Graham

CHILDHOOD: He grew up with his father, who was an army bandsman, his mother, who worked for Nestle and and his older sister Hayley, who is now a nurse. They lived in Germany fo five years, then moved to Derby with his grandfather, then to Colchester three years later. Graham went to Stanway Comprehensive School with Damon Albarn, who was a year ahead of him. He taught himself to play guitar and saxaphone at a young age. He also played drums in a few bands.
"When I was about 15, Graham told me about a dream he'd had where he was asleep and Keith Moon had come and sat at the bottom of the bed and I knew from that moment Graham would be in a band with me. The irony of it is that I can't stand him when he's like that."-Damon

JOBS: He worked at many different places, including at Sainsburys and as a pea picker. He also became a protest vegetarian during this time and ended up with malnutrition in Severals Hospital in Colchester, which was a mental hospital, for seven days. This lost him his job at Sainsurys.

SCHOOLLIFE:After Stanway, Graham went to the North Essex School of Arts and became involved in a band called The Curious Band. By this time he was bestfriends with Damon and the two had kept in close touch with each other.

CIRCUS... After graduating the North Essex School of Arts, Graham went off to study fine arts at Goldsmiths College. Damon also enrolled at Goldsmiths so they could see each other often. Damon, at the time, was in a band called Circus and was working on making a demon album for the band. He asked Graham to help him with it, and when Graham got there, he was given a few songs to play on guitar. The rest of the band was amazed at how well he played and asked him to join. Graham agreed, and felt even more comfortable about it when he saw Dave Rowntree on drums. Graham had met Dave before when he was in a band called Hazel Dean and the Carp Eaters From Hell who played once in a while with Dave's band at that time, Idle Vice. Dave had also been given wekend jazz classes by Graham's father. When Circus completed their demo, a few of the members left and it was down to Damon, Dave, and Graham. Graham was friends with Alex James, who had a bass, and asked him to join. The band changed their name to Seymour.

BLUR... After playing a few gigs as Seymour, when approached by Food Records, the band was asked to change their name again and were given a few choices, out of which they chose Blur. They released their first album, Leisure, and when their second single, There's No Other Way reached number one they got thier first appearance on Top Of The Pops. Graham couldn't get into the BBC studio and had a fight with the doorman. During the USA tour for Leisure, Graham became very ill with ulcers and bleeding. By the end of the dates, he was told he could not have any alcohol for six months and was sent to a rest home to recover. Throughout the health, drinking, and drug problems, Graham's guitar playing was always highly acclaimed. After Parklife was released, the band's third album, Graham even got his own b-side on the End of a Century single. It was called Rednecks, and was a spoof country-western song sung by Graham with backup vocals by Alex. When The Great Escape was released, Biffo said this about Graham:
"Graham is still a very shy man and he hates the attention that his fame that his attention has brought. When we go out we find places we know he will not be recognized and he really dislikes any public exposure of his private life."
While extensively touring for The Great Escape, Graham began to suffer from repetitive strain injury on his hands. During this time there were many rumors about the band splitting up, which all proved false. Graham learned to play banjo and became very interested in many underground U.S. bands. On the latest album, "Blur", the band's fifth, Graham has his own song called You're So Great, which he wrote and recorded himself, supposedly in the dark under a table. The song is about his decision to give up drinking completely.