Alex James thought a Blur reunion would “never happen”.
The 56-year-old musician shot to fame alongside Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon and Dave Rowntree in the late 1980s and while there was no formal split for the rock band, life had become so different by the time their second reunion came around in 2022, it all came as something of a surprise to him.
Writing in a piece for The Sun newspaper, he said: “It all just snapped together Âperfectly, instantly, and for the next 15 years Blur was all we did and all we wanted to do, all day, every day.
“Although we never actually split up, inevitably there came a point where we wanted to do other things.
“I got married and moved to a farm and, among other things, became the food columnist for this newspaper.
“The band did get back together occasionally, but we had barely spoken since 2015 and I was starting to think maybe it would never happen.”
The ‘Country House’ rocker – who is now married to Claire Naeate and has five children with her – added that when a random opportunity to reform did come around, he “didn’t see a downside” to it at all.
He added: “Completely out of the blue, just before Christmas the year before last, I got a call from Blur’s live agent Âsaying an extra slot had just become available at Wembley Stadium the Âfollowing July and maybe we should all have a meeting to discuss it.
“We’d never played Wembley. It would be our biggest ever show. I guess it is the biggest show there is.
“I couldn’t see a downside or actually what there was to Âdiscuss about it.”
The group went on to sell out the show almost instantly, and released their comeback album ‘The Ballad of Darren’ in 2023.
Alex added: “It felt so good, we said “yes” to the show and thought maybe we’d make a new record as well.
“To my great surprise, the show sold out in five minutes flat and we added another night, so that was easier than expected.”