 |
|
 |
| • Discography • Lyrics • History • Archive • Links • Damon • Graham • Alex • Dave • Media • Random page |
Back to: Archive · 2002 Fatboy KO'd by Albarn! From the NME, 1 June 2002. News reporters: Paul McNamee, Julian Marshall. Photography: David Titlow/PA/Corbis/IPN. Digital imaging: Rob Biddulph.  Fatboy Slim has been axed from production duties on Blur's new album after drunken rows with Damon Albarn about dance music, NME can exclusively reveal. The superstar DJ has appealed to the Blur frontman via NME to let him know if he's still needed for the new album. Damon Albarn revealed to us last year that Fatboy - aka Norman Cook - had been lined up to work with the band. At the time Albarn denied this meant the band were taking a dance direction. Since then, Cook and Albarn have fallen out. Norman Cook told NME: "To be honest, the last time I saw Damon was at the Brits in February and he said, 'I've written 14 songs, I'll send them to you tomorrow'. But nothing happened, and then about a month later I read that they were halfway through the album. So I kind of figured that I'd got gonged! "So much water's passed under the bridge since we first talked about doing it. Anyway, I haven't heard from Damon since the Brits. So Damon if you're reading this, do give us a ring! Don't be scared. Even if it's a no, do give us a ring." Cook admitted that part of the problem seems to be that his dance music background caused friction with the Blur man. "I kept bumping into Damon when he was on tour with Gorillaz, and we did have a couple of drunken late night arguments about dance music," Cook told NME. "He said dance music's shit, and I said, 'Well a) you're making it, and b) what are you doing working with me then?'. He said, 'Gorillaz isn't dance music.' We did have a few arguments. You know what it's like, four o'clock in a hotel room when you're pissed. Maybe that's why I got gonged off!" Cook added: "The idea was never for me to produce the whole album. It was for us to start working together and see how we matched up, because I don't think I'd have had time to produce the whole album with them." Speaking in the US earlier this year, Albarn downplayed Cook's involvement. "There are a couple of tracks he could work on," he said. "At the end of a recording period I do like to get someone in to see if they can help make it better, but we don't really have 'producers' any more." The music is also unlikely to be suited to Cook's talents. Albarn described the band's first album in more than three years as "Can meets Led Zeppelin". A spokeswoman for Blur told NME that work is steaming ahead without Fatboy Slim. "Blur are in the studio together at the moment and it's going brilliantly by all accounts," she told NME. At present, there is no producer involved on the LP, which is due in spring 2003. The Blur frontman has a habit of falling out with people... Noel Gallagher: Still not talking after the bitter chart battle seven years ago! Liam Gallagher: Keeps taking the piss out of Gorillaz Brett Anderson: Blur vs Suede got personal because Damon was in a relationship with Brett's ex, Justine Frischmann Justine Frischmann: Their falling out became public when the Elastica singer claimed that Damon wanted her to forget music and have a baby - but they later made up Huey, Fun Lovin' Criminals: When Damon tried to embrace him in a "homeboy" hug, Huey branded him a "cocksucker" Stephen Malkmus, Pavement: The two fell out after claims that Blur had copied Pavement's sound Mogwai: Damon was enraged when they made a T-shirt saying 'Blur: Are Shite' Tony Blair: Damon simply doesn't like his policies Blur: Constantly rowing. "I would never pretend that we necessarily have a great relationship outside the studio," admits Damon NME: Even we've pissed him off. "I'm not paranoid," he insisted to NME in March |