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| Birth Name(s) : Damon Albarn |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
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| Profession:
Singer-songwriter |
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Full Damon Albarn Biography
Damon Albarn, (IPA: ) (born March 23, 1968 in Leytonstone, London), is an English singer-songwriter who gained fame as the lead singer of rock band Blur. Though Blur has not disbanded, of late Albarn has been more active as the main man behind the music of Gorillaz and The Good, the Bad and the Queen project.
Albarn's early life was spent living in Leytonstone with his parents Hazel and Keith and his sister Jessica. He has described a very liberal upbringing. Whilst living in Leytonstone, Albarn attended George Tomlinson primary school. When he turned ten, his family moved to Aldham, Essex, England due to the needs of his father's teaching career. Albarn then attended Stanway Comprehensive School. He met future Blur guitarist Graham Coxon at school and found they both liked similar bands, such as The Jam, The Kinks, and The Human League.
After finishing secondary school, Albarn moved to London to attend the East 15 Acting School, losing contact with Coxon. He concluded after one year's stay that he was a terrible actor (although later went on to star in the 1997 film Face) and instead took up writing and performing music. Some of the songs he wrote in his early recording days later became Blur songs, such as "Birthday" on their debut album, Leisure.
In 1988, Albarn enrolled at Goldsmiths College in New Cross, London, England; he took a part-time course which he claims he did "just to get on campus". There, he met up with Coxon once more. After recording a number of demo tapes together, the two formed "Circus," at which point Coxon introduced Albarn to Alex James. With the addition of Dave Rowntree, the band began playing as "Seymour". Before long the band was signed to Food Records and changed its name to Blur.
The rivalry culminated in the so-called "Battle of Britpop" which saw Blur move the release date of their single "Country House" to coincide with the release of Oasis "Roll With It". This sparked a media frenzy, with Albarn being interviewed on the BBC news.
As of 2006 Blur has released seven full-length albums, five of which went to #1 in the United Kingdom and all of which reached the top 15. Albarn has written the lyrics to nearly every song released by the band since their formation. He had publicly stated he was waiting for the return of Graham Coxon, who left the band prior to the release of Think Tank, to produce more Blur material; however, Coxon has refused to return, and Albarn stated in September 2005 that he will play guitar on the next Blur record. Albarn Quoted, "If Coxon won't return then I'll be playing guitar but it'll just be fast, punk songs. Why don't I get another guitarist? Because there's none better than Coxon."
Albarn formed virtual cartoon rock band Gorillaz with Tank Girl creator Jamie Hewlett in 1998. With an ambiguous line-up, the group has released two full-length studio albums to date. Their music has featured contributions from Dan the Automator, Danger Mouse, Simon Tong (who also played guitar for Blur in live performances and played guitar in Albarn's The Good, The Bad & The Queen project), Miho Hatori, Sweetie Irie, De La Soul, Bootie Brown, MF Doom, Redman, Tina Weymouth, Roots Manuva, Neneh Cherry, Rosie Wilson, D12, Martina Topley-Bird, Dennis Hopper, Ike Turner, Shaun Ryder and Del tha Funkee Homosapien among others.
Gorillaz and Demon Days have done well in both the United States and the United Kingdom, as well as their respective hit singles "Clint Eastwood", "Feel Good Inc." ,"19-2000", "DARE", "Dirty Harry" and "Kids With Guns / El Mañana".
Albarn has also appeared on other unrelated works. His song "Closet Romantic" appeared on the soundtrack for Trainspotting alongside an early Blur recording, "Sing". 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.
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 (which will remain unnamed).
The group's line-up is composed of Albarn, former Clash bassist Paul Simonon, The Verve/Blur/Gorillaz guitarist Simon Tong, and drummer Tony Allen of Fela Kuti's band, Africa 70.
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 bar/café 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. |
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