Blur devastated their Australian and Kiwi fans when they abruptly pulled out of the Big Day Out festival just weeks before it kicked off in January. Now, lead vocalist Damon Albarn has explained why the sudden cancellation, saying he hopes to make amends to the disappointed fans.

In November, a statement on the band’s Facebook page had shocked BDO ticketholders who were hoping to see the British rockers headline the event.

According to the post, the band blamed the organisers for their “constantly shifting goalposts and challenging conditions.”

“We’ve done our very to work with the organisers and considered every option to make it happen, but they’ve let us down and let everyone else down too,” the statement read.

BDO co-promoter AJ Maddah hit out at the band, saying it was confusing that they blamed the organisers when “all everyone here has done is kiss their a**.”

Their sudden departure from the festival line-up gave rise to speculations that they were breaking up.

In a new interview, Albarn explained why they really cancelled their BDO appearance.

“Okay, here it is – this is as frank as I’m prepared to be about what happened,” he was quoted by the NZ Herald as saying.

“That was going to be the last Blur show – the end of playing together – and I didn’t want it to finish on anything other than a very positive note, because Blur is incredibly precious to all of us.

“But I was genuinely concerned that the whole [Big Day Out] thing wouldn’t be quite as spiritually conclusive as we hoped it would be, because we weren’t sure if the organisation was quite right, or supportive of our ambitions.”

Albarn further explained that the organisers weren’t “being straight” with him about things so he became disillusioned.

“We’ve been playing for six months solidly around the world so I knew that we would deliver a fantastic show, a great performance, and a communal event, which everyone would have enjoyed. All I asked was that the organisation recognise that and I didn’t feel they did. So that’s why, unfortunately, we couldn’t come.”

He didn’t specify details on what the band and the organisers disagreed on, though. He apologised to the fans that were disappointed by the turn of events, saying “we just didn’t want to be anything other than what I felt we deserved to be – our best. If we’d playe d- and not been that – it would have let people down even more.”

Albarn is now focused on his debut solo album, “Everyday Robots.” He added that he hopes that his Kiwi fans would eventually forgive him for the BDO issue.

“I’d really love to do that [perform in New Zealand], but only if people want me to come back and play. I know there might be a bit of animosity still, but if I am forgiven, yes I will come back. That’s a promise!”

Big Day Out kicked off in Auckland on January 17, and concluded in Perth on February 2.

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