Theirs is the story of a perfect rock-stars love team. They were good-looking, talented and famous. He was an Adonis fancied by thousands of girls around the world. Her career was taking off thanks to her clever catchy tunes such as “Stutter” and “Vaseline.” Outside of Britain they were mapping out their future. In Britain, they were the Beckhams, before Posh and David existed, of the emerging Cool Britannia.
It was a horrible experience as a celebrity and they became household names: Damon and Justine.
Their relationship was the fodder for tabloids. It helped to create the buzz but behind the limelight there was a problem.
In 1998, after a Southeast Asian trip to rekindle their relationship, they ended their relationship out of the blue and without a fuss.
As Justine Frischmann and her band Elastica released their second album, “The Menace,” in 2000 everything went down the drain. Damon Albarn’s band Blur released “13″ a year before.
The breakup inspired the songs in the album, mostly about Justine’s drug addiction and Damon’s struggle to move on.
Though she admitted that she touched drugs her depression was a mix of emotions towards her band members, the ability to bear success and the creative juice that wasn’t flowing anymore.
In a Guardian interview in 2002, she expressed her anxiety to be accepted by the fans.
“I do feel slightly like I’m having sex with the world at the moment, and I’m not sure if it’s going to like me in the morning.”
And she hated the fact that Damon, instead of talking to her and physically supporting her discreetly wrote songs about the breakup such as the singles “Tender” and “No Distance Left to Run.”
The first time she listened to “Tender” she cried. But Damon’s insistence for her to retire from music business to play down her personal problems didn’t help.
According to her, he told her that she’d demonstrated herself to be his equal and had nothing further to prove, and that she was unhappy because she wanted to have children, but wasn’t acknowledging it. She was angry about this, suspecting him of trying to reassert control rather than addressing her real problems.
Damon Albarn quickly moved on. He found a partner in the person of Suzi Winstanley and less than year of being together they had a child, Missy, who was born in October. She was to have named after Missy “Misdemenor” Elliot.
In 2004, there was a report that Suzi, an established wildlife painter along with her partner Oliver “Olly” Williams, gave him an ultimatum to stop his partying spree.
Lately, the moment I saw Damon again on Arte, a French-German TV channel, I knew that he already settled down. Devoid of vanity and superficiality, he surrounded himself with music, playing his passion and continually experimenting with sounds coming from different sources.
I was thinking, look at him, he doesn’t mind if he has a missing tooth and crow’s-feet. He was then asked by the crew of Arte’s “Tracks” what’s keeping him busy, his latest adventure. He then expressed about his new project: Peking Opera, cartoon, and circus onstage.
Gone were the days of the childlike battle with Oasis and the flirting with fame. After the years of the confused ’90s, Damon, lead singer of Blur, Gorillaz and The Good, the Bad and the Queen, has settled down.
In one of The Good, The Bad, and The Queen singles he dedicated the song “Northern Whale” to Suzi.
The eight years of love he shared and nurtured with Justine might be over but that’s all behind him now.
Damon Albarn, Blur, Elastica, The Good, The Bad and The Queen, Justine Frischmann, Suzi Winstanley, Olly Williams, Missy, Missy Elliot
