THEIR mid-90s feud dominated the British music scene and is still talked about 30 years on.
But Blur bassist Alex James, 56, is thrilled that his group’s former foes, Liam and Noel Gallagher, are reuniting Oasis this summer for a huge stadium tour.
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He knows all too well how painful band infighting can be after Blur’s guitarist Graham Coxon temporarily quit the band in the early noughties due to personal differences.
Reconciliation came in 2008 when Coxon made amends with frontman Damon Albarn ahead of the band’s triumphant Hyde Park reunion gig the following year and a Glastonbury headline show.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Alex said of the Gallaghers’ first shows together in 16 years: “It’s wonderful. It’s awful that most bands end up hating each other.
“From Blur’s point of view, huge parts of how I feel every day… the fact there was a reconciliation and we’re all on good terms again… because when something is such a big defining part of your life you don’t want to be exiled from it. It was great for Blur and I’m delighted for the Gallaghers.”
Blur’s latest records, The Magic Whip and The Ballad of Darren, feature the full original lineup and were critical and commercial hits.
Those albums, and the ones that preceded it in the early 2000s and late 90s – like Think Tank and 13 – couldn’t be more different than Oasis’ LPs.
Blur turned to more experimental sounds more akin to Radiohead after the straightforward indie rock they put out on their trio of classic Britpop albums – Modern Life is Rubbish, Park Life and The Great Escape.
While Oasis remained true to their soaring Beatlesesque singalong anthems throughout their active years.
It’s testament to the quality of both bands’ back catalogues that three decades on that the songs are just as relevant and will be blaring out around the country this summer.
Alex says: “It’s a generation ago. The songs that kind of still live and breathe from those days, maybe they’ve kind of achieved classic status.”
90s CLASSICS
He’ll be dipping into his own musical past as well as those of his peers at his Big Feastival festival on his Cotswold Farm this August.
The musician is launching Britpop Classical, a collaboration with the London Concert Orchestra and a number of famous faces on vocals that reimagine classic tracks of the era.
Explaining what fans can expect, Alex says: “So there’s a kind of legacy section, showing where all the influences that inspired these bands came from.
“We’ll probably have a bit of Beatles and Stones and there’s so many great bands from Manchester in the early 90s. So there’s probably going to be a Northern Quarter section.
“And then you will move into a kind of upbeat sing-along section. I mean a lot of those tunes had big fat brass sections and string sections.
“If you’re doing this in a headline slot, you can really bring a whole production to bear. We’re sort of knee deep in arrangements and orchestration. It’s really, really exciting.
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“I think it’s going to deliver something totally f**king unique. And hopefully everybody will be heads back, crying their eyes out, singing every word.”
There’ll be a few surprises along the way with The Prodigy tracks set to be included in the set. Alex singled them out as the best live act he’s seen in recent years and doesn’t underestimate the impact the pioneering hybrid act had on the British music scene in the 90s.
He wants to straddle the line between nostalgia for the people who lived it first time round as well as breathing new life into the music for a generation of music fans who discovered them through their parents’ record collections.
“I really cannot think of a better way of bringing Feastival to an almighty climax this year,” he said. “You know, having Oasis play, it wouldn’t work. Their people aren’t a foodie crowd. And having Blur here, that would be like Damon having Blur playing on a Gorillaz record. You know, that wasn’t why he started it. You know what I mean?
“But this way, Feastival’s at my gaff, it’s my crowd. They’re probably into similar things to me.”
The family friendly event certainly caters for everyone with demonstrations from Michelin star chefs, gorgeous street food, performances from the likes of Nelly Furtado and Travis and kid-friendly entertainment.
GLASTO HAT-TRICK?
Ahead of his home event, Alex will play a DJ set at Glastonbury, a festival he’s headlined twice with Blur in 1998 and 2009.
Though there are plenty of years ahead for a potential third outing, for now, Blur fans at Worthy Farm will need to make do with their music in a different form.
“I never thought we’d top 2009 Blur at Glastonbury,” admits Alex. “But actually, I think we probably did at Wembley 2023, to all our surprise.
“I mean the trouble is with going back is, how do you do it better? We do it different. I’ll go back and do a DJ set this summer. I think that’s the answer.”
Alex’s life is now vastly different from his wild-partying playboy days of the 90s.
He is married with five children – between 14 and 20 – and gets as much joy producing cheese on his farm as he does from rocking out on stage.
His work with Blur has sporadic over the last couple of decades but he’s kept the music flowing by working with other established acts in his home studio.
“I didn’t really want to start another band,” he says. “I’ve got a little studio here and have done various sessions over the years, singers and songwriters, you know, like Florence and Machine, KT Tunstall, New Order, working as a writer and producer but not really doing anything live.”
But when the Blur bat signal shines, he’s always answered the call. He pushed himself to get stage fit in 2023 for two huge Wembley gigs after putting on weight during the coronavirus pandemic.
The emotional career-spanning sets were a resounding success and proved beyond all doubt the old magic is still there.
He says: “Rock ‘n’ roll bands are supposed to be what sends you into Fat Elvis. It was a kind of rehab for me. I put a lot of weight on like a lot of people during lockdown and I needed some impetus to shake it all off and get back in shape.
“You can’t point Super Trouper at a lard ass, it doesn’t work. Rock ‘n’ roll was rehab, it shouldn’t have worked but it did. In so many ways it was wonderful, the Blur reunion. It kind of gave me a taste for playing live again.”
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