Musical Icon: Damon Albarn

I sit and write this post on the 23rd of March 2024, Damon’s 56th birthday. It seemed fitting to write about this man on his birthday. It also seemed like the perfect time to bring back the musical icons section of this website. 

Mr Albarn is most certainly a musical icon. His musical output has taken many forms from the Britpop and Alternative rock brilliance of Blur, to the virtual genre bending Gorillaz, the supergroup powerhouse of The Good, The Bad, The Queen and he's even had time to embark on a solo career. 

Blur were and still are one of Britain's very best and most important bands. They alongside their peers, Oasis, Pulp, Suede, Elastica, Sleeper, Ocean Colour Scene, Cast etc. Would forge a new musical movement in the early 90s. Grunge had fallen and the world turned it's eyes to Britain. Damon was at the forefront of this movement, he was the one who persuaded Food Records to allow Blur the once baggy outfit to record ‘Modern Life is Rubbish’ arguably the first proper ‘Britpop’ album. 

Blur built on this momentum with both ‘Parklife’ and ‘The Great Escape’ alongside Oasis they were up there as the biggest band in the world. The so called ‘Battle of Britpop’ made the 10-Clock news and saw Damon pitted against the brothers Gallagher in more ways than one. 

The band continued into the 90s and 00s reinventing themselves, with new ideas and sounds to great effect. A self titled album came in 1997 and spawned ‘Song 2’ and ‘Beetlebum’ whilst 13 saw Albarn delve into his feelings and thoughts. To create the band's most autobiographical record to date. However, in 2003, it would fall apart. Blur guitarist Graham Coxon, left the band. Blur now a three-piece would release ‘Think Tank’ in that same year. 

We would not see the band again until 2009 when they would reunite. As a four piece. These reunions continued into subsequent years. A 2012 performance to bring the London Olympics to a close. A 2015 tour with a new album ‘The Magic Whip’ and most recently the album ‘The Ballad of Darren’ with a sell out tour, including two nights at Wembley Stadium. 

A more detailed history of Blur can be found here. https://www.beyond-the-grooves.co.uk/blog/and-into-the-sea-goes-pretty-england-and-me

As Blur began to fall apart, Damon began to work on other projects. Now living with artist Jamie Hewlett they got to work on a new band. The project began in 1998 and they would release the debut album in 2001. Gorillaz was born.

A huge cosmic leap from Blur. Influenced by Hip-Hop, Trip Hop, Pop and World Music. What initially started as a bit of a joke became anything but. Gorillaz's self-titled debut album sold over seven million copies. Giving us hits like ‘Clint Eastwood’ and ‘19-2000’.

This band wasn't simply musicians making records and touring though. Gorillaz are a virtual band, of cartoon characters. An idea was conceived by Hewlett and Albarn after watching MTV one evening.

Gorillaz continued to make music into the 2000s and 2010s. With the band releasing ‘Demon Days’ in 2005 ‘Plastic Beach’ in 2010 ‘Humanz’ in 2017 ‘Song Machine’ in 2020 and ‘Cracker Island’ in 2023. 

Each of those records spawned some of Albarns biggest hits. ‘Demon Days’ gave us ‘DARE’ the bands first number one single, along with ‘Feel Good Inc’. Plastic Beach gave fans ‘On Melachony Hill’ and ‘Rhinestone Eyes.’ 

‘Humanz‘ saw Albarn collaborate with Noel Gallagher, after what happened in the 90s many didn't think this was possible. Collaborations have gone to become a huge part of Gorillaz do. The list of artists they've collaborated with is staggering. Shaun Ryder, Noel Gallagher, Stevie Nicks, Tame Impala, De La Soul, Beck, Graham Coxon, Alex James, Dave Rowntree, Snoop Dogg, Lou Reed, Billie Elish.

That's just a few examples of who the band have worked with

Never one to rest on his laurels always wanting to explore new ideas and genres. Gorillaz allows Albarn to do that and he has produced some of his very best work with that band. 

The Good The Bad The Queen, is another string to his bow. A more traditional band is more inclined toward Blur than Gorillaz. Again Albarn recruited some of the best musicians, Simon Tong from The Verve and Paul Simonon of The Clash as well as Tony Allen. Releasing their debut album in 2007. With the second coming in 2018.

Initially conceived as a solo project it later took the form of a group. Allowing Albarn to explore new ideas. Away from the already successful band Gorillaz.

This post has just scratched the surface of Damon Albarn. There is so much more I've not talked about. He has written some of the most important songs of my lifetime. Been front and centre of two of Britain's biggest bands. Collaborated with legends, and given new musicians a chance from letting a young fresh faced Jamie T remix ‘Kids with Guns’ to making music with ‘Little Simz’.

He truly is a musical icon. In fact he's more than that, he is one of the most important people in popular culture and has been for over thirty years. 

Thank you for reading x