Damon Albarn, frontman of legendary British rock band Blur, has opened up about his band’s decision to pull out of Big Day Out 2014 only a month before the music festival was due to begin, revealing that Blur had hoped it would be a fitting end to their touring career as a band.
In an interview with the New Zealand Herald, Albarn discussed Blur’s cancellation, which confused fans and caused major headaches for festival organisers in November 2013. He revealed that had the band’s appearance gone ahead, it would have been their final appearance together:
“That was going to be the last Blur show – the end of playing together – and I didn’t want it to finish on anything other than a very positive note, because Blur is incredibly precious to all of us. But I was genuinely concerned that the whole [Big Day Out] thing wouldn’t be quite as spiritually conclusive as we hoped it would be, because we weren’t sure if the organisation was quite right, or supportive of our ambitions.
“They [the organisers] weren’t being straight with me about things, which they needed to be, and at that point I became disillusioned because I didn’t want what we’d done throughout the year, with Blur, to be undermined or tarnished in any way, by a show that wasn’t going to be what we wanted to do.”
Albarn went on to say that he felt festival organisers didn’t recognise the significance of the band wanting to share their final moments performing together on a Big Day Out stage, after playing around the world for sixth months prior to the festival.
He also apologised to everyone who was let down by his band’s shock cancellation. “I am truly, terribly sorry to everyone that we let down, but we just didn’t want to be anything other than what I felt we deserved to be – our best. If we’d played – and not been that – it would have let people down even more,” he said.
When asked about future appearances in Australia and New Zealand, Albarn replied, “Don’t anyone forget that I had an absolutely brilliant time with Gorillaz only two years earlier in that part of the world – it was a fantastic experience – and I fully intend to come back and play there again, if I’m allowed. Until then, I understand I have to wait.”
Despite confirming new Blur material in 2013, Albarn recently admitted that there won’t be enough time to finish a new Blur record. Currently promoting the upcoming release of his solo album Everyday Robots, which is due to drop internationally on 25th April, Albarn told the New Zealand Herald that the record is “totally autobiographical” and has “an element of psychoanalysis” to it. Music Feeds readers can check out the official music video for album track Lonely Press Play below.
Watch: Damon Albarn – Lonely Press Play
