Damon Albarn is happy his parents never gave him sympathy amid school bullying

Blur frontman Damon Albarn said it was "good for me" that his parents blamed him for his own bullying as he was able to turn it into "positive energy".

The 53-year-old performer revealed on DJ Annie Mac's podcast Changes that he was bullied at school when he "came across sometimes as a bit difficult and odd" and became known for being the child who once ate a ladybird.

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His parents, though, expressed very little sympathy for him in these circumstances and suggested that he must have provoked the bullies in some way.

Albarn said: "It was very good for me. I'm really glad that they were like that in a sense.

"At times I remember thinking 'it just wasn't fair I wasn't afforded that kind of sympathy'. They were like: 'What did you do to get hit?'"

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He added: "All of this bullying and this sort of outsiderness, and with my parents not indulging me with any 'poor Damon', I actually turned into a very positive energy.

"You kind of need that sort of weirdness too to stand out and force yourself."

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Albarn revealed he was frustrated when he was then characterised as being a posh public schoolboy during the Britpop war of words between Blur and Manchester-based Oasis during the 1990s.

He said: "Part of my indignance when Noel and Liam tried to cast me as a public schoolboy was based on 'if you only knew what a s***ty school I went to and not get anywhere near anything private. It's still a perception of me that I went to private school."

Albarn released his second solo studio album The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows last year to critical acclaim and a top 10 spot on the UK Album Chart.

He recently caused controversy when he appeared to suggest in an interview that Taylor Swift was not responsible for writing her own hit songs.

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Albarn apologised to Swift when she responded to his comments and said his opinion had been "reduced to clickbait".

He added: "I apologize unreservedly and unconditionally. The last thing I would want to do is discredit your songwriting. I hope you understand."

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