Graham Coxon despised Blur’s ‘Country House’ music video, branding it “demeaning to the girls” in it.
The Britpop group’s guitarist was not a fan of the Damien Hirst-helmed promo for their 1995 hit, which starred Keith Graham and Matt Lucas and a number of Page 3 girls, including former glamour model Jo Guest.
Writing in his new memoir, ‘Verse, Chorus, Monster!’, he revolted: “It made me angry because here I was, finally in a band, and the experience seemed to be getting cheapened by Page 3-type imagery, a revival of sexism and football hooliganism.”
He added of the objectifying: “I was clashing heavily with the Britpop thing and didn’t feel the need to refer to women’s body parts in a rude way.”
A big theme of the tell-all tome is Graham’s battle with anxiety.
The music star ended up in rehab, before leaving the band – but he thinks his struggles would be dealt with in a more sensitive way these days.
He said recently: “Thirty years ago, nobody was saying, ‘This is anxiety.’
“I was drinking a lot because that was the only thing that knocked off the anxiety, but then I just couldn’t stop. Then I’d get a hangover which made me anxious all over again.
“No one then was as obsessed with mental health as they are now. It was a bit like, ‘Buck up, you idiot. What’s the matter with you?’ A slap on the back if you’re lucky and ‘Get out there and get on with it.'”