Damon Albarn was summoned by David Bowie to discuss a potential collaboration, the Blur star has revealed. 

The musician, who is set to release his second solo album ‘The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows’ later this year, tells The Herald he “regrets” that the pair’s working relationship never took off. 

According to the singer, Bowie approached him with the possibility of joining him on a record with The Kinks’ Ray Davies, but the collaboration fell through because David’s tour proved to be too successful that he never got the chance to hit the studio. 

“David Bowie asked me and Ray Davies to make an album with him,” he recalled. “It was actually a serious thing we were going to do. 

“He summonsed me when he was playing in Switzerland into the labyrinth of his backstage and I went to see him and he said, ‘Well, we’re going to do this but if this tour keeps doing as well as it is then I’m going to carry on touring.’ “

However, the success of the Heroes star’s tour meant the pair never did make it to the recording studio together. 

“And that’s why there’s no album,” sighs Damon. “I regret that one. I just imagine what that might have sounded like.”

It’s not the only regret the Gorillaz star has about his career: “Dr Dre, Prince, and Kendrick Lamar… I missed all three of those. 

“All my fault,” he laments, “Which is quite a lot of people to miss.”

Originally intended as an orchestral piece inspired by the landscapes of Iceland, Damon’s second solo LP, ‘The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows’, saw the star return to the studio during lockdown and revisit the 11 tracks, which “explore themes of fragility, loss, emergence and rebirth”.

‘The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows’, due November 12, is available to pre-order on CD, vinyl and cassette now.