Alex James was born on November 21st 1968 - hence he celebrated his 45th birthday last week.
Happy belated birthday to one of the coolest and innovative bassist in the history of British music! Browse below for a selection of the very best Alex James photos spanning his career.
November 28, 2013
Happy Birthday Alex James - 45 Years Old
November 26, 2013
Blur drops out of Big Day Out Festival Australia
The organisers for Big Day Out issued a statement which said: “Devastated to report that Blur won't be performing at BDO in 2014. It’s a shock that it has come to this,”. The statement continues that the band “feels that with the constantly shifting goalposts and challenging conditions of the organizers, they can't let it drag on any longer and want to make this announcement, to be clear to Blur fans that they won't be there. We've done our very best to work with the organisers and considered every option to make it happen, but they’ve let us down and let everyone else down too.”
Blur were set to head the festival alongside with heavyweights Pearl Jam, Snoop Dogg, Primus, Major Lazer, Lumineer and Arcade Fire. Ticket sales for the festival, however, were reported to be slow. The band has not set foot 'down under' since their last tour in 1997.
“Devastated to report that Blur won't be performing at BDO in 2014. It’s a shock that it has come to this,” stated the band on their official announcement.
The six day music festival begins on 17th January 2014 in Auckland, New Zealand, before touring around major Australian cities.
November 15, 2013
10 great photos of Blur
November 13, 2013
William Orbit feud with Blur continues- "Damon was really awful"
Blur's feud with super-producer William Orbit is not yet over. William Orbit has announced that he will "never" work with lead singer Damon Albarn again after the Blur frontman halted recording sessions they were collaborating on last year in 2012.
Blur Tour 2013 - Full dates and rundown HERE
Blur @ Coachella- video and image gallery HERE
November 11, 2013
Alex James - Gadget Man (Season 2 Ep. 6)
Alex James was recently featured on Gadget Man, a British television series which feature the latest techonology
Scroll down to watch the episode.
Blur Tour 2013 - Full dates and rundown HERE
Blur @ Coachella- video and image gallery HERE
October 13, 2013
Damon Albarn protests for Greenpeace Arrests
(Source: Daily Mail)
September 24, 2013
Vampire Weekend Cover Blur's Song 2
Band Vampire Weekend covered Blur's hit single 'Song 2' in New York City during a gig in Barclay's Centre on Friday, September 20th 2013.
Damon Albarn had previously expressed interest in Vampire Weekend and it seems that the feeling is mutual. Did you know- Blur's 'Song 2' is one of the most covered songs by the band, and previous artists that performed their renditions include Weezer, Miley Cyrus, Avril Lavigne, Robbie Williams, Plain White Ts, Scooter and My Chemical Romance.
More details on the Vampire Weekend gig can be seen here. Vote below and let us know what you think of the cover.
September 14, 2013
Festival Coverage: Blur live in the Berlin Festival 2013
Blur played an eventful show in the Berlin Festival in Germany on September 6th 2013. The gig, which featured other artists such as Bjork, Franz Ferdinand, Ellie Goulding, My Bloody Valentine and Pet Shop Boys, received generally positive reviews from fans and critics alike.
Blur closed the music festival by playing on the main stage, where their performance was deemed "extraordinary" and acknowledged as "one of the best the festival's ever seen".
It has been ten years since Blur last played a show in Germany. In an interview before the concert, bassist Alex James revealed that he had a past connection with the nation: "It’s great to be here, I love Germany, I did a student exchange to Hannover when I was 17".
When asked about what the band expects from the German fans, he remarked: "We are going to enjoy ourselves, and that usually rubs off on the crowd. We’ve had some great gigs in Berlin over the years and I think we’ll be going out for a few beers afterwards. We’re up for it and I think everyone else is, too.
User hendrik from the official Blur forums gives his review of the gig:
Berlin was great! It felt like a pretty small crowd (the festival in general, Blur still drew the most people for the night) which made for good spots and a very relaxed viewing. The setlist was a bit unsurprising but the band's as tight as ever and in good spirits too. Damon's German skills aren't too shabby either. For their first outing in the [Germany] in a decade, it was simply a very good show by a very good band.
Another Blur fan Liese also went to the Blur show and says:
I have seen the band playing live multiple times in 2009 and 2012, and I often think German crowds are rather boring, so I really considered not going to see Blur's first German gig in 10 years. I did not expect much more than the setlist I had seen and heard many other times; I could not have been more wrong- I was blown away! [Blur] were even tighter than last year, in high spirits, witty, and not to forget Damon's [not-so-bad] German!
Besides Damon speaking rather fluent German, more special events occurred during the gig night - Phil Daniels made a special appearance during the hit 'Parklife', and Damon Albarn also donned on framed glasses at one point during the gig. The Blur frontman looked much younger than his age, resembling his youthful self back in the heydays of the Britpop nineties.
Image Gallery - Blur at the Berlin Festival 2013
To see the full gallery of Blur in Berlin (45 images), visit our Facebook album here.
Blur at Berlin Festival - 9/6/13 Setlist:
Girls & Boys
There's No Other Way
Beetlebum
Out of Time
Trimm Trabb
Caramel
Coffee & TV
Tender
To the End
Country House
Parklife (ft. Phil Daniels)
End of a Century
This Is a Low
Encore:
Under the Westway
For Tomorrow
The Universal
Song 2
The Clash Magazine's review of the Berlin Festival mentioned Blur, saying that Blur took to the stage with the "minimum of fuss: a denim-clad and floppy limbed Damon Albarn launches straight into the perfect opening triple-whammy of ‘Girls & Boys’, ‘There’s No Other Way’ and ‘Beetlebum’."
The article goes on to detail the gig and Damon Albarn's idiosyncratic actions: "Inevitably, this goes down rather well with the audience. Albarn provides the only precipitation of the day by continually launching water from the bottle he’s drinking from over the front row. Not that anyone there seems to mind too much. Things take a sombre turn when Albarn asks the crowds to think of Syria before launching into a particularly melancholic take on 2003 single ‘Out Of Time’, written due to Albarn’s disillusionment at UK participation in the Iraq War."
Watch the show - Videos of Blur live at the Berlin Festival
Once again, fans captured the best moments from the Germany gig. Scroll down to watch Damon Albarn borrowing a fan's spectacles and putting them on while he sings Country House, Damon asking the crowd to remember the crisis in Syria and the band performing a spiced-up version of the intro of 'Song 2'.
(Damon asks the crowd to remember Syria)
(Damon borrows a fans' glasses)
Don't forget to check out a short review of the show here. For fans who are fluent in German, read a local review of the exciting night here.
View more pictures of the other acts in the Berlin Festival by clicking HERE.
Blur Tour 2013 - Full dates and rundown HERE
Blur @ Coachella- video and image gallery HERE
September 9, 2013
Andrew Rens Salendu: Interview with a Blur artist
We've Got a File On You- A riff on countless pop art stuff |
Poster Design- A Blur/Batman animated series mash-up |
How did you get into Blur in the first place ?
A Spell for Money- A fictional record sleeve |
Vintage styled Blur poster design |
Blur poster with retro pixels |
Japanese-styled replica poster design |
To see more of Andrew's Blur graphic designs, browse his gallery at andy2519.deviantart.com
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September 4, 2013
Damon Albarn's Solo Album to feature Natasha Khan
At a recent August press interview, musician Natasha Khan who is known for her stage name Bat for Lashes said that she recorded a new song for Damon Albarn's solo LP.
In the article Khan describes how she recently recorded a track with Damon Albarn: “If I could go back and tell the 15-year-old me that I’d just sang with Damon for his new record, she’d probably wet her pants with excitement,” she said. “I had such a massive crush on him when I was younger.”
Bat For Lashes is the pseudonym of British songwriter and singer artist Natasha Khan. Half English and half Pakistani, Khan's music style is bold, colorful and loud. Her songs often feature thunderous marching band drums, desert guitar, ballet school piano, harpsichord, sub-bass snarls, hand-claps and naive beats, with the women fluidly switching and swapping their instruments between songs.
It's not a wonder why Damon picked Bat for Lashes as one of his collaborators. Her track on Damon Albarn's new solo album is bound to be interesting and dynamic, and will likely reflect her usual varied style of instrument choice and beat.
Damon himself is also fond of using myriad instruments and sound devices to create his music, often with experimental elements embedded in the songs.
There have been no further news on when Damon's new album will be released. For now, the Blur frontman is busy with band tours all across the world.
For those interested in more about Bat for Lashes, check out her official website here.
August 28, 2013
Blur rocks out in Hungary - Revisiting the Szeiget Festival 2013
Blur headlined the Sziget Festival in Budapest, Hungary three weeks ago on August 9th, playing a memorable greatest hits show where audience saw Damon Albarn performing an entire song standing inside the crowds. It was a memorable show where fans saw a very cheesy sign, a soaked Damon Albarn, Blur performing "Happy Birthday To You" for a special someone, Alex smoking a cigarette and Damon's underpants.
Blur fans are creative- a Cheesus Christ sign at the Hungary show |
The Britpop legends then launched straight into 'Girls & Boys'. Wearing shorts and a red neckerchief, Bassist Alex James, performed his baseline with a cigarette hanging from his mouth. "It's been a very hot day," exclaimed a sweaty Albarn whilst spraying water over the audience in the front rows.
Afterwards the band played 'There's No Other Way' and 'Beetlebum', the latter which Damon performed with an acoustic guitar as he pounded his feet on the drum podium.
Damon still seemed fixated on the day's hot temperature as winds whipped up around the festival site. "They say there's a storm coming," he shouted. "Cool air! Rain! Yeah!". A rendition of 'Out Of Time' followed his short speech, before the fan favourite 'Trimm Trabb' was sung, which Albarn sang through a megaphone.
Guitarist Graham Coxon took lead vocals for the hit 'Coffee And TV', during which Albarn wandered around the stage with his acoustic guitar before joining the band's backing singers for a dance. "You're really making this a pleasure for us," he said afterwards.
Blur then played 'Tender' and 'To The End', which was performed with a brass section. They then picked up the pace with 'Country House'. Stalking around in the pit and shaking hands as he sang, he leapt over the barrier into the crowd, who sprayed him with water.
The band played a fast-paced version of 'Parklife' and 'End Of A Century', which was followed by a solo rendition of 'Happy Birthday' to a member of the band's road crew when Damon returned to the stage after the break. The rest of the group then joined him to play 2012 single 'Under The Westway'.
'For Tomorrow' came next, after which Albarn scanned the array of flags in the crowd and said: "There's a lot of people from a lot of different countries out there. That's a very positive thing." He then spotted a sign asking him to take his pants off, and exposed some underpants in response.
Blur then finished their encore with 'The Universal' and 'Song 2'.
Photo Gallery - Highlights at the Blur Szeiget Festival 2013
Setlist - Blur in Hungary 2013
Girls & Boys
There's No Other Way
Beetlebum
Out Of Time
Trimm Trabb
Caramel
Coffee & TV
Tender
To The End
Country House
Parklife
End Of A Century
This Is A Low
Encore:
Happy Birthday
Under The Westway
For Tomorrow (Visit To Primrose Hill
Extended)
The Universal
Song 2
Watch the Entire Show - Blur live in Hungary 2013
Finally, some good news for those of you who want to view the show - the entire set was recorded by a fan in very high quality video which you can watch by clicking here.