Graham Coxon talks “bored” Coachella crowd for Blur: “they’re looking at you like ‘who’s this old git?’”
Back in April, Damon Albarn told the rather lackluster crowd assembled to see Blur at weekend one of Coachella, “you’re never seeing us again, so you might as well fucking sing it” when they didn’t do Parklife hit “Girls & Boys” justice singing along. That comment made headlines, and the band’s Graham Coxon has now talked about it more in a new interview with British GQ. “I like making albums,” Coxon said. “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 shit. 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,” he continued to GQ. “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.”
Read the interview in full on GQ.
For their weekend two Coachella set, Albarn told the crowd, “this is probably our last gig.” True to their word, they have no upcoming shows, but their new documentary To the End is out on Friday (7/19), and their Live at Wembley Stadium live album follows later this month.
Coxon has also been busy with The WAEVE, his project with Rose Elion Dougall; their anticipated second album City Lights is out in September.
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