stories from the city; damon albarn

56-

Ewan McGregor was a man of his word. And he'd promised his wife that they would go see Blur headline this damn festival backstage. So, after a long couple of hours, the two had pulled themselves out of bed, donned their clothes again and made their way towards the backstage area.

He was feeling more sober, and now guilty for having beaten the shit out of the band's frontman Damon Albarn, despite the singer being a piece of shit- who for some reason loved taunting him with the fact that his wife used to sleep with him.

But- he was here now. In the enemies territory, watching he made his rounds on stage, preparing to rule over the 20,000 some people in attendance that night. Ewan was starting to understand Damon's ego- I mean, thousands of people were paying thousands of dollars to see him.

That has to do something to you.

As the band started up, he had his arms wrapped around Chloe's waist snugly, the two of them watching right by the edge of the stage excitedly. While she was practically bursting at the seems and jumping around, Ewan stood still, as if he was still getting used to the scene in front of him.

In fact, the music was good, almost so good that he was willing to forgive the fact that it was coming from Damon Albarn.

The first song had been deliberately upbeat and paced quickly, and Ewan found himself dancing with his wife, not even reluctantly, he was just happy to be there.

But then- it had faded into No Distance Left to Run, leaving solemn looks between him and Chloe. As quickly as the moment had started it had faded and been replaced with the depressing nature that was the song detailing Damon and Justine.

Damon looked like a nervous wreck, his head facing down towards the ground as Graham began playing the riff.

Ewan on the other hand, pulled Chloe closer to him, pressing a kiss to her head. Just wanting to feel more secure in that moment. Most people want that. Security.

As he kept singing, Damon found himself glance over to the side of the stage, where he saw the couple he'd been thinking of recently.

He couldn't think of that at the moment. Not during this song.

While it had been written about Justine, he felt that in ways he had isolated himself from Chloe as a way to keep himself from getting hurt. Especially since she was settling down with her freak of a husband.

And just looking over at them, seeing them peering at him with wide eyes, knowing who they thought it was about, close to each other, arms wrapped around one another, it made his throat want to crack up.

It felt miserable.

Chloe, had locked eyes with him for a second. She didn't know why he had looked over, let alone thought of her. But she knew it had happened. And apparently Ewan did too, as his hold on her seemed to anxiously tighten.

And the song ended

Ewan muttering "That was downright depressing, huh?"

She nods her head, sniffling a little bit.

"Are you crying?" He asks

She nods "That song, it's beautiful." She whispers "Especially knowing who it's for and all."

"Justine?"

She nods again "Yeah. They had a rough time. And hearing him vocalize it, god. It's just raw emotion."

Damon walked offstage for a brief moment to grab something, looking over at Chloe and Ewan and smiling "Don't cry, they patched me up alright? See?" he says pointing to the bandage on his head, winking at her before walking back out.

Beetlebum starting.

Oh god. It was like he wanted her to think about everything.

As the crowd roared with approval over the song being played, everyone watched as the crowd began to sing along with Damon in complete unison. Even those that were backstage were doing it.

Including Chloe.

So in that moment when it reached the chorus, Damon grew silent, bathing in the roars of his own lyrics, before sheepishly grinning at the crowd. It was madness. He'd never seen that happen before. Nowhere near as collected or anything.

Ewan and Chloe are lightly swaying, however Ewan is paying less attention to the performance and more or less to his own thoughts.

He was starting to wonder if any of Blur's songs had been penned about his wife. And if so which ones.

Was that why she'd wanted to come?

He really didn't want to get jealous at the moment, but it was hard, watching your wife cry over her ex performing on stage.

As he grew to watch the performance, something about Damon singing the words "she turns me on" made him squeamish. He couldn't imagine himself ever saying the sentence outloud. And that's when he remembered the song was about heroin.

And that he was being a bit too self centered.

With that, he pulled himself into Blur's performance, watching Graham Coxon's delivery of the solo closely. Finding himself starting to grow emotional as well. The song was intoxicating to say the least and it made him anxious, leaving him on the edge of his seat, as Graham leaned over, continuing on with his soloing.

And it finished. And he found himself giving a round of applause for the band as well- actually he threw them a large whistle instead, watching as Chloe jumped around, her hands clapping as if she'd just learned how to do it.

The show only seem to get more intimate by the minute- with Damon going down into the crowd, letting himself get swarmed by his sweaty and packed in fans. Then upon his return to the stage, he took a triumphant swirl around, before regaining his composure.

That made Chloe laugh- that was still the same old Damon, who had a lack of control on stage. Although now, he really knew how to milk a crowd.

To her biggest surprise, was Song 2 actually being played, she'd expected that track to be left in the fucking dust.

Especially since it was Reading and Leeds.

And as Damon began his first lurch of "woohoos", Ewan spun Chloe around to face him and said "are we going to dance or what?"

She nodded her head yes and then she took his hands in his and the pair started jumping around, Ewan occasionally spinning her around, or pulling her in. Chloe was more or less stuck with her usual jumping, or mimicry of Mia Wallace in Pulp Fiction.

Once again the audience was singing along, and so were Chloe and Ewan. Who had actually been joined by Maxis Erlich. He snuck up on them before being inducted into the dance circle occurring in front of him.

And even he knew the words.

So- there stood a movie star, a photographer and a rockstar singing along to a British Band's least favorite song.

In front of 20,000 people, backstage at a concert.

It was insane.

"Enjoying the show are we?" Maxis asks, nudging Ewan, who eagerly shakes his head

"God yes," Chloe says "I forgot how good they were live."

Maxis chuckles "I did too. Although I do think they've grown in character. This is a much better performance than the one I saw in the early years."

And with that, the group went back to jumping around, Maxis Erlich practically head banging to the track.

And between all of the chaos, Damon wasn't even singing. He was just holding his microphone out to the audience.