DAMON Albarn let loose on the Coachella crowd watching Blur on Sunday night – branding the crowd ‘embarrassing’ before vowing never to perform there again.
The Charmless Man singer, 56, was left unimpressed by the Coachella crowd and their less-than-enthusiastic reaction during their set.
As the group rattled through some of Blur’s classics – including Song 2, Girls And Boys, and Tender – Albarn noticed the audience weren’t doing much to embrace the set.
Despite Albarn’s attempts to motivate the crowd to sing and dance along, the festival-goers refused to budge, causing him to get irritated and eventually snap at the crowd.
During Girls And Boys, where an attempt to get the crowd to sing along to the iconic chorus got no results, Albarn declared they could “do better” and asked them to try again.
When that attempt also failed, with the request being met with near-silence, Albarn declared: “You’re never seeing us again, so you might as well f***ing sing it”.
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As livestream footage from the incident circulated online, fans online jumped to the defence of the beloved British group and slammed the audience for being ‘dead’.
“i can’t believe how dead blur’s coachella crowd is … this is how i know living in the uk has formed me as a person bc even me i would be acting like a drunk bald white man in a pub if i was there,” wrote one.
“most of these ppl at coachella don’t even know how lucky they are to see blur THAT SHOULD BE MEE,” added a second.
While a third ranted: “WHAT THE F**K IS HAPPENING im convinced coachella has the worst vibes and people possible. it’s f**king Blur, show some respect!!!”
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Others claimed it was on the Coachella organisers for placing Blur in a timeslot and space that wasn’t a fit for their audience – noting they did not have the same US success as they did in the UK.
“Love Blur, but Coachella set them up for an L,” one person noted, while another stated: “Blur were absolutely wasted on Coachella, that crowd was an embarrassment. Americans just don’t get it”
It seems like Albarn and the band were somewhat prepared for a mixed reaction ahead of performing – albeit not one quite as disheartening.
Speaking to KROQ radio ahead of their performance, Albarn and Alex James, the band’s bassist, had acknowledged they were expecting a “weird one”.
“This was a wonderful opportunity, it’s the biggest festival on the planet,” said James. “If I wasn’t here I’d have FOMO to be honest.”
I have no idea how it will go,” added Albarn. “It’s a weird one, Coachella when it comes to the audience. It’s hard to know sometimes, because they’re sort of on their own planet a bit.”
Despite this the band tried to make the best of it, even paying tribute to the Mojave desert, where the festival is held, by bringing on stage the native Torres Martinez Cahuilla Bird Singers to close their set.
