album

ALFIE Boe – one of the nation’s favourite tenors – will be unleashing his inner rock god on new album Face Myself.

The record, out on April 10, is inspired by his love of the Madchester era and was produced by Myriot, who previously worked with Primal Scream.

In an exclusive chat, Alfie revealed the album’s title track pays tribute to late Stone Roses bass player Gary “Mani” Mounfield.

The classical singer said he spent his weekends travelling up to Manchester as a teenager to immerse himself in the music scene, where the Stone Roses launched hits such as I Wanna Be Adored. Alfie said: “At the time I was writing that song, Mani passed away.

“So I had to put a tribute in the song. I changed the lyrics to say, ‘For good old Mani, he played it right’.”

The high-energy track, which is released today, also name checks Liam and Noel Gallagher’s childhood home on Cranwell Drive and celebrates the Madchester spirit.

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On the track he sings: “Dreams are grown in Burnage sky, a golden past that made us cry.

“The prom is glorified with lights, for good old Mani, he played it right. Those Cranwell boys, they sang along.”

As a teen, Alfie, who has clocked up 12 Top Ten albums including four No1s, joined an indie band and later found himself exploring classical music.

“I was in an indie band called The English Roses,” Alfie said with a laugh. We were going to go on tour and I was going to be the drummer. But there was school to attend, which was fine, but then I joined lots of other little bands.”

Alfie’s new album is made up of mostly original material and he was inspired to start writing by his pal, The Who’s Pete Townshend.

And the Les Miserables stage fave says the record is all about facing his past, adding: “I thought, what is it about me I have to face?

“It was my childhood, my teenage years, and what got me to where I am today. It’s been a wonderful journey.”

Dua’s full of beans

Dua Lipa has a hefty cheque coming her way, plus a lifetime’s supply of coffee I imagine.

She’s signed up to be global ambassador for Nespresso and posed in blue co-ords to promote the new tie-in. Dua also had a snap with George Clooney, long-time face of the brand.

Greg heading to £2m…but pleads for Wills’ help again

Greg James continues his mammoth 1,000km cycle ride for Comic Relief after getting the royal seal of approval from Prince William.

He was given a boost on Tuesday, when the Prince of Wales hopped on the back of the Radio 1 DJ’s tandem.

As I caught up with Greg yesterday from the Yorkshire Moors, he said he wished William had stuck around.

Greg, resting up on a wall, below, said with a laugh: “I could’ve done with his legs today. Wills, if you’re reading this, help.”

He has remained incredibly upbeat despite the physical and mental toll the challenge is taking.

And he has been buoyed by the incredible donations from the public, which last night was creeping towards the £2million mark. Greg, who set off from Dorset last Friday and is pedalling all the way to Edinburgh, said: “The hills are very, very difficult today.

“But there was a really nice crowd of people shouting at me at the top.

“The good news is we’ve raised over £1.5million, which is an absurd amount. I’d be happy with that if it was the final total but we’ve got three days left.”

He starts his ride from Sunderland this morning with two full days to go.

Tomorrow he will begin his final push, cycling from Galashiels in the Borders to Edinburgh, where he is set to arrive in time for Comic Relief to start on BBC One at 7pm. You can do this, Greg!

Go to comicrelief.com/ride to make a donation.

Placebo are making a comeback for the 30th anniversary of their debut album, which they have reworked into a new version.

Placebo re:created will be out on June 19.

They will then kick off a European tour this September playing songs from their first two albums, with dates in Nottingham, Glasgow, Dublin, Manchester, London and Cardiff in November and December.

Big cat in Africa

Doja Cat showed her wild side in clashing animal prints while on stage in Rwanda.

The Say So rapper, who wore a blue wig with a tiger-striped bodysuit, was performing at Global Citizen’s Move Afrika concert.

She sounded great, despite her carefree lifestyle.

In a new interview with Vogue yesterday, Doja admitted she’s had to curb bad habits for the sake of her live shows.

She said: “I love trash – I’m Oscar the Grouch. I love to eat garbage, and I love to drink, and I love to party.

“Not too hard, obviously. I don’t do any drugs.”

Doja, who had a romance with actor Joseph Quinn in 2024, went on to reveal she is a serial dater, adding: “I’m 30, so I’m ovulating and horny.”

At least she tells it how it is.

Mosh-pit memories with trust

The Teenage Cancer Trust is staging a photo exhibition at the Royal Albert Hall to mark the joys of mosh pits.

Musicians including Yungblud, Wolf Alice, Fontaines DC and The Sex Pistols ft Frank Carter are featured in the show, called Good Energy.

It highlights “good energy”, which is the code used by fans to look after each other in the crowd. Frank said of his pic: “It was taken in the Royal Albert Hall.

“To play there with the Sex Pistols was a dream come true. Seeing a mosh pit inside such a venue felt like the definition of Good Punk Energy.

The exhibition runs until April 9. Buy signed copies of the prints at teenagecancer trust.org/good.

One direction’s Louis Tomlinson confessed the band’s debut No1 single, What Makes You Beautiful, was his least favourite track. He told Scott Mills’s Radio 2 show: “Performing it was always really eggy.”

Louis also took aim at the handling of 1D’s split, adding: “Hiatus, what a horrible word. It’s cringey, screams management.”

Princess is really made up

Harper Beckham has competition from another nepo baby when it comes to her upcoming beauty brand – Katie Price and Peter Andre’s daughter Princess.

The Sun told last week that Harper had taken part in a photoshoot for beauty brand Hiku by Harper, which is expected to launch in the coming months. Now Princess is following suit.

She said on the Not My Bagg podcast: “I’ve been working on it for ages. I was in Liverpool three days ago.

“I went up for a photoshoot for my beauty brand, which is so good. It’s being released this year.

I’m so excited. I’ve always wanted to be involved in some sort of business. Make-up, I love, so it had to be that.”

HARRY STYLES has reason for plenty more disco dancing after scoring the biggest opening week of sales for a UK artist since Adele four years ago.

He released his album Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally on Friday and I can reveal he sold 125,000 copies in the UK in the first two days alone.

The massive figure means he has already eclipsed the first week sales of his last album Harry’s House, which sold 113k copies in seven days in 2022.

It’s likely to be the third fastest selling British album of the last decade and the biggest since Adele’s 30 which shifted 261k in its first week in 2021.

Over on the singles chart, he looks set to occupy all three top spots with American Girls currently in the lead at No1, followed by former chart topper Aperture at No2 and Ready, Steady, Go! at No3.

And the figures globally are massive too, as Harry scored the biggest album debut of 2026 on Spotify worldwide with 63million streams on Friday.

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The killer news comes after former One Direction star Harry smashed his One Night Only performance in Manchester’s Co-op Live on Friday night.

Fans who didn’t manage to get their hands on the £20 tickets, which were sold in a ballot, can now watch the show back on Netflix after it premiered on there last night.

Following the gig, Harry flew to the US to be in the audience for Saturday Night Live, where he will perform and host the show this weekend.

Chatting with Ryan Gosling, who was in the hot seat, Harry, who previously hosted and sang during an episode in 2019, said: “It’s been awhile, so I wanted to watch, get a feel for it.”

Insiders said the stripped back set, which saw Harry performing his new album from start to finish, will be ramped up for his upcoming 12 Wembley Stadium shows.

A source said: “Harry is celebrating this new era with an incredible stage set up.

“His team are building an epic set for the Wembley residency. Because he’s not moving around, they can really go to town.

“There will be enormous big screens and likely fireworks at the end of the shows.

“Harry gave his fans a taste of what is to come from the shows during the Brit Awards when he did an amazing choreographed routine as he sang Aperture.

“These shows are going down in history.”

I was lucky enough to be in Manchester’s Co-op Live to see Harry in action on Friday night and can confirm this album sounds incredible live.

His decision to lock away camera phones was masterful, as I could see the 20,000-odd fans properly connecting with his music – rather than watching him through an iPhone screen.

I think Harry should keep the ban in place when it comes to his Wembley shows, which kick off on June 12.

Enjoying music in the moment is the best feeling in the world — and Harry has reminded everyone, myself included, of that.

LIZZO is back and she’s riding higher than ever.

The About Damn Time singer headlined the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s Black Heritage Night six years after her performance there was cancelled because of Covid.

And she made up for lost time and entered the ring to the sounds of the Texas Southern University Ocean of Soul marching band playing Chamillionaire’s 2005 hit Ridin.

During her set, Lizzo whisked punters through her hits including Truth Hurts and Good As Hell and gave fans a thrill as she pulled out her flute to play the melody of Houston native, American rapper Mike Jones’s song Still Tippin’.

Speaking after her set, Lizzo said: “You have no idea how much this night means to me.

“This night will forever change my life.”

I’m a massive fan of Lizzo’s and last saw her on stage at Glastonbury back in 2023.

Please can she come back soon?

LOLA AND JAMES ON TRACK

LOLA YOUNG is showing no signs of slowing down.

Just last week she performed a near sell-out show at the London Palladium and now I can reveal she’s back in the studio.

Insiders tell me Lola has been getting to work with James Blake with the pair recording after a chance meeting last year.

A source said: “James and Lola have been in the studio working on a few songs and hopefully at least one of the tracks will end up on her next album.”

After being forced to cancel her tour last year to focus on her health, Lola has also announced she will play Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and London in June.

It’s great to see her back.

Rita’s got our hearts racing

RITA ORA isn’t a woman who does things by halves.

And when she performed at the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne over the weekend she dressed up like a chequered flag.

Rita teamed her black and white jacket with a pair of tiny black pants and stockings for her performance, which saw her singing some of her biggest hits – including her 2012 breakout song Hot Right Now.

Over the weekend, Basement Jaxx also performed a headline set at the race – which was won by British racing driver George Russell – with DJ Duke Dumont putting on the final show last night with an epic turn on the decks.

BOY GEORGE is to appear on Eurovision – but will be representing San Marino instead of the United Kingdom.

The Culture Club legend will feature on the tune Superstar, performed by Italian singer Senhit, who has qualified for the tiny nation.

He didn’t appear at the regional selection event on Friday night, in which Senhit won her place, but I’m told he does intend to be on stage in Vienna at the contest in May.

She previously represented San Marino in 2021 with the track Adrenalina, which had another famous feature, as American rapper Flo Rida joined her on stage.

Despite the special guest that year she finished 22 out of 26, so Boy George will be hoping to improve on that.

But given the UK came 19th last that year, perhaps George has the right idea singing for somebody else.

LADY GAGA has hinted she will marry fiancé Michael Polansky any day now.

Gaga, whose tour ends in the US on April 13, sent a note into pal Bruno Mars’s iHeartRadio livestream.

She said: “Me and my fiancé have been travelling all year, but we’re getting married soon. We were hoping you could choose a special song for us.”

TRAITOR ALAN SAYS TOO MUCH

ALAN CARR has called his upcoming comedy tour, Have I Said Too Much, and I can confirm he has.

But it’s bloody hilarious. During a small gig at the Soho Theatre in London on Saturday night, he took pops at his Celebrity Traitors co-stars – and had the crowd in stitches.

Alan said: “Wasn’t I good in The Traitors? Was I good or were the other celebrities just s**t?

“They were thick as mince and as stupid. When I laughed in their face and said: ‘I’m a faithful,’ I went home and packed.

“What more could I have done? I could have come down in that cloak with the severed head of CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN and they still would have gone: ‘I think it’s JOE MARLER.’”

Alan added: “Do you think I killed Paloma Faith first? No – I killed Clare Balding. We shoved her in the coffin but could not get the lid down because of that quiff.”

DR CALL FOR MUSO PETE

HE went from playing foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker in The Thick Of It to becoming Doctor Who, and then trying his hand at music.

And after his second album, Sweet Illusions, was released last year, I’m told Peter Capaldi is already lining up his third record.

Peter worked with Blow Monkeys frontman Dr. Robert for album two and now they’re teaming up again, following the end of Peter’s debut run of headline shows.

A source said: “Peter finished his final show at the 100 Club in London last night, and the plan is to get back into a studio and lay down some new tracks.

“He has been blown away by the response to his first ever live shows with his band, and he already has a host of tracks for a new record.

“More than anything he finds making music fun.

“Peter doesn’t need to get to the top of the charts for this all to be a success for him.

“He would never have even recorded one track if it wasn’t for his friend Dr. Robert urging him to remember his student days as a punk and write some new songs.

“He trusts Dr. Robert and can’t wait to get to work with him again.”

Peter’s first foray into music was when he was at art college and he was the lead singer and guitarist in a punk rock band called the Dreamboys.

His biggest music moment so far came last year when Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos pulled Peter up on stage at Glastonbury to perform Take Me Out with them.

HARRY Styles recently dropped his new album, Kiss All The Time, Disco Occasionally, and fans have been in detective mode attempting to decode who his songs are about.

And they feel they’re worked some of the inspiration behind songs out, after decoding lyrics they describe as “heartbreaking”.

Harry’s new track Paint By Numbers sees him sing vulnerably, acknowledging a failed past relationship as well as the status of his own celebrity.

Among the difficulties of stardom and heartbreak, he’s reaching out for a glimpse of humanity.

He croons lyrics including: “It’s a little bit complicated when they put an image in your head, and now you’re stuck with it.”

But fans are convinced a later part of the song is directly reflecting on his relationship with former flame Olivia Wilde.

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The part goes: “Holding the weight of the American children whose hearts you break.

“Was it a tragedy when you told her, ‘I’m not even 33’?”

The couple shared a ten year age gap, which the reference to not even being in his 30s could be pointing towards.

Fans also took to X to decode whether another track on the album called Season 2 Weight Loss is about his past relationship with Kendall Jenner.

Harry dated the model on and off for years in a messy situationship.

So hearing lyrics like: “Do you love me now?” instantly sent fans typing.

One fan gushed in response to the possible link: “HARRY STYLES OH MY GOD,” followed by some sobbing face emojis.

Though later in the song Harry sings about “coming back as a stronger version” of himself, possibly referencing the end of the cycle of on-and-off dating.

The deciphering comes after Harry’s tour ticket sales encountered frustrating mishaps for fans.

In addition to being set to perform 12 shows in Wembley Stadium, Harry had one gig booked at Manchester‘s Co-op Live in due to play this month.

Though many fans woke up to find their tickets to the event cancelled and refunded.

Ticketmaster released a statement on the decision to axe the tickets, explaining that some customers managed to purchase tickets they shouldn’t have been able to buy in the first place.

These include many of the £20 tickets which were later resold on other ticket selling sites, and therefore were no longer eligible for use at the venue.

Ticketmaster explained: “We’re working with the Harry Styles ‘One Night Only’ team to cancel and refund any orders that have violated the rules of sale.

“As all tickets are non-transferable, any tickets listed on unauthorised resale sites are void and will not get fans into the show – so we’re cancelling and refunding these.

“There is also a ticket limit of 2 tickets per person, so any orders above that are being cancelled and refunded.”

The majority of the voided tickets appear to have been sold on Viagogo.

It’s a Wednesday afternoon in West Hollywood, one day after the city was blanketed in a light coating of rain. The midday sun has only just begun to peek through the overcast sky.

Its beams are slightly more vivid through the large windows of the Edition, which sit at the edge of a secluded area of the hotel. Jamie Hewlett sits at a wooden table stirring a cappucino with a black straw.

“I mean, who drinks out of a straw when you get past the age of 10, right?” he says, jokingly. After 25 years of bouncing around the globe with Gorillaz, he’s still longing for a jet lag cure. Coffee can only do so much.

Leaning back in his chair, in a suave, all-beige outfit, he starts to grin while recounting his day in Los Angeles.

“We’ve been walking around the streets having a very rare morning off together. We bought some weed, which is always one of the most wonderful things about this state,” he recalls.

He also finds humor in L.A.’s obsession with driver-less food delivery.

“Every time we saw a post-bot driving down the road, we stopped and doffed our caps. … In the future, when robots take over and destroy us all, they’ll remember me for being nice to the post-bot!”

It’s been a long few weeks for Hewlett and bandmate Damon Albarn as they roll out the group’s latest endeavor, “The Mountain,” out Friday. Just one day prior, “House of Kong” opened at Rolling Greens in downtown L.A. The exhibition, initially intended as a Gorillaz 25th anniversary event, has landed on the West Coast.

“I think with this album, we were both quite happy with what we’ve done … and feeling like it was an honest, genuine adventure that was taken, and what we’ve given is something that we’re proud of,” Hewlett says.

He and Albarn are also artists at heart and in nature. It’s why Gorillaz continues to look and sound the way it does, and why the group is consistently pushing the agenda of how a nonexistent band can still resonate with a group of fans who are very much alive.

“The process, the research, the putting it together, the making of it is really fun, and the delivery of it is kind of like a mini death syndrome,” he says. “What you’re required to do is get straight on to the next thing, and you won’t have any time to waste thinking about the fact that the completion of that left you feeling numb, because then you’re excited about the next project.”

He adds that Albarn, similarly, is like a “kid in a sweet shop” when he’s making music: “The moment it’s finished, there’s no interest in discussing it.”

Even so, the album is undeniably their most intimate in recent history.

Perhaps it’s something to do with the experience of grief that the two lived through, losing their fathers only 10 days apart and just before a trip to India. Or maybe it’s a testament to the process behind “The Mountain,” which saw Hewlett and Albarn travel the country, spending more time together there than during previous album productions.

“It’s weird, because I’m born 10 days after Damon… the idea presented itself, and at that point we were going down that road, and there was no avoiding it… It wasn’t even necessarily going to be a Gorillaz project; ‘Let’s go together and see what happens.’ ”

“I completely fell in love with the place and got into their whole concept of death,” Hewlett says of India.

(Blair Brown)

Hewlett says the album was also inspired by his late mother-in-law, Amo, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2010 and opted for Eastern medicine instead of chemo.

“She said, ‘No, I’m going to India.’ … She was into Ayurveda medicine and knew this doctor, and she spent three months in India [being treated]. When she came back, her cancer had gone. In France, they call her in for a checkup, and they give her a scan. They say, ‘Where’s your cancer gone?’ She said, ‘I’ve been in India,’ and they say, ‘We don’t believe in that.’ ”

It wouldn’t be until 2022 when Jamie visited India himself, under unfortunate circumstances. He was in Belgrade with Albarn shooting the second video from “Cracker Island” when he received a call from his brother-in-law, who said that Amo had just had a stroke.

“They said they saved her, but she went into a coma. I was on a plane to India as quickly as I could get a visa, which wasn’t easy at the Indian Embassy in London,” he said. “I spent eight weeks with my wife, Emma, in Jaipur, dealing with that, in a public hospital during a pneumonia epidemic… having that experience that was traumatic; it should have been a reason for me to never go back to India ever again.”

But during his time there, it became clear that being in the country had the opposite effect on him.

“I completely fell in love with the place and got into their whole concept of death. … We met a lot of families who became friends of ours because we were at the hospital every day,” he continued.

“A loved one who was dying, who was in tears because they knew they were going to die, but also there was a celebration about the fact that they were coming back,” he said. “Their understanding of the cycle of life is a lot more appealing to me.”

Shortly after, Hewlett returned to Europe and went straight to Albarn with an idea: “I said, ‘We have to go to India, it’s so amazing,’ and of all the places he’d been around the world, that was the place he still hadn’t been. So we decided to go.”

Albarn first visited India in May 2024 alongside Hewlett.

(Blair Brown)

“The Mountain” is, as expected, heavily doused with notions on the concept of death. Inevitably, the question arose: “How can we make an album about death that would leave the listener feeling optimistic?”

But Gorillaz has always been a group entwined with different, equally heavy topics. On “Plastic Beach,” they tackle the climate crisis and human extinction. The enchanting and rhythmic “Dirty Harry” also examines war and soldiers, with its single cover even giving a nod to Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket.”

The tone Gorillaz achieved on “The Mountain” is an extension of that.

“The Happy Dictator,” released as the lead single in September, parodies megalomaniac Saparmurat Niyazov’s approach to governing in Turkmenistan. As Sparks produce stunning vocals, singing “I am the one to give you life again,” Gorillaz fictional frontman 2-D (voiced by Albarn) breaks in to pronounce, “No more bad news!”

Equally as enjoyable is “The God of Lying,” the third single released, featuring Idles. Joe Talbot hauntingly asks, “Do you love your blessed father? / Anoint by fear of death / Do you feel the lies creep on by? / As soft as baby’s breath.” It’s a bouncy song that could have been pulled straight out of the band’s self-titled debut, all the way back from 2001.

Even so, it feels criminal to compare it with the band’s earlier catalog, given that Hewlett and Albarn are artists in “perpetual motion.” This has resulted in some of their most sonically and visually impressive work — with styles and genres consistently shifting — but also asks the listener to be willing to evolve with them.

“I think art has to be an evolution,” Hewlett explains. “I know what David Hockney does at 88 years old, still smoking and drinking his red wine. He wakes up every day … and he does something new, and then the next day he does something new, and that promotes longevity. He’s never bored.”

Gorillaz’s exhibition in “House of Kong” seems to be contradictory in its existence, more or less serving as a retrospective from a band that not only doesn’t like to look in the rearview, but likely has it taped over altogether.

But it’s also an organic experience, teeming with originality, despite its familiar marketing as an “immersive experience.” It’s more comparable to something out of a Disney or Universal theme park than another gallery that merely projects video onto a wall.

“Down here at Kong, we are creating something that … only really existed in Jamie’s drawings and animations and in the minds of the fans of Gorillaz,” says Stephen Gallagher of Block9. He served as creative director on the project but has worked with the band since 2018 and previously collaborated with Banksy for his “The Walled Off Hotel” and “Dismaland.”

“I’d had this idea already: ‘What about if we built a film studio, and then you could do a backstage tour, and you’re seeing behind the scenes of the making of all of these music videos?’ ” he continued. “Then that evolved, and it became the ‘House of Kong.’ ”

As for why the exhibition landed in L.A. for its second showing, Hewlett compares the city to Shanghai when it was “still free and decadent and swinging.”

“I love L.A. … I love it. I’ve been coming here since I was 19 years old. … L.A. might be the last one [showing], to be honest,” he says. “All that stuff in the exhibition belongs to me; this is part of my lifelong collection of weird s—!”

“I’d love to get it back at some point,” he jokes.

THE musician and the visual artist . . . two lives shaped by shared experience and creative endeavour. 

Damon Albarn was born on March 23, 1968, and eleven days later, on April 3, his chief collaborator, Jamie Hewlett, came into the world. 

In 1998, after bonding while sharing a flat, they dreamed up virtual band Gorillaz, a vehicle for wild flights of imagination. 

Fronted by cartoon characters 2-D, Murdoc Niccals, Russel Hobbs and Noodle, Gorillaz have blurred musical styles, crossed generations and involved numerous nationalities in their songs for more than 25 years. 

“We’re the Alan Whicker of bands,” declares Hewlett, in reference to the globe-trotting broadcaster. 

“More Michael Palin,” interjects Albarn. “He’s nicer and also very funny.” 

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In 2023/24, sad events conspired to take Damon and Jamie in a new direction — to that vibrant, teeming country of 1.4billion people, India.  

The result is the Gorillaz ninth album, The Mountain, with its title inscribed in Devanagari script on the cover. 

Performed in five languages — Hindi, English, Arabic, Spanish and Yoruba — it features a host of stellar guests, most living but some no longer with us. 

The musicians come from different corners of the globe, India, Syria, the US, Argentina, Nigeria, and, of course, the UK. 

Albarn says: “The original impetus came from quite a tragic story. We were in Belgrade finishing off a video when Jamie got a call from Jaipur in India. It was from his wife Emma, saying, ‘My mum’s in a coma’.” 

Hewlett picks up the story: “They had been there for a month at an Ayurvedic retreat (a system focused on balancing mind, body and spirit). 

“They had packed their suitcases, had called a taxi and were just on their way home when my mother-in-law had a stroke.  

“She was rushed to the closest hospital in Jaipur — it’s all about speed when you have a stroke.” 

So on December 4, 2022, Hewlett arranged to fly from Serbia to India and so began “eight weeks of daily hospital visits hoping she might wake up”. 

Sadly, his mother-in-law didn’t make it, leaving Hewlett to reflect: “It was a very traumatic experience but, in between those visits, we were able to explore Jaipur. 

“I just fell in love with the place. The people were so warm and I discovered that the whole subject of death is viewed from a very different perspective.” 

He’s alluding to the fact that Hinduism sees passing away as a natural transition — a temporary pause for the eternal soul rather than a final end. 

Hewlett continues: “When I was in the hospital, people were visiting loved ones who were dying. 

“There were tears but, at the same time, there was a feeling of celebration in the belief that they were coming back in an another form.” 

This got Hewlett thinking about possibilities for Gorillaz, his visual playground. 

“Damon was in touch with me the whole time I was there,” he says. “When I came home, I said to him, ‘We need to go to India together to see if we can do something’. A year later (after Blur’s epic reunion), we were off.” 

Albarn says: “I saw it as the perfect opportunity to give the whole world of Gorillaz a nice, new kickstart. I was just waiting for an excuse to go there.  

“I grew up in Leytonstone where my school was 30/40 per cent Asian. My dad was very into Indian classical music so I was genuinely listening to (sitar player) Ravi Shankar at the same time as The Beatles.” 

Albarn also saw visiting India as a perfect opportunity to spend quality time with Hewlett.  

“We enjoy each other’s company,” he says. “We’ve got an awful lot in common and our taste is very similar.” 

Hewlett nods in agreement and adds: “We thrive on finding ourselves in different cultures — and there’s so much to take from a place like India, even if somewhere as big as that can’t be grappled with immediately.” 

And Albarn again: “The first time you go there, you’re just so bewitched by the place.” 

With their sights set on a Gorillaz album drawing on Indian music, two more devastating events were to bring the pair even closer together — and the project into even sharper relief. 

In July 2024, some time after an initial foray to the subcontinent, Albarn’s dad Keith died. Ten days later, Hewlett lost his father.  

For Albarn, a return to India offered him a degree of solace. He journeyed to the ancient city of Varanasi to scatter his dad’s ashes in the Ganges. Keith had been a respected artist, designer and teacher who loved Indian culture. 

“Grief manifests itself in so many ways,” says Albarn.

“You don’t overcome it but you can learn to accept it and going to Varanasi definitely helped. 

“This place has been inhabited for 5,000 years and it’s where families have burned their loved ones every day, every night, for all that time.  

“The fire rituals are wonderful, so poetic — almost like an inhalation and an exhalation.  

“The idea that people pause at sunset, light fires and sing is so beautiful. Harder to do in northern Europe where cloud can bruise the spirit!” 

Albarn goes on to describe, “something I learned, which is a useful life lesson,” from taking a loved one’s ashes to the Ganges. 

“Don’t stress yourself by thinking too much,” he affirms. “At moments like that, don’t think of anything — empty your mind. 

“Emptiness is a beautiful thing and there’s infinite possibility within it. We mention ‘the void’ a lot on this record.” 

For Albarn, the album’s starting point was his gorgeous melody, which morphed into the title track and opener, The Mountain. He calls it the LP’s “signature tune”.  

The finished piece is blessed with sublime playing by Ajay Prasanna on bansuri, a traditional bamboo flute, with Anoushka Shankar, daughter of the late, great Ravi, on sitar. 

Albarn says: “Once I met Ajay and he’d played his bansuri, I thought, ‘I’m never letting this gentleman out of my sight again’. He’s an amazing person. 

“You give him a melody and he turns it into something godlike.” 

As for the contribution of Anoushka, whose mastery of the sitar echoes the work of her legendary father, he says: “I could hardly imagine the idea that I was going to play with one of the Shankar family.” 

Hewlett says: “If you’ve never been to India, you find yourself mentally transported there just by this song. It’s almost like the beginning of a movie.” 

The Mountain is the first of several tracks to feature the voices of the dear departed, in this case maverick actor and film-maker Dennis Hopper. 

Elsewhere, there are contributions from one-time Gorillaz collaborators who have since died — soul singer Bobby Womack, Dave Jolicoeur of De La Soul, The Fall’s Mark E Smith, rapper Proof and Albarn’s long-time associate, drummer Tony Allen. 

Their inclusion is a poignant way of saying: They may have gone but they live on in some way. 

Albarn says: “I think of a mountain as a manifestation of reincarnation because, if you think about it, a mountain is formed through chaos and tectonic shifts. The change in everything creates something new.” 

The Mountain gave Hewlett all the inspiration he needed to begin conjuring up the exotic, beautifully realised imagery, which is so crucial to this Gorillaz project.  

He says: “I guess the biggest challenge for me was that we were dealing with a subject that is more grown up than in the past. 

“How should the characters behave because usually there’s a lot of sarcasm and jokes? 

“So I was thinking about how to tell the story in a respectful way but also maintain a level of fun.” 

Hewlett admits: “We didn’t rush into this one — a lot of work ended up going in the dustbin for both of us, musically and visually, until we got on the right course. But when Damon gave me this piece of music and called it The Mountain, that was the starting point. Everything opened up for me.” 

Of all the myriad guests on the album, perhaps the most notable is 92-year-old Asha Bhosle, one of the most revered singers in Hindi cinema, who sings on the shimmering, life-affirming The Shadowy Light. 

Albarn says: “She’s one of the most important living Indian singers — and maybe even the best. 

“Everyone in India knows her music, she’s had hundreds of billions of streams.” 

And Hewlett adds: “Damon managed to get her to sing for us in her apartment in Mumbai. He used his charm and she was very comfortable with him.” 

If India is central to The Mountain, no Gorillaz record would be complete without sounds of various cultures.  

The Happy Dictator, with eccentric American duo Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks providing the chorus, began life in Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan, a dictatorship in central Asia. 

“That’s where I got the idea,” reports Albarn. “I went there with my daughter. “We have a father-daughter holiday every year, and we’ve been to North Korea, China and Turkmenistan.  

“This year we’re going to Georgia. We share a real passion for the remnants of communism and the possibility of future socialism.” 

So what’s Turkmenistan like and why call a song The Happy Dictator? I venture.  

Albarn answers: “It’s a very barren place, almost entirely desert, with this pristine modern city of Ashgabat, which is made almost entirely of white marble. 

“Being in that society, I realised that they are given no bad news. They had no news at all, really.” 

Another fabulous song is Damascus, which rekindles Albarn’s abiding love of Syrian music.  

You may recall when he helped assemble the Orchestra Of Syrian Musicians in London while civil war raged in their home country. 

For Damascus, Gorillaz employed the services of Omar Souleyman, one of the country’s pre-eminent singers, alongside American rapper Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def). 

With Syria still in state of flux after the toppling of the cruel Assad regime, Albarn says: “I wouldn’t go there at the moment but I did go to Mali (a favourite destination) in December, even if I was absolutely told not to. 

“I didn’t find it anywhere near as dangerous as everyone says it is and I would definitely go back.” 

This feeds into the notion that Gorillaz has no borders, that it’s an example of how multiculturalism can break down division and strife. 

“Not only is it the right way forward but it’s the most important way forward,” says Albarn.  

“Isolationism and the idea of demonising people from other cultures is not correct — and it’s profoundly dangerous.” 

So that’s why we hear the freewheeling rap of The Roots’ Black Thought on a track like The Empty Dream Machine, which also harnesses the guitar power of Johnny Marr and more sitar from Anoushka. 

And why Albarn’s expressive tones are matched with Argentinian Trueno rapping in Spanish and telling words recorded by American rapper Proof not long before he was shot dead in 2006. 

Let’s not forget that love and loss loom large on this record.  

On Casablanca, again featuring Marr as well as The Clash bassist Paul Simonon, Albarn sings: “I don’t know anything that feels like this/I don’t know anything that hits like this.” 

Simonon has been a member of The Good The Bad & Queen with Albarn and the late Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen. 

You hear Allen intoning, “We are ready, let’s go,” on The Hardest Thing before Damon, clearly with his father in mind, sings: “You know the hardest thing is to say goodbye to someone you love.” 

Albarn says, “We definitely put a lot of love into this record,” and Hewlett signs off with, “There’s more to come. We’re not finished yet.” 

It’s anyone’s guess where in the world those Gorillaz masterminds will pitch up next. 

GORILLAZ 

The Mountain 

★★★★★

Willie Colón, a legendary trombonist and pioneer of salsa music, has died. He was 75.

His death on Saturday was confirmed in a Facebook post by his longtime manager, Pietro Carlos.

News of the singer’s condition circulated on the web in recent days. Yonkers Voice News reported Colón was admitted to NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester hospital in Bronxville, N.Y., on Tuesday with respiratory problems and he appeared fragile.

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Born William Anthony Colón Román on April 28, 1950, to Puerto Rican parents in New York City, Colón first picked up the trumpet in school. It seemed like a natural choice for the former bugle-playing Boy Scout, who attended the youth program at the suggestion of his grandmother.

“So I could learn how to be a good boy,” said Colón in a 1988 interview with Associated Press.

By age 13, Colón had started a band and played at some weddings and in the bustling nightclubs of New York City. At one point, he forged a cabaret card, a mandated ID for musicians and entertainers between 1940 and 1967 who worked in establishments serving alcohol, which required individuals to be 18 years and older.

The thrilling 1960s Latin music scene in New York consumed Colón, who was deeply inspired by Latin jazz pioneer and bandleader Eddie Palmieri, once part of a main act at the Palladium Ballroom who went on to form La Perfecta, a Cuban conjunto that revolutionized the New York Latin music scene with its inclusion of two trombones, played by Barry Rogers and Jose Rodriguez, instead of the costly four-set trumpets.

But Colón’s instrumental preference changed once he heard the bodied timbre of Mon Rivera’s all-trombone brass lineup marching to a bomba beat. “It would knock my socks off,” said Colón in a 1988 interview with Associated Press, leading the singer to teach himself how to play the instrument.

By age 15, Colón was signed to Fania Records. Two years later at age 17, he went on to release his debut album, “El Malo,” a record that defined the fierce sounds of New York’s salsa scene, which Colón later described as the Latin equivalent of rap.

According to his former label, the name of “El Malo” was bestowed upon Colón by older musicians who sought to mock his trombone range at the time, though the young bandleader would find a way to use the label to his advantage.

On the LP, Colón’s sound moved away from the polished mambo sounds of orchestral bands decades prior, in large part due to Puerto Rican singer Héctor Lavoe, whose vocals can be heard in tracks like the gritty “El Malo” that vows to knock out any wanna-be street phony.

The pair would go on to record a total of 14 albums through 1973, with Lavoe’s talents for improvisation complementing Colón’s raw, aggressive trombone.

“Salsa came from the same kind of situation that rap does,” Colon said in a 1992 interview with The Times. “It was kind of a hybrid of a bunch of different elements. Hector had just come from Puerto Rico and didn’t speak English. I didn’t speak much Spanish, I was a little New York kid. We got together and just started with the same kind of irreverent, rebellious attitude, writing songs about the baddest guy on the block, drugs and sex. Before that, the lyrics and whole attitude of Latin music was, ‘Look at me dance, listen to those drums, I’m cutting sugar cane.’ It was a rural, folkloric emphasis; we changed it to an inner-city kind of culture.”

Colón’s impact went beyond live music. The album cover of “El Malo,” which showed two serious profiles of Colón, depicted the singer as a sly bad boy, and ultimately gave rise to his gangster persona, which would be a throughline in future projects, including his sophomore 1968 album, “The Hustler” which featured the band with fitted suits, smoking cigars and placing bets in a pool hall. His 1970 album “Cosa Nuestra” featured Colón smoking a cigar while overlooking a dead body in broad daylight in Manhattan’s East River Bikeway. Most famously, his 1971 album, “La Gran Fuga,” depicted the singer on a fake FBI “Most Wanted” poster.

These mob-like depictions occurred long before cult-favorite films like Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 “The Godfather” and Brian De Palma 1983’s “Scarface” became the prominent gangster storylines various male acts venerate in their music.

By 1973, Colón and Lavoe split — allegedly due to Lavoe’s drug addiction leading to many missed concert performances — although the two would remain frequent collaborators until the latter’s death in 1993 due to complications of AIDS.

The Nuyorican musician would introduce Blades as the new singer of his orchestra, whom he had met years prior while visiting Panama during carnivals. They collaborated briefly on Colón’s 1975 LP “The Good, the Bad, the Ugly,” cementing their partnership in the 1977 album “Metiendo Mano,” which delved into socio-political themes, notably in their track “Pablo Pueblo,” which shares the story of a working class man with broken dreams halted by toils of daily life. Other tracks like “Plantación Adentro,” detailed the story of Camilo Manrique, a fictionalized enslaved character who died at the hands of a Spanish colonizer in 1745.

Many considered this album Colón’s first foray into intellectual salsa — in large part because of Blades, who had a knack for storytelling and political interests (he unsuccessfully ran for president of Panama in 1994) — that addressed colonialism and class disparities. Together they released three albums, including their 1978 “Siembra,” one of the bestselling salsa albums at that time; from the start, their track “Plastico” fused the popular disco music of the moment while addressing superficial beauty standards and colorism in Latin America.

According to 1996 reporting by The Times, “Siembra” delivered pulsating salsa rhythms that “carried messages of freedom at a time when most of Latin America was oppressed by military dictatorships.”

By 1982, Blades and Colón parted ways, but they collaborated again on projects like their 2005 LP “Tras La Tormenta” — which led the bandleader to sing for the first time in his career, “I had to start from zero, and it took me many years to feel comfortable,” Colón said.

This newfound independence gave rise to some of Colón’s most famous songs, including his 1995 track “Talento de Televisión,” an upbeat song with his signature trombone wailing in the backdrop as he sang about an attractive woman with a lack of talent.

Many across Latin America might be familiar with his 1989 song “El Gran Varon” — which narrated the story of a trans woman who is rejected by her father and presumably dies of AIDS — a landmark salsa song that brought awareness to LGBTQ+ themes during the AIDS crisis. Colón would later serve as a member of the Latino Commission on AIDS. “El Gran Varon” is an anthem to this day.

Colón released more than 40 albums in all.

He also acted, taking roles in films including 1982’s “Vigilante,” the 1983 sports drama “The Last Fight,” as well as one-episode stints in TV shows like “Miami Vice” and “The Cosby Show.” He was even featured in Bad Bunny’s “Nuevayol” music video, cutting a slice of cake; the 31-year-old superstar pays homage to the singer in its lyrics: “Willie Colón, me dicen el malo, ey. Porque pasan los años y sigo dando palo”/ “Willie Colón, they say I’m bad, because the years come and I’m still hitting.”

In his later years, he became more involved in politics. In 1994, he unsuccessfully went up against U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel of the Bronx in the Democratic primary. He also ran as a Democrat for Public Advocate in 2001, focusing on community issues, education and AIDS awareness, but failed to gain the popular vote. In 2008, he endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton over Barack Obama in the primary election.

On May 26, 2014, after graduating from Westchester County Police Academy, Colón was sworn in as a deputy sheriff for the Department of Public Safety, later becoming deputy lieutenant.

As President Trump took office in his first term, Colón’s politics shifted in support of the right-wing candidate, and he said he would be open to performing at his inauguration in 2017.

Billboard magazine named him one of the most influential Latino artists of all time in 2018.

Colón is survived by his wife, Julia Colón, and his four sons and grandsons.

A sparkly pink electric guitar hangs on a wall of the recording studio where Hilary Duff made her new album. The cozy, gear-filled joint near the Van Nuys Airport belongs to her husband, Matthew Koma, who produced “Luck… or Something,” the singer and actor’s first LP in more than a decade. But as Duff points out on a recent afternoon, the paisley-print guitar is all hers.

“I got it for my 16th birthday,” she says proudly — a gift from the Fender company. “I found it in the storage unit and Matt was like, ‘Oh, that’s going up there.’”

Before Miley Cyrus, before Sabrina Carpenter, before Olivia Rodrigo, Duff arrived in the early 2000s as a Disney kid with pop-idol ambitions. She broke out in the endearingly awkward title role of the Disney Channel’s “Lizzie McGuire” then went on to star in family-friendly movies like “Agent Cody Banks” and “Cheaper by the Dozen.” By the time she received that guitar, she’d topped the Billboard 200 with her album “Metamorphosis,” which sold 4 million copies and spawned hit singles like “So Yesterday” and “Come Clean.”

Duff stepped away from music for most of her 20s to focus on acting and starting a family. (An attempted comeback album in 2015, “Breathe In. Breathe Out.,” didn’t really go anywhere.) Now, at 38, she’s returned with a bracingly honest record full of the texture and detail of her life as a wife, sister and mother of four.

In frank yet wordy songs that layer guitars and synths over shimmering grooves, Duff sings about trying to overcome old habits and about her fear that her best times are behind her. “We Don’t Talk” appears to address her estrangement from her older sister, Haylie, while “Weather for Tennis” describes her tendency to keep the peace as a child of divorce. In “Holiday Party,” she recounts a recurring dream in which Koma cheats on her with her friends.

“I wake up in a rage and he’s like, ‘I didn’t do anything!’” she says with a laugh. “And I’m like, ‘But you want to.’ A lot of this stuff came out of the hormonal boom of: I’ve just had a baby and I’m nursing and I’m trying to get my two feet back on the ground again.” (Duff and Koma have three daughters aged 7, 4 and 1, while Duff shares a 13-year-old son with her ex-husband, former hockey player Mike Comrie.)

Asked how he hopes the album fares commercially, Koma says, “I don’t [care]. Public perception or sales, that’s all cool, but it’s a separate experience from why we did it.” The producer, who’s known for his work with Zedd and Shania Twain, adds, “The whole purpose was to make something that Hilary could feel good about stepping into.”

Yet early-2000s nostalgia led to a recent run of sold-out theater gigs, and this summer it’ll carry her into arenas around the world, including Inglewood’s Kia Forum on July 8 and 9. (Less happily for Duff, it also made a viral sensation of an essay in the Cut by her fellow millennial Ashley Tisdale in which Tisdale wrote about leaving a “toxic mom group” that allegedly included Duff and Mandy Moore.)

Curled on a sofa in the studio’s control room, Duff says, “I’m finally at this place where I’m zero percent ashamed of my past and any of the things that used to embarrass me” — one reason she made the bold choice to open her set at the Wiltern last month with two of her biggest hits, “Wake Up” and “So Yesterday.”

After those songs came “Roommates,” perhaps the most vulnerable track on Duff’s new album. It’s about navigating a dry patch in a marriage, and the language is as vivid as it is unsparing: “I only want the beginning / I don’t want the end,” she sings, adding that she longs to be in the “back of a dive bar, giving you h—.”

A surprising word choice.
How would you have said it? Sometimes you need to make the lyrics fit — you need it to rhyme with something. [Laughs] It’s meant to be polarizing because it’s such a desperate plea. I can say I haven’t actually given h— in the back of a dive bar. But it’s just trying to capture the feeling of a time when you felt alive.

Like all teen stars, you had to figure out how to grow up and talk about sex as a public figure. Now there’s the idea that it’s better left to the young.
I finally feel like I know a lot about sex. My whole 20s, sex was not always enjoyable — it was so much to figure out. Now I finally understand it. Maybe that’s a female thing, but I’m not ready to be put out to pasture. People come up to me all the time and they’re like, “Wow, you aged really well.” I’m like, “I’m only 38! Just because you’ve known me since I was 9…”

You’re handling senior citizenship well.
When do I start getting the discounts? I feel like 38 is not old, although when I thought about my parents at 40, they looked so different than we look now.

I always stop at those TikToks where it shows what 35 looked like in 1982.
I don’t think anyone drank water back then. They were, like, dusty-crusty.

Hilary Duff, left, and Matthew Koma at Apple Music Studios in Los Angeles in December.

(Amy Sussman / Getty Images for Apple Music)

You borrow the chorus of Blink-182’s “Dammit” for your song “Growing Up.” Why?
Blink is one of my favorite bands. I remember getting my driver’s license, and that was what was playing on my iPod. “Growing Up” is such a deeply personal song to me, talking about sitting in the backyard with one of my best friends and just needing to drink too much wine and unload about life. But it also feels like a love letter to my fans. I don’t like saying that word, but I genuinely feel like I’ve had fans for 25 years, and getting to see them now in adulthood — I didn’t know I was going to have this opportunity.

What’s the problem with “fan”?
It puts me on a pedestal that makes me feel uncomfortable. If you were to talk to Matt or someone close to me, they’d probably say, “Hilary doesn’t understand what she’s meant to some people.” And I think that’s true. When I think of myself, I’m not like a grand pop star — I feel more like a woman of the people.

A woman of the people?
Am I allowed to say that? [Laughs] Is that offensive in any way? My feet hit the ground in the morning, and I’ve got a million things to do. Sometimes my baby’s still sleeping. And I have a teenager to get ready for school that we’re always all waiting on.

Why do you have four children?
I know — we’re sick.

Did you expect to have four?
I thought I would have at least three. I always wanted a big family because I come from a super small family and I always wanted more siblings. I had Luca obviously pre-Matt, and then we had Banks before we got married. Then the pandemic hit — we had a pandemic baby like everybody else. The fourth was just a crazy-a— decision. Matt was like, “Everybody’s gonna think we’re really Christ-y if we go for No. 4.” We also have three dogs, two cats and eight chickens.

As two artists, how do you sort out the work of child-rearing?
I don’t know if I’ve actually said this out loud — to Matt I have for sure — but I think that part of my wanting to make a record was coming out of having my fourth child. I love motherhood, obviously — I wouldn’t have four kids if I didn’t. But I think I felt really jealous that he got to go to work every day and just be alone with his thoughts. I was like, I need to stretch. That’s what it felt like after the fourth baby: I’m either gonna lose myself completely and just become a stay-at-home mom and wait for the phone to ring, or I’m gonna go make something that moves me.

You don’t need me to tell you that our culture is always happy to make moms feel guilty. Was it a journey to accept that it’s OK to do something for yourself?
That’s what the healthy part of the brain says. But the other part that’s wired to be with the children you birthed — sometimes that part overshadows it. And it’s very hard to fight that. I could probably cry right now thinking about all the things I’m gonna miss this year.

Hilary Duff in the studio where she recorded her new album.

(Jay L Clendenin / For The Times)

You’ve got a line in “Roommates” where you say, “Life is life-ing and pressure is pressuring me.” At the shows you just played, did you think of your audience as being at the same place in life as you?
For sure. When they were scream-singing it back to me, I was like, “Oh, you know.” That doesn’t mean you have to be a parent. “Life is life-ing” is the bills and the monotony and the traffic and the family — it’s all the things. I knew that if it’s bumping around inside my head, and I’ve been living a pretty normal life for 10 years — normal as I can get — then people would see themselves in it.

Twenty-five years ago, you were playing to 10-year-olds. Would a 10-year-old today be interested in your new songs?
I don’t think so. But I mean, I used to sing Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” all the time, and I had no idea what it was about.

The last decade has been a golden age for young female songwriters: Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo.
You forgot Chappell Roan.

“Luck… or Something” feels aligned with that deepening craft. But maybe your early stuff felt sophisticated to you.
I don’t think the intent back then was sophisticated songwriting. There was no Taylor Swift yet — it’s like before Christ and after Christ.

She changed the game?
On all the levels.

How’d you end up on Atlantic Records? I wondered whether this was a product of personal friendships — the Elliot Grainge and Sofia Richie and Good Charlotte of it all.
We’re more personally friends with them now. I finished making the record and for the first time ever was like, “It’s done — do you like it?”

You weren’t looking for notes from the label.
I’m not saying I didn’t have meetings with A&R. But pretty much the record was created, and that was that. I didn’t go shopping anywhere else, which was fantastic because I hate a dog-and-pony show.

Did you feel like you’d been chewed up by the record industry in any way?
After “Breathe In. Breathe Out.,” it was very easy to be like, “RCA forced me to lead with this song when I knew it should’ve been this song.” But that was me not having [courage], you know what I mean? It was a joint effort of [messing] it up. But I learned a lot from that. I don’t think I would’ve made this record if I hadn’t fumbled the ball a little.

The story about the toxic mom group blew up just as you were launching this album. Did that experience give you pause about reentering the pop world?
I mean, this is not new for me. I’ve had this since I was maybe 15 and starting to get followed around by paparazzi. Everything starts getting documented and everyone knows my life and all the players in it. So the stories that get news pickup — it’s not what happens to a normal person who maybe became an actor as an adult. And now it’s escalated by the talking heads on TikTok that need clickbait. It’s hard because you’re like, “Wait, whoa, that person kind of got it right,” and “Whoa that person doesn’t know what they’re talking about.” I saw something that was like, “None of the moms at school actually like her and neither do the teachers,” and I was like, “First of all…”

Is it hard or easy for you to tune out —
By the way, the women at school are lovely and I’m obsessed with all of them.

But can you ignore the chatter about you on social media?
It just depends on the day. Knowing that I get to open up the backdoors and play soccer as a family and take a hot tub and go get our chicken eggs — that’s the purpose of life. On the days when crazy s— happens, I go home and quiet the noise.