Blur pair make up over Eccles cake

Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon put aside their differences over an Eccles cake, the Blur lead singer has revealed.

The Britpop stars fell out six years ago, with guitarist Coxon walking out during the making of the band’s seventh and last album 'Think Tank'.

However, Blur announced earlier this month that they are returning to the stage for reunion gigs next year.

Fans flocked to snap up tickets for the comeback concerts and a 50,000-capacity Hyde Park date in July sold out in two minutes.

Albarn, 40, admitted he had spent more than a decade feeling “emotionally distanced” from his childhood friend Coxon and said he was pleased to have his “old mate” back.

In an interview for BBC Radio 4 arts programme 'Front Row', the star said Coxon “turned up” when Albarn was taking part in a gig in Camden in October as part of the BBC Electric Proms.

“We just went for a walk and bought a bun – I think it was an Eccles cake - and we sat in a doorway,” Albarn said.

“We just looked at each other, said ’you know what, it’s all over isn’t it?’ That strange feeling that had come between us had gone.”

He said they felt they had to play together again “because we never actually split up, we just stopped talking to each other”.

According to Albarn: “It wasn’t money, or anything like that, it was just two people who really loved each other but who found it impossible to communicate any more.

“For me it’s all about the fact that I’ve got my old mate back.

“That day, sitting on a doorstep, having our Eccles cake in Camden, we both accepted that we were never going to escape the fact that we were in Blur and that it was better to accept and go forward with optimism and not carrying that bloody heavy burden.”

Albarn also told broadcaster John Wilson that despite years of “wanderlust” he was excited about returning to his childhood roots in Essex.

He hinted that before performing two big concerts in London next summer, Albarn and Coxon – who met at school when they were 11 – along with fellow Blur members Alex James and Dave Rowntree are planning to hold secret gigs in their home county.

“Do you know what, the most exciting thing about all this for me is that I haven’t been back to Colchester, or Essex, since 1994,” Albarn said.

Albarn also confessed he had not listened to Blur songs “for a very long time”.

Among his creative plans for Blur’s comeback is a reworking of the band’s number one hit 'Country House' – as a folk song.

“I am bloody determined to do a version of 'Country House' that works,” he said. “If there was any song that I really wanted to exorcise and be reborn it would be that one because it was just such a stupid moment.

“It’s got too many words, it’s too brash, it doesn’t represent who we are. But somewhere in there, I think, is a heart of gold and I’d just like to be able to reveal it.”

When asked about Blur’s long-term plans, Albarn said nothing had been decided yet.

“Listen, if we get back together and it feels like the hottest band on the planet, then there will be a good argument to make another record. It would be because of the music. But for any other reason, forget it.”

The interview will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4’s 'Front Row' tomorrow at 7.15pm.