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

The Good, The Bad And The Queen’s Damon Albarn has worked with Massive Attack on tracks for their new album.

The band are currently working on the follow up to their first new studio album since 2003′s ‘100th Window‘.

Albarn is one of the featured vocalists on the new tracks along with TV On The Radio‘s Tunde Adebimpe and former Mazzy Star singer Hope Sandoval plus regular collaborators Horace Andy and Liz Fraser.

Member Grant ‘Daddy G’ Marshall said the band “could have enough material to release two albums in 12 months”, reports The Guardian.

Although no release date has been confirmed, it is believed the as yet untitled album will be called ‘Weather Underground’.

via NME.com

Damon Albarn is writing the music for a Chinese circus production.

The work is due to get its debut at the inaugural Manchester International Festival next June.

The Blur/Gorillaz singer recently returned from several weeks spent travelling across China, where he recorded with a variety of local musicians. He is now back in London working on the tapes and turning the raw material into a score.

The production, called ‘Monkey: Journey to the West’, is based on the traditional Chinese story ‘The Monkey King’ and the stage set is being designed by Albarn’s Gorillaz colleague, Jamie Hewlett.

After the show’s Manchester debut, it will be staged in Paris and Berlin. The show, directed by Chinese theatre director Chen Shi-Zheng, will also feature Shaolin monks and singers from the Peking Opera.

Albarn is on a deadline to finish the score before the end of the year, but will interrupt work on the project to make his live debut with his new and untitled band at London’s Roundhouse on October 26.

The band – as previously reported on NME.COM – includes ex-Clash bassist Paul Simonon, African drumming legend Tony Allen and former Verve keyboard player Simon Tong. The group’s debut album, ‘The Good, The Bad and The Queen’, will be released in the New Year.

NME.COM