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Damon Albarn says he feels 'partly responsible for Brexit'

'There was a massive and patronising assumption that the rest of the country felt the way we did. So that was my lesson'

Roisin O'Connor
Music Correspondent
Friday 30 November 2018 05:06 EST
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What links Damon Albarn (pictured), Phil Collins and Pharrell?
What links Damon Albarn (pictured), Phil Collins and Pharrell? (Getty Images)

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Damon Albarn has said he feels “partly responsible” for Brexit.

Reflecting on the result of the EU referendum during an interview with the BBC, the Blur frontman said: “I felt bizarrely, in my own insignificant way, partly responsible for it.

“The shock I felt that morning [of the result] was indicative of the blase attitude that we, as Remainers, had felt prior to that day.

“There was a massive and patronising assumption that the rest of the country felt the way we did. So that was my lesson.”

Albarn, who is currently on a tour of intimate music venues with his band The Good, the Bad and the Queen, also expressed his wish that they might “rekindle” the conversation.

“We lost the ability to talk between the tribes,” he continued. ”So that’s the hope, that after all this crap we’ve been through, we can actually ask each other the meaningful questions – who are we? And what do we want to become?”

The Independent recently gave The Good, the Bad and the Queen’s album Merrie Land four stars, praising it for “genius songwriting” and vocals that “capture the social observation” akin to Blur’s album Parklife.

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