We were meeting every morning at Damon [Albarn’s] studio up in Ladbroke Grove. He’d drop his daughter off at school and then we’d all turn up really early by music industry standards. We’d start at 9am and would just set up and play.

Graham [Coxon] was struggling with alcoholism at the time and had gone into rehab. He hadn’t officially left the band and there were a lot of discussions about whether or not we should continue without him.

It ...