“First it was booze, then it was bottles, then tables and chairs”: Blur’s Damon Albarn recalls how an acoustic folk song turned a gig into a riot
Damon Albarn is primarily known for his work in Blur and Gorillaz, he’s had plenty of musical projects in his time. But one of his most interesting musical ventures – Africa Express – also led to an unexpectedly intense reaction to an acoustic Welsh folk song.
In a new interview with Mojo, Albarn looks back at two decades of Africa Express – a non-profit organisation that facilitates cross-cultural collaborations between musicians in African, Middle Eastern, and Western countries. Not all of these collaborations have been well-received by the audience however.
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Albarn recalls the most memorable of these took place in Lagos, Nigeria in 2008, where things really turned sour. Why? “Gruff Rhys decided to do a ballad in Welsh,” Albarn explains.
The Super Furry Animals frontman’s performance was just an acoustic folk tune, with Rhys taking to the stage with just his acoustic guitar. “I accompanied him and held up Welsh-language placards,” Albarn says. “It went over the head of the audience, and they started throwing things. First it was booze, then it was bottles, then tables and chairs, until [Nigerian saxophonist and activist] Femi Kuti calmed things down.”
At least the experience didn’t sour Albarn’s affection for the Welsh language – even if the Nigerian crowd probably won’t be putting Fuzzy Logic on their Spotify playlists. Albarn even recorded some of The Good, The Bad & The Queen’s – his art-rock supergroup – sophomore record, 2018’s Merrie Land, in North Wales.
Speaking to Mojo about his motives for starting Africa Express, which was spurred by the lack of artists from the African continent appearing on the Live 8 benefit concerts.
“I didn’t want to put on a white linen suit and be helicoptered into a disaster zone,” he explains. “Which was the route of the celebrity in Africa up until that point. Maybe that’s an unfair assessment but that’s how I felt then. I thought I would love to go to Mali but do what I actually do, make it something real to me.”
“We went to Salif Keita’s home in Bamako and he sang three songs then handed his guitar to Martha Wainwright, and she played three,” reflects cofounder Ian Birrell of that first Africa Express show. “[Malian duo] Amadou & Mariam were there, Jamie T… We spent time with Toumani Diabaté, went to an amazing show at Bassekou Kouyaté’s house. As we left, Norman Cook said it was like the best Later… With Jools Holland he’d ever seen.”
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