‘There are monsters out there. And some may even be lurking inside yourself’ – Graham Coxon’s Verse, Chorus, Monster! & the era of the Britpop reunion
Graham Leslie Coxon is best known as the expressive lead guitarist for 90s Britpop-pioneers Blur – the monolith band used as a yardstick by striped shirt wearers worldwide. Formed in the late 80s, the four-piece of Albarn, Coxon, James and Rowntree would go on to produce some of the defining and most influential records of the 1990s. By providing a sound that is more sensitive and reflective than some of their Britpop ‘rivals’; the band was unwillingly pitted against their counterparts in a disarray of chart-topping battles and award show digs – combined with the club culture of the 1990s glamourising substance & alcohol misusage, numerous internal tensions, industrial financial issues and diverging creative differences – what has been the lasting toll on this sensitive guitarist who wears his heart on his mod-jacket clad sleeve? Coxon’s memoir Verse, Chorus, Monster! (2022) provides us with an authentic and intimate insight.
Published on the 6th October, Coxon’s memoir is equal parts striking, beautiful and sincere. A press release for the book reads: “His anxiety was tempered by painting and a growing love of music.” Before concluding with: “But there are things they don’t tell you before you get famous. There are monsters out there. And some may even be lurking inside yourself.” Art has served as the medium to help Coxon come to terms with some very traumatic instances in his life, his demons manifest literally as sketches of monsters scattered across countless sketchbooks since his childhood. Verse, Chorus, Monster! documents Coxon’s displacement as the son in a military family, Blur’s skyrocket to fame, mental health struggles and subsequent addiction to alcohol – beautifully juxtaposing genuine moments of trauma and loss with those of new life and self-discovery.
The set up at Brudenell Social Club is intimate, fitting for the topics Radio 6’s Matt Everitt and Coxon are about to discuss. The projector screen onstage displays cosy home videos of a 20-year-old Graham and friends cavorting on beaches and chatting in college dormitories soundtracked to the ambient noise – it seems as though, included in the ticket price seems to be an invitation to Coxon’s intimate life. A singular plastic cup sits on a table – a concoction of Red Bull and apple juice awaiting his arrival. He enters to rapturous applause, the same glasses and haircut he donned in the home videos displayed prior to his arrival. Not much has changed, after all, for both the audiences and the artist.
Coxon puts the audience on the spot, asking who has read the book. A few hands raise, one being my partner’s sister. When meeting after, Coxon remembered she had been one of the few to have read the book since its release date before they shared a sincere moment of a shared love of artwork and music. She not only left with a book dedicated to her and a hand drawn lily plant to represent her name – but a huge smile on her face at meeting one of her idols (and the need to get this tattooed at the nearest given opportunity).
With Graham’s book, Damon’s incessant touring and experimental side projects, Dave’s strategic single release and Alex’s cheese-making (?), it takes one a minute to stop and realise, ‘there’s an awful lot of buzz around Blur recently’ – it’s almost as if something is in the works…
13th November 2022, the 27th anniversary of release of ‘The Universal’ (1995) – and boy, should we have believed Damon when he told us ‘tomorrow’s your lucky day’. The following ‘lucky’ day, Blur release a strategic one-day slot at Wembley next summer, as a kind of litmus for interest in seeing the band – who are now all comfortably into their 50s – take to the stage again for their first headline performance in eight years. To largely no-one’s surprise, due to ‘phenomenal demand’, an additional date is added. For Coxon, along with many others, music and the belonging that comes with it has been his saving grace. Telling Trendell of NME “I’m really looking forward to playing with my Blur brothers again. Blur live shows are always amazing for me: a nice guitar and an amp turned right up and loads of smiling faces.” So in many ways, this is his homecoming. Just with a few life lessons learned on the way. Figures such as Graham remind people that there is pride in wearing your heart on your sleeve, however painful this may be. Graham Coxon’s return to music is welcomed by adoring “smiling faces” worldwide, because of both the music and the unashamedly human figure he is.
Coincidentally, Sheffield’s own Britpop-batters Pulp also announced a reunion tour for the same year. If I had a penny for each time this has happened this year I’d have two pennies, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it’s happened twice, right? The era of the Britpop reunion is here. Bands like Blur and Pulp work because they are timely and also timeless, above all, Britpop is so well-liked because it is such a ‘human’ genre, it is unmistakably linked to the context in which it was made, but also transcends this to reach audiences of all ages and backgrounds. They serve to remind people of a time in which they were young, or as is the case for many younger fans – a time they wish they existed. The formula is tried and true, the lyrics are relevant regardless of time, and Britpop bands mean just as much to people now than they ever have before. Welcome home, Britpop, the doors always open.
The set up at Brudenell Social Club is intimate, fitting for the topics Radio 6’s Matt Everitt and Coxon are about to discuss. The projector screen onstage displays cosy home videos of a 20-year-old Graham and friends cavorting on beaches and chatting in college dormitories soundtracked to the ambient noise – it seems as though, included in the ticket price seems to be an invitation to Coxon’s intimate life. A singular plastic cup sits on a table – a concoction of Red Bull and apple juice awaiting his arrival. He enters to rapturous applause, the same glasses and haircut he donned in the home videos displayed prior to his arrival. Not much has changed, after all, for both the audiences and the artist.
Coxon puts the audience on the spot, asking who has read the book. A few hands raise, one being my partner’s sister. When meeting after, Coxon remembered she had been one of the few to have read the book since its release date before they shared a sincere moment of a shared love of artwork and music. She not only left with a book dedicated to her and a hand drawn lily plant to represent her name – but a huge smile on her face at meeting one of her idols (and the need to get this tattooed at the nearest given opportunity).
With Graham’s book, Damon’s incessant touring and experimental side projects, Dave’s strategic single release and Alex’s cheese-making (?), it takes one a minute to stop and realise, ‘there’s an awful lot of buzz around Blur recently’ – it’s almost as if something is in the works…
13th November 2022, the 27th anniversary of release of ‘The Universal’ (1995) – and boy, should we have believed Damon when he told us ‘tomorrow’s your lucky day’. The following ‘lucky’ day, Blur release a strategic one-day slot at Wembley next summer, as a kind of litmus for interest in seeing the band – who are now all comfortably into their 50s – take to the stage again for their first headline performance in eight years. To largely no-one’s surprise, due to ‘phenomenal demand’, an additional date is added. For Coxon, along with many others, music and the belonging that comes with it has been his saving grace. Telling Trendell of NME “I’m really looking forward to playing with my Blur brothers again. Blur live shows are always amazing for me: a nice guitar and an amp turned right up and loads of smiling faces.” So in many ways, this is his homecoming. Just with a few life lessons learned on the way. Figures such as Graham remind people that there is pride in wearing your heart on your sleeve, however painful this may be. Graham Coxon’s return to music is welcomed by adoring “smiling faces” worldwide, because of both the music and the unashamedly human figure he is.
Coincidentally, Sheffield’s own Britpop-batters Pulp also announced a reunion tour for the same year. If I had a penny for each time this has happened this year I’d have two pennies, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it’s happened twice, right? The era of the Britpop reunion is here. Bands like Blur and Pulp work because they are timely and also timeless, above all, Britpop is so well-liked because it is such a ‘human’ genre, it is unmistakably linked to the context in which it was made, but also transcends this to reach audiences of all ages and backgrounds. They serve to remind people of a time in which they were young, or as is the case for many younger fans – a time they wish they existed. The formula is tried and true, the lyrics are relevant regardless of time, and Britpop bands mean just as much to people now than they ever have before. Welcome home, Britpop, the doors always open.
