Blur: 'We used to take it in turns to punch each other'

Again in Hong Kong, where they recorded their album The Magic Whip, Damon, Graham, Alex and Dave speak about falling out and making up, the state of British pop music and why 90s Britpop was a wasted opportunity

Hong Kong in July could be a disorientating place for outsiders: the suffocating humidity, the density of human our bodies, the mind-jarring collision of east and west. Perhaps the very last thing you need whenever you’ve arrived there, mind fuddled with jetlag, is a conversation with Damon Albarn in full manic stream. One minute he’s speaking about refusing to leave the stage after a five-hour gig with Africa Categorical (“Am I hooked on work? Clearly”), the subsequent he’s revealing his passion for selecting wild flowers. Then he begins talking about fairies ...

“I’ve a house that’s constructed on a bit of land which was a recognised fairy group,” he says, with a straight face, once we meet backstage on the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the place Blur are because of play that night time. “We had to get a fairy lawyer in. When individuals come and stay at my home, they go and provides them an offering just to maintain them completely happy as a result of we’ve built on their land.”