Colchester's Damon Albarn says being an outsider as a child and teenager spurred him on to success.

Albarn, who grew up in Aldham and went to Stanway school, rose to fame as part of Blur.

He was speaking about his life on the Changes podcast hosted by DJ Annie Macmanus.

Albarn, 53, admitted he was a “shy and insecure” child.

He said: “I probably came across sometimes as a bit difficult and odd. You kind of need that sort of weirdness to stand out.

“I used to get bullied at school a lot. My parents never had any sympathy for me, ever. Never. They would just say ‘it's your fault’. They said ‘you bring it on yourself’.

“It was very good for me. I'm really glad that they were like that in a sense.”

Albarn and his family moved to rural north Essex when he was ten.

He told the podcast: “The problem with me was I'd been a very ordinary standard East End London kid up until the age of 10.

“I'd come from a very multi-cultural school in Leytonstone. I didn’t stand out at all, I was just one of many.”

“[My parents] bought a dilapidated medieval bakery in a little village. I was cast into a completely white quite conservative society and I didn't fit in at all.

“I think one of the idiotic things I did on my first day at primary school I ate a ladybird. Stuck with me until I was 18. He's weird, he eats ladybirds.

“I created my own Gollum. When I started playing the violin it was ‘he eats ladybirds and plays the violin’.”

Albarn took part in school productions and got his ear pierced which he says encouraged his bullies.

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.”

Albarn admitted he was frustrated when he was characterised as a posh and having gone to a private school when Blur and Oasis went head to head in the charts.

n To listen to the podcast search for Changes with Annie Macmanus.