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Damon Albarn
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Damon Albarn, (born 23 March 1968 in Leytonstone, London), is a Grammy Award-winning English singer-songwriter and record producer whose eclectic musical style and observational lyrics have made him one of England's most successful musicians of the past 20 years. He has been involved in many high profile projects and collaborations throughout his career, but is perhaps best known internationally for his work with popular virtual band Gorillaz, within which he serves as the principal songwriter and, under the alias "2D", lead vocalist.
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Encyclopedia
Damon Albarn, (born 23 March 1968 in Leytonstone, London), is a Grammy Award-winning English singer-songwriter and record producer whose eclectic musical style and observational lyrics have made him one of England's most successful musicians of the past 20 years. He has been involved in many high profile projects and collaborations throughout his career, but is perhaps best known internationally for his work with popular virtual band Gorillaz, within which he serves as the principal songwriter and, under the alias "2D", lead vocalist. Albarn came to prominence as the frontman of Brit-pop rock band Blur, and subsequent projects have included The Good, the Bad & the Queen, Monkey: Journey to the West and Mali Music. Albarn has sold over 30 million records internationally as of 2008.
Blur
In 1989, Albarn, along with Graham Coxon, Alex James, and Dave Rowntree formed Blur in London. The band went on to popularize the Britpop genre throughout the early and mid 90's until changing their musical direction. Blur is often credited as changing Britpop genre, being the biggest Britpop band in Europe at the time (With the Band Oasis as their rivals). Their influence has extended deep into modern music and into the alternative scene.
Solo career
Albarn released Mali Music in 2002, recorded in Mali, during a trip he made to support Oxfam in 2000. He has also visited Nigeria to record music with African drummer Tony Allen. Albarn says he would like to produce a Blur album in Baghdad as he "likes the Iraqi style of music".
He also released Democrazy in 2003, a collection of demos he recorded while staying in hotel rooms on the U.S. portion of Blur's tour for Think Tank.
Albarn has also appeared on other unrelated works. His song "Closet Romantic" appeared on the soundtrack for Trainspotting alongside an early Blur recording, "Sing". The Rentals' 1999 Album Seven More Minutes features Albarn on the track "Big Daddy C". Fatboy Slim's 2004 release Palookaville featured Albarn's vocals on the song "Put It Back Together". Albarn provided the voiceover intro and backing vocals in the song "Time Keeps On Slipping" for the rap concept album Deltron 3030, and featured on the track "Lovage (Love That Lovage, Baby)" for the Lovage album Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By. Both albums were produced by Dan the Automator, who also produced Gorillaz' debut album.
Albarn also composed the score with collaboration by Michael Nyman for the 1999 movie "Ravenous" with Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle. In 2000, he composed the main part of the soundtrack for the crime comedy Ordinary Decent Criminal.
During October 2007 Q Magazine released a 21st birthday special. Inside featured the "21 Artists who Changed Music" with 8 pages dedicated to Damon Albarn inside for his work in Blur, Gorillaz and The Good the Bad and the Queen. Within the article, Albarn expressed an interest in releasing a solo record under his own name, containing romantic songs.
Damon Albarn plans to release a new album in latter 2008. The new album will feature over 100 musicians, including a Chinese choir and an orchestra. However, he would not be drawn on the name of the project or whether it ties into any of his previous work. Albarn told BBC 6Music: "The new album got about 80, 90 musicians on it – something in that region. It's got a 100-piece Chinese choir on one of the tunes. That plus the orchestra probably goes to about 120, 130 people." Albarn hinted that this project may have something to do with his recent opera, 'Monkey: Journey To The West.' He says that the title of the project had "something of monkeys in there. There's a monkey or two in there at least – a bit like Gorillaz as well. It's not an opera [though], it's a proper record".
The Good, the Bad and the Queen
In May 2006, NME reported that Albarn was working with Danger Mouse on his first solo album, tentatively titled The Good, the Bad and the Queen. However, in July 2006, NME reported that those plans had been switched to the formation of a new band titled The Good, the Bad and the Queen. This proved to be inaccurate, as Albarn and other members of the group have indicated that The Good, the Bad and the Queen is the name of the album and not the band itself.
The album was awarded Best Album at the 2007 MOJO Awards on 18 June.
The group's line-up is composed of Albarn, former Clash bassist Paul Simonon, The Verve/Gorillaz guitarist Simon Tong, and drummer Tony Allen of Fela Kuti's band, Africa 70; Danger Mouse produced the album and decided on the final track listing.
The first single by the line-up, "Herculean", was released in late October 2006, and peaked at #22 in the UK Singles Chart. A second single, "Kingdom of Doom", and the band's debut album were then released in January 2007. That single fared slightly better than "Herculean", peaking at #20, while the album peaked at #2 in the UK Albums Chart and went gold during its first week of release in the UK. "Green Fields" was released as the third single from the album in April 2007, just missing out on the Top 50.
On 27 April 2008, The Good The Bad And The Queen headlined the Love Music Hate Racism Carnival in Victoria Park where they introduced on stage several guests including ex-Specials keyboard player Jerry Dammers.
Monkey: Journey To The West
In their first major work together since Gorillaz, Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, along with acclaimed Chinese theatre and opera director Chen Shi-zheng, adapted for stage the Chinese story Journey to the West. as "Monkey: Journey to the West", which received its world premiere as the opening show of the 2007 Manchester International Festival, on 28 June 2007 at the Palace Theatre, Manchester. Albarn wrote the score, Hewlett designed the set and costumes.
The opera was Albarn and Hewlett's second collaboration with the Manchester International Festival. In November 2005, they staged the first-ever live performances of Demon Days Live involving many of the artists who had played on the successful Demon Days album, as a launch event for the festival.
Personal life
Albarn had a long-standing relationship with Elastica frontwoman Justine Frischmann. His involvement with her profoundly influenced his songwriting in Blur in the mid-to-late 1990s. "Yuko and Hiro" from The Great Escape (1995) is about Damon's love and infatuation with Justine and their inability to see each other. "Beetlebum", their single from the eponymous Blur (1997) was about Justine's rumoured heroin addiction, while some songs as "Tender" and "No Distance Left to Run" from 13 (1999) are about their break-up. He now lives in Bayswater, London with artist Suzi Winstanley, and their daughter Missy, born on 2 October 1999. Albarn and Frischmann remain good friends.
Albarn was very close to his grandfather, Edward Albarn, who had been a conscientious objector in the Second World War and was involved in a farming community in Lincolnshire. Albarn himself is outspokenly anti-war and has criticised British involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2002 he and Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack took out full page advertisements in the NME challenging the need for war. Albarn contributed backing vocals to a song on Massive Attack's 100th Window, released the following year.
In 2005 Albarn, among others, criticised the London Live 8 concert for not featuring enough black artists; among the few included were Ms. Dynamite, Snoop Dogg, and Youssou N'Dour. Eventually the organisers added a separate Somerset concert to the programme in order to showcase African musicians. Albarn said he did not want to perform at Live 8 because he thought it was too "exclusive" and may have been motivated by self-gain.
In the nineties he spent a good deal of time in Reykjavík and for a time he became something of a permanent fixture in the "Kaffibarinn", a café/bar/inn of which he was part owner. He currently owns a house in Grafarvogur, a suburb of Reykjavík. He composed the soundtrack to the 2000 Icelandic film 101 Reykjavík.
Albarn is a vocal critic of celebrity culture, saying "We need to dismantle very significant parts of our culture and really re-examine them. I suppose you start with the celebrity thing.... you have to get rid of things like The X Factor immediately."
Albarn is a fan of classic rock band The Kinks which inspired his band Blur. Albarn performed Waterloo Sunset with Ray Davies in the mid 90s.
The glass bead necklace he frequently wears was a gift given to him by his mother when he was six.
In 2006, Albarn accepted an honorary Master of Arts degree from the University of East London, saying it was "great to receive [the] award from an institution where my Dad used to work and which I, as a child, used to think of as that big building with lots of interesting people in".
Discography
Albums and chart positions
| Year | Album | Artist credit | Peak chart positions and Certifications |
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| U.K. | U.S. | AUS | GER | Certifications |
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| 1991 | Leisure | Blur | 7 | – | – | – | Gold (UK) | | 1993 | Modern Life is Rubbish | 15 | – | – | – | Gold (UK) | | 1994 | Parklife | 1 | 152 | 45 | – | 4x Platinum (UK) | | The Special Collectors Edition | – | – | – | – | | | 1995 | The Great Escape | 1 | 150 | 10 | 35 | 3x Platinum (UK) | | 1996 | Live at the Budokan | – | – | – | – | | | 1997 | Blur | 1 | 61 | 22 | 23 | 2x Platinum (UK), Gold (US) | | 1998 | Bustin' + Dronin' | 50 | – | – | – | | | 1999 | 13 | 1 | 80 | 12 | 6 | Platinum (UK) | | Blur 10 Yr Box Set | – | – | – | – | | | Ravenous OST | Michael Nyman and Damon Albarn | – | – | – | – | | | 2000 | Blur: The Best Of | Blur | 3 | 186 | 23 | 35 | 2x Platinum (UK) | | Ordinary Decent Criminal OST | Damon Albarn (+ various artists) | – | – | – | – | | | 2001 | Gorillaz | Gorillaz | 3 | 14 | 17 | 3 | 2x Platinum (UK), Platinum (US)
Gold (AUS), Gold (GER) | | 2002 | G-Sides | 65 | 84 | – | – | | | Laika Come Home | Spacemonkeyz vs Gorillaz | – | 156 | – | – | | | 101 Reykjavik OST | Damon Albarn & Einar Örn Benediktsson | – | – | – | – | | | Mali Music | Damon Albarn, Afel Bocoum,
Toumani Diabaté & Friends | 81 | – | – | – | | | 2003 | Think Tank | Blur | 1 | 56 | 30 | 8 | Platinum (UK) | | Democrazy | Damon Albarn | – | – | – | – | | | 2005 | Demon Days | Gorillaz | 1 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 5x Platinum (UK), 3x Platinum (NZ)
3x Platinum (IRE), 2x Platinum (US)
2x Platinum (AUS), Platinum (CAN)
Platinum (HK) | | 2007 | The Good, the Bad & the Queen | Damon Albarn, Tony Allen,
Paul Simonon and Simon Tong | 2 | 49 | 13 | 8 | Gold (UK) | | D-Sides | Gorillaz | 63 | 165 | – | – | | | 2008 | Journey to the West | Monkey | 5 | – | – | – | | |
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