Damon Albarn: Last News

Blur have paid tribute to their former collaborator Françoise Hardy, who has died at the age of 80.The French singer-songwriter, actor and model’s death was confirmed by her son Thomas Dutronc on Tuesday (June 11).A cause of death has yet to be disclosed. However, Hardy shared in 2021 that she had been diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in 2018 following a lymphoma diagnosis in 2004, and said she felt “close to the end” of her life.Hardy worked with Blur in 1995 on a reworked version of the band’s single ‘To The End’ – the original of which appeared on their third studio album, 1994’s ‘Parklife’.The team-up ultimately became a duet, ‘To the End (La Comedie)’, and it was subsequently serviced as a single in France.

Blur have announced their new ‘Live at Wembley Stadium’ album, which will accompany their brand-new documentary and concert film – find all details below.The band took to social media to share the news, posting a teaser trailer of their huge Wembley gigs that took place last July. While there, Blur played to over 150,000 fans across two nights at the stadium.

Blur have announced details of their new feature-length documentary To The End, which will follow their recent comeback and the release of their first album in eight years.The Britpop icons first shared a teaser about the upcoming project back in February, when they announced that a feature-length documentary was on the way, and set to recall the making of their latest album ‘The Ballad Of Darren’.Now, frontman Damon Albarn and co. have shared the title of the film, and confirmed that it will be arriving in cinemas across the country later this summer.Called Blur: To The End, the new documentary will be shown in cinemas across the UK and Ireland from July 19 and, according to a press release, will “follow the unique relationship of four friends – and bandmates of three decades – Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree as they came together in early 2023 to record new songs ahead of their sold-out, first-ever shows at London’s Wembley Stadium in July last summer.”The Wembley shows refer to when the band played two massive back-to-back headline shows at the venue last summer.

Damon Albarn said “this is probably our last gig” during Blur’s set at Weekend 2 of Coachella 2024 last night (April 20).The legendary Britpop band – comprised of Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree – took to the annual music and arts festival’s main stage for the second consecutive Saturday night (April 20).And as they prepared to launch into ‘Tender’, the last song of the night, Albarn confided to the crowd: “In the spirit of clarity and truth, this is probably our last gig”.“In the spirit of clarity, and truth, this is probably our last gig” – Damon Albarn introducing the last song of the Blur set at Coachella, Weekend 2 pic.twitter.com/52Fy56y702— Damon Albarn Unofficial (@DamonUnofficial) April 21, 2024It comes after Albarn stated in December that the band would be going on a hiatus until further notice, saying “it’s too much for me”.“It is time to wrap up this campaign,” he said. “It’s too much for me.

Coachella 2024. Here’s everything you need to know to enjoy the California festival from the desert, or from the comfort of your own home.Weekend one was pretty eventful – with Lana Del Rey dazzling during her show (with a little help from surprise guest Billie Eilish), Damon Albarn struggled to connect with the lacklustre audience gathered for Blur, before Tyler, The Creator smashed his Saturday headline show – despite a similarly meek crowd – and a stellar closing set from Doja Cat.Headlines were also made by the long-awaited return of No Doubt (featuring Olivia Rodrigo), a reunion set from Sublime, and other guest turns coming from Paris Hilton hooking up with Vampire Weekend and Will Smith taking to the stage with J Balvin to roll out ‘Men In Black‘ for some reason.Now the set times for the second weekend of the festival have been announced, along with a new multi-view feature on the festival’s official livestream – so you can watch all the action from each stage.

Blur performed Saturday night on the Coachella main stage ahead of No Doubt, they found themselves in front of a relatively unresponsive crowd, especially during their 1994 hit “Girls & Boys.” “You’re never seeing us again, so you might as well fucking sing it,” a clearly frustrated frontman Damon Albarn said after the crowd’s uninspired response during multiple call and response attempts. Segments of the internet soon erupted with confused reactions — were they about to vacate the stage? Were they splitting up again? Were they so frustrated that they were pulling a Frank Ocean and not returning for weekend two? Or, more likely, was it a not-out-of-character act of spontaneous anger from a 56-year-old rock star who’d played two nights at London’s Wembley Stadium to 90,000 screaming fans last summer — who’d screamed the lyrics to “Girls & Boys” almost louder than Albarn could sing them — and apparently didn’t realize that much of the Coachella audience was half his age and did not grow up on such ’90s Britpop classics as “Popscene,” “Tender,” “Coffee & TV,” “The Universal,” “Country House” and “For Tomorrow” (although they probably knew the “Whoo-hoo!” of the group’s biggest hit, “Song 2”).

Foals‘ Yannis Philippakis has shared the first taster of his long-awaited project with late Fela Kuti legend Tony Allen – as well as launching new collaborative project Yannis & The Yaw. Check out the single ‘Walk Through Fire’ below, and watch our interview with the frontman above.Philippakis has been teasing the project for some years, first revealing news of sessions with the drummer to NME back in 2017.

Blur frontman Damon Albarn has revealed that he didn’t want to perform during the band’s second Wembley show last year.In November 2022, Blur announced a reunion gig at Wembley Stadium for July 8, 2023. Due to overwhelming demand, the reunion gig turned into a two-parter, with a second show announced shortly after.That second show – which took place on July 9 – went on to become their “best ever” gig, according to Albarn himself. However, the July 9 show was on the verge of being cancelled by Albarn, who didn’t want to perform.Albarn revealed the near-cancellation during an interview with KROQ during Coachella‘s opening weekend, sharing: “I never thought I’d love Wembley.

Blur‘s Damon Albarn has opened up about the audience and attendees at Coachella, saying that “they’re sort of on their own planet”.The legendary Britpop band – comprised of Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree – took to the annual music and arts festival’s main stage on Saturday night (April 13).In an interview with KROQ before their set, Albarn said: “I don’t know, it’s a weird one Coachella when it comes to audience you know. It’s hard to know sometimes because they’re quite sort of on their own planet really,” after being asked if he was surprised by how excited and crazy the fan reaction was to the band playing the festival.Elsewhere in the chat, Albarn and James explained how they came to play Coachella this year.

Blur’s Damon Albarn aired his frustration live on stage while performing to an unenthusiastic Coachella crowd this weekend.The Britpop legend performed with his band at the California music festival on Saturday (April 13), in between sets from Sublime and No Doubt, before Tyler, The Creator headlined that evening.Blur delivered a career-spanning set on the Coachella main stage, including fan favourites like ‘Song 2’ and ‘Popscene’.However, Albarn was visibly irritated when attempting to perform a call and response with the US crowd during ‘Girls & Boys’.“You can do it better than that,” he told attendees at one point, which was met by a quiet crowd. When he still didn’t get the desired response, the frontman said: “You’re never seeing us again, so you might as well fucking sing it.

Liam Gallagher’s favourite Blur song is, you won’t have to wait any long – see what Liam Gallagher considers to be his top Blur track below.During Blur’s pre-Coachella warm-up gig at the Fox Theater Pomona in California on April 10, frontman Damon Albarn spoke of several instances of Americans trying to claim songwriting credits for their hit track ‘Song 2’.Albarn said onstage: “Because of the nature of American law, if someone gets a lawyer… they can come quite a long way with absolutely no grounds. Someone else this year – not only is it that person who’s convinced they’d written it, but there was another person who was convinced.

Lily Moayeri Three days ahead of their prime-slot appearance at Coachella, Blur put on a packed preview show at the Fox Theater in Pomona, Calif., a half-hour east of Los Angeles. These Coachella warm-up shows serve serval purposes: They help the artist work out the kinks in their setlist — Blur toured extensively last year, including a career-spanning show at London’s 90,000-capacity Wembley Stadium, but most recently performed in South America in November — and they provide fans with a rare chance to see artists perform at smalle-than-usual venues.

Blur broke out a number of classic tracks at their Coachella warm-up gig last night (April 10). Check out footage and the complete setlist below.The intimate live show took place at the Fox Theater in Pomona, California, yesterday evening, and came ahead of the huge set that the Britpop icons are set to break out at Coachella later this weekend (Saturday, April 13).They first announced details of the set on social media back in February, when they shared an image of a flyer, and confirmed that support on the night would be from Mercury Prize-nominated duo Jockstrap.On the night, Damon Albarn and co.

Damon Albarn recently joined Thundercat on stage and performed a handful of solo tracks and a Gorillaz song.The Gorillaz frontman appeared at the third night of Thundercat’s four-night residency at London’s KOKO venue on Friday April 5 as part of his UK tour.Albarn joined the bassist towards the end of his set. Together they performed ‘Oh Sheit It’s X’, ‘Funny Thing’, ‘Them Changes’ and Gorillaz ‘Cracker Island’, the lead track from the animated band’s album of the same name in which Thundercat was originally featured on.Has this crowd been euthanised like do they know thundercat and damon albarn are in front of them playing cracker island pic.twitter.com/bJMLD0aVwX— tara (@drknesstolight) April 5, 2024Damon and Thundercat playing Funny Thing tonight in London.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Jack Antonoff has no time for anyone interested in slandering Taylor Swift‘s abilities as a songwriter. The Grammy-winning producer and longtime Swift collaborator recently told the Los Angeles Times that questioning Swift’s songwriting “is like challenging someone’s faith in God. You just don’t go there.” “I’m a little bitch sometimes,” he added.

Jack Antonoff has hit back at the critics who have questioned Taylor Swift‘s songwriting ability.The producer and Bleachers frontman has worked on every Swift album since her huge 2014 record ‘1989’, and once again teamed up with the pop star on her new LP ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ (out April 19).That’s according to the Los Angeles Times, which asked Antonoff about his reaction to Damon Albarn’s incorrect past claim that Swift doesn’t write her own songs. In response to the remark (itself coming from an LA Times interview), the producer said at the time: “If you were there…cool…go off.

Jack Antonoff has criticised Kanye West, saying he “just needs his diaper changed so badly”.The Bleachers frontman’s harsh words for Ye came in a new interview, in which he explained why he so fiercely comes to the defense of frequent collaborator Taylor Swift.After Damon Albarn suggested in an interview with The Los Angeles Times that Swift doesn’t write her own songs, Antonoff called him “a herb”.“I’m a little bitch sometimes,” he told the same outlet. “But you come after my friend Taylor, you’re toast to me.” He added that questioning her songwriting abilities “is like challenging someone’s faith in God.

Blur have announced an intimate warm-up show ahead of their performance at this year’s edition of Coachella.The Britpop icons took to their official social media pages to share a flyer of the intimate show, which is set to take place on Wednesday, April 10 at the Fox Theatre in Pomona, California. The show will take place roughly three days before Damon Albarn and co are due to hit the stage at Coachella on Saturday, April 13.Opening support for the gig will come from Jockstrap.

Damon Albarn covered The Smiths‘ ‘Panic’ with his Africa Express collective on stage in Mexico City this weekend.The Blur frontman joined the group for the performance in Morelos, Mexico at Bahidorá Festival on Saturday (February 17).The musical collective was formed in 2006 with the aim of bringing together artists from different cultures and musical genres for collaborative events.Albarn sang and played piano for the high-energy performance, and was joined by Camilo Lara for a lively ska interpretation of The Smiths’ 1986 track.Check out footage of the showcase below.Announcing the show last month, the Gorillaz artist shared that the performance would mark Africa Express’ first visit to Mexico, bringing together musicians, singers and DJs from around the world “to collaborate on a very special, completely original show”.NME watched Africa Express live back in 2019, describing the show in a five-star review as a “symbolic display of diversity, collaboration and unity”. It added: “Africa Express rarely gets together, but when it does, it specialises in generating one-off moments through unique combinations.”The collective’s last release, ‘Egoli‘ also came out in 2019.

Noel Gallagher has announced details of a huge Warwick Castle show with Johnny Marr and The Waeve – find all the information below.Back in December 2023, Gallagher announced he and the High Flying Birds were to embark on a summer tour. They will stop by Cardiff, Wigan, Halifax and London from July 2024.Now, the band has announced a further headline date at Warwick Castle on July 21. They will be supported by Johnny Marr and The Waeve (Graham Coxon and Rose Elinor Dougall).Tickets will go on general sale at 10am next Friday (February 23) – see all dates below and get yours here.

Goat Girl have returned with details of their new album ‘Below the Waste’, and have unveiled the lead single ‘Ride Around’.The London post-punk group, made up of Lottie Pendlebury, Rosy Jones and Holly Mullineaux, will release the album on June 6 via Rough Trade Records. Pre-order it here.It will be the band’s third album, following on from their 2018 self-titled debut and 2021’s ‘On All Fours’.Goat Girl will also play a string of six intimate UK gigs to take place in March, with a full headline UK and European tour set to be confirmed at a later date.