The friendship that has blossomed between former enemies Noel Gallagher and Damon Albarn over the past decade is truly one of the most heart-warming kiss-and-make-up stories of our time. The Oasis leader and Blur frontman were famous foes as their bands blew up big in the 90s and they found themselves embroiled in the Battle Of Britpop.
But as you get older, sometimes you forget whilst you didn’t like people, or remember it was for no reason at all, and since 2012 Albarn and the elder Gallagher have become fast friends and collaborators. A few years ago, Gallagher recalled to Q how it happened.
“We literally bumped into each other at some bar one night,” he explained. “Literally at the bar. I think I was getting served first, I got him a drink and it went from there.”
Gallagher ended up appearing as guest vocalist and guitarist on the 2017 Gorillaz song We Got The Power, also joining the group on the tour to support its parent album Humanz, but he said he couldn’t recall specifically the moment Albarn had approached him about working on music together.
“I don’t remember asking to be on a Gorillaz record,” he stated. “I do remember being at [Clash bassist and sometime-Gorillaz member] Paul Simonon’s one night and “it” being discussed. He was supposed to play on Who Built The Moon? [Gallagher’s third solo album, also released in 2017] but we couldn’t make the timings work. Maybe next time. If you’d told my younger self that he’d one day be singing on a record by Damon Albarn he would have laughed and probably said, ‘If either of you are still going it’ll be a fucking miracle – a sick joke that will fascinate speccy, Guardian-reading journalists for years.’”
Gallagher said he always enjoyed being in the company of Albarn and his crew. “I really love working and hanging out with that mob. Not just Damon, but all his people. It turned out we had a lot of mutual friends and they’re all cool as fuck.”
Watch Gallagher perform We Got The Power live with Albarn, Gorillaz and former Savages singer Jehnny Beth below:
