Song 54: Coming Up

Coming Up - Paul McCartney, Damon Albarn, Gruff Rhys, Africa Express

This is an extremely ropey clip of a song I don't know all that well, as part of what appears to have been a rather fun escapade last summer called 'Africa Express' where a whole troupe of musicians from all paarts of Africa and around the world travelled by train round Britain playing music and generally spreading the love.

Apologies for not writing too much about that - it might seem a little perverse and narrow-minded to concentrate on the three Brits on stage as part of something called 'Africa Express', but this clip does represent to me the greatest coming together of creative talent in the history of British music. And I do mean that.

And while popular acclaim would pretty comfortably put them in the order 1. McCartney 2. Albarn 3. Rhys, my own preference, with due respect to the magnificence of Sir Paul, would reverse the order. For me, not only is Gruff Rhys the slowest talker in the world, he is the most wonderful frontman/creator of songs/general person in the history of British music. But that's just me.

What I particularly appreciate about this triumvirate is that Albarn and Rhys are truly the natural heirs to McCartney, the most musical, melodic, humane, experimental, eclectic Beatle (if one wishes to see the likes of Oasis and the Verve as heirs to Lennon that's all very good) and it's very gratifying for me to see the frontmen of Blur and the Super Furry Animals as collaborators, to know there is mutual respect there (I think their only collaboration on record is 'Superfast Jellyfish').

Damon Albarn is a phenomenon, someone who can be one moment the show-off frontman, the next moment the enabler, the conductor, whose recognised his own limitations and used them to his advantage, who seems to have no limits to his interests or potential genres. I'm sure I will devote an entry to a Blur song at one point and I think I know which one. Likewise, I'm sure I'll write more at length about a Furries song and why I love that band so much.

But for now, I just want to draw people's attention to this brief collaboration, to think how wonderful it is that these pop geniuses who just love hearing and making new sounds got together in such an odd context, and I want to continue to beat the drum for the wonderful genius of Gruff Rhys.