Former Britpop adversaries Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn are best buddies now, according to Blur bassist Alex James.
Speaking to Irish radio host Ray D’Arcy, Alex James said: “Ironically Noel and Damon are like best mates now. They go off and smoke cigars together. I think we realised we we’re all on the same side eventually.”
Damon and Noel had a rather rocky relationship (to put it lightly) in the 90s, as they were both the figureheads of Blur and Oasis respectively, two of the largest bands in the UK at the time. Noel famously said that he hoped Damon would “catch AIDs and die”, and Damon accused both Noel and his brother Liam Gallagher of being bullies. However, the pair have buried the hatchet and even joined each other onstage earlier this year for a performance of Blur’s ‘Tender’ – although Noel couldn’t do so without getting one last dig in, saying that he only offered to join in because the song was “easy to play on guitar”.
James also spoke of Blur’s break up and subsequent reunion, saying: “It was 2003 when Blur really kind of stopped. And it had been 15 years of us doing the same thing, just the four of us. That’s a long time. I think we just all needed to go off and do other things. We’ve all worked with other people. So when we come back to play together I think we do it just because we want to – there’s no pressure… It’s actually the best thing we ever did, splitting up.”
He continued: “Back in 2009 when we got back together, they were the best shows we’d ever done. And I think we all thought that was a good place to leave it, maybe. Then we got the call to do this big show last summer to mark the end of the Olympics and I think we all felt we can’t really say no to that. It’s such an honour to be asked. And it was so brilliant, we thought what’s not to like?”
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