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This is such a tease for Britpop Longwindedness but short answer: no, Graham and Damon were not dating as far as they’ve ever said. They did kiss and wear matching jewelry and have by their own admission a burningly passionate friendship; their falling apart is where Blur fell apart, some said 13 is as much about Graham and Damon as Damon’s breakup in certain ways, and they both say mending their relationship was the most important thing about Blur coming round again.

Damon is less openly bisexual and more openly… Damon. Really dumb funny sound bites from him as always. He has said he didn’t think he could have penetrative sex with a man but implied he’s been blown by them. Has kissed all his mates a lot, Graham says he has a large long tongue and calls him a “washing machine mouth.”

Britpop lore 👀

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More Damon/Graham lore. Insanely descriptive.

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*cracks knuckles* ok here we go abt the damon albarn/graham coxon thing.

damon has never seriously come out as queer or anything to my knowledge. the "intellectual bi" thing was jsut to piss off brett andersen forget about it. justine did say damon went through a period of snogging lads idk what was up with that.

were they ever a thing? no. not officially, explicitly, quoted in public atleast.

but was/is their relationship far more closer than one would assume conventional male friendships to be? also yes. they met when they were pre-teens, their journey as musicians started each other, the core of blur as a band has always been their friendship. they both had matching friendship necklaces for god sakes. they've both, and particularly damon, have always spoken of their relationship in really reverent, intimate terms: you can find interviews from the 90s full of quotes about how much they love each other, how protective damon is of graham, how deep and fluid their connection is blah blah blah. and yes the kissing. they did that, though at the time damon was like yeah we kiss we homies so what. they kissed at their wembley gig in july as well. y'know just guy thingz.

but their relationship has been complex. im sure u can find the details if u dig around a little. by the late 90s their friendship was kinda falling apart. substance abuse issues, issues in their own relationships, differences in ideas about where blur should go next etc etc. but even at the worst point of this, their intimacy in songwriting prevailed. 13, damon's great grand breakup album, is as much about graham as much as it is about justine

damon has written atleast two songs about/for graham "sweet song" from think thank- which was written when graham left the band. and "my terracotta heart" from magic whip- when they got back together. he's on record saying these are about graham. incredibly heartbreaking both of them. graham said he felt like pattie harrison having songs written about him. im sure there are other songs scattered throughout blur, solo damon and solo graham discography that could be read as being about each other.

also ive never EVER heard a man speak about his friendship breakup with such openness and vulnerability as damon did during the early 2000s. they eventually made up after not talking for years, and that making up story is rather dramatic and sweet as well. they wouldn't shut up abt how happy they were to be back in each others lives and how much they still loved each other. etc etc etc. all very sappy and sweet.

their relationship took ages to mend and i suppose its a lot different now compared to the intensity it had back in the day. damon though is back in form mentioning the story of how they met each other and how well graham understands and communicates with him through writing songs together and all that in every interview possible. damon has recently split from his partner of 25 years and the latest blur record is mostly about that. its really poignant to me that out of all his projects, he chose to go back to his oldest friend and oldest creative partner to bring these songs to life.

tl;dr: they werent boyfriends they werent friends they were a secret third thing.

Britpop lore 2. They were a secret third thing.

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i can acknowledge one of my more insane fan moments is always getting mildly annoyed when i remember someone saying the most stupid part of gorillaz was them being a cartoon band and that it had lore and stuff and that made it lame and how angry it made me. yes it was a blur fan who said it. im sorry damon isnt sucking off graham on stage for you right now but he’s having fun with his friends 2D and Noodle who are cooler. btw. imagine going the most interesting part of this band is the lamest and childish part go to hell 

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i dont go into the blur lore much but all i know is that graham and allan of the hollies are exactly the same as graham and damon of the blur. but also the same thing happened to eric and alan of the animals but they werent childhood friends. but simon and garfunkel were. where is this post going

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we cannot start a relationship if you don’t know the damon and graham lore

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someday someone should make a definitive ranking of boybestfriend duos in british rock bands

like we have so much history to unpack so much problematic conjectures to make so much variety as well. for example, we have john lennon and paul mccartney who don't have that many documented gay stage antics but enough personal lore that one could write a thesis on. on the other hand we got miles kane and alex turner who don't have the lore that we know of but were practically fucking each other on stage. and then we have pete doherty and carl barat have copious amounts of both. damon albarn and graham coxon have the stage chemistry and personal lore in moderate amounts but they got the insanest make up story of all time. johnny marr and morissey who, quite unfortunately, it seems like will never have that make up story

not to mention so many duos who i personally am not that familiar with: keith richards and charlie watts, george michael and andrew ridgeley etc etc you get my point

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The Chad Michael Murray comparison (and the bro comments leading into laddy-gate) makes me think some look at Damon's glass bead necklace and see it more like a PacSun puka shell aesthetic. Can't blame them for that, but I've got to tell the story just in case!

Does it change any of your minds to know Damon's mum made him that necklace, and he wore it religiously? And when Graham fell very ill before the days of Blur, Damon made him a matching necklace while he was in hospital? And then they both wore them as friendship necklaces for many, many years? When Graham's string broke he gathered the glass beads in a cup that Damon's mum also made him, which is quite touching and poetic, broken fragments returning to the hold of maternal love; tragically Damon's original one was torn off by fans during a concert and he was not able to recover them. Could there be a sadder end to one of the most iconic accessories of the 90s?

“Most of my worst gigs have involved alcohol. In fact, all of them. (...) The last truly epic one was in Madrid. It was that period when Graham wasn’t in the band. We went on tour, and I think that was... a really difficult time. I didn’t realise I was over medicating before gigs, but I clearly was. (...) I had this necklace that my mum had made me, a bead necklace. It was a very precious thing. At some point, I was in the audience, and someone just ripped it off. I got very upset, but because I was so drunk, I sort of forgot that it was a gig and I was supposed to carry on. So I stopped and said I wasn’t going to come back until they’d picked up every bead,” he laughed, embarrassed. “I got convinced to go back on stage about half an hour later, but I was so drunk, it was miserable, and I looked like an idiot.” (There is video of this moment showing Damon unsober and upset on stage, but I don't think it's very pleasant to post and mock. It's quite heartbreaking with the context of everything going on, I think.)

Anyway, when it comes to rating the aesthetic the necklace lends itself to, make note that Damon 1. is a massive mummy's boy, 2. loved his best mate dearly, and 3. the necklace is no longer with us and this fact is earnestly mourned. Surely this gives it an endearing edge!

May the pieces of that necklace, wherever they are now, remain forever in our hearts as an irreplaceable piece of 90s history. Amen.

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I genuinely want to know what life is like for gorillaz fans who aren’t aware of blur. “You can tell 2D misses murdoc so much 😢😢” Do You Know About Graham Coxon. Do you know about 2003. Do you

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happy bday noel ily

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I feel very bad for graham... betrayed twice by his close friends

I seem to recall that Jamie and Graham weren't exactly in good terms during the 90s, I thought it was jealousy but I guess i was wrong as you said something about the "wives". I started listening to Blur in 2015 so I'm not well aware of the old gossip, why is it a big deal they're friends again or what happened between them that everyone is surprised to see this reunion?

So my knowledge of it is fairly surface level and I’m sure there’s probably more to it than I know that I can be corrected on, but the basic story is this:

According to Damon, his first serious girlfriend that he lost his virginity to was a Jane (x) (not sure if it was the same Jane Olliver but it may have been).

In 1991 Graham started dating Jane Olliver (Justine Frischmann’s best friend) at the same time Damon started dating Justine. Graham and Jane’s relationship apparently did not end well for Graham, and he and Damon talk about it very briefly in this article. (x) I have an unproven theory that when Graham said, “every time I come off tour I have to fight off my girlfriend’s suitors” that he was referring to Jamie. A lot of fans have theorized that this scathing song Graham wrote is really about Jamie Hewlett who he had been very good friends with before Damon and Jamie became friends. There’s some older Blur performances where you can see Graham wearing Tank Girl shirts, so yeah. 

In this article (x) Jamie talks about Damon’s dislike for him, which I am guessing stemmed from Damon being overly protective of Graham, in the sense that Jamie had “stolen” Jane from Graham and married her.

Hewlett was first introduced to Albarn as Blur's first album was released, as his former partner Jane Olliver, originally a member of Elastica, was friends with – and formerly girlfriend of – Blur's lead guitarist, Graham Coxon. But it was not friendship at first sight with Albarn. "He didn't like me at all, and I didn't like him. We spent 10 years, every time we saw each other being a bit rude to each other, not talking to each other," he remembers. He claims to have never understood why, putting it down to similarities that can cause a clash. Others have speculated it was due to friction over Olliver, previously Coxon's girlfriend, before her relationship and two children with Hewlett. But after a decade of mutual mistrust, something changed. "One day, we suddenly clicked, became very good friends, it was the complete reverse. So, yeah, strange," he remembers.

To top this off, when Jamie got divorced from Jane Olliver in the late 90′s, Damon became *really* good friends  (like had a shit ton of celebrity parties) with Jamie and invited him to come live in his flat with him (seeing that they were both just getting out of two serious relationships it probably made sense). Since things were a bit touchy with Damon and Graham during that time, I can see how Damon becoming best friends with Jamie could have been perceived as a huge betrayal of their friendship. Add on top of that that Graham was struggling on and off with getting sober (pre-2002 sobriety struggles) while Damon and Jamie were partying, so I’m sure that didn’t help Damon and Graham’s deteriorating friendship very much.  I imagine Damon becoming friends with Jamie could also have been a power move on his part, as a way to get underneath Graham’s skin, but again, who knows. 

So yeah, it’s pretty amazing that they’re in the same room let alone touching thighs—heaven help us. I always like to think that if Blur were a movie, then Jamie would play the part of the sexy villain, lol.

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no he did not shut the fuck up

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standing on my own again

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be in a band with damon albarn or go to jail etc

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“I contacted one of the people who runs a Graham site…for possible lines of questioning. Shira Raven [good name] wanted to know this: Why are you so sad, Graham?

‘I’m not sad, really. Just quiet.’

Another stereotype exploded. Next cyberfan question: When are you going to realise that you and Damon are made for each other?

‘Don’t think that’s on the cards really…we’ve known each other for a long time…’

If it was gonna happen it would’ve happened?

‘I think when we were at school, well, y’know…but we’re like old brothers now. I think that kinda thing’s lost it’s potential…sparkle. I haven’t seen him in ages actually, I think he’s gone on holiday...’ "

Graham in Rip it Up magazine, June 2000

full scan here