Alex James

Alex James was born in Bournemouth, Dorset in 1968.

Alex first picked up the bass in 1984 and after meeting Graham Coxon at Goldsmiths College, became the bassist in Blur alongside Graham, Dave Rowntree and Damon Albarn when the band formed in 1989.

Blur went on to become one of the most successful and influential bands of the Britpop era. The band’s seven studio albums topped the charts in the UK, with 11 top 10 singles along the way, including Country House, Song 2 and Beetlebum.

Alex James’ musical projects outside of Blur have included Me Me Me (with Stephen Duffy) and Fat Les, makers of 1998’s hit Vindaloo. He has written music with Marianne Faithfull, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Florence and The Machine and Bernard Sumner. Most recently Alex co-wrote the track Lost with Kevin Rowland for the new Dexys album ‘One Day I’m Going To Soar’.

A prolific writer, Alex James, he writes a regular column ‘Mucking In’, on farm and family life in the Sunday Telegraph. He was the food writer at The Sun for many years, and has previously been employed as a columnist for Q Magazine, The Spectator and The Independent. James is a regular contributor to Radio 4’s On Your Farm and has been with Classic FM for almost 10 years, hosting numerous programmes including the regular Saturday night show ‘Date Night’.

2007 saw the publication of A Bit Of A Blur, the first instalment of his memoir, the second volume All Cheeses Great And Small was published in 2011.

He has also had great success as a cheese maker and co-creator of ‘Alex James Presents’ – a range of award winning British artisan cheeses including ‘Blue Monday’, ‘Good Queen Maude’, ‘Little Wallop’, ‘Farleigh Wallop’, as well as ‘Goddess’ which recently won the top accolade of the Super Gold prize at the World Cheese Awards
Alex hosted the food and music festival The Big Feastival, along with co-host Jamie Oliver, on his farm for its fifth year in August this year.

Alex James is married and lives on a farm in Oxfordshire with his wife and five children.