{"id":40461,"date":"2026-08-12T08:56:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T03:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=40461"},"modified":"2026-08-12T08:56:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T03:56:23","slug":"graham-coxon-recalls-madonna-walking-into-the-studio-while-blur-were-making-13-with-genius-william-orbit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=40461","title":{"rendered":"Graham Coxon recalls Madonna walking into the studio while Blur were making &#8217;13&#8217; with &#8220;genius&#8221; William Orbit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/graham-coxon\">Graham Coxon<\/a>\u00a0has recalled\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/madonna\">Madonna<\/a> unexpectedly walking into the studio while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/blur\">Blur <\/a>were recording \u201913\u2019 with the late producer William Orbit.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/william-orbit-has-died-aged-69-3961369\">Orbit died at his home on July 23 at the age of 69<\/a>, with news of his passing announced on August 7. No cause of death has been shared.<\/p>\n<p>In a new interview with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/blur-graham-coxon-william-orbit-tribute-1235606853\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i>Rolling Stone<\/i><\/a>, Coxon reflected on the producer\u2019s work on Blur\u2019s experimental and critically-acclaimed sixth album, released in 1999, describing him as a \u201cgenius\u201d with an anarchic\u00a0love of sound.<\/p>\n<p>Blur chose Orbit to oversee the \u201913\u2019 sessions after hearing his eight-minute remix of their 1997 track \u2018Movin\u2019 On\u2019, and the sessions came in the aftermath of Orbit\u2019s work on Madonna\u2019s huge 1998 album \u2018Ray\u00a0Of\u00a0Light\u2019, which had made\u00a0him one of the most sought-after producers in the world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI instantly liked William,\u201d Coxon said. \u201cI\u00a0picked up on\u00a0some sort of perversion in him musically, and I thought, \u2018This will be interesting\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Blur - Coffee And TV (Official Music Video)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6oqXVx3sBOk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe got the measure of him that it was going to be anarchy,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe thought he was this genius who was a bit tinged by madness \u2013 but, well, that\u2019s what genius does.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Coxon said that during the sessions, Madonna made a surprise appearance in the studio in London. \u201cI was in the live room doing some silly guitars, knocking around, and then I looked\u00a0through into\u00a0the control room and Madonna was standing in there,\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was like, \u2018Oh shit. Do I stay here or do I get the courage to go and say hi? We all said hi.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He remembered Blur improvising over a beat\u00a0that they liked that\u00a0Orbit had put together during the \u201913\u2019 sessions, but which\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0end up going anywhere.<\/p>\n<p>Later that year, Madonna released \u2018Beautiful Stranger\u2019, the Orbit-produced single from the soundtrack to\u00a0<i>Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me<\/i>, and Coxon said when\u00a0he heard the song, he thought, \u201cOh, that\u2019s that track!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Madonna - Beautiful Stranger (Official Video) [HD]\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Dsh0TfIKhoE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u2018Beautiful Stranger\u2019 went on to win Madonna and Orbit their third\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/tag\/grammys\">Grammy<\/a>\u00a0together, with his work having\u00a0helped to\u00a0rejuvenate her career.<\/p>\n<p>Following his death,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/madonna-pays-emotional-tribute-to-william-orbit-your-music-gave-me-a-magic-carpet-to-fly-on-3961511\">Madonna paid an emotional tribute to him<\/a>, writing that \u201cin many ways you were my\u00a0Ray\u00a0Of\u00a0Light\u201d, adding: \u201cGoodbye Billy Bubbles. I was so lucky to have known you and fallen down the rabbit hole with you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/william-orbit-says-hes-written-to-successor-to-madonnas-classic-ray-of-light-but-hes-had-nil-response-from-her-3935214\">Orbit said he had created a prospective \u201csuccessor\u201d to \u2018Ray\u00a0Of\u00a0Light\u2019 but had received\u00a0\u201cnil\u00a0response\u201d after contacting Madonna<\/a>. He stressed there were \u201czero hard feelings\u201d, adding: \u201cI will always love that woman. For real. She made my career.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201913\u2019 was the last Blur album to feature Coxon as a full-time member until 2015\u2019s \u2018The Magic Whip\u2019, and he is currently working on a third album by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/the-waeve\">The\u00a0Waeve<\/a>, his project with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/artists\/rose-elinor-dougall\">Rose Elinor Dougall<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/news\/music\/graham-coxon-announces-extra-2026-uk-tour-dates-buy-tickets-3948638\">He will also play a run of solo UK dates later this year<\/a>, and Coxon also said in the new interview that he is considering remembering Orbit at the shows. \u201cWho knows? We may even do a William\u00a0Orbit-related Blur song,\u201d he\u00a0teased.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n  fbq('consent', 'revoke');\n  fbq('init', '370979561341328');\n  fbq('track', 'PageView');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Graham Coxon\u00a0has recalled\u00a0Madonna unexpectedly walking into the studio while Blur were recording \u201913\u2019 with the late producer William Orbit. Orbit died at his home on July 23 at the age of 69, with news of his passing announced on August 7. No cause of death has been shared. In a new interview with\u00a0Rolling Stone, Coxon&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.nme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Mairo_Cinquetti_NickyJ_Sims.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity-gossip"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}