Like Sh*t In A Field
When the Spice Girls split I was afraid, I was petrified, the thought of five solo Spices filled me with dread. Similarly, Take That.
I didn't have that fear as Blur faded from view. Damon is a canny fellow, with an interesting and entertaining career, Coxon seems content to follow his own groove and Rowntree has moved into politics.
Which makes the sight of Alex James slappable fizzog gurning down from every opportunity all the more galling. Is there nothing that this man won't do to further his cause and stroke his ego?
If he's not banging on about his fucking cheese, he's poncing about in front of an orchestra or peering out at us from the pages of a broadsheet.
Is he a publicity hungry mediawhore, or am I just being a tad oversensitive?
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On The Other Hand
I must say that I have just this week past read James' book "A Bit Of A Blur" and found it a witty, well written and entertaining read. He does suffer a tendency towards arseness at times but who amongst us can say we would act any differently granted all our heart's desires.
The book may be ok
but it gives the impression of missing a lot of the juicier bits - ie what was all that debauchery actually like and who was it with.
Bizarrely I've been to 'that London' twice in the last twelve months and I've seen him both times.
Most pop stars are pretty thick so the fact he isn't stands him in good stead.
EDIT
EDIT
I'm with you
I find the man unbearable. He must have a very good agent though.
Him
and Jo Whiley. One bullet. Mmm, tricky.
lateral thinking eddie...
don't you remember that wonderful episode of Frasier where they do the Radio Play WhoDunnit and Niles has the immortal line "Could the McAllister sisters stand back to back please, I'm short on bullets."
Fantastic episode
Loved when the dyslexic actress shouts "Look out - he's got a nug"!
Don't like listening...
...to the chap either.
Can never understand how some people's faces are deemed to "fit" (on various media outlets) when they don't have anything, particularly, interesting to say.
His book was quite good
but all this cheese farming big house in the country tweed jacket wearing thing is a bit much - just how old is he anyway, 60 something?
I prefer him to Damon Albarn, the Sting of the indie world.
No, Damon Albarn is the Nathan Barley of the Indie world
The sort of twat who goes into a vinyl record shop on a super tiny bike to look at the discs. As I saw in a photograph that accompanied an Uncut review for some demos he released a few years back.
I think people overestimate the "publicity" angle
I presume that a bloke like Alex James has to work to pay the bills. Blur is apparently suspended and so he has to look around for other things to do. If people are prepared to pay him to write magazine columns and appear on TV shows, that's what he'll do. It's either that or taking his bass down to Kings Cross and busking. I know which one I'd do. Wouldn't you?
There's also the snowball effect
When rockeurs become known as giving good soundbite (well, not necessarily good, but at least usable), they are at the top of the list of TV researchers' proposals at production meetings - if only because being able to say "He was quite funny on Top Gear" is a safer bet than "He could be good. Or not".
Even before Live Aid, Bob Geldof was TV's rentagob of choice whenever anything vaguely youth-oriented was under discussion. For a year or two he was everywhere. And he was invariably dull - calling Vidal Sassoon "an overpriced barber" on The Eamonn Andrews Show isn't really all that insightful an observation, is it?
It sounds to me as though Alex James has reached the point where he needs to find a Good Cause sharpish.
Earn a crust
I don't begrudge him earning a crust, but he doesn't have to be so smug with it.
At least he won't he turning up on Question Time again.
And he does live in a very big house in the country - he ought to take some time to appreciate it.
Pay the bills?
That's what we have to do and we don't have a big house paid for by royalties.
Please don't tell us he's the next cover star...
He's a tosser of the highest order
I particularly despise his "I used to be a vegetarian, but I'm all better now" rantings which I find most offensive, and when I first read his weekly column in The Independent, printed alongside a picture of him in a flat cap, I thought it was some sort of Craig Brown/Private Eye style parody.
In fact, the only member of Blur I ever liked, and continue to admire is Graham Coxon. No wonder he got out whilst the going was good.
There are plenty of other ex bass players out there, and frankly, I'd rather read a weekly column from Peter Hook, or Bill Wyman on metal detecting.
I couldn't
agree more.
If I
were an oikish cove, and not a bookish if two-fisted renaissance man, I would aver his book should actually be called (fanfare) A Bit of a Tw*t. Oh, and I did read it. Unlike Jamesy himself, I suspect
ps Plaudits for the title's Jim Royle aphorism too