Blur's Damon Albarn invites Noel Gallagher to collaborate with him

Blur and Gorillaz mainman Damon Albarn has invited Noel Gallagher to collaborate with him later this year.

The singer, who was speaking to Shortlist, said that he'd like the High Flying Birds man to be a part of his Africa Express project, which reconvenes in September.

Asked if he'd like to collaborate with Gallagher, Albarn said: "Well, why not? He should come on the Africa Express train in September. That’d be a nice chance to collaborate."

Albarn also admitted that Gallagher and his bandmates handled the fame they experienced at the height of Britpop "a lot better" than he and his colleagues in Blur did.

He said of this: "I never held anything against him, even right in the middle of it. I just kind of admired them in a way; that they were better at handling it all than me. They didn't seem to get too affected by the bullshit."

Earlier this year, Gallagher was quoted as saying he'd rather work on new material with Damon Albarn than Radiohead – but also described the Blur man as being "as mad as a box of frogs".

Speaking to NME, Gallagher said: "If I was gonna make a record, it'd be Damon. For a start, he's as mad as a box of frogs. Number two, he'd get loads of hip-hop dudes working on it, which itself would be fucking mental. And number three? It would be a better record."