Alex James (musician)
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Alex James (born Steven Alexander James, 21 November 1968, in Boscombe, Bournemouth, Dorset, England) is the bass player in the band Blur, and one of the members of Fat Les.
The only member of Blur not to come from Colchester, James met future bandmate Graham Coxon at Goldsmith's College, where the two were studying, and was introduced to Damon Albarn and Dave Rowntree, who at the time were part of a band called Circus. He eventually joined the three's new band, Seymour in 1989, which would later be renamed Blur. He has remained in the band since.
Unlike his bandmates Albarn and Coxon, James has not released any solo material, although he has been involved in other side projects. In 1998 James formed Fat Les with Keith Allen, Damien Hirst and others, and released (amongst others) the World Cup single "Vindaloo", which reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart. He also worked on a side project called Me Me Me with Stephen Duffy, and has co-written songs for Marianne Faithfull and Sophie Ellis Bextor. James worked with Bextor on a couple of tracks on her solo debut album Read My Lips. He co-wrote and co-produced "Move This Mountain", and co-produced "I Believe" along with Sophie Ellis Bextor and Ben Hillier. He also played the bass on both tracks. Ellis Bextor's latest album, Shoot From The Hip also features James on it. He co-wrote "Love Is It Love" and again plays bass guitar. He also joined his friend and singer-songwriter Betty Boo, in a band called WigWam.
James writes for the British newspapers The Independent and The Observer, as well as Q magazines and The Idler (whom he represented in a team on BBC2's University Challenge: the Professionals in summer 2005 in a team also featuring John Moore of Black Box Recorder; they had a heavy win over The Financial Times in their heat, but did not score highly enough to return for the tournament's later stages). He also presented the Evening Sequence on BBC Radio 6 as a stand-in for Tom Robinson between 8-26 August 2005 where he amusingly quipped that it was he who had invented Justin Timberlake's catchphrase "I am going to have you naked by the end of this song." James has subsequently mentioned this, most likely, erroneous claim in a number of later articles in the Idler.
He has a serious interest in space and space travel, which led him to involve Blur in helping the ill-fated Beagle 2 project, producing the Mars probe's signature tune. His obsession with space is further illustrated by the track "Far Out" on Parklife, on which James sings a list of moons and stars.
James is married to Claire Neate, a video producer. They have three sons: Geronimo (born 16 February 2004), and premature twin boys (born 28 April 2006), Artemis and Galileo.
James was a vegetarian for 17 years, then reverted after he had begun living on a sheep farm where he is to go into the cheese manufacturing business.
On February 11, 2007, James appeared in the four-part fictional jury show The Verdict.
[edit] External links
- Alex James fansite
- Alex James interview
- Alex James gives up vegetarianism after 17 years
- Article on Alex James and cheese manufacture
| Blur |
| Damon Albarn | Alex James | Dave Rowntree |
| Graham Coxon | Simon Tong |
| Discography |
|---|
| Albums: Leisure | Modern Life Is Rubbish | Parklife | The Great Escape | Blur | 13 | Think Tank |
| Compilations: The Special Collectors Edition | Live at the Budokan | Bustin' + Dronin' |
| The 10 Year Limited Edition Anniversary Box Set | Blur: The Best of |
| Singles: See Blur Singles |
| Other projects |
| The Ailerons | Fat Les | The Good, the Bad and the Queen | Gorillaz | Me Me Me | WigWam |
| Related articles |
| Food Records | Honest Jon's | Stephen Street | Transcopic |
