Puff puff – pass

Craggy workaholic and nineties front-cockney Damon Albarn was apparently offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to record with Prince, but turned down the Purple One because he was forbidden from lighting up a fag in the studio.

Currently doing the rounds promoting forthcoming Gorillaz album The Now Now, Albarn appeared on Gordon Smarts’s Radio X show for a hungover-eyed interview in which he told his host about a remarkable invitation he received when he was playing a gig in Prince’s native Minneapolis.

“I was having a drink and a fag,” he said. “I don’t actually smoke anymore, knocked that one on the head—but if you can’t be who you…”

He tails off a couple of times, sorry. But here’s the nub of the matter:

“If I’ve invited someone to my studio, they’re my guest, and there aren’t any conditions like that.”

His remarks really don’t get any more coherent than that I’m afraid.

“Anyway, it’s like, I can have a cigarette outside if I needed it—I’d be fucking excited, right? Why the fuck would I not want to fucking go mad if I’m with Prince? I’d rather not do it and not get pissed off with the whole thing. It’s just one of those ‘could have been’... I’ve got a few of those.”

Smart chooses not to press on with that line of enquiry, which sucks because I’d kill to know more about Albarn’s failed collaborations. Did he turned down Jack White, because White insisted he take his shoes off in the vocal booth? Or perchance Michael Jackson wanted to record a duet, but Jacko insisted Albarn have a proper shave for once so Albarn told him to fucking do one mate.

We’ll never know. Anyway, apparently there’s another Good, The Bad & The Queen album on the way as well. Say what you want about Damon Albarn, a lifetime of hard drinking and snouts haven’t slowed him down one bit.