{"id":292163,"date":"2021-07-06T19:22:55","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T16:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad-amp-the-queen\/"},"modified":"2021-07-06T19:22:55","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T16:22:55","slug":"cover-story-the-good-the-bad-amp-the-queen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad-amp-the-queen\/","title":{"rendered":"#Cover Story: The Good, The Bad &amp;amp; The Queen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;<strong>#Cover Story: The Good, The Bad &amp;amp; The Queen<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"content_blocks\">\n<style>\n<\/style>\n<style>\n<p> article.custom .custom-title, article.custom .custom-media .caption {\n   color: ;\n }<\/p>\n<p> article.custom .custom-attribution, article.custom .custom-attribution a {\n   color: ;\n }<\/p>\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-223126\" class=\"content_block flush title center_align\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"custom-title\">\n      Cover Story: The Good, The Bad &amp; The Queen\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"custom-description\">\n      Revisit The FADER\u2019s 2007 interview with Damon Albarn ahead of this week\u2019s episode of The FADER Uncovered with Mark Ronson.\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"custom-attribution\">\n<div class=\"author\">\n    <span><br \/>\n      By <span class=\"credit_name\">Will Welch<\/span><br \/>\n  <\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"photographer\">Photographer <span class=\"credit_name\">Liz Johnson Artur<\/span><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"custom-media\">\n<div class=\"media_wrapper image center_align\">\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_1440,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/THEFADER_043_Jan_Feb2007_DamonAlbarn_MachelMontano-pages-1-page-001_rkowym\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_220,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/THEFADER_043_Jan_Feb2007_DamonAlbarn_MachelMontano-pages-1-page-001_rkowym\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 220w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_300,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/THEFADER_043_Jan_Feb2007_DamonAlbarn_MachelMontano-pages-1-page-001_rkowym\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 300w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_400,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/THEFADER_043_Jan_Feb2007_DamonAlbarn_MachelMontano-pages-1-page-001_rkowym\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 400w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/THEFADER_043_Jan_Feb2007_DamonAlbarn_MachelMontano-pages-1-page-001_rkowym\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 600w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_750,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/THEFADER_043_Jan_Feb2007_DamonAlbarn_MachelMontano-pages-1-page-001_rkowym\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 750w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_840,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/THEFADER_043_Jan_Feb2007_DamonAlbarn_MachelMontano-pages-1-page-001_rkowym\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 840w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_960,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/THEFADER_043_Jan_Feb2007_DamonAlbarn_MachelMontano-pages-1-page-001_rkowym\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 960w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_1260,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/THEFADER_043_Jan_Feb2007_DamonAlbarn_MachelMontano-pages-1-page-001_rkowym\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 1260w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_1800,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/THEFADER_043_Jan_Feb2007_DamonAlbarn_MachelMontano-pages-1-page-001_rkowym\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 1800w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_2400,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/THEFADER_043_Jan_Feb2007_DamonAlbarn_MachelMontano-pages-1-page-001_rkowym\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 2400w,\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 640px\" alt=\"Cover Story: The Good, The Bad &amp; The Queen\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"custom_share_buttons_top \" style=\"\">\n<div id=\"new_socials_bottom\" class=\"new_socials_footer  \">\n<p>      <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thefader.com\/assets\/FDR_SocialSharing_Facebook-747312c39722d47504a80f02500b8d4ad2e36acf922bad1c83799db1bc77f605.png\" alt=\"Fdr socialsharing facebook\"><!-- <span>Share<\/span> --><\/p>\n<p>  <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thefader.com%2F2021%2F07%2F06%2Fcover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen%3Futm_source%3Df%26utm_medium%3Dtw%26utm_campaign%3Dshare&amp;text=Cover%20Story:%20The%20Good,%20The%20Bad%20&amp;amp;%20The%20Queen&amp;via=thefader\" class=\"new_social_footer_button twitter new_social_share_button\" data-ga-event-category=\"Social Share\" data-ga-event-label=\"Twitter\" data-ga-on=\"click\" data-ga-event-action=\"cilck\"><\/p>\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thefader.com\/assets\/FDR_SocialSharing_Twitter-8d78f695280aa3f8a4461702c68e9fcbfd6042af1600c62d49fdec4b735fb57a.png\" alt=\"Fdr socialsharing twitter\"><!-- <span>Tweet<\/span> --><\/a><\/p>\n<p>        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thefader.com\/assets\/logo-snapchat-5f1563935ac089d0cf1773f642ddbfb6cdb16e8c4ac14fec95a3c11b6f963389.svg\" alt=\"Logo snapchat\"><!-- <span>Snap<\/span> --><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<style>\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-223127\" class=\"content_block paragraph text triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left center_align\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"paragraph_wrapper center_align\">\n<p>            The four or five employees of the Marlboro Club in Ilfracoombe, a seaside destination in Devon four hours south of London, were the first to tell me that they had never, ever had anything like this come to their town. Damon Albarn, front man of Blur, architect of Gorillaz and one of the two or three biggest rock stars in England would be playing there\u2014right here at the Marlboro Club\u2014with his new band in a matter of hours. Not only that, but the bassist would be Paul Simonon out of the Clash, the drummer would be a much ballyhooed Nigerian fellow called Tony Allen, and Simon Tong, who was in the Verve, would be on guitar. As the band kind of muttered around and then sound checked\u2014that\u2019s Paul Simonon, Best Looking Man in England, right there\u2014the excitement and anticipation weren\u2019t just palpable, they were impossible. It set everyone at ease though that the band members were just kind of walking around, a bit puffy with sleep after the pub gig in East Prawle the night before, smiling and nodding an \u201calright\u201d at folks as they paced the dingy carpeted floor. Soon everyone was going about his or her business, readying the club for the show. If anything, the most surreal part was how close to natural it felt being among these giants. Albarn bummed a cigarette and mentioned, with a melancholic love in his eyes, his affection for the colorful bunting that a friend had strung for him, which now hung above the instruments onstage. \u201cBunting is quite English,\u201d said Hannah Claxton, part of Albarn\u2019s management team. \u201cIt\u2019s also quite African,\u201d added Albarn. <\/p>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div>\n<p>            Some five hours later, the band was stashed away in their tour bus and the same surreal energy bounced around the now-full pub. Tickets had sold out in ten minutes. The kids\u2014and the 20-, 30- and 40-somethings\u2014were jumping out of their shoes with anticipation. When the band walked in and took the tiny stage, the crowd was ready to explode: the album <i>The Good, The Bad &amp; The Queen<\/i> wouldn\u2019t be out for months, so nobody knew what to expect, but it was real\u2014they were right here right now. Albarn looked rakishly handsome with his front tooth all but missing and an outlandish top hat on (he had permanently borrowed it off a bartender two towns back when the pub staff showed up to the gig in circus outfits). Simonon looked like the toughest motherfucker in England with a porkpie hat and a vicious boxer\u2019s scar across his nose. Surely this band was going to tear the roof off the Marlboro Club and burn the four walls down with a flicked cigarette butt on the way out of town. <\/p>\n<p>            Then the music started. Albarn was at an upright piano back and left of center on the cramped stage. Tong played a spidery guitar figure and Albarn sang softly\u2014even sadly\u2014Come the day\/ You see the sun\/ Hit the arch\/ A history song. It felt good when Simonon brought in a bumping and skanking reggae figure and began stomping, bearing down on the kids in the front row, looking them in the eye and pointing the head of his huge bass at them like it was an elephant gun. It felt even better when Tony Allen came in with a feather-light but somehow gangster shuffle on the snare. Then, as they all chanted La La La\/ La-la-la-la-la-la-la and began to let those instrumental parts abstractly unravel, it ended. The mellow start\u2014especially with Simonon egging on all comers like a prizefighter\u2014only pushed the crowd closer to bursting, wanting the band to fucking GO IN. When the show ended after an hour, the album having been played straight through, there had been countless hauntingly amazing moments, but what had they just seen? It was exciting and it occupied some uncharted space between moods and styles and was surely something, but what it was definitely not was Blur + the Clash + afrobeat. And that was not exactly dis<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ointing, but definitely a bit mystifying. <\/p>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div>\n<p>            Ever since the end of Blur\u2019s preeminence at the close of the \u201990s, Damon Albarn has defied expectations, or, more accurately, run circles around them. He has maintained a definite presence in the English public\u2019s imagination, but only while simultaneously surrounding himself with a world of his own making that has eventually come to defy all of that public\u2019s reference points, almost without them noticing. First he founded Honest Jon\u2019s Records\u2014a label he runs with the people behind the London record shop of the same name\u2014and began putting out music from around the world, including his own Mali Music in 2000, which featured him collaborating with West African musicians. Next he formed Gorillaz\u2014a cartoon band that makes real music\u2014with visual artist Jamie Hewlett. Even with the wild success of the self-titled debut Gorillaz album in 2001 and the seven-times-platinum explosion of the follow-up <i>Demon Days<\/i> in 2005, the group\u2019s famous mastermind happily evaporated amidst the multi<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a> onslaught. Albarn had surrounded himself with Africans, record store dudes, cartoons, obscure or dated American rappers, Miho Hatori, Ike Turner, Shaun Ryder, Dennis Hopper and beyond, but even the millions of people who bought the CDs and listened to them over and over didn\u2019t seem to wonder\u2014much less actually come to understand\u2014what circles, exactly, the former hero of Britpop was now moving in. Behind those cartoons, the most improbable sounds and collaborations seem natural enough, and with songs and videos that good (even if they are pretty dark), who was going to deconstruct them? In America, meanwhile, where Blur\u2019s success had been modest enough that Damon Albarn as celebrity persona had never quite crystallized, there was even less reason to look behind the scrim. <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-223130\" class=\"content_block breaker triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left image\">\n<div class=\"media_wrapper\">\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_1440,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas-2_cfp8rb\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_220,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas-2_cfp8rb\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 220w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_300,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas-2_cfp8rb\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 300w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_400,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas-2_cfp8rb\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 400w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas-2_cfp8rb\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 600w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_750,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas-2_cfp8rb\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 750w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_840,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas-2_cfp8rb\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 840w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_960,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas-2_cfp8rb\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 960w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_1260,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas-2_cfp8rb\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 1260w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_1800,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas-2_cfp8rb\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 1800w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_2400,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas-2_cfp8rb\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 2400w,\" sizes=\"100vw\" alt=\"Cover Story: The Good, The Bad &amp; The Queen\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"content_block paragraph triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<style>\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-223131\" class=\"content_block paragraph text triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left center_align\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"paragraph_wrapper center_align\">\n<p>            Regardless of what listeners have attended to, the story of Albarn\/Simonon\/Allen\/Tong and their record <i>The Good, The Bad &amp; The Queen<\/i> is no less fantastic than that of Mali Music or Gorillaz. \u201cThe last song that we did together as a four piece in Blur was \u2018Music Is My Radar,\u201d Albarn says, while sitting by the loading dock of a historic London music venue called the Roundhouse. \u201cThe chorus of that song is \u2018Tony Allen got me dancing.\u2019 So Tony heard it. Somebody obviously told him that there was this\u2026person that was singing a song about him.\u201d Allen, who, as Fela Kuti\u2019s musical director and the leader of Africa 70 is easily one of the greatest drummers alive (\u201cThe African Art Blakey,\u201d says Albarn), wanted that same person to come to Nigeria to sing on a song he was working on. Albarn agreed, and although Allen was at first nervous that Albarn might not be able to relate to his often elusive drum patters, he was ultimately thrilled with the result. \u201cAfter that he became my friend,\u201d Allen says. \u201cDamon is a character, and that made us even better friends, because I like characters. Later\u2014this is three or four years ago\u2014I said to him, I look forward to when we can do something together from scratch. He said, Okay, Tony, why not? But he was too busy then.\u201d One day, according to Allen, Albarn called the drummer at his home in Paris and said, \u201cOkay Tony, I\u2019m free now. Free, free, free. Let\u2019s go for it.\u201d As is his way, Albarn wanted to record in Nigeria, so after some initial writing sessions in London, a studio was arranged and the pair set off to Lagos. <\/p>\n<p>            When I ask Albarn to try to pinpoint the source of his interest in Africa, he describes his early childhood in the wildly diverse neighborhood of Leightenstone, East London, and the effect it had on him until he moved north to the homogeneity of Essex at age nine. What actually brought Albarn to Africa for the first time, however, was Oxfam, the London-based anti-poverty group. \u201cAbout ten years ago Oxfam invited me to do one of those ambassadorial things to Mali, which I was not into,\u201d Albarn says. But instead of rejecting the charity outright, he proposed a different sort of trip. \u201cCoincidentally I\u2019d been listening to a lot of Malian music around that time, because I\u2019d started to get to know the people in Honest Jon\u2019s records and they were feeding me records every other day. So I said I\u2019d go with a DAT player and instead of going to orphanages\u2014although I did go to a couple\u2014I just wanted to <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">travel<\/a> around and meet all the musicians I\u2019d been listening to. And Oxfam made that happen. Out of that came a record eventually, but more importantly, it changed my life. It was a crossroads for me and I went opposite to the way that maybe a lot of people from my generation went at that point. I lost the fear, the need to hold onto the past. And I fell in love with the process of making music and adventure and going to new places and getting to know people. And I suppose that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been doing ever since.\u201d Between his own projects and the Honest Jon\u2019s projects he has overseen (\u201cYou Americans would call it \u2018Executive Producing,\u2019 I call it\u2026facilitating,\u201d he says), Albarn has recorded in Mali, Nigeria, Algeria, country A, country B, county C. <\/p>\n<p>            Although the chapter in Albarn\u2019s adventures that resulted in The Good, The Bad &amp; The Queen began with the Tony Allen sessions in Lagos, it would be years before the project became the record that I first heard live at the Marlboro Club in Ilfracoombe. In Nigeria, Albarn and Allen put together a band that combined some of Albarn\u2019s collaborators from England (including Simon Tong) with two of Allen\u2019s former Fela bandmates, as well as some local musicians\u2014some 15 players in all. By all counts the sessions were productive, but Albarn decided to scrap them, with the input of <i>Demon Days<\/i> and eventual <i>The Good, The Bad &amp; The Queen<\/i> producer Danger Mouse. <\/p>\n<div class=\"\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px; margin-top: 20px; text-align: left;\">\n<\/div>\n<p>            \u201cWe had finished the Gorillaz record and I knew Damon had some stuff that he had recorded in Nigeria,\u201d says Danger Mouse, aka Brian Burton. \u201cHe asked if I would like to work on that project, and my reaction was that I thought there was some great stuff in there, but what I thought was great was in a different direction. I agreed to initially give it a shot as long as he was okay with the fact that we wouldn\u2019t necessarily stick to the direction it was already going.\u201d Danger Mouse and Albarn convened in London and began going through the demos, chopping out pieces, writing new demos, exploring new sounds. Allen and Tong joined them, and eventually they began jamming with bass players, looking for the right fit. <\/p>\n<p>            When I ask Albarn how the hell he managed to convince the Clash\u2019s Paul Simonon\u2014who had given up music entirely some 15 years earlier for the visual art world\u2014to pick the bass back up, he responded with a laugh and said, \u201cI rang him up and said, Do you fancy playin bass?! And he went, Yeah! Why not?\u201d Albarn\u2019s confidence, his directness, his incapacity for bullshit and pussyfooting that complements his relentless need for experimentation and collaboration is one of the most immediate characteristics of his personality, and probably also the one that has allowed him to continue to succeed after the blast of inspiration and achievement that was Blur in the \u201990s. Without pretense or preciousness, he seems to treat everyone equally. It\u2019s what allows him to laugh and abandon a song when Danger Mouse ruthlessly calls it \u201ctoo <i>Lion King<\/i>.\u201d It\u2019s what allows him to form a band with a hero of his\u2014someone he calls \u201cthe African Art Blakey\u201d\u2014and then allows him to explain to that same hero, without fear or hesitation, why his drum parts have been chopped up, rearranged, sometimes even removed from a song entirely. <\/p>\n<p>            When I was in London with The Good, The Bad &amp; The Queen, one front page headline for a column in <i>The Guardian<\/i> read, \u201cWHO\u2019S DOING AFRICA\u2019S PUBLICITY? I MEAN, COULD IT BE ANY HOTTER?\u201d Albarn, meanwhile, told me about a program he started that, rather than a press opportunity, is an opportunity to bring musicians of all stripes to Africa to meet other musicians\u2014to hang out, drink beer, maybe jam together\u2014for the sake of all the musicians involved equally. Although Albarn believes that consciousness- raising celebrity ambassador trips further separate the third world from the first and insists that we have to find a new model, he is not delusional about the power of his very different kind of program, or his music. \u201cThe point is,\u201d he says when asked about the oblique political bent of his songs, \u201cI don\u2019t think a lot of people get what I try to do in my tunes, which is to kind of try to express my sadness, my melancholy about the state of politics. I don\u2019t necessarily point and say, \u2018That\u2019s wrong.\u2019 But it\u2019s the melancholy I feel about what\u2019s wrong. Maybe it comes from the Beatles really. Maybe John Lennon is the man who invented the melancholy that I\u2019m just sort of playing out.\u201d <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-223132\" class=\"content_block breaker triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left image\">\n<div class=\"media_wrapper\">\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_1440,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas_kevzli\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_220,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas_kevzli\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 220w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_300,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas_kevzli\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 300w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_400,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas_kevzli\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 400w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_600,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas_kevzli\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 600w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_750,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas_kevzli\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 750w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_840,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas_kevzli\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 840w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_960,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas_kevzli\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 960w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_1260,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas_kevzli\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 1260w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_1800,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas_kevzli\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 1800w,https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/w_2400,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:best\/canvas_kevzli\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen.jpg 2400w,\" sizes=\"100vw\" alt=\"Cover Story: The Good, The Bad &amp; The Queen\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n<\/style>\n<div id=\"content_block-223133\" class=\"content_block paragraph text triple_gutter_right triple_gutter_left center_align\">\n<div class=\"content_inner_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"paragraph_wrapper center_align\">\n<p>            The culmination of the run of three warm-up pub shows that Albarn, Simonon, Allen and Tong had done in the South of England was a much-hyped, BBC-sponsored (and broadcast) show at the Roundhouse that would be the official debut of The Good, The Bad &amp; The Queen. Under Danger Mouse\u2019s guidance, what started as a big band project in Nigeria with an emphasis on afrobeat, had become a much more settled, psychedelic, loose group with wide-open spaces, dizzy organs, electronic tinges and dubbed out drops. The addition of Simonon to the band had brought not only a messily aggressive punk and reggae underbelly to the rhythm section, but also a new lyrical direction for Albarn. \u201cThe fact that I was supposed to be putting bass on the songs that were evolving was becoming more distant,\u201d Simonon says, \u201cand a whole new thing was developing through conversations and books that Damon and I both enjoyed about London and local landmarks.\u201d The result is an album about England in <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a> and the North Kensington area where Albarn and Simonon live in specific, and many of the songs feel like oblique requiems both for the character of the country and neighborhood that once was, and that which it could, but might never, be. This, then, is the sonically and emotionally complex record the band is charged with selling to another virgin crowd\u2014another crowd that had probably come with something like Blur + the Clash + afrobeat in mind. <\/p>\n<p>            The show began well enough, but on \u201cKingdom of Doom,\u201d the most rocking song on the first half of the record, Simonon\u2019s bass cut out and the band had to start from the top. Later, Simonon and Allen were having serious trouble locking in with one another. The group was in the midst of a minor meltdown, and was losing the increasingly perplexed audience. Finally, after an uninspired first verse of \u201cThree Changes\u201d\u2014a dark, fed up, circus-storming tune that is the live show\u2019s apex\u2014Albarn stopped the band in the middle of the song, furiously yelling, \u201cWe played that shit! Sometimes when you\u2019ve only played four gigs, you\u2019ve got to refocus, and we\u2019ve got to refocus and be the band we know we are.\u201d As the show slipped out of their fingers, Albarn responded by scolding a band full of legends. Then he put them on his back, counted \u201cThree Changes\u201d off and roared fantastically as they kicked the song off from the top. <\/p>\n<p>            More than anyone else at his echelon in the musical landscape with the possible exception of Bj\u00f6rk, Damon Albarn has put his money, his name, his talent and his rolodex to use, dreaming up his fantasy projects and getting first on the phone, then in the studio to make them happen while many of his contemporaries have self-destructed, played it safe, or disappeared as they\u2019ve aged. In the case of Gorillaz, Albarn\u2019s hyper- ambitious risk was an unqualified success of such magnitude that it has opened up even more opportunities and resources. A feature-length Gorillaz film is in the works, as is a Chinese opera in collaboration with Hewlett and Chen Shi-Zheng called <i>Monkey: Journey to the West<\/i>. <\/p>\n<p>            But that night at the Roundhouse, Albarn and his newest creation were under fire, and it was not clear how they would respond. In our interview, Simonon said this band, given the age of its members, wasn\u2019t gonna be doing any leaping and swinging around. But that night, given the circumstances, Albarn jumped and kicked and stalked the stage and stood over the crowd and dared them to take his motherfucking band on. Although he must be used to success by now, he wasn\u2019t assuming it, and he proved he was willing to fight for it. The Roundhouse is a massive old venue that\u2019s shaped like an enormous circus tent, and as a siren squall of a synthesizer wailed the outtro to their second run through \u201cThree Changes,\u201d as Tony Allen laid down his heaviest 4\/4 groove of the night, as Simonon locked in, Albarn stormed around the stage in his top hat, looking like the Master of Ceremonies under the big top of the Greatest Show on Earth. He looked like he was summoning his darkest, most mysterious powers, and, with the help of his troupe, performing his most subtle but daring act yet.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"author\">\n    <span><br \/>\n      By <span class=\"credit_name\">Will Welch<\/span><br \/>\n  <\/span><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/social-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Social Media category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thefader.com\/2021\/07\/06\/cover-story-the-good-the-bad--the-queen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Cover Story: The Good, The Bad &amp;amp; The Queen&#8221; Cover Story: The Good, The Bad &amp; The Queen Revisit The FADER\u2019s 2007 interview with Damon Albarn ahead of this week\u2019s episode of The FADER Uncovered with Mark Ronson. By Will Welch Photographer Liz Johnson Artur The four or five employees of the Marlboro Club in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":292164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefader-res.cloudinary.com\/private_images\/c_limit,w_1024\/c_crop,h_497,w_956,x_68,y_560,f_auto,q_auto:eco\/THEFADER_043_Jan_Feb2007_DamonAlbarn_MachelMontano-pages-1-page-001_cdsd59\/THEFADER_043_Jan_Feb2007_DamonAlbarn_MachelMontano-pages-1-page-001_cdsd59.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[28101,100088,83257,104485],"class_list":["post-292163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-mediaa","tag-pop","tag-damon-albarn","tag-mark-ronson","tag-uncovered"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}