Blur’s Graham Coxon has opened up about his experience dealing with some of the Britpop legends’ most obsessive fans.
In an interview with The Idler magazine, the guitarist recalled that he suffered from insomnia and anxiety at the height of Blur’s fame in the 1990s, as a result of unwanted and intrusive attention from some “unhinged” fans of the band.
“People are crazy. People are obsessive,” he said, “and until it happens to you, you don’t realize what a nightmare it is. Months and months without sleep. Worrying every day, every hour of the day. Terrible .”
Coxon also encountered men making advances on their girlfriends. “When you were on tour, your girlfriend had all these suitors trying to pick up on your girlfriend. Because it’s fair, if they like your girlfriend, but if they want to pick up on her because she’s with you. .. well, it seemed to me to be a very bad world. I didn’t realize it existed.”
He also spoke of turning a spare room in his north London home into a quiet space to work undisturbed, explaining that he needed “peace and quiet” to preserve his mental health: “I became my own space very important to me. recent years. It was a place of peace and quiet. I knew who it was. I really needed it. Because it’s out of control out there.”
“It’s not that I’m a control freak,” he continued, “it’s just that it’s becoming more stable to be in a place where nothing really changes and you can be creative and feel relatively safe. “
Blur will reunite for two concerts at Wembley Stadium next summer and also have a number of festival appearances lined up. Last week they were announced as one of the headliners for next year’s edition of Roskilde Festival in Denmark, and will also headline Primavera Sound in Barcelona and Madrid. In addition, this summer they will play at the Beauregard Festival in Normandy (France), at the Lucca Summer Festival (Italy) and as headliners at Mulhide Castle (Dublin).
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