EXCLUSIVE: Blur's Alex James wants Noel and Liam Gallagher to reunite Oasis

Alex James thinks it’s about time Blur’s oldest rivals reunited and said it would be “a disaster” if warring brother Noel and Liam Gallagher never reformed Oasis.

The 47-year-old bass player chatted to Yahoo Celeb to tell us about the poetry competition he’s launched with Great Western Rail for National Poetry Day today but we couldn’t resist hearing his thoughts on the question every Britpop fan is asking this week.

In case you didn’t know, betting on a possible Oasis reunion taking place in 2017 was suspended yesterday – just days after the release of the Mat Whitecross directed Oasis documentary Supersonic – and Liam has been shouting from the rooftops that he’d reform the band “tomorrow” if Noel got on board.

Alex said he thinks the estranged brothers shouldn’t waste their talent and it would be “a disaster” if Oasis never played together again because just like Blur – which also includes Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon and Dave Rowntree – the Mancunian group have a “precious” thing.

He said: “I really do hope they do get back together. It’s a wonderful thing. When you’ve got something that’s so important in your life it’s really horrible to be estranged from it really. It is kind of heartbreaking.

“It would be a shame to think it was lying dormant or it was never going to happen again. It’s a really precious thing, it’s a craft and it would be a disaster to think it would go to waste.”

Asked how he feels about Blur’s old rivals now, and does he ever bump into the brothers, Alex added: “Yeah occasionally, I think both bands sort of really earned each other’s respect in the end. I certainly respect them anyway.”

Blur continue to sell out gigs when they perform but Alex is under no illusion the band could write current chart toppers like they did in their Parklife days.

Alex – who lives in a very big house in the country (sorry) and is an award-winning cheese maker these days – added: “Pop music is the dreams of youth expressed by the voices of youth.

“I think a lot of people in bands can suffer because if success is going to come in music it tends to come quite quickly and quite young. And you can spend the rest of your life being defined by something you did when you were really, really young.

“A lot of people in bands suffer with that, you know Led Zeppelin aren’t going to write another ‘Stairway To Heaven’ are they?

“But I do sort of firmly believe that I might invent the best cheese in the world, ever.”

Alex, we genuinely look forward to it.

He continued: “Do you know what? I realised it was 27 years ago last Sunday that I met Graham for the first time when we both arrived for college. Graham was the first person I saw, we were both getting out of our parents car at the same time, holding guitars, in London. And I thought, ‘wow, yeah.’

“So I texted him. I think it’s great we’ve managed to have our own niches for ourselves but somehow stayed relevant.”

Asked will he send Graham, Damon and Dave a hamper of cheese this Christmas, he said: “Absobloominglutely, I don’t want to spoil the surprise in case they’re reading this but everyone’s getting one, everyone is happy to get cheese at Christmas. Yeah, it will be nice.”

Alex has written a poem inspired by his regular journey travelling from his home in Kingham, Oxfordshire, to London Paddington, and people can read the poem and enter the competition Great Western Railway website. The winner will receive free rail travel on GWR for a year and have their poem featured on station posters across the GWR network.

The first 50 people to enter will also receive a free GWR ticket.