Down on The Farm

ENTHUSIASTIC, warm, and cheery, it is impossible not to like Alex James. The man oozes warmth and personality, and possesses an easy-going charm which belies his status as a member of what was one of the world’s biggest bands.

Now, of course, the Blur bassist has exchanged the screaming fans for, well... five screaming children, and finds himself at home not on stage or in high-class hotels, but surrounded by his dairy herd in the depths of the Oxfordshire Cotswolds.

However, it seems that once a rock star, always a rock star – and the gentleman of British indie-rock has decided to open up the rolling acres of his Kingham farm to up to 100,000 music-lovers, by staging his own festival.

And, as we talk, the always upbeat Alex is on particularly good form. Notice has just come in that West Oxfordshire District Council has granted his entertainments licence giving him the green light to turn his 200 acres into the country’s loveliest weekender.

“It’s really happening!” he says excitedly. “Sometimes you have to push and shove for things and not get anywhere, but this has been remarkably easy. And being an ageing rock gentleman who makes cheese, I knew exactly who to call.”

Of course, being Alex, celebrity fromagier, this is not just any festival. Called Harvest, it is a gathering fuelled in equal measure by his twin passions – live music and good food.

The line-up features Athlete, KT Tunstall, Fat Freddy’s Drop, The Feeling, The Futureheads, dance music producer Gilles Petersen and DJ Jo Whiley. Oh, and an exclusive festival performance by The Kooks. The latest addition – announced just this week, will see Luke Pritchard’s four-piece performing in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust.

They are joined, in a delicious cocktail of the melodic and the culinary, by River Cottage chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tommi Miers, Richard Corrigan and Rachel Allen. The event will also host the British Street Food Awards, gardening workshops and, because this is the Cotswolds darling, a cookery school run by nearby Daylesford Organic.

Children, meanwhile, will be kept busy with a packed programme headlined by TV favourites Charlie & Lola and Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox.

Luxury camping will see festival-goers sleeping in style in spacious yurts, tipis and bell tents complete with breakfast in bed and a butler service. Revellers can also feast at a farmer’s market, pop-up restaurants, and a Mark Hix Champagne and Seafood Bar.

“I just asked some of my favourite chefs and a few bands if they’d like to come, and they all said ‘yes’.” He laughs.

“It’s going to be like a big village fete with amazing food. It is exactly the sort of festival that I would want to go to.”

Though he’s not shouting about it, Alex has promised to keep punters amused by performing himself – though, he stresses, not with his old Blur mates. But that’s not to say some of them won’t be there – including Gorillaz star-turned-modern opera composer Damon Albarn.

“I will invite him,” says Alex, who is full of praise for Damon’s latest work Doctor Dee.

“It’s funny how the only acceptable career paths open to us are opera and farming!” he adds.

So how has this former wild man of pop, with a prodigious penchant for partying, legendary appetite for all things naughty, and who was mobbed everywhere by crowds of girls, settled down in sleepy Kingham, leading a life of quiet domesticity with his wife Claire, their children Geronimo, Artemis, Galileo, Sable and Beatrix – and where the nearest bright lights are those of the teeming metropolis of Chipping Norton?

“I feel very at home here with my cows,” he says.

“In fact, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. It’s the best thing I ever did. It’s made a man of me; it’s like being emperor of a small kingdom. There’s something grounding, wholesome, nourishing and calm about living on a farm – like being a monk, but with cool hair.”

So does he see himself as the next Michael Eavis – the farmer behind Glastonbury Festival? Not really, he admits.

“I don’t want Harvest to be Glastonbury – it’s not going to be the biggest festival in the world. We are both farmers though: Michael is a man of the sod, while I’m a man of cheese.

“We both have good reason for putting on festivals – mine is that I’m a food nut. But then, people who have good taste in music also have a discerning taste in food.”

So how does he look back on those days of unbridled hedonism, when he reportedly splurged a million quid on Champagne? Does he miss it?

“What I miss is being young,” he grins.

“It was great, but rock stardom is best enjoyed young. I wouldn’t want to live like that now. After all, I’ve got five kids… it’s like Christmas every day!”

But is he not just a tiny bit concerned about thousands of people wandering around his farm? “Nah,” he laughs. “I’ve got a shotgun.”

“Harvest is a lovely idea,” he adds, more seriously. “It’s gentle, not mental!”

* Harvest takes place at Kingham from September 9-12. Adult weekend camping tickets are £105. For details go to alexjames presents harvest.com