Alex James says Blur and Oasis "wouldn’t have existed" without The Beatles.
The former Britpop rivals were both massively influenced by the iconic Liverpool band and following the release of Danny Boyle’s movie ‘Yesterday’ – which follows struggling musician Jack Malik (played by Himesh Patel) who one day wakes up to discover he’s the only person who knows The Beatles and can remember their songs – the 50-year-old bassist has admitted the world would suck if the ‘Let It Be’ group’s music wasn’t around now.
In a feature for The Sun newspaper, Alex wrote: "It’s hard to imagine a world without The Beatles. No ‘Yesterday’. No ‘Hard Day’s Night’, no ‘Eleanor Rigby’, no ‘All You Need Is Love’.
Anyone who has grown up in the Western world will have been touched, in some way, by a Beatles song."
Alex documented his own personal history with the Liverpool legends and how the death of frontman John Lennon – who was assassinated in New York City in 1980 at the age of 40 – had a huge impact on him when he was a child.
He said: "My love of music went supernova because of them. I was off school with chicken pox when John Lennon was shot in 1980.
"I spent the week watching a VHS recording of The Beatles film ‘Help!’, which was broadcast on TV the day he died. I still watch it once a year.
"Then I bought a Beatles songbook and a guitar, figured out the chord shapes and started strumming and singing along. I never looked back."
Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher, 46, named his eldest son Lennon – his child with ex-wife Patsy Kensit – after the iconic musician and continues to pay homage to his idol, with his second solo LP ‘Why Me? Why Not’ named after two separate self-portraits drawn by the late singer.
Alex also believes the likes of the Rolling Stones, who formed two years after the ‘Come Together’ hitmakers – who were completed by late guitarist George Harrison and surviving members Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Ringo Starr – and even 70s punk rockers Sex Pistols, who are the antithesis of The Beatles, who promoted "peace and love", wouldn’t have emerged without their influence.
He added: "Blur certainly wouldn’t have existed without The Beatles and it’s fair to say Oasis owe them a thing or two as well.
"But you couldn’t have had the Rolling Stones without The Beatles either, or just about any band from Genesis to the Sex Pistols."
Alex James: Blur and Oasis owe a lot to The Beatles
