Alex James On Britpop, The Big Feastival, And blur

“The sun is shining, and it makes all the difference doesn’t it?”

Alex James is beaming. He’s sat in a barn on his English farm, gleefully recounting some of his recent escapades. A trip to Paris to see blur compadre Damon Albarn’s latest opera, a few DJ sets, and the preparations for this year’s Big Feastival. Transforming his farm into a full-blown festival, he’s built a loyal cult following, with families returning year upon year for good tunes, good vibes, and some good cheese.

This year has a curiously appropriate headline theme – Britpop Orchestral will transform songs by Oasis, The Verve, blur (naturally) and more into lush string arrangements. “I’ve certainly got my work cut out for me this year. We had Ministry Of Sound Classical headline Feastival last year, and it was the best headliner we’ve ever had. I’ve spent time thinking on this, and I really think this Britpop one will top it. The more we dig into it, the more excited I get. It seems to be gathering momentum. These Britpop songs are all festival bangers, so hopefully it will translate!”

—

—

Words tumble out of Alex James – an unsteady lit cigarette is in one hand, the other waving wildly as he holds court. “I mainly go and see gigs with my kids nowadays. I went to see AC/DC recently, and it was alright – alright! – but my daughter then wanted to see the Michael Jackson musical and within 30 seconds it’s like you’re watching Michael Jackson. And I tell you, the band in that production are better than AC/DC! They’ve just got it. And it made me realise, if the band is great, if the songs are great, then you don’t need a big story – you just put it onstage, and get on with it!”

“There’s no better way to climax the festival,” he insists. “Even if we had blur here… it would be a bit like Damon Albarn having blur on a Gorillaz record! Like, what’s the fucking point?! Even having Oasis here… they aren’t a foodie crowd, are they?! So there’s no better way to finish it.”

Amid a packed festival field – no pun intended – Big Feastival is still surging ahead, thanks to building a dedicated audience, and knowing how to cater for those crowds. “When we started Feastival, I used to say: we’re competing against 750 festivals up and down the country. Now, it’s 1000! You have to keep moving, and raising the bar, as it’s changing all the time.”

Known for his decade-spanning role in blur, Alex James was initially reluctant to actually get involved in the music aspect of the event, until a fortunate scheduling gap opened up. “About five years in, my wife said ‘oh, why don’t you DJ?’ So I pulled some tunes together, plugged the headphones in, and people just went fucking mental! It didn’t matter what I played, they just loved it! I was exhausted, so Jamie Oliver came onstage and played an Oasis song… and people went even more mental! So it made me think, actually, people like it when I get involved with the music here at Feastival.”

He shrugs: “Familiarity is a huge part of it. When you’ve got a big, big crowd you need that.”

Britpop Orchestral sits in a recurring lineage of orchestral feasts lavished upon Big Feastival go-ers. “The thing is, first time round we didn’t have an orchestra – the budget stretched to one of everything. So we had one violin, one flute… one bassoon! But now we’ve realised if we can realise these massive hits – with a band, an orchestra… lights, lasers, you name it! – then it’ll bring the house down.”

—

—

Ever self-deprecating, Alex James knows where blur’s catalogue sits in the grand scheme of things. “The thing is, blur have got seven or eight big ones, but this is 90 minutes of big ones! We made a playlist for this, and it got to four and half hours. We’ve got it down to two hours now, but you’ve got to be really ruthless. A lot of those mid 90s bangers mean a lot in people’s lives.”

Looking back, a lot of Britpop’s defining records use massive orchestral arrangements – it’s something Alex James attributes to blur, and the sessions of their proto-Britpop textbook ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish.

“That came from very sort of deliberate attempts to  draw on classic English songwriting. I remember listening to ‘For Tomorrow’ at the playback and it was a complete paradigm shift. I was like: that is good! It has got full orchestral arrangements, and there’s a choral element to it. It felt like that was a real watershed moment.”

“The label came down halfway through us recording ‘Modern Life…’ I was actually halfway through doing the bass on a track called ‘Starshaped’ and they said, let’s have a listen. And they were like, British pop?! You are fucking mad. You’re fucking mad. British pop, no one’s gonna buy that!” he laughs.

—

—

“It came from our first big American tour, this disastrous 13 week tour. For a bunch of kids who hadn’t travelled much, it gave us a sense of who were were, and where we were from, and what we stood for. What we built off the back of that was a determined move to celebrate being English… but that was very much flying in the face of fashion.”

“From my point of view,” he adds, “it was a reaction against grunge, which was sort of quite nihilistic, and smack-y. We were kind of quite jolly and silly and boozy.”

He’s eager to compare the music climate of 1995 to 2025 – particularly the packed summer circuit. “When blur first started doing festivals, there was two festivals in the whole world. There was, like, Reading, and then there was Glastonbury, and that was it.”

Not that Alex James tends to go to many festivals these days. “I’ve always said, if you’re too young or too old for Reading and Leeds… come to my house!”

“I had great years at Reading puking my guts out and shagging my tits off,” he laughs. “People who were watching blur at Reading in the 90s, they’ve probably got a couple of kids now, and they still want to jump up and down, but they want nice wine and they want, like, a nice lobster on a barbecue. So it all kind of works.”

—

—

The times, as someone once pointed out, are a-changing. Right now, Alex James is a farmer – some may mock his commitment to cheese, but he’s thrown his energy into British food, and that’s certainly something to be championed. “Bring in blur never felt like work,” he says. “I look back, and I slept about three hours each night. But for the last few years, I have actually been working quite hard.”

“Feastival fills this farm that me and my wife bought on our honeymoon. It was just a ruin, and we’ve filled it up with this stuff that we love – cheese and Tchaikovsky! Seeing it full up with food and music and families is just unreal. It’s exhilarating.”

“You need the big names to get people to come,” he points out, “but what people really enjoy when they’re here is just connecting with the really elemental stuff, like being in the countryside drinking a pint of beer in the sunshine, or beside a fire in the woods. That’s why I like it here.”

Just like in his music career, Alex James’ success as a farmer owes a lot to timing – Britons are shying away from plastic-coated supermarket produce to buy direct from the grower, a healthier and more grounded way to life. He’s been at the forefront of it all, flying the flag – famously – for cheese, but also farming as a whole.

“Britain’s been going through this incredible food revolution,” he insists. “We lost our food culture in in the war when food was rationed – there wasn’t enough to go around, cooking skills weren’t passed on from generation to generation, because there was literally nothing to cook.”

“We went from like one kind of cheese in the war to more than 1000 different kinds of cheese, which was the count the last time the British Cheese Awards were held here on the farm. So we’ve had the great British cheese explosion! But now we’re into the Champagne Supernova years with British sparkling wines!”

“I couldn’t really run a food festival if my heart and soul wasn’t in it,” he insists. “You need to give a shit, really. And I just… I’ve always fucking loved cheese!” he says, his voice tumbling to a crescendo. “And I’ve always loved champagne! So, you know, I’ve been really lucky to ride the waves of cheese and wine. Surfing waves of champagne towards an enormous husk of cheese!”

—

—

It’s all a long way from blur – speaking of why, Clash asks cheekily, how are the guys?

“We see each other,” he says. “It was a long time coming, the last get back together. And the longer that goes on, the more you start to think, well, the gravity is going to get too much. But it’s like the universe, somehow or other it comes together. And it was just wonderful, that last tour. Those were some of the best shows we’ve ever done. It’s just wonderful. Wonderful. I mean, what a great thing to have!”

“None of us want to do it all the time,” he insists. “But what a precious thing, to have made music with those people for so long, and to be able to come back to it. We spent so long at it, like a craft – like a master baker, or a sushi maker. We learnt it properly. And nothing can substitute for years and years of doing it together… at the end of the day, it’s the exact same four people that were at the first rehearsal. It does seem to snap together, remarkably brilliantly. And so long as we don’t flog it to bits, and treat it with respect, hopefully we can keep coming back to it.”

2025 has brought the Oasis reunion, and a renewed debate over what exactly Britpop is. For years, Alex James used to shun the term – before deciding to co-opt it.

Closing, he muses on that ‘Britpop Orchestral’ tag for a moment. “Classical music…” he ponders. “Or, as it used to be called, just ‘music’!” it’s like wild swimming – or just ‘swimming’ to a lot of people. I mean, classical is just anything that stands the test of time. So Britpop Classical – it’s all the best bits from the best of times, I guess!”

—

—

The Big Feastival takes place August 23rd – 25th.

Words: Robin Murray
Photography: Ollie Dixon

—

Join us on WeAre8, as we get under the skin of global cultural happenings. Follow Clash Magazine HERE as we skip merrily between clubs, concerts, interviews and
photo shoots. Get backstage sneak-peeks and a view into our world as the fun and games unfold.

“The sun is shining, and it makes all the difference doesn’t it?”

Alex James is beaming. He’s sat in a barn on his English farm, gleefully recounting some of his recent escapades. A trip to Paris to see blur compadre Damon Albarn’s latest opera, a few DJ sets, and the preparations for this year’s Big Feastival. Transforming his farm into a full-blown festival, he’s built a loyal cult following, with families returning year upon year for good tunes, good vibes, and some good cheese.

This year has a curiously appropriate headline theme – Britpop Orchestral will transform songs by Oasis, The Verve, blur (naturally) and more into lush string arrangements. “I’ve certainly got my work cut out for me this year. We had Ministry Of Sound Classical headline Feastival last year, and it was the best headliner we’ve ever had. I’ve spent time thinking on this, and I really think this Britpop one will top it. The more we dig into it, the more excited I get. It seems to be gathering momentum. These Britpop songs are all festival bangers, so hopefully it will translate!”

—

—

Words tumble out of Alex James – an unsteady lit cigarette is in one hand, the other waving wildly as he holds court. “I mainly go and see gigs with my kids nowadays. I went to see AC/DC recently, and it was alright – alright! – but my daughter then wanted to see the Michael Jackson musical and within 30 seconds it’s like you’re watching Michael Jackson. And I tell you, the band in that production are better than AC/DC! They’ve just got it. And it made me realise, if the band is great, if the songs are great, then you don’t need a big story – you just put it onstage, and get on with it!”

“There’s no better way to climax the festival,” he insists. “Even if we had blur here… it would be a bit like Damon Albarn having blur on a Gorillaz record! Like, what’s the fucking point?! Even having Oasis here… they aren’t a foodie crowd, are they?! So there’s no better way to finish it.”

Amid a packed festival field – no pun intended – Big Feastival is still surging ahead, thanks to building a dedicated audience, and knowing how to cater for those crowds. “When we started Feastival, I used to say: we’re competing against 750 festivals up and down the country. Now, it’s 1000! You have to keep moving, and raising the bar, as it’s changing all the time.”

Known for his decade-spanning role in blur, Alex James was initially reluctant to actually get involved in the music aspect of the event, until a fortunate scheduling gap opened up. “About five years in, my wife said ‘oh, why don’t you DJ?’ So I pulled some tunes together, plugged the headphones in, and people just went fucking mental! It didn’t matter what I played, they just loved it! I was exhausted, so Jamie Oliver came onstage and played an Oasis song… and people went even more mental! So it made me think, actually, people like it when I get involved with the music here at Feastival.”

He shrugs: “Familiarity is a huge part of it. When you’ve got a big, big crowd you need that.”

Britpop Orchestral sits in a recurring lineage of orchestral feasts lavished upon Big Feastival go-ers. “The thing is, first time round we didn’t have an orchestra – the budget stretched to one of everything. So we had one violin, one flute… one bassoon! But now we’ve realised if we can realise these massive hits – with a band, an orchestra… lights, lasers, you name it! – then it’ll bring the house down.”

—

—

Ever self-deprecating, Alex James knows where blur’s catalogue sits in the grand scheme of things. “The thing is, blur have got seven or eight big ones, but this is 90 minutes of big ones! We made a playlist for this, and it got to four and half hours. We’ve got it down to two hours now, but you’ve got to be really ruthless. A lot of those mid 90s bangers mean a lot in people’s lives.”

Looking back, a lot of Britpop’s defining records use massive orchestral arrangements – it’s something Alex James attributes to blur, and the sessions of their proto-Britpop textbook ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish.

“That came from very sort of deliberate attempts to  draw on classic English songwriting. I remember listening to ‘For Tomorrow’ at the playback and it was a complete paradigm shift. I was like: that is good! It has got full orchestral arrangements, and there’s a choral element to it. It felt like that was a real watershed moment.”

“The label came down halfway through us recording ‘Modern Life…’ I was actually halfway through doing the bass on a track called ‘Starshaped’ and they said, let’s have a listen. And they were like, British pop?! You are fucking mad. You’re fucking mad. British pop, no one’s gonna buy that!” he laughs.

—

—

“It came from our first big American tour, this disastrous 13 week tour. For a bunch of kids who hadn’t travelled much, it gave us a sense of who were were, and where we were from, and what we stood for. What we built off the back of that was a determined move to celebrate being English… but that was very much flying in the face of fashion.”

“From my point of view,” he adds, “it was a reaction against grunge, which was sort of quite nihilistic, and smack-y. We were kind of quite jolly and silly and boozy.”

He’s eager to compare the music climate of 1995 to 2025 – particularly the packed summer circuit. “When blur first started doing festivals, there was two festivals in the whole world. There was, like, Reading, and then there was Glastonbury, and that was it.”

Not that Alex James tends to go to many festivals these days. “I’ve always said, if you’re too young or too old for Reading and Leeds… come to my house!”

“I had great years at Reading puking my guts out and shagging my tits off,” he laughs. “People who were watching blur at Reading in the 90s, they’ve probably got a couple of kids now, and they still want to jump up and down, but they want nice wine and they want, like, a nice lobster on a barbecue. So it all kind of works.”

—

—

The times, as someone once pointed out, are a-changing. Right now, Alex James is a farmer – some may mock his commitment to cheese, but he’s thrown his energy into British food, and that’s certainly something to be championed. “Bring in blur never felt like work,” he says. “I look back, and I slept about three hours each night. But for the last few years, I have actually been working quite hard.”

“Feastival fills this farm that me and my wife bought on our honeymoon. It was just a ruin, and we’ve filled it up with this stuff that we love – cheese and Tchaikovsky! Seeing it full up with food and music and families is just unreal. It’s exhilarating.”

“You need the big names to get people to come,” he points out, “but what people really enjoy when they’re here is just connecting with the really elemental stuff, like being in the countryside drinking a pint of beer in the sunshine, or beside a fire in the woods. That’s why I like it here.”

Just like in his music career, Alex James’ success as a farmer owes a lot to timing – Britons are shying away from plastic-coated supermarket produce to buy direct from the grower, a healthier and more grounded way to life. He’s been at the forefront of it all, flying the flag – famously – for cheese, but also farming as a whole.

“Britain’s been going through this incredible food revolution,” he insists. “We lost our food culture in in the war when food was rationed – there wasn’t enough to go around, cooking skills weren’t passed on from generation to generation, because there was literally nothing to cook.”

“We went from like one kind of cheese in the war to more than 1000 different kinds of cheese, which was the count the last time the British Cheese Awards were held here on the farm. So we’ve had the great British cheese explosion! But now we’re into the Champagne Supernova years with British sparkling wines!”

“I couldn’t really run a food festival if my heart and soul wasn’t in it,” he insists. “You need to give a shit, really. And I just… I’ve always fucking loved cheese!” he says, his voice tumbling to a crescendo. “And I’ve always loved champagne! So, you know, I’ve been really lucky to ride the waves of cheese and wine. Surfing waves of champagne towards an enormous husk of cheese!”

—

—

It’s all a long way from blur – speaking of why, Clash asks cheekily, how are the guys?

“We see each other,” he says. “It was a long time coming, the last get back together. And the longer that goes on, the more you start to think, well, the gravity is going to get too much. But it’s like the universe, somehow or other it comes together. And it was just wonderful, that last tour. Those were some of the best shows we’ve ever done. It’s just wonderful. Wonderful. I mean, what a great thing to have!”

“None of us want to do it all the time,” he insists. “But what a precious thing, to have made music with those people for so long, and to be able to come back to it. We spent so long at it, like a craft – like a master baker, or a sushi maker. We learnt it properly. And nothing can substitute for years and years of doing it together… at the end of the day, it’s the exact same four people that were at the first rehearsal. It does seem to snap together, remarkably brilliantly. And so long as we don’t flog it to bits, and treat it with respect, hopefully we can keep coming back to it.”

2025 has brought the Oasis reunion, and a renewed debate over what exactly Britpop is. For years, Alex James used to shun the term – before deciding to co-opt it.

Closing, he muses on that ‘Britpop Orchestral’ tag for a moment. “Classical music…” he ponders. “Or, as it used to be called, just ‘music’!” it’s like wild swimming – or just ‘swimming’ to a lot of people. I mean, classical is just anything that stands the test of time. So Britpop Classical – it’s all the best bits from the best of times, I guess!”

—

—

The Big Feastival takes place August 23rd – 25th.

Words: Robin Murray
Photography: Ollie Dixon

—

Join us on WeAre8, as we get under the skin of global cultural happenings. Follow Clash Magazine HERE as we skip merrily between clubs, concerts, interviews and
photo shoots. Get backstage sneak-peeks and a view into our world as the fun and games unfold.

“The sun is shining, and it makes all the difference doesn’t it?”

Alex James is beaming. He’s sat in a barn on his English farm, gleefully recounting some of his recent escapades. A trip to Paris to see blur compadre Damon Albarn’s latest opera, a few DJ sets, and the preparations for this year’s Big Feastival. Transforming his farm into a full-blown festival, he’s built a loyal cult following, with families returning year upon year for good tunes, good vibes, and some good cheese.

This year has a curiously appropriate headline theme – Britpop Orchestral will transform songs by Oasis, The Verve, blur (naturally) and more into lush string arrangements. “I’ve certainly got my work cut out for me this year. We had Ministry Of Sound Classical headline Feastival last year, and it was the best headliner we’ve ever had. I’ve spent time thinking on this, and I really think this Britpop one will top it. The more we dig into it, the more excited I get. It seems to be gathering momentum. These Britpop songs are all festival bangers, so hopefully it will translate!”

—

—

Words tumble out of Alex James – an unsteady lit cigarette is in one hand, the other waving wildly as he holds court. “I mainly go and see gigs with my kids nowadays. I went to see AC/DC recently, and it was alright – alright! – but my daughter then wanted to see the Michael Jackson musical and within 30 seconds it’s like you’re watching Michael Jackson. And I tell you, the band in that production are better than AC/DC! They’ve just got it. And it made me realise, if the band is great, if the songs are great, then you don’t need a big story – you just put it onstage, and get on with it!”

“There’s no better way to climax the festival,” he insists. “Even if we had blur here… it would be a bit like Damon Albarn having blur on a Gorillaz record! Like, what’s the fucking point?! Even having Oasis here… they aren’t a foodie crowd, are they?! So there’s no better way to finish it.”

Amid a packed festival field – no pun intended – Big Feastival is still surging ahead, thanks to building a dedicated audience, and knowing how to cater for those crowds. “When we started Feastival, I used to say: we’re competing against 750 festivals up and down the country. Now, it’s 1000! You have to keep moving, and raising the bar, as it’s changing all the time.”

Known for his decade-spanning role in blur, Alex James was initially reluctant to actually get involved in the music aspect of the event, until a fortunate scheduling gap opened up. “About five years in, my wife said ‘oh, why don’t you DJ?’ So I pulled some tunes together, plugged the headphones in, and people just went fucking mental! It didn’t matter what I played, they just loved it! I was exhausted, so Jamie Oliver came onstage and played an Oasis song… and people went even more mental! So it made me think, actually, people like it when I get involved with the music here at Feastival.”

He shrugs: “Familiarity is a huge part of it. When you’ve got a big, big crowd you need that.”

Britpop Orchestral sits in a recurring lineage of orchestral feasts lavished upon Big Feastival go-ers. “The thing is, first time round we didn’t have an orchestra – the budget stretched to one of everything. So we had one violin, one flute… one bassoon! But now we’ve realised if we can realise these massive hits – with a band, an orchestra… lights, lasers, you name it! – then it’ll bring the house down.”

—

—

Ever self-deprecating, Alex James knows where blur’s catalogue sits in the grand scheme of things. “The thing is, blur have got seven or eight big ones, but this is 90 minutes of big ones! We made a playlist for this, and it got to four and half hours. We’ve got it down to two hours now, but you’ve got to be really ruthless. A lot of those mid 90s bangers mean a lot in people’s lives.”

Looking back, a lot of Britpop’s defining records use massive orchestral arrangements – it’s something Alex James attributes to blur, and the sessions of their proto-Britpop textbook ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish.

“That came from very sort of deliberate attempts to  draw on classic English songwriting. I remember listening to ‘For Tomorrow’ at the playback and it was a complete paradigm shift. I was like: that is good! It has got full orchestral arrangements, and there’s a choral element to it. It felt like that was a real watershed moment.”

“The label came down halfway through us recording ‘Modern Life…’ I was actually halfway through doing the bass on a track called ‘Starshaped’ and they said, let’s have a listen. And they were like, British pop?! You are fucking mad. You’re fucking mad. British pop, no one’s gonna buy that!” he laughs.

—

—

“It came from our first big American tour, this disastrous 13 week tour. For a bunch of kids who hadn’t travelled much, it gave us a sense of who were were, and where we were from, and what we stood for. What we built off the back of that was a determined move to celebrate being English… but that was very much flying in the face of fashion.”

“From my point of view,” he adds, “it was a reaction against grunge, which was sort of quite nihilistic, and smack-y. We were kind of quite jolly and silly and boozy.”

He’s eager to compare the music climate of 1995 to 2025 – particularly the packed summer circuit. “When blur first started doing festivals, there was two festivals in the whole world. There was, like, Reading, and then there was Glastonbury, and that was it.”

Not that Alex James tends to go to many festivals these days. “I’ve always said, if you’re too young or too old for Reading and Leeds… come to my house!”

“I had great years at Reading puking my guts out and shagging my tits off,” he laughs. “People who were watching blur at Reading in the 90s, they’ve probably got a couple of kids now, and they still want to jump up and down, but they want nice wine and they want, like, a nice lobster on a barbecue. So it all kind of works.”

—

—

The times, as someone once pointed out, are a-changing. Right now, Alex James is a farmer – some may mock his commitment to cheese, but he’s thrown his energy into British food, and that’s certainly something to be championed. “Bring in blur never felt like work,” he says. “I look back, and I slept about three hours each night. But for the last few years, I have actually been working quite hard.”

“Feastival fills this farm that me and my wife bought on our honeymoon. It was just a ruin, and we’ve filled it up with this stuff that we love – cheese and Tchaikovsky! Seeing it full up with food and music and families is just unreal. It’s exhilarating.”

“You need the big names to get people to come,” he points out, “but what people really enjoy when they’re here is just connecting with the really elemental stuff, like being in the countryside drinking a pint of beer in the sunshine, or beside a fire in the woods. That’s why I like it here.”

Just like in his music career, Alex James’ success as a farmer owes a lot to timing – Britons are shying away from plastic-coated supermarket produce to buy direct from the grower, a healthier and more grounded way to life. He’s been at the forefront of it all, flying the flag – famously – for cheese, but also farming as a whole.

“Britain’s been going through this incredible food revolution,” he insists. “We lost our food culture in in the war when food was rationed – there wasn’t enough to go around, cooking skills weren’t passed on from generation to generation, because there was literally nothing to cook.”

“We went from like one kind of cheese in the war to more than 1000 different kinds of cheese, which was the count the last time the British Cheese Awards were held here on the farm. So we’ve had the great British cheese explosion! But now we’re into the Champagne Supernova years with British sparkling wines!”

“I couldn’t really run a food festival if my heart and soul wasn’t in it,” he insists. “You need to give a shit, really. And I just… I’ve always fucking loved cheese!” he says, his voice tumbling to a crescendo. “And I’ve always loved champagne! So, you know, I’ve been really lucky to ride the waves of cheese and wine. Surfing waves of champagne towards an enormous husk of cheese!”

—

—

It’s all a long way from blur – speaking of why, Clash asks cheekily, how are the guys?

“We see each other,” he says. “It was a long time coming, the last get back together. And the longer that goes on, the more you start to think, well, the gravity is going to get too much. But it’s like the universe, somehow or other it comes together. And it was just wonderful, that last tour. Those were some of the best shows we’ve ever done. It’s just wonderful. Wonderful. I mean, what a great thing to have!”

“None of us want to do it all the time,” he insists. “But what a precious thing, to have made music with those people for so long, and to be able to come back to it. We spent so long at it, like a craft – like a master baker, or a sushi maker. We learnt it properly. And nothing can substitute for years and years of doing it together… at the end of the day, it’s the exact same four people that were at the first rehearsal. It does seem to snap together, remarkably brilliantly. And so long as we don’t flog it to bits, and treat it with respect, hopefully we can keep coming back to it.”

2025 has brought the Oasis reunion, and a renewed debate over what exactly Britpop is. For years, Alex James used to shun the term – before deciding to co-opt it.

Closing, he muses on that ‘Britpop Orchestral’ tag for a moment. “Classical music…” he ponders. “Or, as it used to be called, just ‘music’!” it’s like wild swimming – or just ‘swimming’ to a lot of people. I mean, classical is just anything that stands the test of time. So Britpop Classical – it’s all the best bits from the best of times, I guess!”

—

—

The Big Feastival takes place August 23rd – 25th.

Words: Robin Murray
Photography: Ollie Dixon

—

Join us on WeAre8, as we get under the skin of global cultural happenings. Follow Clash Magazine HERE as we skip merrily between clubs, concerts, interviews and
photo shoots. Get backstage sneak-peeks and a view into our world as the fun and games unfold.

“The sun is shining, and it makes all the difference doesn’t it?”

Alex James is beaming. He’s sat in a barn on his English farm, gleefully recounting some of his recent escapades. A trip to Paris to see blur compadre Damon Albarn’s latest opera, a few DJ sets, and the preparations for this year’s Big Feastival. Transforming his farm into a full-blown festival, he’s built a loyal cult following, with families returning year upon year for good tunes, good vibes, and some good cheese.

This year has a curiously appropriate headline theme – Britpop Orchestral will transform songs by Oasis, The Verve, blur (naturally) and more into lush string arrangements. “I’ve certainly got my work cut out for me this year. We had Ministry Of Sound Classical headline Feastival last year, and it was the best headliner we’ve ever had. I’ve spent time thinking on this, and I really think this Britpop one will top it. The more we dig into it, the more excited I get. It seems to be gathering momentum. These Britpop songs are all festival bangers, so hopefully it will translate!”

—

—

Words tumble out of Alex James – an unsteady lit cigarette is in one hand, the other waving wildly as he holds court. “I mainly go and see gigs with my kids nowadays. I went to see AC/DC recently, and it was alright – alright! – but my daughter then wanted to see the Michael Jackson musical and within 30 seconds it’s like you’re watching Michael Jackson. And I tell you, the band in that production are better than AC/DC! They’ve just got it. And it made me realise, if the band is great, if the songs are great, then you don’t need a big story – you just put it onstage, and get on with it!”

“There’s no better way to climax the festival,” he insists. “Even if we had blur here… it would be a bit like Damon Albarn having blur on a Gorillaz record! Like, what’s the fucking point?! Even having Oasis here… they aren’t a foodie crowd, are they?! So there’s no better way to finish it.”

Amid a packed festival field – no pun intended – Big Feastival is still surging ahead, thanks to building a dedicated audience, and knowing how to cater for those crowds. “When we started Feastival, I used to say: we’re competing against 750 festivals up and down the country. Now, it’s 1000! You have to keep moving, and raising the bar, as it’s changing all the time.”

Known for his decade-spanning role in blur, Alex James was initially reluctant to actually get involved in the music aspect of the event, until a fortunate scheduling gap opened up. “About five years in, my wife said ‘oh, why don’t you DJ?’ So I pulled some tunes together, plugged the headphones in, and people just went fucking mental! It didn’t matter what I played, they just loved it! I was exhausted, so Jamie Oliver came onstage and played an Oasis song… and people went even more mental! So it made me think, actually, people like it when I get involved with the music here at Feastival.”

He shrugs: “Familiarity is a huge part of it. When you’ve got a big, big crowd you need that.”

Britpop Orchestral sits in a recurring lineage of orchestral feasts lavished upon Big Feastival go-ers. “The thing is, first time round we didn’t have an orchestra – the budget stretched to one of everything. So we had one violin, one flute… one bassoon! But now we’ve realised if we can realise these massive hits – with a band, an orchestra… lights, lasers, you name it! – then it’ll bring the house down.”

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Ever self-deprecating, Alex James knows where blur’s catalogue sits in the grand scheme of things. “The thing is, blur have got seven or eight big ones, but this is 90 minutes of big ones! We made a playlist for this, and it got to four and half hours. We’ve got it down to two hours now, but you’ve got to be really ruthless. A lot of those mid 90s bangers mean a lot in people’s lives.”

Looking back, a lot of Britpop’s defining records use massive orchestral arrangements – it’s something Alex James attributes to blur, and the sessions of their proto-Britpop textbook ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish.

“That came from very sort of deliberate attempts to  draw on classic English songwriting. I remember listening to ‘For Tomorrow’ at the playback and it was a complete paradigm shift. I was like: that is good! It has got full orchestral arrangements, and there’s a choral element to it. It felt like that was a real watershed moment.”

“The label came down halfway through us recording ‘Modern Life…’ I was actually halfway through doing the bass on a track called ‘Starshaped’ and they said, let’s have a listen. And they were like, British pop?! You are fucking mad. You’re fucking mad. British pop, no one’s gonna buy that!” he laughs.

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“It came from our first big American tour, this disastrous 13 week tour. For a bunch of kids who hadn’t travelled much, it gave us a sense of who were were, and where we were from, and what we stood for. What we built off the back of that was a determined move to celebrate being English… but that was very much flying in the face of fashion.”

“From my point of view,” he adds, “it was a reaction against grunge, which was sort of quite nihilistic, and smack-y. We were kind of quite jolly and silly and boozy.”

He’s eager to compare the music climate of 1995 to 2025 – particularly the packed summer circuit. “When blur first started doing festivals, there was two festivals in the whole world. There was, like, Reading, and then there was Glastonbury, and that was it.”

Not that Alex James tends to go to many festivals these days. “I’ve always said, if you’re too young or too old for Reading and Leeds… come to my house!”

“I had great years at Reading puking my guts out and shagging my tits off,” he laughs. “People who were watching blur at Reading in the 90s, they’ve probably got a couple of kids now, and they still want to jump up and down, but they want nice wine and they want, like, a nice lobster on a barbecue. So it all kind of works.”

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The times, as someone once pointed out, are a-changing. Right now, Alex James is a farmer – some may mock his commitment to cheese, but he’s thrown his energy into British food, and that’s certainly something to be championed. “Bring in blur never felt like work,” he says. “I look back, and I slept about three hours each night. But for the last few years, I have actually been working quite hard.”

“Feastival fills this farm that me and my wife bought on our honeymoon. It was just a ruin, and we’ve filled it up with this stuff that we love – cheese and Tchaikovsky! Seeing it full up with food and music and families is just unreal. It’s exhilarating.”

“You need the big names to get people to come,” he points out, “but what people really enjoy when they’re here is just connecting with the really elemental stuff, like being in the countryside drinking a pint of beer in the sunshine, or beside a fire in the woods. That’s why I like it here.”

Just like in his music career, Alex James’ success as a farmer owes a lot to timing – Britons are shying away from plastic-coated supermarket produce to buy direct from the grower, a healthier and more grounded way to life. He’s been at the forefront of it all, flying the flag – famously – for cheese, but also farming as a whole.

“Britain’s been going through this incredible food revolution,” he insists. “We lost our food culture in in the war when food was rationed – there wasn’t enough to go around, cooking skills weren’t passed on from generation to generation, because there was literally nothing to cook.”

“We went from like one kind of cheese in the war to more than 1000 different kinds of cheese, which was the count the last time the British Cheese Awards were held here on the farm. So we’ve had the great British cheese explosion! But now we’re into the Champagne Supernova years with British sparkling wines!”

“I couldn’t really run a food festival if my heart and soul wasn’t in it,” he insists. “You need to give a shit, really. And I just… I’ve always fucking loved cheese!” he says, his voice tumbling to a crescendo. “And I’ve always loved champagne! So, you know, I’ve been really lucky to ride the waves of cheese and wine. Surfing waves of champagne towards an enormous husk of cheese!”

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It’s all a long way from blur – speaking of why, Clash asks cheekily, how are the guys?

“We see each other,” he says. “It was a long time coming, the last get back together. And the longer that goes on, the more you start to think, well, the gravity is going to get too much. But it’s like the universe, somehow or other it comes together. And it was just wonderful, that last tour. Those were some of the best shows we’ve ever done. It’s just wonderful. Wonderful. I mean, what a great thing to have!”

“None of us want to do it all the time,” he insists. “But what a precious thing, to have made music with those people for so long, and to be able to come back to it. We spent so long at it, like a craft – like a master baker, or a sushi maker. We learnt it properly. And nothing can substitute for years and years of doing it together… at the end of the day, it’s the exact same four people that were at the first rehearsal. It does seem to snap together, remarkably brilliantly. And so long as we don’t flog it to bits, and treat it with respect, hopefully we can keep coming back to it.”

2025 has brought the Oasis reunion, and a renewed debate over what exactly Britpop is. For years, Alex James used to shun the term – before deciding to co-opt it.

Closing, he muses on that ‘Britpop Orchestral’ tag for a moment. “Classical music…” he ponders. “Or, as it used to be called, just ‘music’!” it’s like wild swimming – or just ‘swimming’ to a lot of people. I mean, classical is just anything that stands the test of time. So Britpop Classical – it’s all the best bits from the best of times, I guess!”

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The Big Feastival takes place August 23rd – 25th.

Words: Robin Murray
Photography: Ollie Dixon

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