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 Circus' music.

Despite the beginning, Alex teamed up with the lads and later on, when Circus had lost two members (Eddie Deedigan and Dave Brolan), Graham asked Alex to join as a bass player. However, 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 five children:

Geronimo (born February 16th, 2004)

Twin boys Artemis and Gallileo (April 2006)

Sable (August 2008)

Beatrix (December 2009)

The happy family live on a farm in the Cotswolds where Alex has designed a range of award winning cheeses (Little Wallop was introduced in 2007; Farleigh Wallop and the world's first ever square blue cheese Blue Monday followed in 2008). His first mainstream cheese range called Alex James Presents was launched in 2011 in partnership with Asda.

Like Dave, Alex is interested in flying and acquired a pilot's licence in the early 2000s (however, soon afterwards he sold his plane to Dave and became an eco-friendly farmer). Alex is also very keen on space and is a Visiting Scientist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

Besides Blur

Me Me Me (1996)

Alex put together a supergroup called Me Me Me (Alex, Stephen Duffy, Justin Welch and Charlie Bloor) that released a single called "Hanging Around". It reached #19 in the UK chart.

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.

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.

Broadcasting and journalism

During the past ten years, Alex has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows as a co-presenter or guest (See all appearances). He has also written many columns to UK newspapers and magazines such as The Independent, The Spectator and Q. Alex has also written two books; his own autobiography Bit Of A Blur (2007) and All Cheeses Great & Small (due out in March 2012).

Miscellaneous

In 1997, he co-wrote "Hang It On Your Heart" for Marianne Faithfull with The Stone Cold Strollers (Alex, Guy Pratt and Ed Shearmur). He also appeared on Marianne's music video "Sex With Strangers".

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

Alex worked with Sophie Ellis-Bextor on a couple of tracks on her first two albums, Read My Lips and Shoot From The Hip.

He is playing bass on Stephen Duffy's album I Love My Friends. More recently, Alex has played bass for Bad Lieutenant's debut album Never Cry Another Tear.