Damon was interested in drama and music growing up. He is a classically trained pianist and went to drama school for a year before dropping out disillusioned. He was involved in composing and performing music from a young age, messing around with several different outfits before finding success, including 'Two's A Crowd' and 'Circus'. He later took a music course at Goldsmith's College in London where he met the members of what would become Blur. The band's first name was Seymour, and Damon was the lead singer. They soon changed their name to Blur. Blur were at the start a indie / punk -esque band. Their first single was 'She's So High' in 1990 but the breakthrough hit (a top ten smash in the UK) was 'There's No Other Way' in 1991.
A first album 'Leisure' followed. Blur were troubled with alcohol and drug problems in the early years, but released a further excellent album 'Modern Life Is Rubbish' in 1993. Mainstream success came with the third album 'Parklife' in 1994, with singles such as 'Girls And Boys' and the title track, which saw Blur become one of the biggest bands in Britain, at the forefront of the burgeoning Britpop scene. 'The Great Escape', their fourth album, released in 1995, was a number one hit in the UK, but a public feud with the band Oasis which resulted in a 'singles war' (Blur's 'Country House' and Oasis's 'Roll With It' were released simulataneously in 1995 - 'Country House' would claim the number one spot that week, though Oasis's '(What's The Story) Morning Glory' would vastly outsell Blur's 'Great Escape').
Disillusioned with the music scene and the nature of fame (something that hasn't left him since) Damon took the band away from the limelight to record Blur's fifth album 'Blur', a very different record to their previous albums. It was lo-fi in places, more experimental and a real departure. It also spawned the biggest hit of Blur's career to date, 'Song 2' which was a big hit in the US (none of Blur's albums have been major successes in the US, though 'Blur' sold semi-respectably on the back of the big hit). The sixth album '13', produced by William Orbit was released in 1999, which was even more experimental and flowing. A 'Greatest Hits' album followed in 2000. Blur recorded their seventh album in late 2002 and released it in 2003: 'Think Tank' was a critical success even if commercially it was not the banker the record company might have hoped for.
In between sixth and seventh albums Damon was of course occupied with working on the Gorillaz project, which is documented in the band biography section! Away from Blur and Gorillaz, Damon has worked on film soundtrack projects such as 'Ordinary Decent Criminal' and '101 Rekyavik'. He appeared on Dan The Automator's 2000 project 'Deltron3030'. Also, in 2002 he released 'Mali Music', a collection of music based on sessions in Mali with African musicians, a portion of the profits from which would go to the Charity Oxfam. In 2003 he released an album of demoes recorded during his stint on tour with Blur in the US. Damon spent much of 2004 recording the second Gorillaz album, which he will promote throughout 2005.