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In 2005 he joined those criticising the London Live 8 concert for not featuring enough black artists, with the result that several joined the programme — although Albarn stayed away, saying the concert might have been motivated by self-gain. This struck one music writer as pretty rich: “He’s a canny businessman. I remember hearing his manager talking on the phone to someone and saying that Damon needed £400,000 as a sign of goodwill.”

But then, as Albarn is often reminded, he has never been really hard up. His father Keith played a part in the 1960s counterculture of London, presenting the BBC’s Late Night LineUp and managing the jazz-rock band Soft Machine before becoming a lecturer in Islamic art. His mother Hazel was a theatrical designer.

Born on March 23, 1968, Albarn spent his early years in Leytonstone, east London, before the family moved to Turkey for a few months. When he turned 10, they relocated to Colchester where his father became head of North Essex College of Art. He was given a typical liberal upbringing. “I always thought my parents were absolutely dead right,” he said. “I went against the grain in a weird way — by continually following them.”

At Stanway comprehensive he met a brilliant guitarist, Graham Coxon, destined to become his collaborator and rival. They shared a taste for such bands as the Jam, the Kinks and the Human League. Albarn’s musical talents were recognised by an award for young composer of the year. With acting ambitions he enrolled at the East 15 acting school in London, but decided it was not for him (he changed his mind in 1997, appearing in the British film Face) and left after a year.

He took a part-time course at Goldsmiths College in New Cross, London, where he met up again with Coxon and the two formed a group called Circus. With the addition of Alex James and Dave Rowntree, the band evolved into Seymour before signing to Food Records as Blur.

Initially dismissed as manufactured teen idols, they vented their frustrations on each other during four years of minor hits before their album Modern Life Is Rubbish made its mark, cited as the first Britpop album. The following year Parklife, influenced by East End culture and Martin Amis’s London Fields, catapulted the band to fame. It also opened the door to bands such as Oasis, Pulp, Supergrass, the Verve and Radiohead.

Albarn and his girlfriend Frischmann were Britpop’s golden couple, chased by paparazzi when they left their west London home. The single Beetlebum was said to be influenced by her drug addiction. After they broke up in 1998 he met Suzi Winstanley, an artist credited with bringing stability into his life and turning him into a doting father of their seven-year-old daughter Missy. “Being a dad is the best thing that ever happened to me,” he said.

After Albarn became a figure of public ridicule, Blur began to diverge from Britpop, first to American indie rock in the 1997 acclaimed album Blur, then to African music. In Morocco recording Think Tank, the tensions between Albarn and Coxon erupted and the latter quit the band. “We weren’t fighting,” Albarn recalled. “But Graham got to a position where he just wasn’t comfortable with me calling the shots.” Since 2004 Blur have been on hold, with Albarn insisting the band could only resume with Coxon on board. A reunion has been half-confirmed. The outcome is likely to be a final album together.

So where does Albarn stand in the pantheon of British rock — as an arrogant star who should have sunk with Britpop or a misunderstood genius? The closest analogy would be with David Bowie, a figure of tireless invention who baffled people as much as he enthused them. And didn’t seem to care either way.