The musician is preparing to welcome 25,000 visitors to his home in the Kingham, Oxfordshire thanks to The Big Feastival
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.
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.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.
"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.
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.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.
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.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.
"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."
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