25 July 2024
Alamy
Blur bassist Alex James has announced the release of his new book, Over The Rainbow: Tales From An Unexpected Year. The book is due to be published on 5 December on Penguin/Random House and is available to pre-order now.
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A synopsis of the book reads, “One winter’s night, Alex James received an unexpected call. Blur had been invited to play their biggest gig ever: Wembley Stadium. The only trouble was, he and his bandmates hadn’t spoken to – or even shouted at – each other for years. And he now had five children, an out-of-control menagerie of cats, and a sprawling farm to run.
“This is the story of what happened next. Taking us behind the scenes of a raucous, rollercoaster year, Alex describes how the band made a surprise – and emotional – return, recording an acclaimed album and playing sold-out shows around the world, from Colchester to Colombia and beyond. Plus: how he went on a crash diet to fit back into his ‘Britpop Trousers,’ somehow organised an entire festival of his own, and tried to perfect the recipe for a giant Frazzle.
“Over the Rainbow is a heartfelt and hilarious account of what it feels like to be catapulted back into the limelight with one of the world’s biggest bands. It is a love letter to Blur, to friendship and to music. And it shows us all that, however old – or hungover – we might feel, nothing’s ever truly over: it’s always just the start of the next thing.”
In a post on his socials, James added, “It’s the story of an extraordinary year – of playing Wembley, looking after a farmhouse full of teenagers and running a festival. It’s about what it felt like to be living in the eye of a superstorm, where past and present collided, and I’d wake up every morning thinking, ‘What on earth is going to happen next?’”
The feature-length documentary Blur: To The End is out now in cinemas across the UK and Ireland. The film depicts the most recent chapter in the band’s story, captured during the period in which they made a surprise – and emotional – return with their first record in eight years, The Ballad of Darren.
