Graham Coxon - Graham Coxon Blasts Awful Music

Graham Coxon thinks Nirvana's "awful s**t" music almost ruined Blur's career.

The guitarist believes the British band's success almost plummeted after the 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' hitmakers - consisting of frontman Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl -caused a new "disgusting movement" to become popular in 1993.

He said: "I didn't know it at the time, but our career was in jeopardy. We had what was going to be our second album 'Modern Life Is Rubbish', which was very English-sounding and kind of clever, witty pop music, and nobody was interested in that sort of thing. Apparently, the label wanted us to rerecord the album with Nirvana's producer Butch Vig, which is a pretty laughable idea. We were really just fighting for survival.

"The mood was Nirvana, and that whole disgusting movement that came over from America. I mean, Nirvana were not disgusting, but in their wake was just the most awful s**t, and Modern Life was really the opposite of that. I was quite delicate and wordy and parochial, really."

The 40-year-old rocker - who was joined in the band by bassist Alex James, drummer Dave Rowntree and singer Damon Albarn - even adapted his song-writing style during that time.

He added: "My new material was fuelled by the complete disillusion of having spent that time in America and seeing the seed of a new commercial Britain evolving. I didn't really look back after that, because I'd found my sense of detachment and disillusionment with the politics of our country, and started to be able to channel it in music."