Damon Albarn has reacted to Robbie Williams and Danny Dyer covering ‘Parklife’ at BST Hyde Park this year.
- READ MORE: ‘Parklife’ at 25: the full story of Blur’s classic album, as told by the people who were there
Williams and the EastEnders actor teamed up for the surprise collaboration at Williams’ headline set at BST Hyde Park on July 6. Dyer performed the Cockney spoken-word parts originally performed by Quadrophenia actor Phil Daniels.
Now, Damon Albarn has reacted to the cover in an interview with BBC Breakfast. Albarn confessed he “fell in love with Danny” after watching his Who Do You Think You Are? episode, which revealed that Dyer was related to King Edward III. Albarn hailed the episode as “the best one ever.
“It was a true revelation he was a member of the Royal Family – for him and for everybody,” he said, adding: “He’s definitely from the East End, he’s a Cockney, we’re all Cockney.”
Albarn went on to reference the ‘Parklife’ cover, commenting: “It’s a song for us, it’s good. I hope everyone has their own version.”
Damon on Robbie Williams & Danny Dyer's Parklife version: I fell in love with Danny after Who Do You Think You Are? it was a true revelation he was a member of the Royal Family. It's a compliment. He is from East End, he's a cockney, we all are, is a song for us, it was good. pic.twitter.com/MqE8cgtde1
— Damon Albarn Unofficial (@DamonUnofficial) July 20, 2024
Dyer has also spoken out about performing the Blur classic, telling Radio X that he was approached by Williams during a recent Soccer Aid event.
“I was like, what? Are you sure about this?’” said Dyer. “And he went, ‘I’ve never been more sure of anything,’ So I said yes, and then I thought, ‘Oh now I’ve got to do it.’
“So, you know. I love the tune. I love Robbie and we done it. We done it. It was great. It was a real moment. I think it went down really well, you know.”
He added: “Once I started I was sweet. And I listened to the song a lot. You’ve got to prepare, you know and I just channelled my inner Phil Daniels.”
Meanwhile, the director of Blur’s new film ‘To The End’ has spoken to NME about the documentary, with Toby L telling us: “When I was asked to do the film, we then had to sit down with all four of the band. That was quite a high-stress meeting. I put my best foot forward in terms of what I thought the film should be and how it should be made. I said to everyone, ‘There’s no point in making a documentary that’s been made before, there are already some really good Blur documentaries with their own essence and story’. This time, we had to tell a new story about four friends undertaking their biggest challenge yet.
“To achieve that, it needed to be completely honest. The only way to achieve honesty is through access. You have to spend more time being filmed. You can’t just come in and out of the process too intermittently. You need to build up that rapport to get the incidental candid insights. I wanted the conversation to be skewed towards honest dialogue, rather than it being a controlled PR puff piece.”
Elsewhere, Williams previously revealed that he has “written loads of songs” for a new album and is feeling “full of purpose and loving life”.
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