The notorious mid-90s rift that set the British music scene ablaze continues to stir conversation decades later. Yet, blur bassist Alex James, 56, can’t hide his excitement over his rivals, Liam and Noel Gallagher, patching things up to reunite Oasis for a colossal stadium tour this summer.
He’s no stranger to the turmoil of band disputes himself, having seen Blur’s own guitarist Graham Coxon bow out temporarily in the early noughties due to personal clashes.
It wasn’t until 2008 that fences were mended, with Coxon and frontman Damon Albarn burying the hatchet before Blur’s roaring comeback at Hyde Park the next year and their headline spot at Glastonbury.
In an exclusive chinwag with The Sun, Alex expressed joy about the Gallaghers’ first show together in 16 years, saying: “It’s wonderful. It’s awful that most bands end up hating each other.”
Blur has recently put out records like The Magic Whip and The Ballad of Darren with all original members, earning both critical acclaim and commercial success.
Marking a divergence from their earlier work in the late 90s and early 2000s such as Think Tank and 13, these albums boast an innovative sound that sharply contrasts with Oasis’s traditional LPs, hinting at more experimental ventures akin to Radiohead’s style post the heyday of Britpop.
Albums such as ‘Modern Life is Rubbish’, ‘Park Life’ and ‘The Great Escape’ have stood the test of time. Meanwhile, Oasis stayed true to their signature Beatles-inspired anthems throughout their active years.
The enduring relevance of both bands’ back catalogues, even three decades on, is a testament to their quality. These timeless tracks will be echoing around the country this summer.
Alex reflects: “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.”
This August, he’ll be revisiting his own musical history, as well as that of his contemporaries, at his Big Feastival festival on his Cotswold Farm.The musician is introducing Britpop Classical, a unique collaboration with the London Concert Orchestra and several renowned vocalists, which reimagines iconic tracks from the era.
Describing what fans can look forward to, Alex explains: “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. 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.”
The set is expected to include a few surprises, with tracks from The Prodigy. Alex singled them out as the best live act he’s seen in recent years and acknowledges the significant impact the pioneering hybrid act had on the British music scene in the 90s.
He aims to balance nostalgia for those who experienced it first-hand, while also introducing the music to a new generation of 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 expressed.
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