Damon Albarn Sparks Controversy with Shocking Graham Norton Jab—Audience Laughs, But Fans Aren’t Having It!
Added on February 15, 2026 inMusic News Cards
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So, Damon Albarn—yes, the Blur frontman and mastermind behind Gorillaz—is stirring the pot again, but this time, it’s over a stadium and a bit of footy rivalry. He was on The Graham Norton Show, promoting Gorillaz’s upcoming tour, and made the cheeky choice of referring to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium—yes, the very home of Spurs—as just “a large music venue in North London.” Now, here’s the kicker: Albarn’s a Chelsea fan, so you can imagine the Spurs crowd’s reaction, right? If Mars is in its fiery stride today, this kind of smacktalk might just fuel the ongoing football fan wars rather than cool things down. Makes you wonder: can a Zodiac alignment really predict the aftermath of a friendly jab? Or will Tottenham fans be holding back those concert tickets like a stubborn Leo guarding their spotlight? Either way, Albarn’s comment has certainly kicked up a storm worthy of its own halftime show. LEARN MORE
Blur frontman and Gorillaz co-creator Damon Albarn might not be getting many tickets to his concerts from Tottenham Hotspur fans after his comments on The Graham Norton Show.
Gorillaz have an upcoming tour that Albarn was on the show to promote and he sat on the sofa alongside the likes of Stephen Graham, Kaley Cuoco, Adrian Lester and Leo Woodall.
After Graham Norton welcomed him by saying it’s ‘been a minute’, the musician responded: “Well, you just haven’t invited me back.”
A rather awkward exchange followed in which Albarn claimed to have met the talkshow host in a nightclub and questioned why he was ‘never’ on his show.
Norton said: “I have no recollection of that. I must’ve been quite… drunk.”
Albarn then joked: “It must’ve been one of those nightclubs.”
Damon Albarn said he’d be playing a ‘large music venue in North London’ later this year (Rune Hellestad – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
“Yes, it must have. How funny. I may have blanked it from my mind out of awkwardness,” Norton responded before swiftly moving on.
The TV host later brought up Gorillaz’s 20 June appearance in London at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, saying it would be their ‘biggest ever gig’.
However, Albarn is a Chelsea fan and would only describe the stadium as ‘a large music venue in North London’, which drew laughs from the studio audience.
Unfortunately, his comments attracted the attention of that notoriously thin-skinned bunch known as football fans, who took to social media and started calling him names.
Some of them called him a ‘p***k’ and claimed he had always been such, though one suspects they don’t know him well enough personally to claim deep insight into his character.
A Chelsea fan ribbing Spurs fans is nothing new, and there hasn’t been much joy around Tottenham Hotspur this season.
They’ve just sacked their manager, Thomas Frank, as they languish at 16th in the Premier League so things haven’t been going great.
The club have just appointed a fellow named Igor Tudor to manage the team until the end of the season so perhaps he’ll turn things around for Spurs, give their fans something to smile about and make the Tottenham Hotspur stadium a happier place by the time Albarn brings the Gorillaz there in a few months time.
Or perhaps not, we’ll have to wait and see.
The Chelsea fan was joking about the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, which made the club’s fans very salty (Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
Gorillaz announced their tour last September, dropping a bunch of dates all over the UK and Ireland before hopping over to Europe, returning to the UK for the London date in June at the aforementioned ‘large music venue in North London’ before heading abroad once more.
Blur frontman Albarn started Gorillaz with the artist Jamie Hewlett back in 1998, with them releasing a debut album in 2001.
As for why they called the band that, there have been plenty of theories cooked up over the years, including both of the band’s creators being born in the Year of the Monkey, 1968, and that the actual origin comes from a comment made by Liam Gallagher of Oasis when he was asked about Britpop bands.
Gallagher had been asked if the rivalry between Oasis and Blur was similar to the one between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and had said his band was both ‘the Beatles and the Stones’ while Blur were ‘the f**king Monkees’.
Albarn himself has said that when he started the band, he’d wanted to stay anonymous and ‘people weren’t meant to know it was me’.
LADbible has contacted representatives of Albarn for comment.
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