25/04/2014 The One Show

You join us live in The One Show studio, where the band have finished

rehearsing for tonight's performance. For the first time,

Damon Albarn joins us and performs live track from

Damon Albarn joins us and performs album. Don't call him Damon West

Bromwich Albion Albom. He hates that.

Hello. Welcome to The One Show with Alex Jones. And Chris Evans. This

month saw the 20th anniversary of Britpop being celebrated and our

guest tonight is a man who defined this era with songs like this.

# All the people # So many people

# They all go hand-in-hand # Hand-in-hand through their park

life #. Yes, we do. That was Parklife by

Blur. We are joined by Damon Albarn. We could not believe it, 20 years

since Parklife. It is a long time ago, isn't it? You have done a lot

of stuff since then, including your first-ever solo album. I was back in

Leytonstone, I played a really small gig in Leytonstone library. I went

over for a drink before the show and there were these two guys, who go

under the name of the Gents, and they were doing a cockney knees that

evening at St George's, and yes, I went back after my gig, went back

there and ended up doing a knees up version of Parklife with them, which

was really fun. Well, feel free. There is a keyboard over their!

There is not a love live music on TV, you know that. It was just a

piano and shouting, which is really good for a pub at 11pm. That is

within our budget as well, isn't it? It is! It is within everyone's

budget. It was a golden age for music, it is 20 years and a couple

of kids ago for most of us. We want to see pictures of you from back

then, the hairstyles, the gigs you went to, and you have to send in a

current picture of yourself. So we can compare the two. We will not

take the first without the second. We will look at some later. This

weekend, millions of pounds are predicted to be bid at auction for

what is the definitive off the wall sale. That is because all the works

are by the infamous graffiti artist, Banksy.

The Bristol street artist Banksy has risen to the top of the art world by

using public spaces like these to illustrate striking, provocative

images. He has been back in the public eye after two new works

appeared in Cheltenham and Bristol. But what is a piece of street art

turns up on your wall? Is it yours? Can you cash in on it, or does it

belong to the public? This week is the opening of Stealing Banksy, the

most expensive collection of Banksy artworks ever to be assembled under

one roof. The artwork for sale includes girl with a balloon, which

could make one lucky property owner very rich by going for as much as

?500,000. Tony Baxter has organised the exhibition and sale. Why

Stealing Banksy? We have been accused of many things, one of them

is we go out and steal Banksy. Nothing could be further from the

truth, but we thought we would put the show want to explore the moral,

social and legal applications of this. Who owns these? They are owned

by the building owners. They approach us and ask if we will help

remove it, salvage it, restore it and sell it. When people own the

building, like the one behind us, they own the concrete. Duvet they

own the intellectual property? How -- can they sell this? It is your

property, whatever is on it, you own it. A lot of people criticise the

money involved, they say it is shameless profiteering. What do you

say to that? It has been a difficult process for us. We get death

threats. We don't go to people and tell them to take pieces off the

walls. We make sure the money is given to charity and it is done in

the best possible way it can be and in 100 years' time, these pieces

will still be in existence. Of art collectors prepared to splash the

cash on Banksy As, I have headed to short list to ask street art tour

guide Richard if he thinks these urban masterpieces belong under a

bridge, or under a hammer. I think it is against the ethos to remove

works that are intended for a public space, bring them inside, auction

them off under an auspice of charity and then ultimately sell them to a

rich elite, who are going to take them out of the public realm forever

and put them on display, like trophies. You work with street

artists. Does it matter to them that it is in the public domain? Or is it

just wherever they campaigned? Every street artist wants their work to be

in public. They want it to be seen by the public and engage with them.

Once they make a public work, they lose control and give ownership to

the community. Yes. So who are the new Banksys? I have got Richard to

show me some of the artists creating some of the must see street art.

People keep taking photos, who should they be looking out for? This

is Run. He does large-scale, figurative work all around the

world. This one creates very graphic, bright, bold heads. A guy

called Christian does weird mushrooms on rooftops. Another dozen

giant black and white animals. It is an exciting movement, a lot to get

involved with and see? Yes, a huge art movement. The biggest in the

world. It has power because people are interested in it, it is

relevant, it is outside. Gallery art has a place, but street art is the

current art of the now. Finding street art on your wall may be a

winning lottery ticket, but some is easier to remove than others. Good

luck shifting this one! What an intriguing sale. Damon, as

somebody who has commissioned Banksy to do some artworks, how do you do

that? He works at night, maybe with a team, maybe three of him, how do

you commission him? Well, I know... Whoever he is. How did you get to

know him? Did you meet him at a party? When we did our first

Gorillaz video, we filmed the bridge at the top of the Road in west

London and it had one of early on there. We did not know who we was,

no one knew who he was. We put it in the video and threw someone we

knew, he contacted as saying he was a bit annoyed that we haven't asked

him, but we did not know who he was. So we met him and became great

friends. It is definitely at him? LAUGHTER

. He is male. Were you excited about meeting him? Intrigues? When I met

him, he was just a graffiti artist. There was a lot of graffiti, we

hadn't identified it as being a great piece of work. It was just on

the bridge. It was arbour eatery to us. -- arbitrary. I bugging you

found a Banksy the other day? When I first got to know him, I

subsequently commissioned him to do the last Blur record, Think Tank

cover, one of our conversations, one of our evenings, he brought round a

piece of work. I put it in a cupboard and completely forgot about

it. Then we were cleaning up that part of the studio a few months ago

and found this very nice... Very nice, very early Banksy. Back to the

music scene. We have been talking Britpop, which started in 1994. Lets

travel before that to the story behind one of the most famous

anthems from the Merseybeat era. The sound of the 60s was all about

Liverpool. The Merseybeat was topping the charts in the UK and in

the States. But it wasn't just about the Beatles. In 1963, one man was

set to make history. Topping the charts with their first three

releases, how do you do it, I like it and you'll never walk alone. The

band was Gerry and the Pacemakers. The following year, they released a

song that would become the arms of Merseyside. # So ferry cross the

Mersey. # Cause this land's the place I

love. His name was Brian Eckstein. His

other band was the Beatles. They just made a hard day's night. Brian

said, Gerry, I have a solid view. I said, don't be daft he came up with

Ferry Cross The Mersey, written by Tony Warren, who did Coronation

Street. He said, have a look at that and see if you can write some songs.

There was the day we did not have a video for records, we could not sell

it in Australia and the states all in one week, so you could send them

out of the film. This is like your ferry, isn't it? Yes, it is, it is

so long since I have been here. Three days, actually! The pressure

was to try to do the sight of -- the type of song for the film which

captured Liverpool, Liverpool people and the ferries. That was the hard

part. My girlfriend, I took her out for dinner, I heard in my head...

And I thought that is the ferries. So I stopped the car, jumped out,

run to a telephone box, rang my mother and said, mum, quick, go and

get my tape machine and press play and record. She said, what? I said,

come on, I will forget it. I sang it. Down the phone? You were put in

your coins in. I put them in, finished it quickly, run to the car

and said to my child bride, sorry, I am taking you home, in my head,

Ferry Cross The Mersey. I heard this in my head. That is the sound of the

ferry. # Life goes on day after day

# Heart is torn in every way. #. The thing that most important to

me, people around every corner, they seem to smile and say we don't care

what your name is, boy, we will never turn you away. That is what

Liverpool is, what they are to meet, and that is why I put it in.

# We'll never turn you away #. White That is when I feel happy

telling people what we do. The song made it to number eight in the

charts in 1965. 24 years later it reached the number one slot, but in

tragic circumstances. The Hillsborough Disaster Fund. -- the

Hillsborough disaster. Gerry rereleased it to help friends. They

needed help. The only way I could think of doing it was by putting a

record out and all the proceeds going to the fund. Thank God, Paul

McCartney helps me, Holly Johnson, God bless him, and the Christians.

For Garry Christian, it was a chance to reinterpret childhood classic. Is

this a song you had grown up with? Yes, it is an iconic Liverpool song.

The way the kids sing it, Ferry Cross The Mersey... When I was doing

my bit of the song, I'd have tried to put a bit of soul into it. It is

exactly 50 years since Gerry wrote the song and along with the ferry

there is little songs there is little sign that either is going out

of fashion. A lovely film. Well done, Gerry. And

from the Christians as well. Yes. She has no idea! I think you were

fog or five years old. I know what you are talking about. We saw Gerry

ringing his mum and singing down the phone so she could record it. What

did she record it on? A cassette recorder. Did you do anything

similar with your new album? Well, it is a good idea when you get an

idea to record it. What do you use? Mostly my iPad, these days. The

great thing about an iPad, you can prop it up on a window and you can

sing and it will film what is going on outside the window while you are

writing the tune and very nice, great. It is like a diary of when

you wrote the song. Exactly, I like doing that. We have been trying to

figure out what Everyday Robots is about, about technology, and

elephants and parakeets. That is not a song... An interlude. Ambient. For

you and technology, you have a 14-year-old daughter. 14 and a half.

Very important. Very useful. How has your album passed the 14 and a half

-year-old daughter test? Initially, she said it was a bit slow and

boring, dad. I think she has warmed to it. She has always been listening

to what I am doing and learns the lyrics. She's good at learning

stuff, as kids of that age Dann-macro They have enough time.

They the brain capacity. It is terrifying, watching that generation

grow up, because so much of their life is focused on this rectangle

that they carry around, almost like it is the world itself. It is

unclear whether you are for or against technology. Well, I think

that's good. I think if you are a songwriter, you should not be

judgemental. You've got to have that ambiguity. Otherwise when people

listen to a song, they are not able to make their own mind that if it is

too clearly one way or the other. OK, Ferry Cross the

-- Everyday Robots, let's look at the title track.

# We are everyday robots on our phones

# In the process of getting home # Looking like standing stones

# Out there on our own. # You love a good visual, don't you?

That is my skull, reconstructed. It is a computer programme that they

use in crime scenes, as well. It's quite a morbid thing, actually.

Well, it is Friday, let's pick it up a little! Sorry about that! As we

mentioned earlier, there is a parakeet interlude. We have a film

all about parrot 's, so that's pretty convenient.

They swarm in their thousands. Yet piercing screeches fill the air,

ominous green flashes cover the skies. Whatever it was that brought

ringnecked parakeet is to the UK, they have more than made it their

home. Until recently, it seemed they were little more than a colourful

addition to British wildlife. Now there is mounting evidence this is

not a benign invasion. It seems we are under attack! These natives from

India mysteriously appeared in the wild here in the late 60s. It is not

known how they got here, but the most exotic explanation is that they

escaped from the African Queen film in West London. Sir Humphrey Bogart

is persuaded by missionary Katharine Hepburn to attack a war set. The

producers brought some of the African jungle back to the filmset,

according, so the story goes, a mating pair of parakeets. It is

thought that pet owners, sick of their piercing call, released them

into the wild. It's now exploded into a population of more than

32,000 birds. Now they are starting to spread across the UK. So, will

these parakeet hotspots form colonies of thousands of birds as

well? Manchester is the first chilly furthest north that a colony appears

to have been established. Steve Atkins has been observing the

population. The numbers are really going up. If we go back five years,

we were encountering them in single figures. In the last few weeks we

have a record count of 44, the highest number seen in the area. How

do you think they got here? That's an interesting question. There are a

number of theories. There were incidents of vandalism in the 70s,

cages were broken and birds escaped. I would imagine that is the likely

source of the local birds. They are clearly breeding in Manchester. But

sightings of single birds have even been reported as far north as St

Andrews in Scotland. So, is this spread a problem? They have been

called secateurs with wings for the way they desiccate fruit crops.

Grace corals of the skies for devouring bird table offerings. It

is this really true? New research just published in the journal

Behavioural Ecology says there is cause for concern. Parakeets appear

to be affecting the way native birds behave. Doctor Alex Lauder is one of

the scientists is that conducted the study. How did you conduct the

research? We had 41 members of the public that volunteered their

gardens. We would go to the gardens and set up a bird feeder. We looked

at the behaviour of native birds. When you put a parakeet near a bird

feeder, compared to one of the native birds. They were placed next

to big bird feeders. Half of them have a parakeet placed in the cage,

the other half had a similarly sized native woodpecker. When the parakeet

was next to the feeder, fewer birds were visiting and they were less

likely to eat any food. In the presence of the woodpecker, native

birds were more likely to visit the nearby feeder. Were they bullying

the other birds? They are not particularly aggressive and we did

not see any aggressive behaviour. So it is probably more of a fear of the

unknown. As numbers in Manchester are expected to rise, native birds

might have to go further afield to find food. Or get used to their new,

noisy neighbours. But how big are the Manchester population get? In

the Manchester area we are probably talking low hundreds. That is what

it would have been in London 20 or 30 years ago. So, what we are

expecting is that the population will gradually grow and eventually

gets to much higher numbers. With parakeets firmly established in

London, spreading their wings to Manchester, who knows where they

will turn up next? Maybe to a park near you!

Mike is here with a couple of parakeets that really blend with our

sofa. Why do you think they have been so successful in breeding? Most

people associate them with the tropics and steamy jungles, but this

is a bird from the subtropics, the Himalayas. We are talking about the

foothills, where they get incredibly cold winters. The British climate is

no problem for them. They can cope with the worst climate we can throw

at them. They also nest very early, in big trees, huge oak trees, lots

of holes and cavities. So early in the year that they often get in

there before native birds like woodpeckers and jackdaws. Possession

is nine tenths of the law. They are omnivorous, they eat anything, and

they are opportunistic. Anybody who has a bird table in East London...

You are familiar with them? And he loves them. The ones I have seen, I

don't know, they might be that larger? These are young birds, they

don't have the full ring around the neck. They get bigger than that? The

ones I have seen are like that. When they are flying, they look big,

beautiful, long tails. In a year's time they will look like the ones

you are familiar with. What are they like as pets? They are tricky. They

can live to 30 years old, macaws can live to 70. They are almost

teenagers in arrested development. If you are not home, they love

company, they get stressed and nervous and pluck their feathers.

Big investment in time and money. They need a lot of interaction and

they can be quite noisy. If you take on a parrot, a baby parrot, you are

an adult, you have to think of them outliving you? They'll easily

outlive you, Chris! Maybe not me or diamond. Well, back to the Britpop

years! Take the parrots out, please. Just because we have the music

coming, not because of what you said! We asked for your pictures

from the heyday of Britpop. This is Stacey, aged 18, 1994. Here she is

now, still looking happy. This is Heather at an Oasis gig, sorry. This

is Heather today. Jamie Bowman, look at him, 1994. What a cool dude.

Doesn't get any cooler than having a kid, there he is today. He looks a

bit like Jamie Cullum. Another famous Jamie. Go and get yourself

ready for your song. Thanks for being here.

You got his name right the whole time! Didn't have a chance to get it

wrong. I'm going to kill you! Just to remind everybody there is just

over one week to go to enter The One Show summer art come petition, for a

chance to see your work hanging on the walls of the Royal Academy in

London. We are after your best paintings and drawings. For the

first time, 13-17 year olds are a category. All the terms and

conditions on the website. Playing is out with the song Hostiles from

his debut solo album, Everyday Robots, half an Monday, it is...

Damon Albarn. Have a great weekend, goodbye.

# When the service is done # And the parish for some

# And the midfrequencies come # To keep you away

# When your body aches # From the dreams you keep

# And the hours pass by # Just left on repeat

# It'll be a silent day # I share with you

# Fighting off the hostiles # With who we collude

# Hoping to find the key # In this play of communications

# Between you and me # When the LCDs

# Are all the Player Ones you can be # Put your foot down in the right

hand lane # If you are with me

# Till the trains re-route # And the rush-hour as come

# And the midfrequencies, some # Have sent you to sleep

# It'll be a silent day # I share with you

# Fighting off the hostiles # With who we collude

# Hoping to to find the key # In this play of communications

# Between you and me. BBC Radio 5 live

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