 lex 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 Sable in August 2008. As of June 2010,
Claire is expecting their fifth child. 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).
Like Dave, Alex has been interested in flying and has acquired a pilot's licence
(however, he sold his plane a few years ago 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
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.
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 and Small (due out in October 2010).
Miscellaneous
- Most recently, Alex James has
played bass for Bad Lieutenant's debut album Never Cry Another
Tear.
- 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.
For the full list and details of Alex's musical
appearances outside Blur, see
Alex James Discography.
Song List also lists appearances outside Blur.
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