Damon Albarn on Noel Gallagher’s offer to sprinkle “northern magic” on Gorillaz

8 March, 2023

Damon Albarn and Noel Gallagher

Damon Albarn has reacted to Noel Gallagher‘s offer to “sprinkle” some “northern magic” on Gorillaz.

While the pair were famously Britpop rivals throughout the ’90s, they have since become friends and Gallagher contributed backing vocals to Gorillaz’ 2017 track ‘We Got The Power’ featuring Jehnny Beth.

Last month, the former the Oasis singer-songwriter then suggested that he could see them working together again during an interview with Radio X.

“Yeah, me and him get on great. I love his band. I know most of his band,” Gallagher said when asked if he had plans to work with the Blur frontman again.

“The Gorillaz, it’s a cool thing to be involved with because you get to meet lots of really cool…I mean I met De La Soul at their gigs and Mos Def and how he puts it all together is really quite incredible. You have a good time doing it.”

He added: “If he needs me, I’ll sprinkle a bit of Northern magic for him.”

After Albarn was played the interview clip by the radio station, he recalled bumping into Gallagher when he was in less good spirits.

“The last time I actually saw Noel was in Porto after the Champions League game and I was going to get my car and he was waiting for his car and he wasn’t particularly pleased to see me on that occasion,” he joked.

“But I mean, cor blimey, how our fortunes have changed in the interim,” he continued. “I’m, sure he’d love to talk to me about football now.”

“I love Noel,” he added. “I love him. He’s great.”

Albarn went on: “If you allow yourself to be open to anything and don’t be precious about it, you can be a great collaborator.

“I mean, that’s the essence of it. Just accepting that things change, circumstances change, songs change.”

The Blur singer previously described his collaboration with Gallagher on ‘We Got The Power’ as a “victory lap” and “the ultimate self-congratulatory Britpop moment”.

Gorillaz new album, ‘Cracker Island’ came out last month, described in a four-star review from NME as “conventional, but richly satisfying”.

Meanwhile, today (March 8) Gallagher shared a “spacey” Robert Smith remix of High Flying Birds‘ ‘Pretty Boy’.

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