ex-Blur guitarist Graham Coxon’s solo gig at South By Southwest in Texas last year).

We wonder if the atmosphere might be a bit more frosty the next time they meet…

via Q4music

Via www.blurcentral.co.uk

(from this week’s NME, cover date: 3 March 2007) Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon look closer to revealing plans to work together again, after NME confronted the Britpop legends.

Last week (February 17), Coxon declared he’d been thinking about a Blur reunion, so when we were given a chance to talk to Albarn about The Good, The Bad & The Queen this week, we couldn’t help but enquire about his old band.

With a single and more live dates planned for GBQ, along with an ‘opera’ and new anti-nuclear weapons website, Albarn has plenty on his plate, but we still sneaked in a Blur question. Here’s what he had to say…

Read the full interview over at www.blurcentral.co.uk