Alex James: The Great Escape

'We were young with beautiful ideas'

The week of the war, when our single "Country House" was up against Oasis's "Roll With It", felt like a pantomime. It was quite exciting but it was also as if people would rather watch a fight than listen to the music. We were young men with beautiful notions to express and we were very proud of them. But what it came down to with many people was just a mud-slinging match.

Ironically, it all started for Blur in America in 1992. We were troubled financially so we did a 13-week tour of the US to make some money selling T-shirts. We were arriving on a gentle groundswell of love for British music but, just at the moment, Nirvana released NeverMind. It gave young America a record of their own. Unfortunately, it made us rather superfluous to requirements. The tour went well but everyone was looking the other way. When we got back, we made a concerted effort to eschew all US influences. That was why our next album Modern Life Is Rubbish was so deeply British sounding.

The imagery, the clothes - everything was a reaction to this wave of US cultural imperialism. People said we should record with Butch Vig, who made Nirvana's album but we thought we knew what we were doing. Then along came "Parklife" and everyone seemed to have come around to our way of thinking.

Oasis were just horrible about everyone, they would have a fight with anyone about anything. The music industry is like a playground, you are always bumping into the same people at festivals, at television studios. If you had a hit, suddenly you knew everybody. That is what happens.

On the day that we made No.1, I was in the car coming back from Devon. I was with Keith Allen. Everyone was drinking a lot at that time and we had a party in Soho that night. Graham Coxon tried to jump out of the window. He didn't react well to success. It all felt like a terrible anti-climax. Being popular is quite easy, being good is much more difficult.

It was probably inevitable Tony Blair wanted to get involved with Britpop. They'd worked out that people who bought these albums were likely to vote Labour but just weren't bothering. Damon declined his invitation. Rock stars and politics don't mix. In 1995, we must have spent about a week in Britain. There are three reasons to be a rock star - travelling, drinking and shagging.

The opportunities that arise are ridiculous when you have a No. 1. I remember 1995 with great affection. There has never been such a fuss about a No.1. It is very rare for music to get off music pages but here you had two charismatic front men and two good bands.