The Britpop bass player’s engaging memoir of the last Blur reunion reads like a freewheeling adventure without consequences – except when he crosses ‘the boss’
, as he admits in his new memoir, because their last meeting, eight years previously, “was a car crash that had haunted me daily ever since”. While the reader is curious to know whether it wasdriving that caused this metaphorical pile-up, James opts not to elucidate. Where band business is concerned, he is required always to tread carefully. Diplomacy is key.– “the boss”, as James refers to him – asks what everybody has been up to.
And James? “I said I was trying to make a really big Frazzle, a sort of crispy, bacon-flavoured edible plate, but it was proving difficult,” he relayed, doubtless flashing the same gurning grin he’s had on his face since, a flamboyant rake who could drink himself blind and then write about it amusingly, and so this book is a freewheeling – and very funny – account of a middle-aged man given a second chance to play pop star again.
Though he clearly possesses the ego necessary for all celebrities, James never seems overly burdened by status. “I’m just the bassist,” he writes, deferring to the others to provide most of the musical impetus and creative energy. Together, the band embark upon a new album,, which, upon release, is widely considered their best, and a world tour follows.
It is entirely possible that the 56-year-old James, just like any other sentient human, experiences his fair share of dark nights of the soul. But on the page, he does not. Instead, his life reads like a consequence-free adventure ride. When, pre-tour, the farm runs out of money, he has to ask his mother-in-law for a loan. But then some unexpected royalties come in from Vindaloo, the football terrace song he co-wrote with Keith Allen in 1998, and suddenly he’s flush again.
At one point, he writes: “I felt, not for the first time, that good fortune was on my side.” He’s not wrong. As a manifesto for living, it might seem a somewhat frivolous one, but it’s rather enviable, too. Who doesn’t want to have fun?
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