Alex James kept Blur’s new album a secret from his family.
The bassist – who has five children, sons Geronimo and twins Artemis and Galileo, and daughters Sable and Beatrix with wife Claire Neate – couldn’t even tell his loved ones about ‘The Magic Whip’ for fear they’d accidentally reveal details about the LP.
He said: "The secrecy was a nightmare, I couldn’t even tell my kids, because what if they’d told their schoolmates and it had leaked from there?
"I didn’t even tell my wife at first, but she was asking me, ‘Er, where are you going all the time?’"
Despite being sworn to secrecy, the 46-year-old musician is incredibly proud of the finished product and has admitted he was "emotional" when he heard the finished piece for the first time.
He added to NME magazine: "When I first heard what Graham [Coxon] and Stephen [Street; producer] had done, I was overcome. It was just devastating, really emotional. They’d done such an amazing job of turning it into this huge body of work.
"When we were in Hong Kong, if something wasn’t working, we’d move on to the next song. You can hear that sense of urgency, as well as us being so comfortable with each other. We’d done ‘Ong Ong’ in an hour, an incredibly simple song. And there it was now, sounding enormous."
Alex James’ secret recording sessions
