Damon Albarn Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

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.

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.

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.

Blur are set to release a new documentary and concert film charting their huge 2023 reunion.As Screen Daily reports, UK sales and distribution company Altitude has added the two upcoming titles to its European Film Market (EFM) slate. Both projects will be released in cinemas in the UK and Ireland later this year.The first film is a feature-length documentary detailing the Britpop band’s latest comeback, which saw Damon Albarn and co.

Naman Ramachandran Altitude is launching international sales on two films featuring iconic British band Blur at the Berlin European Film Market. The band, consisting of singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bass guitarist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree, was formed in 1988 and tasted considerable success until it went on hiatus in 2015. The first film is an untitled feature-length documentary depicting the return of Blur, captured across a year in which the band made a surprise return with their first record in eight years, the #1 album “The Ballad of Darren.” It follows the relationship of the bandmates of over three decades as they come together to record 10 new songs ahead of their sold-out shows at London’s Wembley Stadium in 2023.

Liam Gallagher has responded to Dua Lipa branding Britpop bands as “obnoxious” in a recent interview.The ‘Houdini’ singer recently spoke about the musical influences on her forthcoming third album, which included bands like Blur and Oasis.In the interview with Rolling Stone, the pop star hinted that the new record would channel the “don’t give a fuck-ness” of the Britpop legends.When the interviewer mentioned that Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn hadn’t been kind to female artists in the past – taking shots at artists like Taylor Swift and Adele, for example – Lipa said that while she hadn’t experienced any encounters with them personally, you “sometimes you have to separate the art from the person”.“It’s more like the music element, the aspect of it that I’m really connected to. The way that [some Brit-pop artists] acted, the things that they’ve done, they’re obnoxious for sure.

Dua Lipa has said that some bands from the Britpop era, including Blur and Oasis, past behaviour was “obnoxious”.Lipa sat down with Rolling Stone to discuss her forthcoming album. In the profile, journalist Brittany Spanos wrote how some of the ‘Levitating’ singer’s inspirations for the album include Britpop legends like Oasis and Blur, as well as ’90s rock and electronic acts like Moby and Gorillaz.Spanos went on to mention that some of those Brit-pop acts, including Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn in particular, haven’t been the nicest to female pop acts.

Dua Lipa has addressed the jokes made about her constantly being on holiday.Dubbed as the “vacanza queen” on social media following her frequent posts of her on vacation in places like Cannes and Ibiza, the ‘Levitating’ singer has addressed fan comments about her constantly taking time for travel and leisure.Speaking to Rolling Stone in a new interview, Lipa spoke about her frequent holidays. “I think people are quick to forget I was on tour up until the end of December.

Liam Gallagher has given his ruthless verdict on a resurfaced clip of his brother Noel playing a version of Gorillaz’ ‘Dare’ with Damon Albarn. The video was captured in December 2015 at a 60th birthday party for Paul Simonon, the bassist in The Clash, who is also part of the performance. Noel Gallagher is singing the vocal that was originally recorded by the Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder while playing guitar, and Albarn is singing his original melody line from the 2005 song, with Simonon on bass.

Jools Holland‘s traditional New Year’s Eve show on BBC2 has been announced.Jools’ Annual Hootenanny will see the likes of Rod Stewart, Joss Stone, Olivia Dean, Paul Jones, P.P. Arnold, RAYE, Sugababes and The Mary Wallopers seeing in 2024.Other guests include Boogie Woogie Queen, Ruby Turner and as always, the Pipes & Drums of the 1st Battalion Scot Guards will feature, as the hour strikes midnight.Details of which songs the artists will perform on the night are yet to be announced.This year’s show will air from 11.30pm GMT on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer this Sunday (December 31).

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Sydney Sweeney’s starring role in the Rolling Stones‘ music video for “Angry,” the lead single off their most recent album “Hackney Diamonds,” led to some claims that she was sexualized during the nearly four-minute clip. The video features Sweeney wearing black studded chaps and dancing in the back seat of a convertible as it speeds down Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. The street is lined with animated billboards showing the history of the Rolling Stones.

Rolling Stones‘ single ‘Angry’.Damon Albarn had called out the Stones for their “nonsense” involvement with Hackney, which he said they had never contributed to, as well as making Sweeney seem objectified in the video.“I listened to their new song and watched this horrible music video showing them at different stages of their lives on billboards,” he told French magazine Les Inrockuptibles. And this young woman objectified. What the hell is this? There’s something completely disconnected.”Now, Sweeney has had her own say on the situation.

Damon Albarn has offered his thoughts on The Beatles‘ use of AI in their new single ‘Now And Then’, sharing that he could imagine it happening to his own material one day.The Beatles released their “final” song early last month, the last track to feature all the original members of the Fab Four. The song went on to top the charts six decades after their first Number One single.‘Now And Then’ stems from a demo tape recorded by late bandmate John Lennon.

Damon Albarn has said he’s “pissed off” with the The Rolling Stones for their “nonsense” involvement with Hackney and “objectification” of Sydney Sweeney.The Blur frontman spoke about the legendary band in a new interview with French magazine Les Inrockuptibles, where he was asked about his thoughts on their new album ‘Hackney Diamonds’.“This really annoyed me” he said, “because my family lives in Hackney and the way they showed up at the Hackney Empire venue really pissed me off. They’ve never did a thing in Hackney, they’ve never played there, never contributed to anything. They just showed up.

Damon Albarn has shared that Blur will be going on a hiatus until further notice with the frontman saying “It’s too much for me”.The band – comprised of Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon, bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree – reunited after an eight-year hiatus and released their ninth studio album ‘The Ballad Of Darren‘ earlier this year.In a new interview with French publication Les Inrockuptibles (via Far Out Magazine), Albarn revealed that the band will be taking a break yet again until further notice. “It is time to wrap up this campaign.

Damon Albarn joined Beck in a live cover of Gorillaz’ ‘The Valley Of The Pagans’ during Beck’s Primavera Sound set in Buenos Aires on Sunday (November 26). “This is a song we wrote together during COVID times,” said Beck, as Albarn walked onstageto thunderous applause, which gave way to a spontaneous, prolonged crowd chant.

Bombay Bicycle Club have covered Taylor Swift‘s ‘Lover‘ track ‘Cruel Summer’ for BBC Radio 1’s piano sessions.In support of their sixith studio LP ‘My Big Day’, the indie rockers played a reworked rendition of Swift’s song that recently reached Number One on the Billboard Hot 100, four years after it was released.Swift also recently dropped a live version of the track in celebration of the release of her concert film Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.Bombay Bicycle Club also played ‘Turn The World On‘ during their piano sessions. ‘My Big Day’ follows 2020’s ‘Everything Else Has Gone Wrong‘.

James Blunt has recalled the time that Damon Albarn didn’t want to be photographed with him for an episode of Later… With Jools Holland.The topic arose during a discussion with actor Kathy Burke on an episode of her podcast series Where There’s A Will, There’s A Wake. It heard the singer-songwriter recall the shun that he received from the Blur frontman.Recalling feeling “a little bit annoyed” about one of the passages in Blunt’s new memoir Loosely Based On A Made-Up Story, Burke asked the artist about the passage where he discussed his appearance on the Later… With Jools Holland show – namely a moment that happened off camera.“They do this sort of group photo of all the bands at the end… was it Damon Albarn who refused to be in the photograph or didn’t want you in the photograph?” she asked.“I don’t know exactly.

The Human League have announced details of a 2024 UK Arena tour.The legendary ’80s synth-pop band will tour the UK in late 2024 with their ‘Generations 2024’ tour hitting Cardiff, Manchester, Birmingham, Brighton, Bournemouth, Glasgow, Leeds and London.Tickets for the event will go on sale on November 3 from 10am here.Check out the full list of UK dates here:DECEMBER 5 – Utilita Arena, Cardiff 6 – Utilita Arena, Birmingham 9 – Brighton Centre, Brighton 10 – Windsor Hall (BIC), Bournemouth 12 – Ovo Hydro, Glasgow 13 – First Direct Arena, Leeds 14 – OVO Arena Wembley, LondonThe new wave band formed in 1977 and achieved huge success in the ’80s with hits including ‘Don’t You Want Me’, ‘Mirror Man’ and ‘Tell Me When.’ They won a BRIT award for Best British Breakthrough Act in 1982.Lead singer Philip Oakey has been the band’s consistent member since 1977 while keyboard players Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh both left the band to form Heaven 17. The group now consists of Oakey and long-serving vocalists Joanne Catherall and Susan Anne Sulley.The band have been covered by numerous artists over the years, including Blossoms last year who performed a rendition of ‘Don’t You Want Me’ at Truck Festival.Towards the end of their 18-track set, Blossoms treated the crowd to their own spin on the 1981 anthem ‘Don’t You Want Me’ and later shared footage of the cover on Instagram.

EXCLUSIVE: Celebrated Oregon studio Laika has brought in new talent, hiring director Pete Candeland, along with Victor Maldonado & Alfredo Torres, the Annie Award-winning duo together known as Headless, to develop new animated features. The appointments are effective immediately, though there’s no word yet on what the projects are.

Peter Hook & The Light were joined onstage by Damon Albarn for a performance of the Gorillaz song ‘Aries’ – check out footage below.The moment took place during Hook’s ongoing UK tour in which he plays both New Order’s ‘Substance’ album and Joy Division’s ‘Substance’ album in full.At the recent slot at London’s Eventim Apollo over the weekend, however, fans were in for a surprise when the Joy Division/New Order bassist brought out Albarn as a special guest.“Not long ago, I was honoured to be asked by a wonderful, very kind gentleman if I’d play with him,” Hook told the crowd on Saturday evening (October 14). “And this track is what we did, innit, Damon?”From there, the Blur and Gorillaz singer took to the stage and together they performed their 2020 track ‘Aries’.