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 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 very last thing you want if you’ve arrived there, mind fuddled with jetlag, is a dialog with Damon Albarn in full manic move. 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 home that’s constructed 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 Conference and Exhibition Centre, where Blur are because of play that night time. “We had to get a fairy lawyer in. When individuals come and stay at my house, they go and provides them an offering just to maintain them joyful because we’ve constructed on their land.”