Damon Albarn
Damon Albarn was due to speak at a rally in Hyde Park in February 2003. A million people had taken to the streets of London to protest the coming war in Iraq. He never gave the speech, because he was too emotional. Afterwards he explained why. He had imagined his grandfather in his slippers, reading the paper, knowing his grandson was involved in something that man had put so much of his life into. Albarn admitted it was a poor moment to fall apart, leading the biggest peace march in his country's history.
Albarn is the singer and lyricist of the rock band Blur and the co-creator of the virtual band Gorillaz. He grew up in a bohemian Quaker household and rose to fame in 1990s Britain. Since then he has moved between bands, continents, stage productions and causes. How did a boy who called himself unpopular at school become the face of a national pop moment? Why did he keep changing direction once that moment turned against him? And what pulled a famous musician into politics?
Damon Albarn was born on the 23rd of March 1968 in Whitechapel, London. He was the eldest child of the artist Keith Albarn and his wife Hazel, who had some Danish descent. Hazel, originally from Lincolnshire, designed sets for Joan Littlewood's theatre company at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Just before Damon arrived, she was working on the satirical play Mrs Wilson's Diary.
Keith Albarn came from Nottinghamshire. He was briefly the manager of Soft Machine, appeared as a guest on the BBC's Late Night Line-Up, and later headed the Colchester School of Art at Colchester Institute. His company, Keith Albarn & Partners Ltd, traded as Playlearn, Ltd. It produced educational aids and toys, including fibreglass furniture and play-structures with names like The Kissmequiosk, The Apollo Cumfycraft and The Tailendcharlie. In 1968, at the age of six months, Damon served as a testing expert for these designs.
In Leytonstone, East London, Damon grew up with his sister Jessica, born in 1971, who also became an artist. The household was described as bohemian and the upbringing as liberal. Both children were raised as Quakers. "I always thought my parents were absolutely dead right," Albarn later said, adding that he rebelled by continually following them. At home his parents mostly listened to blues, Indian ragas and African music.
When Albarn was nine, the family spent three months on holiday in Turkey. They then settled in Aldham Fordstreet, Essex, which he called "one of those burgeoning Thatcher experiments where they were building loads of small estates." After the ethnically mixed part of London he knew, the area felt predominantly white. He said he was "not really fitting in with the politics of the place."
At the age of six, Albarn attended an Osmonds concert. In his youth he learned guitar, piano and violin, and one of his compositions won a heat in the nationwide Young Composer of the Year competition. By Damon's account, the siblings' nearby primary school was burnt down seven times over 18 months by one of its teachers. After both children failed their Eleven-Plus exams, they went to Stanway Comprehensive School. There Damon described himself as "really unpopular" and developed a taste for acting in school productions.
Graham Coxon, a future bandmate, saw him perform at Stanway and thought him both a "confident performer" and a "show off". Albarn's first words to Coxon concerned his shoes. He was showing off his leather brogues, fashionable in the Mod Revival, and said: "Your brogues are crap, mate. Look, mine are the proper sort." The pair still became good friends over a shared passion for the Jam, the Beatles, the Human League, XTC and Madness. Albarn also credits the Specials and Fun Boy Three as early influences, and John Lennon for getting him into songwriting.
He went on to study acting at the East 15 Acting School in Debden but left after one year. His first band was a synthpop group called Two's a Crowd, and before Blur he also played with the Aftermath and Real Lives. After drama school he signed a production and management contract with Marijke Bergkamp and Graeme Holdaway, owners of the Beat Factory recording studio. The members of what became Blur made their first recordings in that studio.
In 1988 Albarn enrolled on a part-time music course at Goldsmiths College in London. He claimed his only aim was to get into the student union bar. There he played in a group called Circus with Coxon and the drummer Dave Rowntree. A fellow Goldsmiths student, Alex James, eventually joined on bass. In December 1988 the group renamed itself Seymour, after J. D. Salinger's Seymour: An Introduction. In March 1990 they became Blur and signed to Food Records.
Blur's first single, "She's So High", arrived in October 1990 and reached number 48 in the UK singles chart. The band struggled to write a follow-up until they were paired with the producer Stephen Street. The result, "There's No Other Way", peaked at number eight. Blur became pop stars and were welcomed into a clique of bands at London's Syndrome club, nicknamed the "Scene That Celebrates Itself".
The debut album Leisure, released in 1991, was hampered by Albarn having to write his lyrics in the studio. It reached number seven on the UK Albums Chart but drew mixed reviews. The journalist John Harris said it "could not shake off the odour of anti-climax". Albarn himself later called it "awful".
In 1992 the band discovered they were £60,000 in debt and toured the United States to recoup their losses. During the two-month tour Albarn and the others grew unhappy and homesick. They began writing songs that "created an English atmosphere", a deliberate celebration of English heritage at a time when American grunge bands like Nirvana were popular. Andy Partridge of XTC was hired to produce the follow-up, but the sessions went badly. A chance reunion with Stephen Street brought him back to the job.
Modern Life Is Rubbish came out in May 1993 and peaked at number 15 in Britain. It failed to enter the US Billboard 200, selling only 19,000 copies there. Albarn was happy with the direction anyway and wrote prolifically for what came next. Parklife, released in 1994, entered the British charts at number one and stayed in the album charts for 90 weeks. Its first single, the disco-influenced "Girls & Boys", won both acclaim and chart success.
At the 1995 Brit Awards Blur won four prizes, including Best British Group and British Album of the Year for Parklife. Coxon later pointed to that album as the moment the band went from being seen as an alternative, leftfield arty band to a "new pop sensation". Albarn was uncomfortable with the fame, and he suffered from panic attacks.
Blur began work on their fourth album, The Great Escape, at the start of 1995. Albarn wrote several of its lyrics as third-person narratives. Bassist Alex James remembered the result as more elaborate, orchestral and theatrical, full of dysfunctional misfit characters. The lead single, "Country House", fed a public rivalry with the Manchester band Oasis that became known as the "Battle of Britpop".
As antagonism grew, Blur and Oasis chose to release their new singles on the same day. The NME called it the "British Heavyweight Championship". The contest for the top of the British singles chart became a media phenomenon, and Albarn appeared on News at Ten. At the end of the week, "Country House" outsold Oasis' "Roll With It" by 274,000 copies to 216,000. It became Blur's first number-one single.
The Great Escape arrived in September 1995 to positive reviews and entered the UK charts at number one. Opinion turned quickly, though. The BBC Music writer James McMahon recalled that the critical euphoria lasted about as long as it took publishers to realise Oasis would sell more magazines. Oasis then had worldwide success with (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, and the media quipped that Blur had "wound up winning the battle but losing the war."
Blur came to be seen as an "inauthentic middle-class pop band" next to the "working-class heroes" of Oasis. Writing in the New Statesman, Stuart Maconie noted that Albarn was mocked as the posh boy of Britpop. In fact he had gone to a comprehensive in Essex, and his family was only mildly bohemian. James put it more bluntly, saying that after being the "People's Hero", Albarn was for a short period a very public loser. Albarn said the whole episode left him feeling "stupid and confused".
An early 1996 interview in Q found Blur "on the verge of a nervous breakup", according to the journalist Adrian Deevoy. Coxon, in particular, had begun to resent his bandmates. Rejecting the group's Britpop aesthetic, he made a point of listening to noisy American alternative bands such as Pavement. Albarn came to appreciate Coxon's taste for lo-fi and underground music. "I can sit at my piano and write brilliant observational pop songs all day long but you've got to move on," he said. He gave Coxon more creative control over the next album.
Albarn also travelled to Iceland during this period. As a child he had a recurring dream of a black sand beach, and a television programme about Iceland showed black beaches. So he got on a plane alone, knowing nobody, and walked into Laugavegur, the street where the bars are. After initial sessions in London, the band recorded the rest of the album there, far from the Britpop scene.
The resulting album, Blur, came out in February 1997. Critics noted lyrics such as "Look inside America / She's alright" and concluded the band had made peace with American values. Some cried "commercial suicide", yet the album and its first single, "Beetlebum", both debuted at number one in the UK. It became the band's most successful record internationally, especially in the US, helped by the single "Song 2". A nine-month world tour followed.
The sixth album, 13, appeared in March 1999 and drifted further from Britpop. Its lyrics were more heartfelt and intimate, reflecting Albarn's break-up with Justine Frischmann, the Elastica frontwoman and his partner of eight years. Recording for the next album began in London in November 2001. Soon after, Coxon left the group, saying there were no rows and that the band simply needed time apart.
Think Tank, released in May 2003, was filled with atmospheric, brooding electronic sounds, and Albarn wrote most of it. It reflected his growing interest in African and Middle Eastern music. It reached number one in the UK and number 56 in the US, Blur's highest American position. It was nominated for best album at the 2004 Brit Awards.
In December 2008 Blur announced a reunion concert at London's Hyde Park for the 3rd of July 2009, and soon added a second date on the 2nd of July. Warm-up shows included one at Goldsmiths College, which Alexis Petridis of The Guardian rated five stars. The band headlined Glastonbury on the 28th of June, their first headline slot there since 1998. Afterwards Albarn told Q that the band had no plans to record or tour again. His main reason for the reunion had been to repair his relationship with Coxon, and it had worked.
The band kept going in small ways. A documentary, No Distance Left to Run, was released in January 2010 and earned Blur's first-ever Grammy nomination. In April 2010 they released "Fool's Day", their first new recording since 2003, on a vinyl record limited to 1000 copies. The 2012 Brit Awards gave them the Outstanding Contribution to Music award. In 2015 they released The Magic Whip, their first album in 12 years. The ninth studio album, The Ballad of Darren, followed in 2023.
Albarn met the comic book artist Jamie Hewlett in 1990, when Coxon, a fan of Hewlett's work, asked him to interview Blur. The interview ran in Deadline magazine, home of Hewlett's comic strip Tank Girl. Hewlett did not think much of Albarn at first. He fell out with several band members, especially after he began dating Coxon's ex-girlfriend, Jane Olliver. Even so, in 1997 the two began sharing a flat on Westbourne Grove in London. Hewlett had just broken up with Olliver, and Albarn's relationship with Frischmann was ending.
Watching MTV together gave them the idea for Gorillaz. "If you watch MTV for too long, it's a bit like hell," Hewlett said, explaining that they wanted a cartoon band as a comment on it. The music is a collaboration between many musicians, with Albarn the only permanent contributor. It draws on alternative rock, Britpop, dub, hip-hop and pop.
The self-titled debut album of 2001 sold over seven million copies and included the hits "19-2000" and "Clint Eastwood". It earned Gorillaz an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the Most Successful Virtual Band. The second album, Demon Days, followed in 2005 with singles including "Feel Good Inc.", "Dare" and "Dirty Harry". It went five times platinum in the UK and double platinum in the United States. It earned five Grammy nominations and won one, for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. By 2007 the first two albums had sold more than 15 million copies combined.
Plastic Beach arrived in early 2010 to high praise. That December the group released The Fall, recorded over 32 days during their North American tour. In a 2012 interview Albarn doubted there would be more Gorillaz records. His relationship with Hewlett had soured after he chose to undercut the role of animation on the Escape to Plastic Beach World Tour. He later took that back, saying that once he and Hewlett had worked out their differences, he was sure they would make another record.
They did. Humanz was announced on the 23rd of March 2017 and released on the 28th of April. The Now Now was announced on the 31st of May 2018 and released on the 29th of June. In 2020 came Song Machine, a project releasing new collaborations as monthly episodes. The first nine episodes, plus extra songs, became the album Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez on the 23rd of October 2020. A second season was planned but scrapped.
Cracker Island was announced on the 31st of August 2022 and released on the 24th of February 2023. In September 2025 the band announced "The Happy Dictator", with the American band Sparks, as the lead single of their album The Mountain. That album was released on the 27th of February 2026.
A trip to Mali in 2000 in support of Oxfam led to Albarn's 2002 album Mali Music, made with Afel Bocoum, Toumani Diabaté and friends. He also travelled to Nigeria to record with the drummer Tony Allen. In 2016 Albarn, a long-time advocate of Malian music, was given the title "Local King". A school of music and dance south of Bamako now carries his name.
A week-long visit to Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo produced the 2011 album Kinshasa One Two, credited to DRC Music. Albarn worked there with producers including Richard Russell, Actress, Kwes and Remi Kabaka Jr. All proceeds went to Oxfam's work in the country. He also co-founded the non-profit organisation Africa Express, whose albums include Maison Des Jeunes in 2013 and The Orchestra of Syrian Musicians and Guests in 2016.
In May 2006 the NME reported that Albarn was working with Danger Mouse, in a group billed as the Good, the Bad & the Queen. It also featured Paul Simonon, Simon Tong and Tony Allen. The debut album reached number two in the UK, went gold in its first week, and won Best Album at the 2007 MOJO Awards. Albarn's other supergroup, Rocket Juice & the Moon, paired him with Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea and Tony Allen. He says he did not choose the name. Someone in Lagos designed the sleeve and the name came with it. The group first played in Cork on the 28th of October 2011, under the moniker Another Honest Jon's Chop Up!
Albarn's debut solo album, Everyday Robots, was released on the 25th of April 2014. It peaked at number two in the UK, produced five singles and was nominated for the Mercury Prize. A second solo album, The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows, followed in 2021 on Transgressive Records.
The stage has been a steady second home. With Hewlett and the Chinese director Chen Shi-zheng, he adapted the Chinese story Journey to the West as Monkey: Journey to the West. It opened the Manchester International Festival at the Palace Theatre on the 28th of June 2007. With the director Rufus Norris he made an opera about the Elizabethan scientist John Dee for the 2011 festival. In 2015 he wrote the music for Wonder.land, a musical based on Alice in Wonderland, with Norris and Moira Buffini.
On screen, his score for the 1999 film Ravenous, composed with Michael Nyman, earned a Saturn Award nomination. He also contributed a song, "Sister Rust", to the science fiction film Lucy, and acted in Antonia Bird's 1997 film Face alongside Ray Winstone and Robert Carlyle.
His guest appearances run wide. In 2003 he worked with the Strokes on Room on Fire, though his backing vocals did not make the record. That year he also performed "Fashion" live with David Bowie. He produced Bobby Womack's twenty-seventh studio album, The Bravest Man in the Universe, in 2012. In February 2025 he joined Is This What We Want?, a fully silent album made by 1000 UK artists to protest UK copyright laws on artificial intelligence.
In November 2001, at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Frankfurt, Gorillaz won Best Song and Best Dance. The United States had recently invaded Afghanistan. Walking on stage with Hewlett, Albarn wore a T-shirt with the logo of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Pointing at it, he told the audience: "Bombing one of the poorest countries in the world is wrong. You've got a voice and you have got to do what you can about it alright?"
His anti-war views ran in the family. His grandfather Edward, an architect, had been a conscientious objector in the Second World War and joined a farming community in Lincolnshire, becoming a peace activist. Edward died in 2002. Damon said in an interview that his grandfather no longer wanted to live and chose a hunger strike.
That year Iraq faced a threat of invasion by a United States-led coalition. Albarn teamed up with Robert "3D" Del Naja of Massive Attack. They worked with the Stop the War Coalition, CND and the Muslim Association of Britain to organise campaigns against British involvement. Albarn spent £15,000 on anti-war adverts in the NME, featuring quotes from Tony Benn and the former US Attorney-General Ramsey Clark.
He said it was hard at first to find allies. Many people he knew opposed the war but hesitated to take a stand, and he declined to name them out of respect. In 2008 he reflected: "I think in this case the only reason we went to war was the result of our individual apathy in the end."
In 2005 he joined critics of the London Live 8 concert for featuring too few black artists. Organisers added a separate concert at the Eden Project in Cornwall to showcase African musicians. Albarn said he did not want to perform at Live 8 because it felt too exclusive. He has also been a vocal critic of celebrity culture, saying television shows like The X Factor should go immediately.
He criticised the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union as "wrong". In 2018 he signed an editorial calling for a Citizen's Assembly to end the parliamentary deadlock over the terms. He has said the Good, the Bad & the Queen album Merrie Land, released that year, was inspired by his reaction to Brexit. He cancelled concerts in Israel after the Gaza flotilla raid in 2010. At Glastonbury in 2024 he gave a pro-Palestine speech and urged people to vote in the coming general election.
Albarn began a relationship with the artist Suzi Winstanley in 1998. Their daughter, Missy, named after the rapper Missy Elliott, was born on the 2nd of October 1999. He described fatherhood as "witnessing a life force" that slowly shaves off the unpleasant thorny bits. Reviewers heard a breakup in the lyrics of The Ballad of Darren and speculated that the couple separated in 2023. Albarn has declined to confirm it, though he told Paris Match he had been through a difficult breakup in recent months.
He has also spoken openly about using heroin in the 1990s. In 2014 he said it had freed him up and made him incredibly creative, and he became sober in later years. The University of East London gave him an honorary Master of Arts degree in 2006. He called it "great to receive the award from an institution where my dad used to work". He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to music.
In 2020 Albarn was granted Icelandic citizenship, having bought a house in Reykjavik after his visits there in the mid-1990s. He also keeps homes in the Notting Hill area of London and in Devon, and he supports Chelsea. In 2026 he revealed he was writing the score for Luca Guadagnino's film Artificial.
Up next
Continue browsing
Updated
Common questions
Who is Damon Albarn?
Damon Albarn is an English musician, born on the 23rd of March 1968 in Whitechapel, London. He is the main vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Blur and the co-creator of the virtual band Gorillaz.
How did Damon Albarn form Blur?
Damon Albarn formed Blur after meeting Graham Coxon at Stanway School and later joining Coxon and Dave Rowntree in a group called Circus at Goldsmiths College in 1988. Alex James joined on bass, and after being called Seymour the band became Blur and signed to Food Records in March 1990.
What was the Battle of Britpop between Damon Albarn's Blur and Oasis?
The Battle of Britpop was a 1995 chart rivalry in which Blur and Oasis released new singles on the same day. Blur's "Country House" outsold Oasis' "Roll With It" by 274,000 copies to 216,000, becoming Blur's first number-one single.
How did Damon Albarn create Gorillaz?
Damon Albarn created Gorillaz in 1998 with the comic book artist Jamie Hewlett, after the two shared a flat on Westbourne Grove and watched MTV together. Their debut album sold over seven million copies in 2001 and earned a Guinness World Record as the Most Successful Virtual Band.
What solo albums has Damon Albarn released?
Damon Albarn has released two solo albums. Everyday Robots came out on the 25th of April 2014 and was nominated for the Mercury Prize, and The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows followed in 2021.
Why did Damon Albarn become an anti-war activist?
Damon Albarn's anti-war views come partly from his family, including his grandfather Edward, a conscientious objector in the Second World War who became a peace activist. Albarn worked with Robert Del Naja, the Stop the War Coalition and CND against British involvement in the Iraq war and paid £15,000 for anti-war adverts in the NME.
What honours has Damon Albarn received?
Damon Albarn was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to music. He also received an honorary Master of Arts degree from the University of East London in 2006.
All sources
188 references cited across the entry
- 1"I'm Sort of English Melancholy": Damon Albarn InterviewedStephen Dalton — 27 March 2012
- 2VideoRio Meets...Damon Albarn #5 Magazine14 Aug 2012
- 3Happy Birthday to Damon Albarn, Born March 23, 1968Albumism Staff — 2026-03-23
- 5BookRise of the OgreCass Brown — Penguin — 2 November 2006
- 6Monkey WrenchChristina Rees — 3 July 2001
- 7MagazineGorillaz – 'Humanz'Cyclone Wehner — April 2017
- 8NewsThe 100 most powerful people in British culture9 November 2016
- 12Maconie, Stuart (1999). Blur: 3862 Days, The Official History. Virgin Books;
- 17JournalSpecial relationshipsGary Mulholland — 21 September 2003
- 18Massage Parlors for Jaded Senses | Alicia Patterson FoundationStephen K. Oberbeck — Aliciapatterson.org
- 19Ankeny, Jason "Damon Albarn Biography", AllMusic, Macrovision Corporation
- 20No Distance Left To Run. Pulse Films (2010)
- 23Damon Albarn wished he worked with John Lennon26 September 2018
- 24Nardwuar vs. Blur12 May 2007
- 25BookBritpop!: Cool Britannia and the Spectacular Demise of English RockJohn Harris — Da Capo — 2004
- 26Thompson, pg. 209
- 27Harris 2004, pg. 46
- 28Harris 2004, pg. 49–50
- 29Harris 2004, pg. 53–55
- 30Harris 2004, pg. 56–57
- 31Harris 2004, pg. 59
- 32Damon Albarn cusses Blur albumsDaniel Kilkelly — 12 May 2007
- 33Harris 2004, pg. 66
- 34Harris, John. "A shite sports car and a punk reincarnation". NME. 10 April 1993.
- 35Harris 2004, pg. 79
- 36Harris 2004, pg. 82
- 38Duffy, Tom. "SBK, Blur focus on U.S. market". Billboard. 28 May 1994.
- 40Harris 2004, pg. 142
- 41Dee, John. "Blur – Parklife". NME. April 1994.
- 42Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Parklife review". AllMusic. Retrieved 16 June 2008.
- 43Harris 2004, pg. 192
- 44Tuxen, Henrik; Dalley, Helen. "Graham Coxon interview". Total Guitar. May 1999.
- 45Harris 2004, pg. 222
- 46Harris 2004, pg. 223–24
- 47Live Forever: The Rise and Fall of Brit Pop. Passion Pictures, 2004.
- 48Harris 2004, pg. 235
- 49The Great Escape reviewJames McMahon — BBC Music — 2011
- 50Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "'Country House' song review". AllMusic. Retrieved 16 June 2008.
- 51Maconie, Stuart. "The Death of a Party". Select (August 1999).
- 53Harris 2004, pg. 259–60
- 54Damon Albarn | 'Gorillaz, heroin and the last days of Blur' – The Guardian: April 2012 | damon albarn unofficial archiveDamonalbarnunofficial.wordpress.com — 6 March 2013
- 55Collins, Andrew. "Blur: Keeping It Simple". Q. March 1997.
- 56Sutherland, Mark. "Altered States". Melody Maker. 21 June 1997.
- 60Blur: The Undiscovered CountryC. Bottomley — 12 August 2003
- 612004Brit Awards — 17 February 2004
- 66NewsEntertainment | Albarn rules out more Blur gigs25 July 2009
- 68Blur Documentary Coming to DVD15 January 2010
- 73Blur announce the release of two brand new singles22 June 2012
- 76Blur Share 'Go Out', Announce New Album, Hyde Park GigJamie Coughlan — Overblown — 19 February 2015
- 77JournalFeature: Damon and Jamie Interview. Hey Hey We're the Monkeys!Paul Elliot — August 2001
- 78JournalThe 21 People Who Changed Music: Damon AlbarnChris Heath — November 2007
- 79MagazineKeeping It (Un)realNeil Gaiman — July 2005
- 80MagazineDemon Days : Gorillaz : Review : Rolling StoneMar, Alex — 2 June 2005
- 81In Music We Trust – Gorillaz: GorillazSteininger, Alex — In Music We Trust — November 2001
- 82Gorillaz: D-SidesCooper, James — inthenews.co.uk — 19 November 2007
- 83Platinum Awards Content – Demon DaysBritish Phonographic Industry — 24 February 2006
- 84Gorillaz RIAA certificationsRecording Industry Association of America
- 85EMI Music earns 54 Grammy nominationsEMI — 8 December 2005
- 86EMI Music Publishing Wins Big at the Grammys!EMI — 14 February 2006
- 87Living in a Virtual WorldMarchetto, Sean — 25 January 2007
- 88The Gorillaz Made an Entire Album with an iPadGino Sorcinelli — Medium — 27 October 2016
- 89NewsDamon Albarn: Gorillaz, heroin and the last days of BlurJohn Harris — 7 April 2012
- 90Damon Albarn: 'Blur and Gorillaz aren't finished'Mayer Nissim — 25 April 2012
- 91Gorillaz's Animated TV Series and Clothing Line Are Coming, Says Artist Jamie HewlettCam Lindsay — 27 April 2017
- 92NewsGorillaz — "Humility" and "Lake Zurich"Maggie Serota — 31 May 2018
- 93Magazine20 Years In, Gorillaz Are Still Imagining Pop's FutureJon Dolan — 2020-10-23
- 97Damon Albarn dice que le gustaría trabajar con Bad BunnyDaniel Seclen Parraguez — 2020-10-15
- 98Damon Albarn: "Nuestra mayor crisis existencial es nuestra relación con internet"Andrés Del Real — 2020-10-18
- 99Gorillaz announce new album 'Cracker Island', release 'New Gold' with Tame Impala and Bootie BrownCharlotte Krol — 2022-08-31
- 101Damon Albarn & Simon Burwell: Recording Mali MusicPaul Tingen — September 2002
- 102Review of Damon Albarn – DemocrazyJack Smith — BBC — 2003
- 103Kinshasa One TwoDRC Music — 19 December 2011
- 104Damon Albarn previews DRC Music project with "Hallo" " Consequence of SoundConsequence.net — 25 July 2011
- 105Damon Albarn, Brian Eno, Nick Zinner, Holy Other Detail Africa Express Album14 November 2013
- 106MagazineDamon Albarn on Blur, His First Ever Solo Album and Why He Doesn't Hate Oasis Anymore28 May 2013
- 107Listen: Damon Albarn – Mr TemboModel Media — 26 March 2014
- 108Damon Albarn – Hollow PondsGfK Entertainment
- 109Damon Albarn
- 110Mercury Prize 2014 The nomineesBBC — 10 September 2014
- 111Kali Uchis: "In My Dreams"Marc Hogan
- 112Damon Albarn Signs to Trangressive Records, Readies New AlbumEvan Minsker — 17 June 2021
- 113Damon Albarn Details New Album, Shares Song: ListenMatthew Strauss — 22 June 2021
- 114It's all a bit of a blur for Damon2 February 2007
- 115NewsGood, Bad and superLucy Carne — 3 February 2007
- 116The band with no name31 January 2007
- 117NewsOsbourne scoops 'icon' at Mojo Awards18 June 2007
- 118The Good, The Bad and the Queen – "Herculean"10 October 2006
- 122Damon Albarn, Flea to release album as Rocketjuice and the Moon27 October 2011
- 123Damon Albarn's 13 StudioSam Inglis — August 1999
- 124Inside Track: Secrets of the Mix Engineers - Riccardo DamianPaul Tingen — December 2023
- 126Tennant saves Albarn's 'Pride'Carol Clerk — 21 March 1998
- 127'911' IS NOT A JOKE2001-11-19
- 128NewsStrokes and Damon Record Together16 October 2003
- 129Damon Albarn's missed David Bowie opportunityFar Out Magazine — 19 November 2021
- 130NME website10 June 2005
- 131BlurBalls – Blur website4 January 2012
- 132Sunday at Glastonbury news roundup30 June 2013
- 133De La Soul Enlist Damon Albarn, David Byrne, 2 Chainz, Little Dragon for Kickstarter-Funded AlbumEvan Minsker — 30 March 2015
- 134De La Soul launch Kickstarter for new album set to feature Damon Albarn, David Byrne, 2 Chainz De La Soul TicketsLeonie Cooper — 30 March 2015
- 135MagazineDe La Soul Announce Kickstarter-Funded Album ft. Damon Albarn, David Byrne, 2 Chainz & MoreNatalie Weiner — 30 March 2015
- 136Opera: Monkey: Journey to the West | The ObserverKitty Empire — July 2007
- 137Doctor Dee
- 138Damon Albarn's Dr Dee| ProductionEno.org
- 139Damon Albarn composes film score for 'The Boy in the Oak'6 January 2011
- 142Damon Albarn reinvents 'Alice in Wonderland' for Manchester International Festival musicalNadia Khomami — 21 January 2015
- 143NewsDamon Albarn to bring Alice in Wonderland musical to the National TheatreAnthony Barnes
- 144MagazineDamon Albarn Preps Music for 'Alice in Wonderland'-Inspired Musical21 January 2015
- 145MagazineQ&A: Damon Albarn on India, John & Yoko and Mark E SmithJohn Lewis — March 2026
- 146Damon Albarn – Lonely Press PlayRobin Murray — 27 February 2014
- 147gorillaz_news: Video interview with Jeff Wootton, Gorillaz live guitaristGorillaz-news.livejournal.com — 20 August 2010
- 148Strong, Martin C. (2003) The Great Indie Discography, Canongate; , pp. 635–636
- 149NewsDamon Albarn says heroin made him 'incredibly productive'Sean Michaels — 2014-03-27
- 150JournalDamon AlbarnJanuary 2000
- 151JournalAn interview: Damon Albarn on the Gorillaz, fatherhood, the war in Iraq, and going outMatt Kennard — 24 November 2008
- 152"Premature Evaluation: Blur The Ballad Of Darren"19 July 2023
- 153"Damon Albarn: "Blur didn't collapse"" – Paris Match21 July 2023
- 155Blur's Damon Albarn Awarded OBE in New Year's Honors31 December 2015
- 156Damon Albarn named Local King of MaliAndrew Unterberger — 21 February 2016
- 15730 New Citizens, Including Three Familiar NamesRÚV (Ríkisútvarpið)- The Icelandic National Broadcasting Service — 29 January 2021
- 158Cobham plays host to singer Albarn20 December 2013
- 159PodcastDamon AlbarnRick Gladstone — 11 July 2023
- 163DRC Music brings the sound of the Congo to benefit OxfamBob Ferguson — 31 August 2011
- 164Damon Albarn, Flea, Nick Zinner, and more come together for charity singleChris Coplan — 5 July 2013
- 165MagazineDamon Albarn and Noel Gallagher Unite For Charity24 March 2013
- 167MagazineNoel Gallagher, Damon Albarn Bury Hatchet for 'Tender' PerformanceLars Brandle — 25 March 2013
- 168NewsAlbarn condemns celebrity culture27 December 2007
- 169NewsDamon Albarn: 'Brexit has revealed terrible truths about the mental health of the English'22 November 2018
- 170NewsBlur's Damon Albarn demands 'citizens' assembly' to fix Brexit17 December 2018
- 171NewsDamon Albarn talks about how Brexit inspired his new album8 November 2018
- 172NewsPixies pull out of Israeli concert6 June 2010
- 174Damon Albarn on the "genocide" in Gaza: "We cannot deny the Palestinians their existence"Max Pilley — 2025-08-08
- 175Damon Albarn Talks Gaza Genocide, New Gorillaz MusicDanielle Chelosky — 2025-08-09
- 176Brian Eno Enlists Damon Albarn, King Krule, and More for Together for Palestine Benefit ShowJazz Monroe — 2025-08-08
- 177Gorillaz: "Creo que nos inclinamos por el socialismo. Somos de izquierdas al 100%"David Saavedra — 20 March 2026
- 179NewsBrits take six MTV Europe awards9 November 2001
- 181NewsDamon Albarn and Robert del Naja interview, Rock Crusaders9 February 2003
- 182JournalMTV winners Gorillaz protest U.S. bombingcanoe.com — 9 November 2001
- 183Damon Albarn's Anti-War ProtestXFM — 2 July 2003
- 184JournalWAR ON WAR!20 August 2002
- 185JournalDeconstructing Damon16 November 2003
- 186Damon Albarn @ Anti Bush Protest (2003)TracyJackAlbarn2 — 6 October 2012