Blur star Alex James's 17th-century Cotswolds farmhouse that hosts 25k people every year - full tour
It’s that time of year when Alex James and his family roll up their sleeves and start the preparations to welcome 25,000-odd visitors to their home in the Cotswolds for the Big Feastival, their annual food and music extravaganza.
"My CV reads: 'A lot of tunes, a lot of cheese, a lot of children, lives on a farm, loves a party,'" the Blur bassist says. "It's no small undertaking, running a festival, but it sits completely within my preoccupations."
Our exclusive shoot and interview with the affable musician, whose love of a good anecdote makes for entertaining company, takes place at the sprawling 17th-century, honey-stoned farmhouse in Kingham, Oxfordshire that he shares with his wife Claire and their five children – Geronimo, 20, 18-year-old twins Artemas and Galileo, Sable, who turns 16 next month, and Beatrix, 14.
It is also the HQ for his other business ventures, including his award-winning artisan cheese and Britpop sparkling wine, while he continues to perform and tour with one of Britain’s most successful and enduring bands.
UNITED BY MUSIC
But it is the three-day family-friendly event, this year featuring headliners Snow Patrol and Becky Hill, that gives him the most joy –especially when his teenagers get involved with the DJing.
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"I gave Beatrix a go last year and she was up there, banging out Rihanna," he says proudly. "Then she called her sister up, because it was her birthday, then her brothers joined her, and then me and Claire and both the grannies were up there."
"Beatrix put on We Are Family by Chic and we were all bouncing up and down together. It was a purely magical moment, the culmination of everything we’d been working towards."
Alex, 55, and Claire, who met in a nightclub in 2002 and married in 2003, bought the farm on their honeymoon, moving there from London shortly afterwards.
Beautifully renovated over the years, the main house combines a contemporary look and a farmhouse aesthetic, with six bedrooms, several bathrooms and a mezzanine library, glass-ceilinged extension, large kitchen, snug and family living room.
"The farm was completely derelict, and we worked hard, throwing everything into it," says Alex of their home. "God bless Claire. She thought she was getting a rock star but she was getting a s**t farmer instead," he jokes. They also share the property with eight or nine cats ("one comes and goes"), two dogs, eight or nine ducklings ("depending on the foxes") and some tenant sheep. But no cows.
"They’re a nightmare," he shudders. "I was going to Chelsea Flower Show one year, wearing a Versace suit, and had to cross a field to get to the train station. I saw some steers and worked out that if they chased me, I’d run to the pond in the middle.
"I was at the no-turning-backpoint when they went on full stampede, rampaging towards me. I ended up being up to my knees in the pond."
Their other residents are bees, the hives which Claire looks after and which produce bountiful amounts of honey. They also help pollinate the market garden, which, he says, has "endless polytunnels, greenhouses and tomato sheds" producing fruit and veg to help feed the Feastival guests.
KEEPING BUSY
Alex believes that his bandmates –singer Damon Albarn, guitarist Graham Coxon and drummer Dave Rowntree – are able to "come back and look each other in the eye" because they are as busy as him. "It’s like a marriage, and all marriages need some kind of success outside the relationship in order to thrive," he says of the stop-start nature of the band, which they formed at London’s Goldsmiths college in 1988.
"I literally don’t hear from them, because we’re all so consumed by our own lives, and that’s absolutely fine. "Eight years since their last revival, they hit the road again last year with warm-up gigs, two sell-out nights at Wembley Stadium and festival performances across Europe, Japan and South America, as well as Coachella in California.
They also recorded a ninth studio album, The Ballad of Darren. The experience, he says, was "magical and wonderful" and the shows "the best we’ve ever done". "From the first rehearsals, we clicked, musically, straight away. It’s such a precious thing, a group of people playing music together since they were kids."
"Bands don’t really work," he continues. “They’re unwieldy, and why deal with four divas when you can just deal with one? But there’s nothing to touch that visceral thrill of a tight bunch of people who have been playing music together for years and years. Since Claire and I got married, Blur have probably done three or four dozen shows together, so it’s never become a point when it’s a drudge. It’s a wonderful feeling, like riding a bike downhill."
Playing Wembley last July for the first time – an opportunity that prompted the reunion – was a highlight. "The production team came in a day early, so we had a whole day in an empty stadium to rehearse. It was a little bit daunting, walking up that ramp for the sound check.
"Then somebody started playing Vindaloo and I thought: 'F**king hell, I wrote that,'" he says of the hit he co-wrote for Fat Les for the 1998 Fifa World Cup. "So I started playing it on my bass really loudly around the stadium, thinking: 'I’ve got the right to be here. It’s fine.'"
JOINT ENTERPRISE
The family joined the band whenever they could, although Coachella was a bit of a disappointment for the kids. It’s the biggest festival on the planet and a wonderful event. Beatrix was having the time of her life. But the boys, who are older, were a bit indignant.
"Teenagers approach a festival in the UK like a three-day bender– they get stuck into the booze and go bats**t. Whereas Coachella isn’t that over-the-top, in the trenches, and they don’t really do camping in America." Even so, the gigs couldn’t have come at a better time for Alex’s kudos within the family.
"I have five teenage children who thought I was an idiot," he says with a laugh. "And just for a minute I was a cool dad again. But it’s worn off now." He remembers playing a gig in Hyde Park when his eldest was 12 and the youngest five, and although the audience was "ecstatic and crying", the children were all on the side of the stage in a pile, asleep. "But this time they fully embraced it – way more than I thought they would."
He is philosophical about the challenges of living with adolescents and there’s a "family charter" to help navigate the trickier areas. Tactics for good communication and currying favour include cooking with them and giving them lifts. But have there been moments of despair? "Every day," he says, not missing a beat. "But you roll with the punches: 'Let's make a pizza!"
With five of them, there’s always internal conflict going on, but the farm is quite isolated and they are their own peer group. "Of course there are squabbles, but as long as you’re there for them. When they want to talk to you, they will, and when they don’t, there’s no point trying."
On cue, Beatrix walks in and interrupts, having got home from school. "Hello darling, I missed you– are you all right?" he asks, before gently ushering her out.
GOOD ADVICE
Alex has been open about his sex and drugs and rock'n'roll experiences as a pop star – in his 2007 memoir Bit of a Blur, he claimed to have spent £1m on champagne and cocaine. Where does he stand on advising his own children about the perils of excess?
"Because I’ve got five of them, there’s a birthday party practically every month. I’ve got two of them finishing A-levels this week and one finishing GCSEs, and we’ve got 200 kids here on Saturday night. We just roll out the Feastival team.
"But there’s nothing in all those years that came close to a 16-year-old’s party. They’re the worst," he says, only half-joking."They don’t know what the limits are."
He’s following the example of the French and is trying to teach them about good wine – and is in fact about to launch a Britpop rosé, which might help...
GROWING TOGETHER
As the countdown to their 13th festival begins – this year there are 30 stages – and the year-round organisation intensifies, Alex and Claire rarely have a chance to enjoy time together alone.
"But there’s so much going on. And the more time we spend here, the harder it is to leave and the less we want to. I guess we must be quite similar," he says, contemplating their temperaments. "Being custodians of the farm, the children and the festival, there are often three things that we’re disagreeing on. But it’s about learning how to disagree."
They’ve done well to have got this far. "I lucked out, I know!" he says with a laugh. "I remember the first time we went to dinner; she had liver and onions and then the dessert menu came and she said: 'I love cheese!' And I was like: ‘'Ah, okay!'"
"That was at [legendary London celebrity haunt] Le Caprice. It’s just reopened, so we took the kids there." To show them where their parents fell in love? "Yeah," he says, grinning.
The band’s Wembley gigs will be covered in Blur: To the End, a documentary released later this month. Alex, who describes it as "a wonderful story of friendship and the best shows we’ve ever done," also spent the first few months of this year writing about the experience for a new book called Over the Rainbow. There’s not a day goes by when I don’t think about the band, so it was really nice to reconnect with them all and discover a new audience,” he says.
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"There is, inevitably, an element of nostalgia attached to any band that has survived – and thrived – for several decades." I remember the 1990s by which Blur singles were out, so it does take you back," he says. So how does he feel about getting older, and, more specifically, turning 60? "Is that the time? Blimey," he jokes. "But bring it on – I’m loving it."
INTERVIEW: ROSALIND POWELL
PHOTOS: ANDREW FARRAR
STYLING: MICHELLE KELLY AT CAROL HAYES & LLOYD ALMOND
HAIR & MAKE-UP: SAM COOPER AT CAROL HAYES
The Big Feastival runs from 23 to 25 August. To book, visit bigfeastival.com.
