Over the Rainbow
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  • Published: 5 December 2024
  • ISBN: 9781802067163
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 192

Over the Rainbow

Tales from an Unexpected Year

Formats & editions
Hardback
8 Apr 2025
EBook
5 Dec 2024
Audiobook
5 Dec 2024
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A raucous, behind-the-scenes account of the year Blur got back together, told in hilarious and heartfelt stories by their ever-cheerful, epicurean bassist

There is nothing that can touch the sound made by a close-knit group of people who have been playing together for years and years and years, playing as though their lives depended on it. For many years, all our lives did, and actually, I’d suddenly realised, they did still.

One winter’s night, Alex James received an unexpected call. Blur had been invited to play their biggest gig ever: Wembley Stadium. The only trouble was, he and his bandmates hadn’t spoken to – or even shouted at – each other for years. And he now had five children, an out-of-control menagerie of cats, and a sprawling farm to run.

This is the story of what happened next. Taking us behind the scenes of a raucous, rollercoaster year, Alex describes how the band made a surprise – and emotional – return, recording an acclaimed album and playing sold-out shows around the world, from Colchester to Colombia and beyond. Plus: how he went on a crash diet to fit back into his ‘Britpop Trousers,’ somehow organised an entire festival of his own, and tried to perfect the recipe for a giant Frazzle.

Over the Rainbow is a heartfelt and hilarious account of what it feels like to be catapulted back into the limelight with one of the world’s biggest bands. It is a love letter to Blur, to friendship and to music. And it shows us all that, however old – or hungover – we might feel, nothing’s ever truly over: it’s always just the start of the next thing.
  • Published: 5 December 2024
  • ISBN: 9781802067163
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 192
Categories:

Praise for Over the Rainbow

Engrossing ... Louche, amusing, self-effacing and evocative ... [There is] a thrilling, underlying sense of propulsion ... It turns out that life beyond the velvet rope is as hectic and messy as everyone else’s. The result reads like Clarkson’s Farm meets The Darling Buds of May by way of Mötley Crüe’s The Dirt

Telegraph

Over the Rainbow is a gorgeous book. Warm and funny and generous. James is a true writer

Polly Vernon, The Times

Over the Rainbow is not a typical music memoir, but then James has never been a typical band bore ... This book is a freewheeling - and very funny - account of a middle-aged man given a second chance to play pop star again ... It's rather enviable ... who doesn't want to have fun?

Observer

This book is so good. I was astounded by it. It’s absolutely gorgeous. A real page-turner, a joyous read … It’s compelling

Chris Evans

Who says you can’t relive your youth? Just tell that to Blur, who reformed recently, made a corker of an album and then knocked out a world tour. Alex James, the band’s bassist, has written a book on the experience — by turns funny and frightening, Over the Rainbow zips along … It’s rich stuff

Evening Standard
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