Veikko's Blur Page - Alex James biography

Alex James
Bass

Born: November 21st 1968, at Boscombe Hospital in Bournemouth, England
Family: Parents, sister Deborah
Height: 6' 2" (approx. 188 cm)

Alex is born and raised in Bournemouth, where he lived with his father, mother and little sister. He was actually given the name Steven Alexander James, but he's now known as just Alex James. At junior school, Alex's mum begged him to take violin lessons, but the instrument was too difficult for him. After the death of grandfather, the family moved to a guest house which was at a retiring centre. There he got so bored that he dedicated a lot of time to school and therefore got 13 "O" levels. He was also good at sports, especially in football.

Music, though, was one of Alex's main interests. At the age of 13, his dad bought a piano that got his attention straight away. A few years later, Alex's first band called The Age Of Consent was formed in his mate Jay Burt-Smale's bedroom. Because the synthesizers were too expensive at the time, Alex decided to play the bass instead. He got a Fender Precision bass copy on his 16th birthday. The another band, Mr. Pangs Bang Bangs, was named after his landlord.

Soon Alex left Bournemouth to study French at Goldsmiths College. He got to know Graham Coxon who lived above his apartment. Together they delved into art and artistic movements, including their own group Nichtkunst. Graham brought Alex to hear Circus, a band that included him, Damon Albarn and Dave Rowntree. Damon's first impression of Alex was very clear: "He completely pisses me off". Alex replied by saying "That's shit" about the music made by Circus. Despite the beginning, Alex teamed up with them and later on, when Circus lost two members (Eddie Deedigan and Dave Brolan) Graham asked Alex to join the band as a bass player. In the beginning, Alex wasn't such a good bass player. "We were always waiting for Alex to learn stuff," Dave Rowntree has said. Soon they changed their name to Seymour and Alex left Goldsmiths with unfinished studies to work on the band.

Alex split-up with his long-term girlfriend Justine Andrew in 2002. Currently, he is married to Claire Neat and together they have four children. The first child, Geronimo was born on February 16, 2004. Twin boys Artemis and Gallileo followed in April 2006 and Athena in August 2008. The happy family live on a farm in Oxfordshire.

Like Dave, Alex is interested in flying and has acquired a pilot's licence (although he sold his plane a few years ago and became an eco-friendly farmer). He is also very keen on space and is a Visiting Scientist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

Besides Blur

WigWam (2005-2006)

In 2005, Alex worked with Alison Clarkson (a.k.a. Betty Boo) on their new band called WigWam. The single "WigWam" was released the following year, but failed to set the chart alight due to lack of airplay. There was also a finished album that was never released.

Fat Les (1998-2002)

Alex was a part of a comedian group Fat Les (Alex, actor Keith Allen and artist Damien Hirst, among others), who recorded "Vindaloo", the unofficial song of the British World Cup team in 1998. The single reached #2 in the UK chart and sold almost one million copies. In 2000, Fat Les re-formed and recorded a cover version of "Jerusalem" for the England's Euro 2000 football team.

Me Me Me (1996)

Alex put together a supergroup called Me Me Me that released a single called "Hanging Around". It reached #19 in the UK chart.

Journalism

During this decade, Alex has showed his interest in journalism writing numerous columns to UK newspapers and magazines such as The Independent, The Spectator and Q. He has also written his autobiography, Bit Of A Blur that was released in 2007.

TV & radio appearances

Alex has made lots of appearances as a show presenter or a guest. In 2001, he made his presenter debut on the TV program 24 Hours In Soho. He has been the host for BBC 6 Music's Tom Robinson's Evening Sequence and a regular guest on BBC's Newsnight Review. In 2006, he presented The Tube's comeback shows on Channel 4 Radio. Last year he took take part in the courtroom show The Verdict and was also one of the judges on Mobile Act Unsigned.

Miscellaneous

Most recently, Alex James has played bass for Natalie Imbruglia's new album that will be out in 2008.

Alex worked with vocalist Sophie Ellis-Bextor on a couple of tracks on her debut solo album Read My Lips. Her second album, Shoot From The Hip also features him on co-writing duties.

He wrote a song for Marianne Faithfull called "Hang It On Your Heart" and is also playing bass on Stephen Duffy's album I Love My Friends. He also appeared on Marianne Faithfull's video "Sex With Strangers".

He, Ed Sherman and Guy Pratt formed The Stone Cold Strollers to make two songs for the Mojo soundtrack in 1998. A couple of years later, he collaborated with the film composer Simon Boswell and Ian McCulloch for the score to the Brit football flick There's Only One Jimmy Grimble.