Never one to shy away from the spotlight – whether it be via reality shows or cheese making - Alex James made himself available to write about Blur performing at the BRITS tomorrow night in today's Sun newspaper. Yes, Alex is also a Sun columnist.
"IT is an amazing feeling to win a Brit award. It was the first prize I won. Now we are being honoured with an Outstanding Contribution award. Up until the Brits in 1995, Blur were a fairly unmanageable indie band and we had no idea we were going to win anything - let alone everything. We swept the board that night, taking four awards. I woke up the next morning and we were on the front page of every newspaper."
He then goes on a bit, mainly about meeting Madonna, Prince, a fairground in Alexandra Palace, sitting on a park bench with Keith Allen and a few other things. That's all very interesting, but what of the cheese, Alex?
"I'm so excited. I thought I was a footballer who'd played his last big game but suddenly I'm in the FA Cup final. Pulling the band back together is like reassembling the A-Team for one last job. I'm a cheesemaker now. I did meet the chef James Martin at the Nantwich International Cheese Show this year but I have to say it wasn't quite the same as sitting between Prince and Helena Christensen at the aftershow party in 1995. As much as we loved Blur, if you do anything day in, day out for 15 years, it becomes a job. We all needed to go our separate ways and do other things with our lives. Now when we play together, it's for the joy of it, like in our early days. I'm so proud of what my bandmates have achieved. David Rowntree, our drummer, is about to qualify as a barrister. He's also an active Labour Party member. Graham Coxon has always been one of my best mates and he's got a new record coming out. And Damon Albarn has had massive success with Gorillaz and all his collaborations."
Thanks for that, Alex.
Blur are due to play an 11 minute megamix of this hits at the end of tomorrow night's award ceremony. You can see the BRITS from 8pm on UTV.