Damon Albarn: "Blur", The "Gorillaz" and Other Fables

click here for more details, find new or used items	Martin Roach, David Nolan Our price £9.09 (£12.99) New from £6.33 Used from £5.31 Pages: 224 (Paperback) ISBN: 0955282284 Pub: Independent Music Press Pub date: 2007-10-25 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 10935

Reader Reviews:

A bit disappointing... (6/11 people found this helpful)

This trot through Damon Albarn's exploits in Blur, Gorillaz, TGTBTQ and latest of all, Monkey: Journey to the West really leaves a little to be desired. Fair enough, there is a clear admission in the front of this book that it is a revised version of a previous unofficial account of Blur in general. This in itself need not be a problem, but the feeling remains of a book which tacks on the last 5 or so years (Damon's post Blur work in other words), rather than a more rounded read.

Being an unofficial biography can cut both ways. Indeed, an insightful and unbiased third party can sometimes bring real perspective to the subject of a biography that writers who work officially cannot. This book however seems to have more of the disadvantages of being unofficial, namely it lacks key insight from anyone remotely close to Damon or his band mates, that won't have been available elsewhere. Having previously read Alex James' biography when it was published and Stuart Maconie's 3862 Days: The Official History of Blur, some years back, this did feel like it missed some of the details which flesh out any biography into being more than a string of connected events. The resultant combination of pic and mix quotes lifted from the likes of Q, Select, The Face and many other publications don't have enough bite at times - indeed some of the quotes will be familiar to those who have followed Damon's career from the original source magazines. At times is feels like you are rushing through events in too cursory a manner due to it's the lack of first hand insight. The sources the authors have managed to talk to on occasion raise on eyebrow. One quote is introduced as being from 'Biffo', a friend of the band, with no further explanation as to who 'Biffo' may be, or how he/she relate to Blur in general. And after Biffo's short quote, he disappears, never to be heard from again.

On a more positive note, it was enjoyable to read an extended run through of Damon's more recent work on Demon Days, TGTBTQ and the Monkey opera. And in fairness to the authors, they are to the best of my knowledge the first to commit these most recent events to the pages of a book.

I had the sense of this being a rushed book, notably due to the numerous spelling and grammatical errors throughout. It could have used a little closer editing. Therefore, the book left me with the feeling that this was partly an exercise in cashing in for Christmas, which is a shame as I'm a great fan of all Damon Albarn's music and was hoping for a little more.

Whoo-hoo? (11/12 people found this helpful)

This is one of those 'why hasn't anyone else thought of that?' books.
There's been Blur books, Britpop books but never anything before just on Damon. He seems like very driven, ambitious bloke - a little humourless maybe?? - but in terms of Blur vs Oasis this books proves it was no contest in the long term. Gorrilaz, GBQ, World Music, Chinese opera - don't think Noel G would have managed many of those, let alone all of them! There's some really early photos and memorabillia and a funny chapter at the end with the two authors sitting behind Albarn on the opening night of Monkey. A classy read.

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