He also joined his friend and singer-songwriter Betty Boo in a band called WigWam in 2005. Ellis-Bextor's 2003 album, Shoot from the Hip also featured James as bass player and co-writer on the track 'Love Is It Love'. James worked with Sophie Ellis-Bextor on her solo debut Read My Lips, co-writing and co-producing ' Move This Mountain', and co-producing 'I Believe' with Ellis-Bextor and producer Ben Hillier. He also worked on side project Me Me Me with Stephen Duffy, co-wrote songs for Marianne Faithfull (appearing in drag playing a double bass in the music video for her single 'Sex With Strangers') and Jane McDonald, and worked with Florence and the Machine and Gene Loves Jezebel. In 1998, James formed Fat Les with actor Keith Allen and artist Damien Hirst, releasing the unofficial theme song (excluding three others) ' Vindaloo' for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, which reached number 2 in the UK Singles Chart. Unlike Albarn, Coxon and Rowntree, James has not released any solo material, although he has been involved in other collaborative side projects. In 2013, the band performed at the Rock Werchter in Belgium, the Spanish and Portuguese dates of the Primavera Sound festival, and the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in the United States. Blur headlined a show at Hyde Park for the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony. They also played shows at Goldsmiths College, Essex Museum and other venues around the UK and mainland Europe. Īlmost immediately after this, Blur got together with returning bandmate Graham Coxon to perform at Glastonbury Festival, Hyde Park, Oxegen and T in the Park during the summer of 2009. He has been in the band ever since, although in 2008 he described the days of being a constant band member as 'a past-life'. In 1989, James joined Coxon, Albarn and Rowntree's new band, Seymour, which would later be renamed Blur.

Introductions with Coxon's old school friend Damon Albarn and Dave Rowntree soon took place at the time Albarn and Rowntree were part of a band called Circus. In 1988, James met future bandmate Graham Coxon at Goldsmiths College, where James studied French. Then I bought a Beatles songbook and a guitar, figured out the chord shapes and started strumming and singing along. I spent the week watching a VHS recording of the Beatles film Help!, which was broadcast on TV the day he died. He credits the Beatles with inspiring him to pursue music: 'I was off school with chickenpox when John Lennon was shot in 1980. James was born in Boscombe, Bournemouth, and attended the state grammar school Bournemouth School, where he started playing in bands. Main article: Blur (band) James performing with Blur in 2013

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