Blur’s Graham Coxon “smiled at all the grumpy faces” at their Coachella gig.
The Britpop legends’ set at the California music festival bombed as the younger audience were less than impressed, but the guitarist just made the most of having fun with his bandmates onstage instead of getting irate.
He told GQ magazine: “I like making albums. I’m perfectly happy on stage, but sometimes, like at Coachella or something, it’s taken you 14 hours to get there, and then you’re playing to people who don’t give a s***. They’re looking at you like ‘who’s this old git?’
“I love an audience that are smiling their heads off and having a great time, because you’re doing it for them. And if I see audiences of people that are bored, like maybe Coachella, I just do it for myself.
“I just enjoy what I’m doing. I smile at the grumpy faces a couple of times just to see if I can change their expression, then I just get on with what I wanna do. Pull faces at Dave. Laugh at Damon when he’s getting things wrong or whatever, just have a laugh. What else can you do? You’ve gone all that way, there’s no point in having a miserable time.”
At the time, frontman Damon Albarn suggested Blur were “probably” playing their “last gig”.
The ‘Parklife’ group – completed by bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree – took to the main stage at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in April, for their second performance at the music event.
And as they prepared to play ‘Tender’, the final song of the set, the vocalist told the crowd: “In the spirit of clarity and truth, this is probably our last gig.”
Blur reunited in 2023 to release new album ‘The Ballad of Darren’ – their first studio LP in eight years – and perform two huge shows at Wembley Stadium in London.
Meanwhile, a new documentary, ‘Blur: To The End’, which hits cinemas today (19.07.24), sees Damon throw open the doors to his rural Devon pad and share his heartbreak and get candid about reuniting with his bandmates and pondering the fragility of life and sharing how he uses music as therapy.