Damon Albarn, Royal Albert Hall - music review: one of the best gigs of the year

The Blur frontman turned last night’s two-hour performance into a stirring celebration with special guests and a string section
Friendly: Albarn roamed among the audience, hugging fans / Pic: Jim Dyson/Redferns via Getty Images
Jim Dyson/Redferns via Getty Images
Andre Paine23 November 2014

Damon Albarn’s debut solo album, Everyday Robots, is perhaps his finest collection of songs released this century. But it was a big ask to stage two nights at the Albert Hall around a fairly modest-selling record of melancholy nostalgia.

The Blur frontman’s solution was to turn last night’s two-hour performance into a stirring celebration with special guests and a string section, while treating the august venue as if it were his local hosting a singsong. “It’s the Albert,” he told us. “It’s a pub.”

Albarn certainly seemed at home as he roamed among the audience, hugging fans and berating security staff who tried – and failed – to block his path into the stalls. “Excuse me,” he barked at the back of an usher’s bald head.

He was just as impassioned on stage, whether getting into his Gorillaz groove by puffing into a melodica on Tomorrow Comes Today and duetting with rapper Kano on the animated band’s debut single Clint Eastwood; or pounding the piano and rousing the crowd with a soulful croon on Everyday Robots, Kingdom of Doom and Hollow Ponds, which got a cheer for referencing Blur’s 1993 album Modern Life is Rubbish.

His old band’s music made an appearance late on with Albarn’s jaunty rendition of Out of Time. When he was joined by guitarist Graham Coxon, everyone was out of their seats chanting along as Albarn grinned his way through End of a Century and Tender, featuring a gospel choir from his childhood home of Leytonstone.

There were guest stars from further afield including Malian musicians Afel Bocoum and Madou Diabaté on the gorgeous Sunset Coming On, and US hip-hop trio De La Soul on a cackling, riotous rendition of Feel Good Inc.

Although the overzealous security staff may disagree, Albarn’s Albert Hall outing was one of the gigs of the year.

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