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

Back in Hong Kong, the place 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 alternative

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

“I’ve a home that’s built on a bit of land which was a recognised fairy group,” he says, with a straight face, once we meet backstage at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, where Blur are on account of play that night time. “We needed to get a fairy lawyer in. When individuals come and stay at my home, they go and give them an providing simply to maintain them joyful because we’ve constructed on their land.”