Damon Albarn is apologising to Australians for Blur’s cancelled Big Day Out appearance. The British musician also denied festival promoter AJ Maddah’s claim that the group backed out because they had a falling out in South America.

Blur were supposed to headline the Australian-New Zealand music festival in January, but announced the cancellation of their BDO appearance in November, blaming the organisers for their “constantly shifting goalposts and challenging conditions.”

Albarn previously explained that BDO was supposed to be the band’s last show together, but the organisers weren’t “being straight” with him about things; hence, he became disillusioned.

He apologised to his Kiwi fans for pulling out of the festival, hoping that they would still support him while he embarks on a solo career.

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

And now he is apologising to the Aussie fans he had let down when Blur withdrew from BDO.

In an interview with News Corp, he also clarified his first remarks that Blur was disbanding and that the BDO would have been the members’ last time to play together.

“It’d be ridiculous to say that Blur will never tour again,” he said. “I’d hate to think that was the last time in my life I’ll ever play with Blur. The Big Day Out was going to be the last gig of that particular period of touring with Blur.”

Blur finished their touring schedule in Japan instead, rather than go straight to Australia in January.

He further explained, “We didn’t want the Blur shows to be in any way affected by what we felt was a badly organised event. We made that decision, and it wasn’t an easy decision to make, that it would be better to stop in Tokyo and finish on a very high note than to risk it.

“Blur is a very precious thing to us. If we’re ever going to do it again we want to have left it on a really high note. And that was the reason. It was so that in the future Blur will be able to tour again that we made that decision about the Big Day Out.”

However, earlier in April, Maddah claimed that the band pulled out because they 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,”

Maddah told The Vine, “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.”

Albarn only said of Maddah’s claim, “That’s utter nonsense.”

The “other guys” Maddah referred to were bassist Alex James and drummer Dave Rowntree.

Albarn is set to release his solo album “Everyday Robots” on April 28.

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