Graham Coxon

“Being a singer now I have to get all fussy... I must have my ginger and lemon and all that.”

“I sing, but I don't think of myself as a singer.”

“I'm not going to pretend that I am the best thing in their life and they have to be totally loyal.”

“When Blur first started and we were playing Manchester the Hacienda was the place to go. That was where a lot of exciting stuff was happening and London was pretty dead.”

“Manchester has it's own pride and London has it's sort of pride and sometimes we can be a bit mean to each other, but I think if we dig the music we can get on really well.”

“I'm still trying to discover my position on my own artwork and hopefully at this exhibition someone will come and tell me. I'm open to listening to criticism.”

“I don't think of myself as a singer really.”

“There's a focus that hasn't been there for ages and ages and some American bands are sounding quite English like they did in the late 70s and early 80s.”

“But live shows are cool. I just got back into the idea of enjoying it live.”

“I'm still amazed by the process of recording.”

“There were some extremely good teachers there that were great artists really in their own right. It was actually very hard to concentrate on getting down to going any work being an art student especially when it's a flighty thing at best.”

“With my daughter, who at the time was one, my domestic life needed to take more precedent and really with my own self I needed to develop quite a bit more. So that put Blur down the list of priorities quite a lot by the time I came to thinking about it.”

“It was quite nice meeting up because we went through a lot together and we haven't really seen each much other to communicate one to one for quite a long time.”

“It's mostly Mars Bars and peanuts and cheese and you go to the fridge and there's Red Bull and Beer. It's not like people are holding me down and pouring beer in my face.”

“The other guys drink, but they don't drink anywhere near what I used to. And I think they're slightly respectful of the fact that I'm off it, so it's not a problem.”

“I liked Germany; I'm not into Berlin, it's too huge and empty and imposing, but Munich was good.”

“Playing and singing at the same time is pretty cool, but sometimes it's difficult to know when you can just really let go a bit because you've got to get back to bloody microphone and sing some stuff.”

“A singer for me is more like someone who is standing alone with a microphone like Scott Walker, rather than someone who is bashing a plank and is spitting all over a microphone.”

“You know Manchester is always a bit of a hard place for people coming from London, just with all the history. Manchester has this immensely huge and healthy history musically.”

“It's the faster bands that made me want to play guitar, bands like The Jam.”