Damon Albarn says Blur playing Coachella was “a slight mismatch” and has called the festival “the embodiment of social media now”.
The Britpop icons took to the Californian festival’s mainstage in April 2024 and delivered a career-spanning set, including fan favourites like ‘Song 2’ and ‘Popscene’. During their performance of ‘Girls & Boys’, the crowd appeared pretty tame, which visibly irritated Albarn.
“You can do it better than that,” he told attendees at one point while trying to conduct a sing-along to the 1994 track, 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. Know what I’m saying?”
Now, Albarn has reflected on the experience in a new interview with Rolling Stone, alongside Gorillaz co-creator Jamie Hewlett.
The musician was asked about Blur’s popularity in Europe compared to Gorillaz having success in the U.S, to which he responded: “We did feel at Coachella, when we came over with Blur, that maybe it was a slight mismatch, us being at that festival.”
He continued: “It’s kind of the embodiment of social media now, isn’t it?”
Hewlett then added: “It’s the only festival where the phones aren’t pointed at the stage, but at the person holding the phone.”
Albarn had previously spoken with KROQ about the Coachella audience, saying: “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.”
His Blur bandmate, Graham Coxon, also spoke to NME about the set, telling us the festival was “weird”.
“It’s just a very restrictive festival,” he said. “You get stuck in a little compound and it’s impossible to really go out and about and see anything. It’s so hot, and there are those strange five days in between where you don’t really know what to do with yourself. It was me, Rose [Elinor Dougall, partner and bandmate in The Waeve] and her mum just wondering around Santa Monica, not knowing what to do with ourselves.”
Prior to that, Coxon had also reflected on the performance in an interview with GQ, saying: “It’s taken you 14 hours to get there, and then you’re playing to people who don’t give a shit. They’re looking at you like ‘who’s this old git?’”
The interview with Rolling Stone comes ahead of Gorillaz’ upcoming album, ‘The Mountain‘, which will be released on March 20.
So far, the record has been previewed by six singles: ‘The Hardest Thing’, ‘Orange County’, ‘The God Of Lying’ (featuring Idles), ‘The Happy Dictator’ (feat. Sparks), ‘The Manifesto’ with Trueno and late D12 member Proof, and ‘Damascus’.
The latter features Syrian superstar of Bedouin music Omar Souleyman and rapper/singer Yasiin Bey (FKA Mos Def), and was also given a live preview at the huge Together For Palestine charity gig at Wembley Arena, organised by Brian Eno last year.
Other artists who have joined Albarn and Jamie Hewett for the record include Black Thought, Asha Puthli, Asha Bhosle, Gruff Rhys, Paul Simonon, Johnny Marr, The London Arab Orchestra, Demon Strings, Chris Storr, James Copus and Matthew Gunner.
Last year, Albarn opened up about how the record was partly inspired after both he and Jamie Hewlett lost their fathers and went to India to cope with the grief.
“I did things I’d never done before. I swam in the Ganges in Varanasi. I watched the bodies being burnt on the banks of the Ganges. I took my dad’s ashes there and I cast them in the river. It was very beautiful.”
In other news, next month, Albarn will be performing on Saturday Night Live for the first time with Gorillaz. They’ll take to the stage of the iconic show on March 7, with Ryan Gosling as host.
Meanwhile, in March, Gorillaz will head out on a UK and Ireland tour that includes a one-off headline show at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on June 20 (find any remaining tickets here).
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