I'M NO ANGEL BUT THE INFLUENCE OF A FAMILY IS MASSIVE'

BLUR BASSIST ALEX JAMES, HIS WIFE CLAIRE NEATE AND THEIR KIDS SHOW US AROUND THEIR STUNNING FARM

- MITYA UNDERWOOD

As Blur’s floppy-haired bassist Alex James proudly shows us around his sprawling 200-acre Oxfordshire farm, it swiftly becomes very apparent that the 54-year-old is fully embracing this “second act” of his rock star life. It’s a world away from his rather hedonistic early days in Blur, the band that dominated the Britpop music scene in the mid-90s with the likes of Song 2, Girls & Boys and Parklife.

Late nights of drinking have been swapped for cosy breakfasts, feeding his family “à la carte eggs” (he likes his mixed with a dash of cream and baked in hot butter, for the record), healthy workouts in the home gym and meetings for his annual Big Feastival – a sort of Glastonbury-meets-MasterChef mash-up.

Flanked by his five teenage children, who he shares with wife of 20 years Claire Neate, Alex takes us for a stroll around the grounds of his stunning 18th-century home, complete with its polytunnels, orchards, beehives, woodlands, walled gardens and animals.

He has shared the rural idyll – the love of his life, as he refers to it – for almost two decades with his wife, a former music video producer. Completing the set-up are sons Geronimo, 19, twins Artemas and Galileo, 17, and daughters Sable, 14, and 13-year-old Beatrix, whose wardrobes have now expanded considerably thanks to our shoot, which Alex jokes “is easier than taking them all shopping” for them!

“Claire and I bought the farm on our honeymoon at the point when Blur needed to go off and do other things and I’ve been pouring my heart and soul into it ever since,” he tells us.