Blur: “We Went For Counselling”
Guitarist Graham Coxon reveals the group sought help from “a mediator” in new MOJO cover story.
RELATIONS BETWEEN THE members of Blur were still in such a delicate state when they reunited in 2009 that they were compelled to seek help from a professional counsellor. Speaking in the new issue of MOJO, available on UK news stands from Tuesday March 31, guitarist Graham Coxon reveals that the problems stemmed from his dismissal from the group in 2002 in confused circumstances.
“I probably said a few stupid things in the press. We were all raw and hurt by it.”
Graham Coxon
“Although we shoved it all aside when we got back together, I realised that passions were still slightly high about it all,” he says. “Y’know, in those years since [he left in 2002], I probably said a few stupid things in the press – because the circumstances of why weren’t together as a four-piece were quite unclear. We’d met a couple of times – one was some mediation thing where we had to go over stuff that was difficult… We were all raw and hurt by it, for quite a while.”
Coxon adds that by the time Blur started work on Think Tank in 2001, all four members had become estranged after the extraordinary success – and incredible pressures – they’d experienced in the Britpop years. “To be honest, the last couple of years when I was in Blur it wasn’t like we were good friends, like we could ring each other up. Everybody was going through management and we all had our own lives, our own problems.”
The guitarist’s revelations appear in MOJO’s 13-page Blur cover story by Keith Cameron, in which all four members of the group open up about the turbulent journey from their 1991 debut album Leisure to their surprise new reunion album, The Magic Whip, announced last month and heading for an April 27 release. The feature also has interviews with insiders including producers Stephen Street, Ben Hillier and XTC’s Andy Partridge, and record label bosses Andy Ross and Dave Balfe.
Click here for more info about MOJO 258 (May 2015 edition), which also includes pieces on The Beach Boys’ embattled ’70s, Sandy Denny’s emotional farewell to Fairport Convention, The Specials’ Jerry Dammers, Mark Knopfler, plus much, much more…
Listen to Blur’s Lonesome Street from The Magic Whip below.