b. 23 March 1968, London, England. "Don't take me too seriously," Damon Albarn once told The Guardian newspaper, "I'm a stupid idiot musician". The latter seems to be a view held by many, despite the Blur frontman being considered part of British pop (or more specifically Britpop) nobility. Noel Gallagher of Oasis even went so far as to wish (in The Observer) that he hoped Albarn would "catch Aids and die", though such a statement might say more about Gallagher than his supposed nemesis.
For all that Blur has occasionally transcended Albarn's personality defects, it is arguable that his more intriguing projects, activities and actions have been outside of the band that initially made him famous. External to Blur, Albarn has formed Gorillaz, a cartoon band with Tank Girl illustrator Jamie Hewlett, Dan "The Automator" Nakamura (on 2001 debut Gorillaz) and Danger Mouse (on the 2005 follow-up Demon Days) that ironically presents a less cartoon vision of himself as he does in Blur, and co-opted the ex-Clash bass player Paul Simonon, ex-Verve guitarist Simon Tong and drummer Tony Allen in to the band the Good, The Bad And The Queen. During his career, Albarn has also made a number of guest appearances as producer, musician and vocalist. He contributed to Elastica's self-titled 1995 debut (assuming the anagrammatic alter-ego Dan Abnormal), collaborated with Michael Nyman on the score for Ravenous (starring Guy Pearce and Robert Carlyle), and appeared on the Trainspotting soundtrack (contributing "Closet Romantic"). He also sang on Fatboy Slim's "Put It Back Together' (from 2004"s Palookaville), soundtracked 101 Reykjavík (set in a city where he has a second home and a half-share in a bar), and Kevin Spacey's Ordinary Decent Criminal (which included a collaboration with Massive Attack's 3D), and actually appeared in the 1997 Brit-flic Face. Albarn worked with Massive Attack on their 2003 release 100th Window (he provided backing vocals to the track "Small Time Shot Away"), and, alongside that band's 3D, has been vocal in condemning US/UK involvement in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In 2002 Albarn recorded an album of "no-fi demos recorded in hotel rooms during Blur's US tour", released the following year as the vinyl-only album Democrazy. On the final track, "End Of Democrazy", Albarn deliberated "This is the end of democrazy/Hope you understand I've been lazy/I stayed up every night singing/When I really should have been sleeping", but the consensus seemed to be that such ephemera was actually worth hearing. The same year he visited Mali in support of Oxfam, resulting in Mali Music with Afel Bocoum and Toumani Diabaté that processed that country's music through the Albarn mindset. Perhaps surprisingly, Albarn can be reasonably astute: he notably criticized the Live 8 concert for not featuring enough black artists, criticisms that were subsequently addressed by the organizers. In addition to his numerous musical ventures, Albarn is also the founder of the independent label Honest Jon's.
