Blur‘s Alex James has announced his brand new book Over The Rainbow: Tales From An Unexpected Year.
The bassist of the iconic Britpop band took to his official Instagram to reveal the news of his forthcoming book, explaining that it will discuss “the story of an extraordinary year” including Blur’s reunion and their massive Wembley shows.
“It chronicles the mayhem of exactly what happened when I hooked back up with my Blur brothers,” James wrote in the caption of his post. “It’s eight years since we last made a record and I’d forgotten how much I love them. So this is a book about the healing power of music, about friendship and family.”
He continued: “It’s the story of an extraordinary year – of playing Wembley, looking after a farmhouse full of teenagers and running a festival. It’s about what it felt like to be living in the eye of a superstorm, where past and present collided, and I’d wake up every morning thinking, ‘What on earth is going to happen next?’”
Over The Rainbow: Tales From An Unexpected Year is set for release on December 5 via Penguin Randon House and is available for pre-order here.
In 2007, James published his memoir Bit of a Blur which recounted the origins of Blur, their success, the infamous Britpop battle between them and Oasis, his use of drugs and alcohol, getting married and having children and his love for all things cheese.
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Elsewhere, Blur’s brand-new documentary Blur: To The End is now playing in cinemas.
Directed by Transgressive Records founder Toby L, the film follows the reunion of James, Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon and Dave Rowntree, the recording of their 2023 comeback album ‘The Ballad Of Darren’, and massive shows at London’s Wembley Stadium last summer.
The project will also be followed by their concert film of the Wembley gigs: Blur: Live at Wembley Stadium. A live album will be released this Friday (July 26), before the film arrives in cinemas across the UK and Ireland on September 6.
Recently, the director of To The End spoke to NME about the emotional process of making the film, and bassist Alex James revealed that ahead of their comeback last year, he had doubts about whether the members would ever join forces once again.
In a five-star review of To The End, NME wrote: “They bicker, they hug, they call each other c**ts, they get the job done. While Blur’s last doc and accompanying live movie No Distance Left To Run was a portrait of a band celebrating their legacy and giving a nostalgia-hungry world exactly what they craved, this spiritual sequel shows a band simply supporting each other.
“Whether they return again or not remains to be seen. But even if they don’t, this was one hell of a final fling.”
Similarly, NME praised the Wembley shows as an “eruption of pure, utter joy” in a five-star review. “Albarn remains a top-tier frontman, making deadpan remarks and climbing into the audience while still allowing each of his bandmates their own moment in the spotlight,” it read. “This cheeky sense of humour made Blur stand out from other Britpop stars in the 90s, and Albarn’s childish grin as he performs the song – like he’s doing something naughty – remains the same after all these years.”
The future of Blur at this point remains somewhat uncertain, with Albarn recently announcing that the band’s show at weekend two of Coachella 2024 would “probably [be] our last gig”.