Damon Albarn wanted to cancel Blur’s second Wembley Stadium comeback show – because he was “not into going onstage”.
The ‘Parklife’ hitmakers – comprising Damon Albarn, Dave Rowntree, Graham Coxon and Alex James – got back together for their first album in eight years, ‘The Ballad of Darren’, and a number of live shows, including two triumphant sold-out concerts at London’s Wembley Stadium, last year, however, frontman Damon has confessed he was all set to pull out of the second night, until he saw the masses of fans walking up to the venue.
Speaking to KROQ during Coachella weekend one, he spilled: “I never thought I’d love Wembley. The first night was great, and then the next night, I didn’t want to do another gig. I was trying to find reasons to cancel it. I was sitting in a hotel at Wembley Park, like a Travelodge or something, and I was watching these people coming in and I was like, ‘Well I can’t cancel that.'”
He continued: “And it was actually, maybe the best gig in that time that you could ever, ever dream of having. But it was weird, I was really not into going onstage, and then I was onstage, and it was very nice to do that.”
Elsewhere, bassist Alex James teased their upcoming documentary about their return with their Wembley shows and releasing ‘The Ballad Of Darren’, their first studio album in eight years.
He said: “It’s eight years since we last did anything – even when we actually split up, it didn’t take that long to get it together. So there was a certain amount of jeopardy potentially at the beginning, trying to make a new record at this stage of your career. Most bands don’t even like each other 30 years in, let alone make decent records. I suppose there’s a lot to blame for. I guess if you like the band, it’s a good band. We filmed the shows at Wembley, and I never thought we’d top Glastonbury 2009.”
There’s also a concert film in the works.
The raucous response the Britpop legends received on home turf was nothing like the lacklustre crowd at their Coachella set at the weekend, with Damon informing them the band won’t be returning to the California festival, after the audience stayed silent during their performance of ‘Girls and Boys’, despite his calls for them to sing along.