Verse, Chorus, Monster!: Graham Coxon

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In an effort to be open and honest about myself and what I was capable of, I concluded that it would be risky for me to engage in the promotion and touring for this album,” Coxon reveals. “There were still plenty of counsellors around me advising, ‘Be careful what you get yourself involved with.’” Verse, Chorus, Monster! is an intimate, honest reflection on music, fame, addiction and art by one of Britain’s most iconic musicians. A recent piece in the Guardian noted the striking number of musicians in hardcore punk who had grown up as army kids. Born in Germany, Coxon also moved around bases, living the kind of unsupervised 1970s childhood full of sharp edges and casual violence that seems heart-rending now. Raised in Derbyshire and not rich, Coxon was particularly vexed when Blur were cast as posh southern kids to the more hardscrabble Oasis.

Among the noise and clamour of the Britpop era, Blur co-founder Graham Coxon managed to carve out a niche to become one of the most innovative and respected guitarists of his generation – but it wasn’t always easy. Blur released their five career-making albums, Modern Life Is Rubbish, Parklife, The Great Escape, Blur and 13, in the space of seven years – the same amount of time that has now passed since the release of their last album to date, 2015’s The Magic Whip. But, busy with their own projects, each bandmember is happy with the idea of Blur as, in Coxon’s words, “an open-ended concept, a wayward beast that we eventually managed to keep on a leash”. But there are things they don’t tell you before you get famous. There are monsters out there. And some may even be lurking inside yourself. Graham grew up as an Army kid, moving frequently in his early years from West Germany to Derbyshire and Winchester before settling in Colchester, Essex. A shy child, he had a thing for eating soil and drawing intense visions; his anxiety was tempered by painting and a growing love of music.Awareness of alcoholism and mental-heath issues forced Coxon to temporarily leave Blur, and have since become central to his well-being

These twin passions grew into obsessions, and as he honed his artistic skill at school, Goldsmiths and beyond, his band with school friend Damon Albarn, fellow student Alex James, and a drummer called Dave Rowntree began to get noticed. Much of the rivalry was framed in terms of class,” Coxon observes. “Oasis were seen as genuine, rough-diamond examples of the working-class North, while Blur were cast as Southern, arty-farty, pretentious gits.” But though he admits to his group’s “arty-farty” leanings, Coxon emphasis that “the description conveniently glossed over several fairly important facts”, including his own childhood as an army kid – “not middle-class by any stretch of the imagination” – amid other privations. At the time I felt, ‘What’s the point in manufacturing this rivalry? We’re all from England and we’ve won the war on grunge. Let’s just flipping enjoy being British bands who are doing well.’” Drawing has been just as important a creative outlet for him as playing guitar – if not more important, as “art therapy” Signed and numbered art print (giclée) by Graham, dimensions 234 x 156mm. Printed on 300gsm Somerset Cream or similar.

All this is a matter of public record. Written with the journalist Rob Young – author of Electric Eden, a primer on British folk music’s transporting qualities – Coxon’s memoir does not reveal anything very new about a much-catalogued era. verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{

His discomfort with sexism – and success – was played out in interviews. Coxon’s then-partner was in the riot grrrl band Huggy Bear and at the height of Blur’s fame, Coxon retreated from “high street Blur” into the grassroots DIY punk scene. Other tensions tugged at Blur – both Coxon and drummer Dave Rowntree struggled with alcoholism. Coxon entered rehab in 2001, and the rest of Blur made their album Think Tank without him.After Blur’s breakthrough album, Parklife, beat Oasis’ Definitely Maybe to win the 1995 BRIT Award for British Album Of The Year, the media – and Oasis’ Noel and Liam Gallagher – were keen to stoke further competition between the two groups. When, in the summer of 1996, it became clear that Blur’s song Country House, the lead single from their The Great Escape album, would be released on the same day as Oasis’ Roll With It, the “Battle Of Britpop” had begun: “the media pounced on the idea of a race to the top of the charts”, Graham Coxon writes in Verse, Chorus, Monster! But, according to the Blur guitarist, things weren’t quite as they seemed.