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Alex James hopes Blur stick around for a ‘very long time’

Alex James hopes Blur will keep going “for a very long time”.

The Britpop group’s bassist – who has put pen to paper on the memoir ‘Over The Rainbow: Tales Of An Unexpected Year by Alex James’ – is keen to do more with his bandmates after their most recent reunion, which saw them play their biggest shows to date at Wembley Stadium.

Asked about the future of the band, Alex told The Sun newspaper: “Last year was truly magical. I hope we can keep doing it and keeping it special for as long as we live. And I hope that’s a very long time.”

Alex’s comments come after drummer Dave Rowntree revealed that Blur are willing to work together more often if the opportunities are right.

He told the Daily Star newspaper’s Wired column: “There’s still tons of stuff we could do. It’s about finding an offer that’s very hard to say no to.

“When we first got back together in 2009, we were very happy to be the first people to play what has become the British Summer Time festival at Hyde Park.

“Then we were asked to headline the party to end the 2012 Olympics, and you can’t say no to that.”

Dave gushed that the ‘Parklife’ hitmakers – also including frontman Damon Albarn and guitarist Graham Coxon – had “a lot of fun” on the tour that accompanied the release of the album ‘The Ballad of Darren’ last year.

He said: “We came away all still friends, having had a lot of fun doing the shows.

“So there’s absolutely no reason why we couldn’t consider another interesting idea, if we’re all available. But there’s absolutely nothing in the diary for Blur at the moment.”

Despite the initial nerves, the musician explained that playing to a crowd of 90,000 at Wembley Stadium soon became relatively straightforward.

He said: “It’s stressful, headlining a show to that many people in front of your home crowd. All our friends and family were there. Had it been a disaster, you’d have to look those people in the eye the next morning.

“But once we started the first show, it was, ‘Oh, we know how to do this.’

“Halfway through the first song, we were all focused.”