'Damon wasn't comfortable doing the verses – he just couldn't get into character'
Modern Life Is Rubbish [Blur's second album] was overlooked because of the rise of grunge, but we were halfway to somewhere, and with Parklife we arrived. The album was the convergence of a lot of influences: Alex [James, bassist] wanted to be in Duran Duran, I wanted to be in Wire, and Damon [Albarn] wanted to be … I don't know. There were songs on the album we were excited about, but I was surprised it got so many awards. One or two would have been all right.
