Blur's Graham Coxon talks reunions, re-elections, and regrets.

I have been sent the following extraordinary interview by my future self from the year 2020.

Blur's semi-reclusive guitarist Graham Coxon meets me in front of his favourite Camden pub.

'This wasn't always my favourite. But all the others in Camden have gone digital.'

He complains as we warm our hands around our large cups of herbal tea.

'I want to look out of the window and see the real world however bleak it is you know what I mean?'.

I nod, though I'm not sure I agree. This pub has certainly found a niche market catering for men of Graham's age who seek refuge from augmented reality, but staring out onto the wasted greyness of post-2015 Camden High Street it's hard not to crave a ray or two of augmented sunshine. Nobody here seems particularly happy. I ask Graham if he is.

'Happy?' He shrugs. 'As happy as I can be. I'm not unhappy. Can't complain considering the plight of pretty much the rest of Europe.'

We're here to talk about Graham's new solo retrospective 'Crashing In Camden', but I can't let the rare interview pass without getting the Blur question out of the way, and it turns out Graham is only too ready to warm to the subject. He stares out the window but focusses on something beyond the radiation warning signs,

'With hindsight, 2012 should have been the year we went all out for a new Blur album. Do you remember in February 2012 we were given the Outstanding Contribution to Music award at the old Brit Awards? Then we headlined the Olympics closing ceremony gig in Hyde Park, and the warm up gigs for that were ace. Small venues in towns that don't even exist now... That was the last time all four of us were talking about a new Blur album and REALLY meaning it. You know, when we've met up recently we've mentioned it, but you can tell nobody really expects it to happen. I guess the first time I thought 'this could mean Blur is totally over' was when Alex (James, Blur's Bassist) got his X-Factor gig. People forget, even though the X-Factor was in its death throes by then, being a judge on that show was a big deal and that was his ramp onto a global stage.'

I remind Graham that in 2013 he was less generous about this 'ramp', referring to it instead as 'he's not milking cows or making cheese anymore, he's sucking the most satanic man on Earth's cock instead'. Graham chuckles, cracking a smile for the first time since we met,

'Well we all say things we regret in the heat of the moment. I was genuinely happy when the WigWam album became such a massive global hit, because I remember how much effort he put into recording it; not many people realise how much Alex tortures himself to make music, he puts a lot of himself into it, but I could tell in the mid 2000s people just weren't ready for WigWam, it was way ahead of its time, people had to catch up with Alex's vision, so yeah, nobody was happier than me when it exploded onto a world stage. If I made any negative comments it was because I felt upset for Damon (Albarn, Blur's vocalist). It's been hardest on Damon because, you know, for him it's been a downward spiral these past few years whereas the rest of us are either on the up in some way, Dave (Rowntree, Blur's Drummer)'s obviously insanely busy putting the country back together, or like me, just the same as ever. I don't have a great height to fall from, I just carry on doing my own thing, I mean, I live in the same house I always have, I still make records and even sell one or two from time to time. But I think people forget that a decade ago Damon was still selling out arenas with Gorillaz. The lawsuit with Jamie (Hewlett, Gorillaz artist) totally cleaned him out – the fact he didn't even get called to be part of the Gorillaz movie and nobody even noticed he wasn't doing the music any more; that must have been desperately painful – I mean, I think Bret (McKenzie, Gorillaz / Flight of the Conchords / Doctor Who On Ice) did an ok job, but you can't have Gorillaz without Damon.'

I remind Graham that the accompanying album was CloudSwiped more times than sales of all Blur and Damon-led Gorillaz albums combined, and he grimaces.

'Yeah. What do I know? I can't even accept U2 touring their hits with Chris Martin, and nobody else seems to be bothered about that.'

I suggest this is different; surely more of a tribute to Bono? But Graham remains almost disrespectfully unrepentant.

'Yeah, the Filthy Lucre Tribute! Every last martyred piece of him must be spinning in the grave.'

I'm beginning realise that this pub is a refuge for men like Graham from more than simply augmented reality, it's the closest they have to remaining in stasis within a pre-2015 world. I'm not sure how to connect with Graham on this level, and Graham stares into his tea for a long, silent minute. I think the interview might be over, when he mumbles,

'Well the world's changed a lot since Blur last played a gig hasn't it? Anyway, I think it was pride stopped Damon getting the four of us back into the studio after Alex's success. He was hit hard when 'Bootiful' failed – he'd pumped most his savings into it. He called me up distraught, he couldn't understand why nobody wanted to see a musical based on the life and times of Bernard Matthews. I tried to tell him it might have worked a few years previously, but with the dawn of stem cell meat people just couldn't sympathise with the life of an old-style turkey farmer.'

I ask if Graham has heard Damon's latest iPad album?

'Is there another one? God, it must be the oldest working iPad in the UK. Where does he get parts? Anyway, no I haven't heard it, I don't have the hardware to download it anymore – he insists on releasing everything in MP3... I don't know, it's sad. I don't think he's pushing himself to his best anyway, the last three were just him moaning into a microphone about the price of broccoli... I sympathise, but you have to move with the times.'

I suggest that meeting in a non-augmented pub might cause people to think he hasn't moved with the times either.

'That's different! This is a reminder of reality, that's essential, I can't write songs without inhabiting reality, but if I stay stuck within it I'll never get them heard. I record directly into the Cloud, and I put my albums up for CloudSwipe. I miss CDs and all that sh*t, but I will say this; I don't miss record companies!'

I ask Graham if he's heard the rumour that Damon isn't even chipped? Graham's eyes flash with irritation.

'You're not drawing me on that. No comment. I don't know.'

It's obvious we need to move on quickly so I sidestep. 'Let's talk about Dave. Surely he must be the most difficult to pin down even for a catch up?'

'Actually, it's usually Dave who suggests getting together these days. You know what politicians are like, they've got slick PR machines behind them, and still being in Blur boosts him in the opinion polls with the forty-somethings. Alex is his unofficial style guru, and I bet you in the run up to the General Election he'll be desperate to be photographed back behind those drums with his shirt sleeves rolled up 'Rowntree the sweaty drummer Prime Minister', it's a good image.'

Will it happen?

'Probably. He's done an ok job of rescuing the country from certain death so I suppose people will be grateful. You can never predict people though. C**ts.'

I say I was actually I was talking about whether a Blur reunion would happen with Dave's motivations... Graham is ready to leave, he drains his tea and resumes staring out of the window.

'Oh like I said, I doubt Damon can swallow his pride; he's not keen on playing with Alex these days. You have to see it from his point of view - all the kids at the front chanting for WigWam's latest global f***ing chart topper.'

He stands up and grabs his coat, extending his hand as courtesy, but clearly unsettled.

'I don't know if reforming Blur would ever really work now. I stick to what I said earlier. 2012 was it. That was our last chance. We let it slide by.'

With that he leaves the pub waving to the barman on the way out. Through the window I watch the shuffling green-coated guitarist move through the grey rubble on Camden High Street in the decreasing wan light. Ignoring the radiation warnings, he vanishes into a side street.

You can CloudSwipe Graham Coxon's new solo retrospective 'Crashing In Camden' compatible for all GoogleMind chips from Monday. (Also available on limited edition heavyweight vinyl).

Auditions, read-throughs, and cold sweats

Since my last update on the mayhem of Lost In Mozart we've achieved quite a lot although the list of stuff do sort out before August seems to get longer every day! Also, although it's a great intention to blog the process of producing this play, the reality is quite frustrating because of certain things it would be irresponsible to write about on the internet. These include the fact that we've been in talks with a couple of exciting names in Grime music about contributing tracks, but of course until that's settled I can't say who. Also, we've been doing some work with young people from youth clubs in the areas the play talks about – I was at one of these a few days ago, one I hadn't been to before, and found that the workers were more than willing to help, but also very nervous about certain place names even being mentioned, especially as the previous week a stabbing had taken place as a result of the kinds of postcode territory rivalries that Lost In Mozart centres around. So as much as I'd like to talk more about this process, suffice to say that, with the help of Urban Mission TV, we're well on the way to getting the soundtrack sorted with young people right at its core.

The other big news is that auditions took place during the past couple of weeks, and we now have a solid and talented cast! (that's a couple of them in the picture above being put through their paces by Nicole). Now this IS a process I can talk about. I found it all at once extremely exciting and extremely uncomfortable to watch actors performing scenes from my play for auditions, then a week sitting in a circle for a full read-through. Previously the only time this had happened was using scenes from the screenplay version workshopping with some of the young people who inspired the story – brilliantly in this case they relished the opportunity to play versions of themselves, and crucially, recognised the world and characters as authentic. My one great fear in that case had been that months of carefully thought out story construction and rationalising would be destroyed by just one Nelson Muntz-esque 'Ha hah!'. However, and I promise this was due to logistics and not cowardice, I couldn't be present at that session, and watched it a week later on video. For the auditions, and the read-through, I was present and cringing. The cringing wasn't constant I hasten to add, and reflects not at all the competence and talent of our more than capable cast; but their raw interpretation of sentences and dialogue that I have hitherto solely given life within my own head, frequently shone a harsh and unforgiving light on nasty clusters of long neglected and festering sores on the page, the pain of which I had perhaps simply learned to live with.

But in a way, resolving some of these issues is what I'm looking forward to most about the process we will now begin; rehearsals. The script can, and will, be modified and tweaked, but I have resisted the urge to spend the days following the read-through slashing and re-writing as I could very well have done. Instead I hope to enter into much more of a collaboration from this point onwards – listening to the views of the Director, and the Cast. Of course there's a very real possibility that I might strongly disagree with all their opinions, but that's still collaborative right?

This Sunday we're filming and promo with three of the actors using the grant the nice folk at IdeasTap gave us specifically for that purpose. We'll be sure to take lots of photos too, so my next blog entry might be (mercifully?) more inclined towards showing than telling!

And cold sweats? Well we still have to get those pesky lyrics written, we need a stage manager to take on the gargantuan task of getting all the buttons pressed at the right times during the show (ipods, macbooks, and yes, VCRs!) and we haven't yet recruited the classical musicians we need... it'll be fine, won't it Nelson?

Represent Lost In Mozart, Big'up Society

God willing, my play Lost in Mozart is going to run at the Edinburgh Fringe during August, and now because of a very generous grant from the Arts Council England in response to my third attempt at (virtually) the same application, I'm very excited to say that Lost In Mozart will also be gracing an as yet undecided London theatre in either October or November!

Lost In Mozart is an urban musical centring on two teenage photography students who form a powerful friendship across the warring postcode territories of the South Kilburn, and Mozart estates. The play is driven by grime rap lyrics, and by classical music courtesy of the lead character's secret obsession with the symphonies and concertos he uses to soundtrack an urban landscape many dismiss as bleak, but in which he perceives majestic beauty. It will be a spectacular show with live urban and classical music blended with stunning photography. In the coming weeks I'll share with you the audition, rehearsal, and design process until we've put the whole show together.

Arts Council England don't fund anything north of the border though, so we're still haemorrhaging our own savings to fund the 20 performance run in August at the Fringe. Not that it won't be worth every penny of course, but it would be lovely if some of you were to take pity on us, starving and sleeping rough for the sake of Art...

And that's where WeFund enters the picture

WeFund is a 'crowd funding' initiative based on funders leaping on board in response to incentives that money simply cannot buy, visit our WeFund page to frolic among the goodies on offer, including CDs and scripts signed by the creative team, and my pledge to write you a personal short story in return for your support.

The model is very 'Big Society', and I genuinely hope that crowd funding initiatives such as WeFund are the future for arts funding as well as for charitable works and projects that seek to relieve poverty and suffering; it asks us lay aside our doubts, greed, and cynicism, and to contribute with whatever we are personally able to sacrifice in the name of the bigger picture and greater good. So come on, represent Lost In Mozart, Big'up Society.

Slandercat video

Gauntlet by Slandercat from Jeff Nottingham on Vimeo.

What's this? A music related post that has nothing at all to do with Cherry Ekko? Surely not!

Believe it people, I'm talking about Slandercat - the musical alter ego of the multi-talented Mr J Hay, who has kindly given his blessing to the above video I made for his track 'Gauntlet.

Those in the know have already downloaded Slandercat's ace new EP Blood of a Broom Tree, and now I've put you in the know, you should download it too; it's six tracks of frenetic, bittersweet, wistful electronica. Get it here www.slandercat.bandcamp.com

I'm a gig promoter now you know...

Rich and I managed to pilot the first Cherry Ekko gig through its choppy course on Wednesday - we were definitely on a steep learning curve, and the ups and downs of the night certainly reflected this! Overall though A SUCCESS! We were one person off breaking even (yes, that was you, if you didn't come).

Many many thanks to all those who came out and gave the night a good vibe, and huge thanks also to Hermione, Glenn Hodge, and Aquilina for their sets.

Things we learned: Live streaming needs to be checked (anybody up for being a home clubber and sitting at home giving us reports on how it's coming through?) / sound engineers are geniuses / we need to do a lot more promo for the next gig.

Here's a link to download a sound board quality live album of Aquilina's set from the gig FREE LIVE ALBUM OF AQUILINA'S SET

And here's a video of Aquilina's first song from the night:

Live stream of Cherry Ekko gig

Getting quite excited about the first Cherry Ekko gig now.

By the power of this here internet you will be able to watch the gig, with sound directly from the board. The player is embedded below so come 7:30pm you should just be able to refresh it, and watch! Or you can watch it on Cherry Ekko by going to www.cherryekko.com/gigs.asp

Live stream from 7:30pm, 28th July 2010

Free TV : Ustream

Cherry Ekko - the return!

First Cherry Ekko gig - The Kinbeats at The Good Ship, 28th July 2010, from 8pm

My brother and I have just re-launched our music website Cherry Ekko

Those of you who were signed up to the old version know it was all about attempting to help bands amass a recording budget by selling limited edition CDs of demo tracks. All in all I think we sold about nineteen copies between all the bands... they each needed to sell 2000 to gain their recording target.

So Cherry Ekko has now become a live music event as well as a website. The concept is fabulously simple: place a vote for your favourite band, and the five with the most votes play a gig organised by us every two months.

The first ever Cherry Ekko gig is on July 28th at The Good Ship on Kilburn High Road. Apparently The Beatles, Joy Division, and even Elvis Presley have all performed at The Good Ship in the past.

Our July 28th headliners will be The Kinbeats (new proteges of indie legend Edwyn Collins, vocal harmonies to die for) - they'll be backed up by Aquilina, Hermione, and Little Life.

You should really reach for your diary and firmly 'pen' it in right now - you'll only forget otherwise, and that would be a crying shame. See you there.