Editing Damon Albarn (section)

==Early life==
Albarn was born in [[Whitechapel]], [[London]]. He is the eldest child of artist [[Keith Albarn]] and his wife Hazel (''née'' Dring).<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Sweeney |first=Eamon |title=Damon Albarn interview: 'I think my life has been a bit too colourful to be quite ready for an autobiography' |url=https://www.businesspost.ie/culture/damon-albarn-interview-i-think-my-life-has-been-a-bit-too-colourful-to-be-quite-ready-for-an-autobiography-756231e5 |access-date=2022-03-08 |website=Business Post |language=en |archive-date=8 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308224512/https://www.businesspost.ie/culture/damon-albarn-interview-i-think-my-life-has-been-a-bit-too-colourful-to-be-quite-ready-for-an-autobiography-756231e5 |url-status=live }}</ref> He has some Danish descent through his mother.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/leisure/national/19710547.damon-albarn-discusses-new-citizenship-sense-wasnt-just-english/|title=Damon Albarn discusses new citizenship and 'sense he wasn't just English'|website=Salisburyjournal.co.uk|date=11 November 2021|access-date=6 January 2023|archive-date=6 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230106152445/https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/leisure/national/19710547.damon-albarn-discusses-new-citizenship-sense-wasnt-just-english/|url-status=live}}</ref> Their daughter Jessica (born 1971) also went on to become an artist.<ref name="Maconie">Maconie, Stuart (1999). ''Blur: 3862 Days, The Official History''. Virgin Books; {{ISBN|0-7535-0287-9}}</ref> Hazel, originally from [[Lincolnshire]], was a theatrical set designer for [[Joan Littlewood]]'s theatre company at the [[Theatre Royal Stratford East]] in London, and was working on the [[satirical]] play ''[[Mrs Wilson's Diary]]'' just before Damon was born.<ref name=Maconie /><ref name=Harris2003/> Keith, originally from [[Nottinghamshire]], was briefly the manager of [[Soft Machine]] and was once a guest on BBC's ''[[Late Night Line-Up]]''.<ref name=Maconie/><ref name="Harris2003">Harris, John (2003) [https://web.archive.org/web/20090402214804/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/damon-albarn-from-cool-britannia-to-radical-campaigner-for-peace-597655.html "Damon Albarn: From Cool Britannia to radical campaigner for peace"], ''[[The Independent]]'', 15 February 2003.</ref> He was head of the Colchester School of Art at [[Colchester Institute]].<ref name=Harris2003/><ref>{{cite web |title=Colchester School of Art |website=[[Colchester Institute]] |url=https://www.colchester.ac.uk/colchester-school-of-art/ |access-date=30 December 2020 |quote=At Colchester School of Art we are proud to have a history dating from 1885, the year the original Art School was founded. |archive-date=19 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119210631/https://www.colchester.ac.uk/colchester-school-of-art/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Damon's paternal grandfather Edward, an architect,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.samscorergallery.co.uk/antonin-bartl-100-years-retrospective/|title=Antonin Bartl 100 years Retrospective {{!}}|website=Samscorergallery.co.uk|access-date=9 May 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160528085610/http://www.samscorergallery.co.uk/antonin-bartl-100-years-retrospective/|archive-date=28 May 2016}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/eastmidlands/series6/lincolnshire_peace_community_conscientious_objector.shtml|title=BBC Inside Out – Lincolnshire Peace Community|publisher=BBC|access-date=9 May 2016|archive-date=16 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016153709/http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/eastmidlands/series6/lincolnshire_peace_community_conscientious_objector.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> had been a conscientious objector during the [[Second World War]] and was involved in a farming community in [[Lincolnshire]], becoming a peace activist. In 2002 Edward Albarn died; Damon stated in an interview that Edward did not want to live any longer and decided to go on a [[hunger strike]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=Mulholland>{{cite journal|last=Mulholland|first=Gary|title=Special relationships|journal=[[The Observer]]|date=21 September 2003|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/sep/21/popandrock.blur|access-date=18 September 2012|archive-date=24 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024011949/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2003/sep/21/popandrock.blur|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1968, at the age of six months, Albarn was a "testing expert" for designs for educational aids and toys for children including fibreglass furniture and play-structures fancifully called "The Kissmequiosk". "The Apollo Cumfycraft" and "The Tailendcharlie" produced by his father's company "[[Keith Albarn]] & Partners Ltd" under the trade-name of "Playlearn, Ltd."<ref>{{cite web |author=Stephen K. Oberbeck |url=http://aliciapatterson.org/stories/massage-parlors-jaded-senses |title=Massage Parlors for Jaded Senses &#124; Alicia Patterson Foundation |publisher=Aliciapatterson.org |access-date=30 April 2014 |archive-date=6 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140606084416/http://aliciapatterson.org/stories/massage-parlors-jaded-senses |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Damon Albarn (Waltham Forest Heritage).jpg|thumb|right|Commemorative plaque at 21 Fillebrook Road [[Leytonstone]], East London, where Albarn was brought up]]
When Damon and Jessica were growing up, their family moved to [[Leytonstone]], East London.<ref name=Maconie/> The household was described as "[[Bohemianism|bohemian]]"<ref name="Ankeny">Ankeny, Jason [{{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p50874/biography|pure_url=yes}} "Damon Albarn Biography"], AllMusic, Macrovision Corporation</ref> and their upbringing as "liberal".<ref name=Harris2003/> Damon and Jessica were also raised in the [[Quaker]] religion. Albarn agreed with his parents' views, later claiming, "I always thought my parents were absolutely dead right. I went against the grain in a weird way – by continually following them."<ref name=Harris2003/> His parents primarily listened to [[blues]], Indian [[ragas]] and [[African music]].<ref name=Maconie/> When Albarn was nine years old, his family took a holiday trip to [[Turkey]] for three months before settling in [[Aldham, Essex|Aldham Fordstreet, Essex]], an area described by Albarn as "one of those burgeoning [[Margaret Thatcher|Thatcher]] experiments where they were building loads of small estates".<ref name="pulse">''[[No Distance Left to Run (film)|No Distance Left To Run]]''. Pulse Films (2010)</ref> The population of the area was predominantly [[White British|white]] as opposed to the ethnically mixed part of London which he had become used to. He described himself as "not really fitting in with the politics of the place."<ref name=pulse/>

Albarn was interested in music from an early age, attending an [[The Osmonds|Osmonds]] concert at the age of six.<ref name=smh>{{cite web|title=sometime in 2001, Zombie Hip-Hop|url=http://www.gorillaz-unofficial.com/media_archive/smhinterview01.htm|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|access-date=2 October 2012|year=2001|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305150450/http://www.gorillaz-unofficial.com/media_archive/smhinterview01.htm|archive-date=5 March 2016}}</ref> He started playing guitar, piano and violin in his youth and was interested in composing music, one of his compositions winning a heat in the nationwide Young Composer of the Year competition.<ref name=Maconie/><ref name=smh/> Damon and Jessica both attended a primary school nearby which, according to Damon, was [[Arson|burnt down]] seven times over a period of 18 months by one of the teachers. After both siblings failed their [[Eleven-Plus exam]]s, they started attending [[The Stanway School|Stanway Comprehensive School]], where Damon described himself as being "really unpopular" and "[irritating to] a lot of people".<ref name=pulse /> However, he developed an interest in drama and started acting in various school productions.<ref name=Maconie/><ref name=pulse/> It was at Stanway where he would meet future Blur guitarist [[Graham Coxon]], who recalls seeing him act and feeling that he was a "confident performer" as well as a "show off".<ref name=pulse/> Albarn's first words directed at Coxon were "Your [[brogues]] are crap, mate. Look, mine are the proper sort"<ref name=Maconie/> as he was showing off his leather shoes, fashionable footwear at the time influenced by the [[Mod Revival]].<ref name=pulse /> Nevertheless, the pair went on to become good friends, owing to their shared passion for music, particularly bands such as [[the Jam]], [[the Beatles]], [[the Human League]], [[XTC]] and [[Madness (band)|Madness]].<ref name=Maconie/> Albarn has also credited [[the Specials]] and [[Fun Boy Three]] as some of his earliest influences,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVCg4BnxtGY&gl=US&hl=en|title=Damon Albarn On First Songs He Wrote With Graham Coxon – YouTube|website=[[YouTube]]|date=10 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140410143343/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVCg4BnxtGY&gl=US&hl=en|access-date=13 November 2021|archive-date=10 April 2014}}</ref> and [[John Lennon]] in his taking up songwriting.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/music/musicnews/damon-albarn-wished-worked-john-lennon-1164780.html|title=Damon Albarn wished he worked with John Lennon|date=September 26, 2018|website=Femalefirst.co.uk|access-date=17 August 2020|archive-date=23 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201123195445/https://www.femalefirst.co.uk/music/musicnews/damon-albarn-wished-worked-john-lennon-1164780.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

He studied acting at the [[East 15 Acting School]] in [[Debden, Epping Forest|Debden]], but left after the first year. On leaving drama school he entered a production and management contract with Marijke Bergkamp and Graeme Holdaway, owners of the Beat Factory recording studio, where the members of Blur, then known as Seymour, did their first recordings. His first band was the [[synthpop]] group, Two's a Crowd.<ref name=Ankeny/> Before Blur, he played with the Aftermath and Real Lives.<ref name="Harris2003"/>