Blur star Alex James “bet his farm” on the Britpop Classical tour being a success.
The 57-year-old bassist debuted the four-hour long set at the Big Feastival, held at his farm in Oxfordshire in 2025, and is now gearing up for a UK tour of his “reimagined” versions of songs on the Ministry of Sound Classical tour – with his kicking off on 13th June in Southampton.
Speaking to In-Common, Alex said of the reaction to the tunes: “We did it at Feastival and oh my goodness! It was incredible.
“Thank goodness because I’d bet the farm on it, but it really, really landed and it was great fun so I thought why not trot it out on tour?
“We did a bunch of concert halls and symphony halls back in spring but this is the start of the summer run after Farmfest. I’m just absolutely loving it, it’s brilliant.”
Alex went on to say that the songs included in the setlist “seem to mean more to more people now than they did”.
He added: “There are not as many new bands breaking through now as they were, but music still seems to be as central in everyone’s life as it always has.
“When Blur got back together in 2023 I was staggered by how much my kids’ mates were into it and how many of them bought tickets to come and see us.
“It was the same with the Oasis show, it was a different generation but there were people coming with their parents and these songs just become part of the national consciousness.”
The interviewer then asked Alex how he has managed dealing with a full classical orchestra compared to a small band.
To which he replied: “Dealing with an entire orchestra is more straightforward than dealing with one guitar player. They turn up when they’re supposed to turn up, they do what they’re told.
“It’s a very different dynamic, there are literally 50/60 people on stage, there’s a lot of energy. Just the musicianship that you get, it staggers me that you can literally put anything in front of this orchestra and they absolutely nail it.
“|We’ve not reimagined these songs, we’ve gassed them up with orchestra juice. A lot of the Blur songs had brass sections and strings so that was something that was characteristic of that time.
“You can make everything so much more dynamic, give it more nuance and oomph.”