‘Pet Sounds’ is “shit” and Glastonbury is a “gory drugs bender”, according to Alex James
Alex James has been at the heart of many prolific spats throughout his time in Blur, but perhaps his most controversial is now saying that The Beach Boys’ iconic Pet Sounds is “shit” and Glastonbury is a “gory drugs bender”.
The bassist made the searing comments in a new interview with The Times, in which he made a series of unexpected revelations about his life, including his favourite film being The Blues Brothers, his favourite musical being The Sound of Music, and that he’s still learning the oboe and cello.
However, James’ most startling string of confessions came when he was asked to name things that were “overrated”, to which he began, “Pet Sounds [by the Beach Boys] is a shit album.”
It comes despite the otherwise-beloved and groundbreaking record celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, with the Beach Boys touring band taking to the UK this summer for a series of celebratory concerts, which he would evidently not be flocking to.
But then, clearly not bothered by creating more enemies on his warpath, the bassist added that his other overly-praised hate was Glastonbury, explaining, “I just don’t like the hagiographic treatment it gets from the BBC. You’d think it’s the only festival in the world.”
By comparison, James said a festival he thinks deserves more credit than the Worthy Farm behemoth is Roskilde in Denmark, as “Glastonbury is a gory drugs bender. Roskilde’s got amazing food because it’s Denmark, it’s just really civilised and the toilets are nice. It’s a wonderful, magical, Hans Christian Andersen fairytale of an event.”
The bassist’s comments on Glastonbury were particularly scathing, and somewhat ironic, given that Blur have agreed to play the festival four times over the years. They served as the Pyramid Stage’s main headliners twice, in 1998 and 2009.
Unfortunately for James, he is not set to play Roskilde this year, but is taking his Britpop Classical tour across various UK festival appearances over the summer, including Latitude and Margate Dreamland. He will also perform his own shows in Southampton, Lincoln, Llangollen, Scarborough, and Halifax.
The collective recently finished a run of the same tour all over the country in March, where he performed in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Brighton, Nottingham, Newcastle, Glasgow, and Sheffield.
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