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Back to: Archive · 2006 Hanging Out With Heroes From scotsman.com, 22 October 2006. Words: Nigel Williamson. Almost hidden behind two banks of keyboards is a well-known figure in a smartly tailored Paul Smith jacket, singing a song called 'Green Fields' and hitting the keys of his piano with some fury, while his left leg stomps the floorboards. With Blur, Gorillaz and at least three other side projects currently on the go, surely the last thing Damon Albarn needs is another band. But it seems that's exactly what he does need. When the song has finished, he acknowledges my presence with a lop-sided grin. "Sorry, it's my Rick Wakeman moment," he says as he looks down at his massed keyboards. Picking out dub-heavy lines on bass is Paul Simonon, kitted out in brothel creepers, dark suit and pork pie hat. Over the last two decades he has spent his time painting rather than making music, but he's still instantly recognisable as the subject of one of rock's most iconic images, when he was depicted trashing his bass on the cover of London Calling, the classic album by his last band, The Clash. Behind the drum kit is Tony Oladipo Allen, now 66 and who came out of Lagos more than 40 years ago beating the skins behind the late, great Fela Kuti. On guitar is the fair-haired and fresh-faced Simon Tong, who does look like a teenage hopeful (minus the spots), but is in his mid-30s and has spent the past decade playing in The Verve, subbing on stage with Blur for the sacked Graham Coxon and helping Albarn supply the musical flesh and blood behind the cartoon characters of Gorillaz. Above them hangs a huge, fantastical backdrop, painted by Simonon for the band's first gig at London's Roundhouse on Thursday, as part of the BBC's Electric Proms season. All in dark, smoky blues and grey, it depicts a neo-Dickensian view of London updated for the 21st century, with mosques and minarets on the horizon behind the striking foreground image of the monument to Victorian engineering that is the Goldbourne Road bridge. Albarn says he hopes no one calls the band a 'supergroup'. In fact, he doesn't want to be called anything. "Everybody seems to think we're called The Good, The Bad and The Queen. We're not. That's the title of our album," he says. "The band doesn't have a name." Over the next hour or so, the group that everyone - except those in it - refers to as The Good, The Bad and The Queen runs through half a dozen new songs with titles such as 'Kingdom Of Doom', 'A Soldier's Tale' and 'History Song' from the band's forthcoming album. Produced by Danger Mouse of Gnarls Barkley fame, the record will not appear until early 2007 but is already exciting feverish anticipation. My sneak preview of the material reveals a more thoughtful and introspective Albarn than that seen in either Blur or Gorillaz. Many of the songs have a ballad-like quality, while the subject matter is frequently dark, painting an ominous picture of a Britain in moral decline, full of lines such as "drink all day because the country's at war" and "the days are a ticking bomb". Yet there is also a powerful streak of optimism present, that such old-fashioned values as honesty and respect can reassert themselves and overcome the creeping malaise. Sitting cross-legged on the floor after the rehearsal, Albarn suggests that The Good, The Bad And The Queen is the most important record he's made since Blur's Britpop-defining classic Parklife more than a decade ago. "I wanted to make an album that means I can present ideas rather than just saying: 'Here's a great pop song', like I did with Gorillaz," he says. "I've been holding back on writing an album like this ever since Parklife. I just felt so burned by everything that happened around Britpop and felt I wasn't mature enough to cope with the ridiculous stage I found myself on. "It seriously wasn't worth it. I'm not saying these new songs have the immediacy of Parklife and I'm not trying to compete with it. But I definitely feel it's a worthy successor." Albarn has come a long way from the brash and cocky ingénue who once sang 'Girls & Boys' and 'Country House' to negotiate his own great escape from the straitjacket of Britpop. In addition to his new, nameless band he is writing the score for Monkey: Journey To The West, a modern version of the ancient Chinese tale of the Monkey King, due to be premiered at the inaugural Manchester International Festival next June. He has also been collaborating on a musical production with playwright Roy Williams for the National Theatre, and straight after the Electric Proms Albarn is off to North Africa to produce an album by a group of Algerian musicians. The Good, The Bad And The Queen began life as a solo record, but gradually grew into a full band project as Albarn introduced a wider cast of characters. Did he really need yet another new group? "I decided there was no point in making a solo record, because I'm a band kind of person," he says. "I like putting different bands together. The great jazz people always played with different groups - and this is such a lovely band to be in, with no ego whatsoever." Playing with Clash legend Simonon unites him with one of his teenage musical idols. "I like hanging around with heroes. More to the point, he's had a powerful influence on the band and helped me navigate my songwriting back to being personal." The former Clash bassman joins us and is clearly very happy to be making music again. "I get asked to do a lot of things and 99 times out of a hundred I say no," he says. "I prefer to stick to my painting. But when Damon asked me, I said yes. I really like his music and I knew he'd refused to go to 10 Downing Street when Blair invited him. I thought: 'That's my sort of person.' It's the first time I've made a record without any stress." Where this leaves Albarn's other bands is unclear. He won't be drawn on when or whether he intends to recall Alex James and Dave Rowntree from Blur's long sabbatical to make the overdue follow-up to 2003's Think Tank. That album was virtually a solo effort anyway, and Albarn has privately indicated he sees "little point" in making another Blur record unless ex-guitarist Graham Coxon returns to the fold. Coxon has let it be known he has no such inclination. As for Gorillaz, there's a film of the cartoon band in the works involving former Monty Python animator Terry Gilliam. "But as far as being in a big band and putting pop music out there, it's finished," Albarn reveals. We are left with a band with no name, and that's just the way Albarn likes it. |