Damon Albarn Addresses Blur's Big Day Out Cancellation
Tuesday, 25 March 2014
Written by Huw Baines
Damon Albarn has addressed Blur's decision to pull out of the Big Day Out festival in Australia and New Zealand late last year.
In an interview with the New Zealand Herald, the frontman confirmed that their appearance would have been their last show together, but admitted that issues between the band and festival organisers might have prevented it from being "as spiritually conclusive as we hoped it would be".
Albarn said:
"Okay, here it is - this is as frank as I'm prepared to be about what happened. 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 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.
He added:
"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.
"We'd been playing for six months solidly, around the world, so I knew that we would deliver a fantastic show, a great performance and a communal event, which everyone would have enjoyed. All I asked was that the organisation recognised that and I didn't feel they did. So, that's why, unfortunately, we couldn't come.”
Albarn is currently preparing to release his first solo album, 'Everyday Robots'. The record is expected on April 28 and will be accompanied by shows at London's Rivoli Ballroom on April 30 and the Great Hall of Queen Mary University on May 1.
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