One of the most awkward, mean and cringe-worthy interviews involved the British rock band, Blur and interviewer Nardwuar Serviette.
Nardwuar The Human Serviette used to conduct interviews for MuchMusic in Canada. Which was basically the Canadian version of MTV.
Nardwuar The Human Serviette AKA Guerrilla Journalist
Nardwuar interviews a lot of musicians and at one point, he became known as a guerrilla journalist, sneaking into press conferences, pretending to be a reporter and would confront non-musicians and even politicians with funny questions. He most famously asked Mikhail Gorbachev which world leader had the biggest pants.
One of his most infamous interviews took place in 2003 for the program, Going Coastal on MuchMusic with the band Blur.
Nardwuar’s Interview with Blur Goes South
Blur drummer David Rountree was especially rude to Nardwuar, stealing his hat and glasses and even ripping up his interview questions. The other members of the band just seemed strange.
Here is the interaction between the band, particularly Damon Albarn and Nardwuar.
Nardwuar: “Who are you?”
Damon: “My name is Damon Albarn. Who are you?”
Nardwuar: “I am Nardwuar The Human Serviette.” “Damon, who do you have with you?”
Damon: “Why? Why do you call yourself a human serviette?”
Nardwuar: “I call myself The Human Serviette because I help serve the youth but I want to help serve you guys right now, Damon. Who else do you have in the group with you right here?”
While Nardwuar tries to interview Damon, Dave Rowntree takes Nardwuar’s hat, glasses and interview questions.
Nardwuar: “Who is the gentleman that just took my hat?”
Dave: “How are you doing?”
Nardwuar: “Good, good to see you again. Are you happy to take my hat?”
Dave: Are you happy?”
Nardwuar: “I am very happy.” “I’m not that happy until I get my hat back.” “Now Dave, you haven’t talked to all your other bandmates there. You’re taking all the attention here. You’re neglecting other bandmates. Who’s behind you right there? Damon, who’s to your right?”
Dave: “You happy?”
Nardwuar: “No, I’m not.”
Dave: “You don’t look happy.”
Nardwuar: “I am not. I want my hat back please.”
Rountree Gets Involved With British Politics
What happened afterwards? Rountree became involved in British politics around the time of the interview and even ran for office in 2008 running for London’s Labour Party but was unsuccessful.
Rountree Keeps Interview to Help Stay Clean
Rountree would reveal that he has a clip of the interview on his phone to remind him to stay clean every day.
In his blog, he would also reveal the following, “As I’ve written in the past, I became addicted to coke during the 90s. Now I have no idea if this has the effect on anyone else but for me, the day after a coke binge, I sometimes fly into a murderous rage and take it out on whoever just happened to be around. In this case, it happened to be a journalist. This is definitely one of those things I’m ashamed of. To be clear, Nardwuar didn’t do anything to provoke me. I sent an apology to him the next day but I didn’t hear anything back from him so I assumed he didn’t accept it.”
“I love the fact that someone is using my interview for motivational purposes.” – Narwuar The Human Serviette
Narwuar doesn’t remember receiving an apology but he’s happy to have one revealing to the Vancouver publication The Straight, “I was honoured. It was so nice of him. I also love the fact that he keeps it on a cell phone. I love the fact that someone is using my interview for motivational purposes.”
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Blur get so much Sctick for this 25 years later. Its Probably worth checking the previous Blur interview with Nardwar the one which Nardwar bullied them leaving the band visibly upset. Of course thats the one hidden by Nardwars production team- there are always two sides to every story