James Blunt recalls Damon Albarn not wanting to be photographed with him for ‘Jools Holland’
James Blunt has recalled the time that Damon Albarn didn’t want to be photographed with him for an episode of Later… With Jools Holland.
The topic arose during a discussion with actor Kathy Burke on an episode of her podcast series Where There’s A Will, There’s A Wake. It heard the singer-songwriter recall the shun that he received from the Blur frontman.
Recalling feeling “a little bit annoyed” about one of the passages in Blunt’s new memoir Loosely Based On A Made-Up Story, Burke asked the artist about the passage where he discussed his appearance on the Later… With Jools Holland show – namely a moment that happened off camera.
“They do this sort of group photo of all the bands at the end… was it Damon Albarn who refused to be in the photograph or didn’t want you in the photograph?” she asked.
“I don’t know exactly. He’s a lovely chap, I’m sure, but he didn’t want me [to be in] the photo of the episode,” Blunt responded.
“Everyone gets the photo and that photo is put up on the wall of the studio, of Jules Holland’s studio,” Blunt added. “For some reason, he didn’t want me in the photo, so I was kept in my dressing room while they took that photo. And then he left and then they got me out for a second photo, but my photo’s not necessarily on the wall.”
Later in the podcast episode Blunt jokingly recalled the moment that he was given the Worst Album Award by NME in 2006, and stated that that was the publication he’d like his obituary to be in.
When asked about who the pallbearers would be for the moment, Blunt went on to say he’d like the Gallagher brothers to be enlisted. He made a nod to another sly rumour that he has heard about himself.
“[I’d pick] those Gallagher brothers, Noel and what’s his name, they’d love to do that. I think they’ve signed up,” he began, also making reference to the irony of the rivalry between Oasis and Blur over the years.
“Exactly, and they’ve all had nice supportive things to say about me and my music, so it’d be great to have them as part of the show,” he added. “I do actually bump into Noel a fair whack at different places. And I think he only says these things behind people’s back. Because to your face, he’s a coward.”
Here the host chimed in to ask if it was true that Noel once claimed that he was moving out of Ibiza because Blunt had just moved there. Blunt responded: “Yeah, he said he couldn’t have me writing my shitty songs just down the road from him. And it was really weird, when he left, house prices just rocketed.”
The singer also made headlines with the anecdotes shared in his memoir last month when he recalled how he developed a close relationship with actor Carrie Fisher.
According to the singer, he moved in with the Star Wars icon in 2003 when he went to LA to further his career and would always “go into her room to talk, no matter if it was 11pm or 3am”.
He added that living with Fisher meant that “she became my best, best friend”.
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Liberty Dunworth
NME
