Damon Albarn of Blur and Gorillaz chews his guitar when he writes music, apparently

An acoustic guitar belonging to Damon Albarn has been donated to a charity auction, revealing one of the Blur frontman’s unusual songwriting habits.

The auction – organized by The Stone Roses bassist Gary "Mani" Mounfield, whose wife Imelda was recently diagnosed with cancer – features a host of six-strings and other music paraphernalia, not least a Taylor GS Mini acoustic bearing Albarn’s teeth marks.

While not immediately identifiable as marks made with a human mouth – the aesthetic imperfection could feasibly be attributed to years of use – Albarn has annotated the scratch on the upper bout of the guitar’s body: “I chew here when writing”.

He adds, in more text written in permanent marker on the top of the strummer’s lower bout: “Not in the best condition, but very well used for writing over the last ten years. Genuine working guitar. With love, Damon Albarn, 2022 x”

While it’s not clear how much use this particular GS Mini has seen over the years, the teeth marks are fairly indented, suggesting it was, indeed, in Albarn's hands whilst he wrote at least several of Blur’s songs.

The guitar is currently listed with an asking price of £1,400, and a bid of £1,350 at the time of writing. There are just under two days left on the listing, though, so we expect the final selling price to be higher than this.

Other items listed in the Imelda and Mani Mounfield Fundraiser include a red Epiphone hollowbody bass guitar signed by Arctic Monkeys, Liam Gallagher and Bobby Gillespie; a Fender Telecaster Deluxe signed by Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Chris Shiftlett and Rami Jaffee of Foo Fighters; a limited-edition 30th Anniversary Fender Screamadelica Stratocaster; and a black Gibson Les Paul signed by Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey of The Who.

So if you want an acoustic guitar quite literally chiseled with Damon Albarn’s DNA, or you simply want to browse the auction, head to Adam Partridge Auctioneers & Valuers.