Parklife at 30: Damon Albarn and Kathy Burke go head to head

Welcome to the Archive Pull, a new series delving into the 30-year history of our print magazine. Here, we look back at a head to head between Damon Albarn and Kathy Burke, originally published in the July 1999 issue of Dazed.

Kathy Burke: You’ve just composed a film score with Michael Nyman. How did that come about?

Damon Albarn: Well, I’d worked with the director, Antonia Bird, on the film Face and she knew it was something I’d always wanted to do, so she put us together. It was a great experience. I mean, he’s done so many amazing things it was like going back to college and just learning. I think it was sort of weird for him, freaked him out, but I was just learning all the time. To be honest, I’ve felt that the last ten years have been a bit like serving an apprenticeship. I love being in a band, but we’ve all got to the point now where the only thing that really excites us is making records and doing the odd gig. I think we’ve had enough of the whole touring/promoting thing and it’s not moaning – it’s just that I think we’ve earnt the right to be able to make a choice.

Kathy Burke: You acted in the film Face, is that something you’d like to do again?

Damon Albarn: Not really. Well not just yet anyway. I got lucky with Face because of the other people working on it. I mean, to spend time in the company of Ray Winstone was pretty special. I just sort of walked around watching him.

Kathy Burke: Did you ’get on it’ with him? (this is Ray’s way of saying, ’Let’s get off our heads till we drop.’)

Damon Albarn: That happened before we even started filming! I was screen-testing with him and that actor Richard E Grant, who didn’t get the part. Anyway, I hadn’t done any improvising since I was at college and the set-up was that the two of them had to get really angry and I had to calm the situation down. As you can imagine, Grant was being very theatrical but Ray was scary and brilliant. I was a bit embarrassed to be honest and at the end of it was quite nervous and uptight, so Ray took me to a pub in Hoxton Square, where he knew several hundred people, and they all started buying me these outrageous quadruple whiskies and l just sat there surrounded by all these larger-than-life characters, trying to recover from being screamed at for half an hour by Richard E Grant. I was supposed to be meeting Justine in a restaurant, something to do with Elle magazine, and when I got there I passed out. I’ve been sent other scripts since, but I felt I would be cheating proper actors out of a job so I’ve said no. Mind you, I’d love to work with Phil (Daniels).

Kathy Burke: That’s why l like Parklife. it was like you’d written him the perfect part.

Damon Albarn: Well, that’s what that whole period was about. I felt that I was hiding behind a character, I suppose, as a way of protecting myself. I mean, when you suddenly become really successful, you’ve got to defend yourself in some way. I didn’t want to hide away; I wanted to continue to walk around and go to pubs and my way of doing it was to be a bit coarser with the accent so that I wouldn’t get my head kicked in. It backfired a bit, though.

Kathy Burke: Was that when the whole Oasis thing happened?

Damon Albarn: Yeah, well, the whole culture at that time was all about this laddism thing and I think that Oasis got antagonistic towards us because they felt Blur was all an act. They couldn’t work me out because I was one thing, but they saw me as another. From my point of view, though, I felt like I was doing what you said and just writing characters

Kathy Burke: Did you ‘method-out’ a bit, though?

Damon Albarn: (Laughs) I suppose I did a bit, yeah.

Kathy Burke: And then you were ‘outed’ by Oasis?

Damon Albarn: Basically, yes. I became a very suspicious character to a lot of people. They didn’t know whether to trust me or not and all I’d done really with Parklife was write about the area I’d grown up in. When that whole thing happened, the strangest bit was when it made the Six O’clock News. Madness. It was like the whole country was asked to take sides. I remember walking past pubs and shops and if I got spotted people would put on their Oasis records full blast, just to let me know whose side they were on.

“I remember walking past pubs and shops and if I got spotted people would put on their Oasis records full blast, just to let me know whose side they were on” – Damon Albarn

Kathy Burke: Flash, but still sensible. It’s good that you recognise the joy of it all.

Damon Albarn: I do, yes, but sometimes I find myself complaining about stuff, which is terrible; it’s embarrassing. The other day I caught myself complaining about how difficult it was getting to my place in Devon!

Kathy Burke: Which member of the band have you known the longest?

Damon Albarn: Graham. I’ve known him since I was 12. we’ve just had a book written about us and it was really strange digging out all the old photographs.

Kathy Burke: Did he always wear glasses?

Damon Albarn: No, not always. He discovered them in art school. They went with the look. It was the Smiths, really, Morrissey; we were all absolutely into Morrissey. We even became vegetarians. He had a massive effect on us.

Damon Albarn: My hero of that time was, and still is, Terry Hall. I know him quite well now. He’s one of those people that can sit down and not say anything for about half an hour if you don’t say anything to him. I think he’s wonderful.

Kathy Burke: What do you think is the best song ever written?

Damon Albarn: Ever ever? That’s hard. The one I enjoy singing the most is “Always On My Mind” – it’s just got it all in there. But as for the best song ever, I don’t know.

Kathy Burke: What are you doing next?

Damon Albarn: I’m doing the music for a film with Kevin Spacey. I think he’s a brilliant actor and on Saturday we’re going to Cannes for a TV show. I went there before with Trainspotting and that was good fun. I don’t think I’d enjoy all the other stuff that people have to do, you know, trying to pitch a film.

Kathy Burke: Gary (Oldman) and Ray did all that with Nil by Mouth. They did all the work and I got all the glory. I think Ray quite enjoys that side of things; he’s a great mingler, but I ’m quite shy really. I’m good on a one-to-one, but if there’s a clump of people I’m quite claustrophobic.

Damon Albarn: I can’t see anybody intimidating Ray.

Kathy Burke: I intimidate him.

Damon Albarn: (Laughs) Really?

Kathy Burke: Oh yeah, he’s quite scared of me. I love having a go at him because when he pops back it’s always so funny, we were out together a few months ago and l was moaning on at him and he went, ‘You make me appreciate the wife!’

Damon Albarn: (Laughs) That’s brilliant.

Kathy Burke: The last thing I want to ask is what do you think about the tabloids getting off on the fact that you and Liam Gallagher are soon to be daddies?

Damon Albarn: I just find it odd that anyone’s interested.

Kathy Burke: They’ll be doing little graphics of the two kids with boxing gloves on, squaring up for fisticuffs.

Damon Albarn: It’s quite funny, but also a bit horrifying. I mean, it would be horrible if it carried on, you know, when the kids get older.

Kathy Burke: Yeah, but you and Liam will be older, too, and they’ll be writing about someone else by then. You’ll be the respected older men of pop and everything you say will be taken very seriously.

Damon Albarn: Heaven forbid.