Trying to write music that’s sensitive to 400 years ago takes a bit of madness, as it’s such a long stretch of time.

As a musician usually music is your way out.

With Africa, we’re talking about a nation battling through immense poverty and he can’t quite get it together to sing a song. On that day he just seemed like an odd image

I don’t need to be a frontman all the time, and in fact, the older I get, the less of an urge it is inside me to play that role. I’ve still got it inside...

Whether people like it or not, China is incredibly important to the future of mankind. For me, this is something that we all need to have intelligent discussions about in America, in Britain, in Europe.

If you don’t see something as a career but as an important part of your life, you don’t know how you’re going to feel about it.

We intend to do a massive world tour with Demon Days, but I won’t be involved with it. It’ll be all animation and big sound systems and stuff.

I like to go to Africa purely with something to do. I’m not very comfortable getting into an armor-plated Land Rover and going to see things, with my hand gel, you know, it’s not me...

I enjoyed history at school. I’d always had a sense of pagan England.

No, every album is something like a snapshot. It only shows one moment in time. It shows what we feel and think right at that point in time, nothing more and nothing less.

I can’t really make another Blur record that’s a big landscape sort of thing, due to my very basic guitar ability, … I want to sing and play so it has to be three chords....

I’m a working musician, so it’s what I do. I kind of always have lots of plates spinning, and it’s the ones that keep spinning the longest that I end up doing.

I’m not a monarchist. But I’m English. And I have an irrational emotion for my country.

The cartoon is a metaphor really for the fact that it’s almost impossible in our celebrity obsessed culture to move around genres and sort of change you ideas, change your face, you know?

It’s a great tune, it’s going to freak out DJs and programmers, … There will be edits, I’m sure. If it was the first single out, it wouldn’t have got played but seeing as it’s...

I’m not really one of those people who believes that if you’re a musician you can just leave that behind and start getting into politics.

I want to be a better person in every aspect. I really don’t feel I’ve in anyway fulfilled my potential in every area of my life. But I’m optimistic.

I spent two years figuring out how I could turn it into something that would satisfy me as a musician but also make some kind of cross-cultural link. I feel that I kind of at...

Music is something that should speak for itself, straight from the heart. It took me a long time to understand that.

Well, whatever,

More and more, cultural groups are cross-pollinating, and we’re getting much more interesting art as a result.

Being in Blur has allowed me to travel and hear the music that’s being made all over the world.

When you’re doing a deal with someone in the southern Sahara, it’s a very different way of doing business than in London. You can’t sign them in the usual way because they’d end up getting...

Whenever you’re writing something that’s reflective, you have to put yourself through some sort of ordeal just to understand the way you’re feeling.

Manchester is the centre of Britain, we’re only ever going to do this once so it makes sense to do it somewhere in the middle of the country. London gets all the gigs. It’s time...

And there are no stars and that you’re never really sure who’s doing what and what voice is what and, you know what I mean? It’s supposed to be quite elusive.

It always struck me that Africa was, in a strange way, a futuristic place and had elements and vibes and spirits that were going to inform the future. Africa Express is an attempt to engage...

We don’t sit around thinking, ‘This’ll be great for kids’ – it just happened to really appeal to them,

I hope we can keep doing it this way – making music and art that are pure products of our influences while not really having to let the whole celebrity side of it get in...

I never really want to leave it as an inspiration; I just can’t get enough of it.

I think pop music is a great place to get new ideas across.

As soon as it sounds fine, I’m on to the next thing, man.

We’re kind of working it out. You’re going to see a lot of the guests on the album [live on stage].

The whole period has taught me that I enjoy being part of an ensemble rather than just a front man. Don’t get me wrong – I enjoy that too, but I get more enjoyment out...

It’s also why I don’t print lyrics anymore. I figure if you can’t get the feeling across adequately with the song, then you’ve failed anyway.

You know, there are many alter egos and Gorillaz is a collective of alter egos, really. I think anyone who gets involved in it has to sort of accept that nothing is really as it...

It’s not like my old self – I’m not in character anymore, I’m me. I’m not hiding behind that anymore.

The concert was all about raising awareness, but Peter looked like he was having trouble raising his own awareness – he looked wasted,

I was approached by Oxfam to go to Mali as their ambassador and get involved in their various initiatives out there. But I felt that was missing the point of using me, a musician.

Well, I made fun of the people in the government and then realized that even if we got rid of them, they were replaced by exactly the same guys.

I can’t be bothered anymore about giving songs titles.

The things that make me happy most are my family and working.

I feel John Peel was somebody that we could all trust. Throughout his life, he gave people a sense of a bigger world out there.

What you learn from working with other performers and musicians is invaluable, really, and can only help you grow. I mean, if you spend your whole life focusing on yourself, you’re not really learning much.

I’m English, and I started off as a songwriter, so I can’t really escape that – it’s there.

The Gorillaz cartoons seem more real to me than the actual people on TV. Because at least you know that there’s some intelligence behind the cartoons, and there’s a lot of work that’s gone into...

On Blur bassist Alex James: I used to punch Alex a lot. He used to say really annoying things. I think he liked being punched.

China is one of those vast, continental conglomerates that… I mean, if they were to start a tourist trade in China, they’d just bus people in from another province, you know what I mean? They’re...