| Alex James |
| Background
information |
| Birth name |
Steven Alexander James |
| Born |
November 21, 1968 (1968-11-21) (age 38) |
| Origin |
 Bournemouth,
England |
| Genre(s) |
Alternative
Rock, Britpop,
Electronica |
| Occupation(s) |
Bassist, songwriter, Author |
| Instrument(s) |
Bass |
| Years active |
1988 - present |
Associated
acts |
Blur
Fat
Les
|
| Website |
Blur
|
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 Goldsmiths 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.
|
Contents
- 1 Side
projects
- 2 Personal
life
- 2.1 Family
- 2.2 Vegetarian
- 2.3 Space
obsession
- 3 Recent
- 4 Trivia
- 5 External
links
|
Side projects
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 2003 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 6
Music 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 once said he was "the second drunkest member of the
drunkest band in Britain". Furthermore, it is rumoured that he uses the
free newspaper "the metro" and "the julian opie picture of himself off
'the best of...'" as wallpaper in his country manse.
Personal life
Family
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.
Vegetarian
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.
Space obsession
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.
Recent
- On February 11, 2007, James appeared in the four-part fictional
jury show The Verdict.
- On May
29, 2007, He
appeared on Gordon Ramsay's The F-Word,
where he discussed drinking breast-milk and persuaded Ramsay to try
some in a cappuccino.
- His autobiography, A Bit Of A Blur, was
released on June
7, 2007.
- On July
8 2007, James made an appearance on the BBC show Something For The
Weekend, where he assisted in making baked
alaska.
Trivia
- His favourite Blur album is Modern Life Is Rubbish.
External links
| v • d • e Blur
|
| Damon
Albarn • Alex James • Dave
Rowntree • Graham
Coxon
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
• The
Battle of Britpop
|
