Big Day Out: AJ Maddah Hits Out At Blur Singer Damon Albarn, Says The Band Were Having ‘Fisticuffs

Big Day Out co-promoter AJ Maddah has hit out at Blur’s Damon Albarn for claiming they pulled out of the festival because they were “disillusioned.” He claimed that real reason why the British rock band cancelled their BDO appearance was because they were having “fisticuffs” in South America.

In March, Albarn explained why his band abruptly pulled out of the Australian-New Zealand annual music festival, blaming the shows’ organisers for not being “straight” with him.

“...at that point I became disillusioned because I didn’t want what we’d done throughout the year, with Blur, to be undermined or tarnished in any way, by a show that wasn’t going to be what we wanted to do.”

He added that BDO was supposed to be the band’s last show because he embarked on a solo career. However, they were concerned that it wouldn’t be “quite as spiritually conclusive as we hoped it would be” because the organisers weren’t supportive of them.

Maddah is now lashing out at the English band’s vocalist, saying that he was the one who cancelled the show while his other band members – Graham Coxon (guitar), Alex James (bass), and Dave Rowntree (drums) – all wanted to do it.

Apparently, the members were fighting and that they just did not want to see each other.

“Blur pulling out wasn’t for financial reasons,” Maddah told The Vine. “The band were grossly overpaid. Like massively overpaid. At their height of heights they played the Palace [ex-Metro] in Melbourne and the Horden [Pavilion] in Sydney. So the fact that they were getting paid $5 million [for the Big Day Out tour] or whatever is ridiculous.

“There’s no financial reason for it, and the fact [is] that the band [were] having fisticuffs on tour in South America. And that’s why they cancelled the tour because they don’t want to see each other.”

He continued, “Damon has a solo record coming out. The other three members were desperate to come out. You know, Graham [Coxon, Blur guitarist] and the other guys wanted to do it. Essentially, Damon cancelled the tour.”

Deftones, Beady Eye, and The Hives replaced Blur for the line-up.