Jools Holland: 16/4/99

Blur played Tender, No Distance Left To Run and Bugman. Damon was also interviewed by Jools.

Jools Holland: Welcome to the program!

Damon stands up and sort of bows

J: What I first want to ask you about is the sleeve of the record.

Points at picture which is blur set backdrop

Damon Albarn: Thats Grahams.

J: Did he do that?

D: Yes he did.

J: And who is it?

D: Well you’ll have to ask Graham.

J: Graham, who is that in the painting?

Graham looks up, smiles, looks embarrased and runs away. Damon laughs.

J: Right, an unknown portrait for the moment. It is a very good record though. Are you pleased with that record?

D: Yeah, I think we feel like we’ve kind of got somewhere at last.

J: Its got a magnificant sound though.

D: Thankyou very much.

J: Now Tender we hear on the radio, Top 10 for weeks, months. Was it a hard song to write.

D: No, its very easy. Its only three chords with a C minor in the middle.

D: How long did it take?

D: I can’t remember, but not long.

J: A life time of experience.

D: Well, you know.

J: And Alex you see has a double bass. I was very excited to see that. What do you make of it?

D: Welll we’re trying not to encourage him to play it too often.

J: It looks lovely though.

D: It’s warn a bit now though, when he first got it, it looked a bit inconjourous, I felt.

J: Well you have to stand up straight with a double bass or you look small.

D: Thats true. Well he still manages to play it like Cliff Richards.

J: You’ve been together ten years now, that’s a long time. Do you still have ambitions that you harbour or have you done them all, do you think?

D: Well, I think we’d still like to get a little deeper into what we do. I think we feel like we’ve been studying for ten years. Publically.

J: And it’s just got better and better, hasn’t it? Do you still have the same inspirations? Do the same things inspire you as ten years ago?

D: I had no idea what I was doing. I wasn’t at Goldsmiths, Graham and Alex were. I just sort of hung around the bar.

J: We’ve got a clip now of your first Top 10 hit, from spring 1991.

D: Oh no, bad haircuts.

J: Historic haircuts.

Play clip of Blur doing Theres No Other Way on Top Of The Pops. Halfway through, they show a studio shot of Damon laughing.

J: I was told that it was your ambition, since you were eleven, to be on Top Of The Pops.

D: When I was eleven I saw Fun Boy 3 first appearence and I was very impressed.

J: No turning back. It was good though wasn’t it? Perfectly good. What are you’re favourite Blur albums, looking back?

D: Well, I can find something of worth on all of them.

J: Is the most recent one your favourite?

D: Yeah, of course.

J: Now you’re going to play No Distance Left To Run. What’s that about?

D: It’s about losing somebody in your life. It’s a very sad song.

J: I don’t think the album sounds sad though.

D: No, I don’t. It’s optimistic.

J: Yeah, that’s right. Well we’ll have that later on and if you could ask Alex if he has a name for his double bass. It’d be nice for the circular, and in the meantime- Damon, thankyou very much indeed.

D: Thankyou.

J: Damon Albarn.

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