Blur‘s Damon Albarn has recalled his time with the late Marianne Faithfull and shared that they used to get “quite lairy”.
The death of the iconic singer and actor was confirmed yesterday (January 30) by her representatives who announced that she had “passed away peacefully in London” at the age of 78, “in the company of her loving family.”
Mick Jagger shared a personal message to his former partner while Metallica described her as “fearless” and Morrissey said she “brought us all closer”. Sir Paul McCartney also shared a tribute, describing Faithfull as “beautiful and sweet”. A number of other artists and admirers shared tributes to Faithfull, a range of which you can find here.
Albarn recently reflected on his time with Faithfull in a chat with The Guardian, sharing how they met in the early 00s. At the time, Blur bassist Alex James would hang with her a lot and invited Albarn to a studio on the Goldhawk Road.
“I think we were all in a high party mode at the time. I sat down and had quite a good banter with her straight away,” he told the outlet.
He continued: “We were quite lairy with each other. I said: ‘I can sit down and write a song, a perfect song.’ And she said: ‘All right, well go on then.’ And I sat down and I wrote the song which became ‘Green Fields’ in one go. I don’t remember a lot more about that evening, but that’s how I met her.
“We’d always hang out with each other when I was in Paris. She’d hang out with all the Nick Cave people. I didn’t see her so much when she got back to London and the last few years I didn’t really see her at all.”
Albarn also shared how his mother was obsessed with Faithfull’s 1979 LP ‘Broken English’ and would dance around their living room singing ‘Why D’Ya Do It?’. He also described Faithfull as “lovely, beautiful, wonderful.”
Speaking about the time they had spent together, the ‘Song 2’ hitmaker said: “We always had a laugh. She had an endless source of incredible, somewhat salacious stories about people who had all become much more circumscribed in their behaviour. She was always a bit cynical about how people were transformed into pillars of the establishment. But she was always true to her creed.”
In 2002, Blur and Faithfull teamed up on the track ‘Kissin Time’ from the latter’s 15th album of the same name. He also opened up about the song and said: “I only vaguely remember it. I mean, look, we were just another of her backing bands.”
Speaking of the track in an interview with Concert Live Wire back in 2002, Faithfull said: “It’s sort of about Damon (Albarn) and sort of about me. I’ve been close to Blur for a long time, especially Alex James, who really brought Damon and the others to me. My relationship with Damon is very special, and we know each other very well.”
Elsewhere, Blur’s Graham Coxon also paid tribute to the late singer and actor. Taking to his personal X/Twitter account, Coxon shared a black and white photo of Faithfull and tweeted: “You’re the only person that said the things I really needed to hear at a time when I really needed to hear http://them.you gave me the confidence/ permission to “fly” and to shake off self consciousness/doubt-you told me I was beautiful when I felt ugly- 4eva in your debt.”
you’re the only person that said the things I really needed to hear at a time when I really needed to hear https://t.co/o0g2CFa70F gave me the confidence/ permission to “fly” and to shake off self consciousness/doubt-you told me I was beautiful when I felt ugly- 4eva in your debt pic.twitter.com/QVIUnWkTKs
— graham coxon (@grahamcoxon) January 30, 2025
Faithfull was a key figure in the ‘Swinging London’ arts and music scene in the ’60s, becoming one of the leading female artists during the British Invasion era. She is remembered for hits including ‘As Tears Go By’ and for her roles on stage and screen.
It was her association with The Rolling Stones, however, that drove her public profile to a significant extent. Having married the artist John Dunbar in 1965, with whom she had a son Nicholas, she left her husband for Jagger the following year, with whom she had a four-year relationship.
She is often considered to have been a “muse” for the band, and is thought to have inspired songs such as ‘You Can’t Always Get What You Want’ and ‘Wild Horses’. She also co-wrote their song ‘Sister Morphine’, although she had to win the rights to be credited as a writer in a long legal battle years later.
In 2021, she spoke about how a near-fatal battle with COVID-19 had threatened to take away her ability to sing. She had been hospitalised in March 2020 and received 22 days of treatment, but said a year later that she was still feeling the effects.
A biopic of her life, titled Faithfull, has been in production since 2020 but has yet to be completed.
Elsewhere, fans have also been sharing footage from Faithfull’s final ever concert, which took place at Le Bataclan in Paris in 2016 and saw her playing a number of her best known songs, along with covers of Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan.
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