reading this for the first time
i had always been a little confused as to modern (rubbish) people's hatred of damien albarn (which usually in this day and age goes along the lines of "talented guy but a colossal cunt"). but upon reading this, yeah....what a colossal cunt. he makes liam gallagher look like nick drake. he makes brett anderson look like fucking diana ross. good to see he's at least improved a bit since the mid-nineties
anyone else read this? thoughts? im not all the way through it yet so dont spoil the ending by telling me oasis blow it by releasing a terrible coke-fuelled monstrosity or something
Interesting, but...
I thought it was an interesting book and had a lot of "my god, I never knew that" moments, but problematic in some respects. First of all, a lot of the linkage of the music to the wider political context is a bit forced and tenuous - there's a lot of stuff along the lines of "the country stood on the brink of the Blairite revolution. Meanwhile, Oasis were recording a B-side that captured the moment...". But also, I found it a bit creepy that some of it implies that John Harris seems to have been an actual participant in (or at least a very close observer of) a lot of the scenes he's writing about but doesn't ever really acknowledge this. It's difficult, and I guess that if he had made his own position more explicit then he'd have left himself open to seeming self-indulgent, but I did often find myself wondering about his agenda as the narrator of it. I don't think it's exactly disinterested, and I guess that maybe the angle on Damon Albarn is symptomatic of this.
I agree that he comes across as an arsehole though.
Damon
^ Damon Albarn, that is, not John Harris.
Doesn't Harris
explicitly say that he was involved in a lot of the things he was writing about but wouldn't refer to it?
Anyway, the bit about Menswear is superb.
possibly
Yes, maybe he does and I've forgotten. It is a while since I read it and I'm quite hungover.
im sure he was involved in a lot
but a flag regarding that sort of problem that came up very early on when he was his describing the meeting between blair, campbell, albarn & coxon with phrases such as "Blair bristled, before...", etc. Now I'm pretty sure he wasnt there for that
ive had the book for ages...
but i havent read it.
im too busy reading Bit Of A Blur (by alex james) and damon (not damien) already sounds like a colossal cunt, even from his close friends point of view.