Usually it’s audiences that have to coax musicians into staying for an encore, but at this weekend’s Roskilde Festival in Denmark, it was Damon Albarn who wouldn’t let the audience leave. Not that it looked like they wanted to. After playing a mammoth five hour set with the Africa Express Project (which brings together artists from all over the world for albums and concerts), Albarn showed no signs of tiredness, and as the last man on stage, he urged the crowd to help him keep the show going by shouting “More, more, more…” In the end the Africa Express stage manager had to forcibly remove him, to the resounding boos of the audience.
Albarn contributed to Africa Express’ album Terry Riley’s in C Mali earlier this year, which also included contributions from Brian Eno and the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Nick Zinner. Albarn certainly likes to keep himself busy — he recently wrote the music for Wonder.land, a musical inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, which just opened in Manchester; on July 17th he will embark on a tour with Blur that will hit Europe, Australia and the US.
Watch Albarn play Gorillaz’s “Clint Eastwood,” The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” and then the proceeding ignominious exit in that order in the three videos below: