Rob Beckett and Josh Widdicombe's Parenting Hell - S6 EP54: Alex James

Episode Date: July 14, 2023

Joining us this episode to discuss the highs and lows of parenting (and life) is the brilliant musician (and bassist in Blur) and now turned farmer and award winning cheesemaker - Alex James. You can get tickets for 'The Big Feastival' which takes place 25th - 27th August 2023 HERE Parenting Hell is a Spotify Podcast, available everywhere every Tuesday and Friday. Please leave a rating and review you filthy street dogs... xx If you want to get in touch with the show here's how: EMAIL: [e-mail] INSTAGRAM: @parentinghell MAILING LIST: parentinghellpodcast.mailchimpsites.com  A 'Keep It Light Media' Production  Sales, advertising, and general enquiries: [e-mail] (N) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello I'm Rob Beckett and I'm Josh Willickham. Welcome to Parenting Hell the show in which Josh and I discuss what it's really like to be a parent which I would say can be a little tricky. So to make ourselves and hopefully you feel better about the trials and tribulations of modern-day parenting each week we'll

be chatting to a famous parent about how they're coping or hopefully how they're not coping and we'll also be hearing from you the listener with your tips advice and of course tales of parenting woe because let's be honest there are plenty of times where none of us know what we're doing hello you're listening to parenting hell with it's coming it's. Here it comes. All the way from a little place called... Shit signal on your phone? Oh, for fuck's sake.

Oh no, Rob, it's happened. Your headphones are connected to the phone and you can't hear me again. I didn't hear you. But I bought new headphones. They've broken, haven't they? Yeah. Back to this again.

Would you say you've exhausted all possibilities of what you could do? Allegra, can you say Rob Beckett? Rob Beckett. And can you say Josh Whittakin? Josh Whittakin. Good girl. There we go. Where are they from, Rob?

She sounded like American. I don't know if she was retired. Oh, not bad. Not bad. Really? Hong Kong. But that is a bit like, there is an American twang to a Hong Kong accent, isn't there? I thought you were going to say Canada or something.

Hong Kong's so far away from America. It couldn't be further before you start coming back again. Also, her surname's Bush, so that's so far away from America. Couldn't be further before you start coming back again. Also, her surname's Bush, so that's an American surname as well. Marie Bush. Hi, Rob and Josh. Absolutely love the show. It's been a respite. I've just had a second baby and somehow forgot that after two and a half years with my first, just how hard it is with a newborn. This has got me chuckling along with otherwise I'd be crying. But aforementioned first, my daughter called Allegra has tried her very best to say your names hope this brings a smile to your face it did it did actually play the start again this is only very like asmr-y

could be a bit of aust of Australian in there as well. Maybe it's an international school. There we go. How are you? Yeah, good. Not too bad. Alex James today? Big one for you.

Big one. Loved Alex Jones. Can Alex James match up to Alex Jones? Do you reckon they've met? Yeah, surely. On the sofa. Do you reckon they had a bit of fun about their name? You've got to, haven't you?

The elephant in the sofa. Do you reckon I had a bit of fun about their name? You've got to, haven't you? The elephant in the room. Well, if you met someone called Josh Liddlecum. Yeah, we'd discuss it. You'd be like, hello, mate. If you met Rob Bucket, would you discuss it with him? I got off lightly, didn't I? Imagine these teeth on your surname Bucket. Do you like keeping up appearances?

No, I've never seen it. Is that Hyacinth Bouquet? never seen it it's that higher synth bouquet yeah but it's spelled bucket you see yeah yeah it's a bit of fun of the joke isn't it i'm aware of her as a character but the problem is i grew up in south london when you grew up in devon where everyone is 10 years behind well i tell you one of the biggest fans of keeping up appearances i know grew up very near you tom allen correct He is not I'd say a fair representation of any time or place. He very much

operates on Tom Allen. Do you know he puts in a full... He puts on a special suit to go and pick slugs off in his garden to get them off his hyacinths. Is that hyacinths? I don't know. Flowers. in his garden to get him off his hyacinths. Is that hyacinths? What are them? I don't know. Yeah.

Flowers. Flowers, yeah. He goes out and gets slugs off his little petals and leaves and stuff. Oh, wow. In a special suit. Oh, says it all, doesn't it? Not like a suit suit. Yeah, I think he puts a suit on.

Guess how many ties he's got. 30. More? 40. More. 100. More. What?

200. 130 ties 100. More. What? 200. 130 ties. Fucking hell. But he looks good. He does look good. He does look good. You can't fool him. Anything else you want to share, Josh?

Anything going on with the kids? Did I tell you my daughter's new nickname for me? I don't know if I told you in person or on here. Captain Travel? Mr. Travel. Mr. Travel. She started calling me because I travel everywhere. It's a bit degrading, isn't it? Rob?

Yes. Let's do some correspondence before we bring on Alex James. Yes, let's do this. What have I got here? Boomer, boomer. We've done a lot of boomers. Parenting fail, parenting fail, boomer. Let's do a parenting fail, shall we? Yeah. Hi, Rob and Josh. My daughter was two and loved a little plastic dolls tea set.

Early one morning, she brought my husband and I a little cup of water in the tea set cups. In order to play along and stay in bed for an extra 10 minutes, we drank it down, told her how delicious her tea was, and please can we have another cup? After about three cups of tea water, I suddenly wondered where she was getting the water from, as she couldn't reach her taps in the bathroom. So I followed her down the passage and found her leaning over the toilet bowl and scooping up another two cups of us. Oh, no.

We had drunk three cups of toilet water. Oh, my God, no. Oh, my God, no. Her name is Charlie and she lives in Battersea. Have you given her up then? That implies she's no longer your child. Well, maybe she's moved out. Oh, maybe when she was little she did that.

Now she's a grown woman called Charlie. Yeah. Living in Battersea now. With, let's be honest, a very affluent address. Very expensive place, Battersea. Yeah. Lovely flats, lots of stairs though. Yeah.

Liars told at school by kids. Let's have this, Josh. Hello, lovely boys. My 13-year-old son had a friend who came to stay regularly. We live in the country. They both went to a grammar school, not a private school. Lovely lad, and I keep telling us these extra bits.

Lovely lad, and a joy to have as a guest. But he told us tall tales of holidaying with famous school stars and his family buying the house next door so they could build a swimming pool. Who's your grandad? Captain Tom Moore? Hey, that is great stuff. Really good.

I warned our son to take his stories with a pinch of salt. His mum usually picked him up, or he called the school bus. Oh, my fucking chair went again. All right, note that one down, Michael, for the... How does it happen? I push my foot back when I'm concentrating, and then it catches the little lever, and it's nearly breaking my ankle every time,

and it's actually a disaster. This will be the last record of this chair, I'll have you know. Anyway, his mum usually picked him up or he caught the school bus in the morning so I'd never been to his home. On this occasion, his mum had car trouble so asked me to drop her son home. A round trip of an hour and a half. Now, as I pulled up to the house,

I saw a building site next door which should have been the first clue. As I peeked around the corner of the building site i saw the start of a swimming pool i started to think maybe this wasn't all lies as i dropped him off the front door opened he ran in and on the wall was photo after photo of the most famous people I have ever seen from actors to sports stars. Wow. Everything he'd said was true. No. Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.

Love, Susie. Wow. That is good, isn't it? That is exciting, isn't it? There was a kid at my school and I think her mum was a fantasist. Okay. And she used to claim to mix with Hollywood royalty and she she called them stuff like Harry Ford instead of Harrison Ford. And stuff like that.

But it was the mum. So actually it's probably quite bleak. Imagine that. Kids who wants to watch CBeebies. Oh, by the way, here's one into Indiana Jones. imagine that right kids who wants to watch CBeebies oh by the way here's one into Indiana Jones

because I'm friends with Harry Ford oh Harry Ford don't you know yeah that's what friends call him yeah Harrison Ford was in Radio 2 being interviewed

when I was in there and I tried to get to him but there was too many people oh that would have been nice wasn't it what do you look like do you look old

no the angle of it I could even see him through the window oh no he's livid but there was too many people. Oh. That would have been nice, wouldn't it? What did he look like? Did he look old? No, the angle of it, I couldn't even see him through the window. Oh, no. He's livid. At least I wanted to watch him through a window

like a sort of zoo animal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who was interviewing him? Zoe? Zoe Ball. She's a big dog, isn't she? He's not doing 5pm on a Sunday, is he?

Even callers go, no, I'll meet you at dinner then. Do you want to come on and tell us about that story? Nah, probably not. Not at six o'clock on a Sunday, mate. Nothing. You crack on, play a couple of songs.

Pop on the bangles, mate. Enjoy yourself. It's a four tops. Enjoy yourself. Talking music. Oh, lovely stuff. Also, haven't you done a little Radio 2 blur thing? Oh, I did my blur.

I should say this now, shouldn't I? Yeah. It was BBC Sounds. Sorry, haven't you done a little Radio 2 blur thing? Oh, I did my blur. I should say this now, shouldn't I? Yeah. It was BBC Sounds. Sorry, BBC Sounds. I got asked to pick my favourite blur tracks for their blur collectors.

They've done loads of blur programmes because blur are back. Yeah. As we established in this interview with Alex James as the basis for blur. Now, you should be on a cut.

The amount of promo you've done on this show. I know. Anyway, if you want to listen to me talk about my favourite Blur tracks, go to BBC Sounds. It's called Blur and Me by Josh Riddickham. I tell an anecdote on it about the only

emails I've exchanged with Damon Albarn. Oh, that's exciting. And do they play the songs as well on it? Yeah. What one's your favourite? There's only one way to find out, Rob. Oh, can we not have a little tease? There's only one way to find out, Rob. Lucky you. And also also while you're on there can you listen to my

Radio 2 show yeah listen to Rob's Radio 2 show get them both downloaded get them both down your fucking neck guzzle them down or at least

put them on and don't listen to them it still counts yeah if you could just put them on repeat all the numbers if actually just as long as it's

played out I don't really care if you listen or not as long as you get the it's all numbers these days isn't it yeah it's all analytics

just like open all your windows pop them on bbc sounds play them 10 times each and just mute your computer and just listen to the radio normally perfect listen to this that's the way to do it right should we bring on you introduce me your hero alex james god great what an underworld wind intro. Alex James, hello, how are you? Oh, never better, man. Just did a massive show and then got up early, came home and had to, was faced with a massive pile of washing up.

Oh, that's the reality of it. Because what's that, you're in the middle of like a massive tour with Blur. Yes. So this is peak. Yes. And you've got your big Feastival event, the middle of a massive tour with Blur. Yes. So this is peak. Yes. And you've got your big Feastival event at the end of August. And are you sat in a monastery because it's the best place for the Wi-Fi

or it's the only place you can cope because of your schedule? Well, the farm where I live, there is something quite monastic about old farm buildings, actually. A lot of musicians seem to end up living on farms i think there's a reason you know years of living out of a suitcase you need you kind of need to put put down roots and you know monks monks sing in the morning and make cheese in the afternoon so i came to the right place you've got five kids oh my god five teenagers now five teenagers yeah now um and? Yeah. Fucking hell.

And they've got, I would say, the greatest five names in the history of naming. Well, Geronimo, the eldest, yeah. Great start. Geron. Yeah, he's 19 now. So he's out the door, actually, but back for the summer and working in the office, which is fantastic. And then when you start with the Geronimo, you've kind of got to go on the same trajectory so the uh twins uh who are 17 artemis and galileo who tend to go by artie and galley uh they just turned 17. um and i got home yesterday and the garden is full of road traffic cones

so they clearly had a good night on us there's some roadworks up the road um i was going to tell them off there were some roadworks on the road now there's just a hole um so yeah they're gonna have to go and put those back later um and then uh sable is uh sable's just uh, turning 15 this summer, right in the middle of Feastival, actually. It always falls on her birthday. And Beatrix, the youngest, is just about to turn 13. So, yes, everything's about to change. There's no one for me to cuddle anymore.

Nobody wants to go to... I'm the only one who wants to go to Legoland this summer. It's really sad. Oh, no. Oh, man. this summer it's really sad oh man and I the first thing that I think is how do you tell them I mean do you tell them not to do as you did have they any of them read your book and gone yes well yes that did you know in terms of promoting promoting my books saying that I'd spent a million pounds on drugs and booze was a kind of good marketing hook I kind of made it up but everyone believed it um but that is coming back to haunt me now are they trying to beat your record is that a little bit of competitiveness I think 16th

birthdays are the 16th birthdays are the worst of all like all the years of rock and roll nothing can hold a candle to those parties when you know when you're like 16 rock and roll had nothing on that actually yeah but uh i think no secrets is the most important thing actually i mean being in a band does it does enable you to do what everybody every young person wants to do you can just kind of do it more and for longer i suppose but but um yeah at 16 it's still like you're in this speedboat. You want to know how fast it goes. And by the time you get 18, you kind of work out where the limits are a little bit. I mean, I always try and get them to have their birthday party.

Their 16th birthday is enough to try and get them to have them at Feastival so that the liability is not mine. It's with IMG Feastival backers. Because it's terrifying. it's with img please don't back us but they because it's terrifying um it's really it's really terrifying now the kids have got older we've had to we've had to split it up in the car the last holiday in france on the we were on the auto route du soleil you know in in the in the boiling sun uh heading heading south. And a punch-up broke out. We got, like, this van.

We bought it when Beatrix was born. It's like an eight-seater van. It's fantastic. I mean, it's my favourite car I've ever, ever had. I feel like my dad when I'm driving a van. But a fight broke out in the back. And there was two, I don't know which two it was, but there was two of them, like, rolling around on the floor in the back and there's like really busy also du soleil in in

august you're like a tour manager for your own kids no exactly there's more people in my family there than there is in the blur band um it's crazy there's five of us on stage and and there's seven people in my family so so yeah so we had to, like, long-haul drives. We have to split those up now. The girls fly and the boys go road trip. Right. And when you had five kids, let's go... 19 and 13, so at a point there would have been a newborn up to five under six. So I was thinking, before I did speak to you, I was running the numbers.

Yeah, I was at oldest 19. So there must have been five under six. And I think I've blocked it all out there's just like so many wet wipes and nappies and sticky patches and the washing up is just in the law just i mean it's just insane and that was not long after you'd been you know the king of soho do you know so like you've gone from one existence do you remember thinking fuck it i used to be up all night in a completely different way yeah yeah yeah um well i remember when the twins when the twins were about to arrive like i was like claire you know everything's about to change and and they were premature and there were complications there and and yeah but that was absolute mayhem.

And that really, that was really when the dynamic shifted, actually, from the kind of rock gentleman thing. Because, you know, we'd just moved here and we'd go to parties and Claire would get, oh, you're the one who's married to that guy from the band. And I remember going to a dinner party just after the twins were born and someone saying, oh, you're the guy who's married to that woman who's just had twins. And so going out with twins,

like, because you have the double buggy, they kind of do, they draw a bit of a crowd. People are into, oh, twins say matchy-matchy. And it's sort of, yeah, me and Geronimo, we were kind of very marginalised by the arrival of the twins.

And then they just kept coming. By the time we got to four, like, we didn't get invited to anyone's house. And by the time we had five, like, nobody wanted to come round to our house. We have to kind of book Sigrid and Tom Grennan to get anyone to come. Is that why you put on the big feast of all? Is that how it started then? No, exactly. Yeah, pretty much. The big feast of all? Is that how it started then? No, exactly. Yeah, pretty much.

The big feast of all is, and I'm very excited about this, has booked Mr. Tumble. First thing we do every year, Mr. Tumble, Cuban Brothers. You know you've got a party then. What's he like? What's he like? He absolutely turns up and then he puts on his check jacket and his red nose and he walks out onto the stage.

He sings One Man Went to Moe and brings the house down every year without fail. And what's he like offstage? Have you spent much time with him, with Tumble? Yeah, no, we were comparing set lists, actually, because I did something with the Royal Ballet and an orchestra a couple of years back. And I have my set list, which started with the 1812 Overture,

the Can-Can, Second Movement, I was seventh. And he was like, one man went to mow 10 green bottles. And it was interesting comparing set lists. But no, no, no, he's great. And I mean, the great thing about feast this is we're into our 12th year now this is year number 12 and a lot of the chefs um bring their families and uh you know a lot of the artists are performing come come with their families a lot of chefs come back every year because there's nothing kids love more than camping um i think you know they'd rather stay in a tent than

clarages um not you know their mother and i is different um but but um you know kids just kids absolutely love camping we set a tent up in the we've all set a tent up in the garden like right since they were really little because you know it's it's completely another you're going into another world you know it's dark yeah quiet and uh spiders and stories and and uh so is it very kid friendly then it's on the is um yeah it's like the last bank holiday the last weekend and some holidays but but basically so it's something to to look forward to and yeah i mean obviously i've made five children six cheeses eight albums um so it's i'm just filling the farm up with everything that

i care about actual farm isn't it it's my actual farm yeah so jamie oliver contacted me yeah must have been 12 years ago um we'd met playing in a comic relief band together he's good good drummer he's got loads of kids as well and he was like you love food i love music you've got the venue let's you know let's see let's see if we can do something and and it was uh we were really lucky, had great weather for the first few years. You kind of need that to kind of establish an event. And I've just found that I've got,

I have endless enthusiasm for filling the farm up with everything I love the most. I mean, the kids stuff is really, really satisfying. I mean, you know, it's a very family friendly festival. We're very well set up. For a good first festival with kids. Yeah. As a first festival, my question is, mine are five and two. Yeah, absolutely. No, no, no, no. Perfect. Absolutely perfect. I mean, what the little ones really love is just, it's just the kind of, actually the stuff that I love about the farm is like, you know, haystacks and woodland and, you know, it's just the kind of, actually the stuff that I love about the farm, it's like, you know, haystacks and woodland

and, you know, just being in the countryside is lovely. And that's, over the last few years, we've kind of opened up more of the kind of woody kind of areas of the farm. But the haystack, the first year we had a sponsor that was like right in the middle of the arena that was supposed to be, I think it was a film tent or something.

And they pulled out at the last minute and we're like, oh, what are we going to do? So we just put a load of hay bales right in the middle of the arena that was supposed to be, I think it was a film tent or something, and they pulled out at the last minute and were like, oh, what are we going to do? So we just put a load of hay bales right in the middle of it, and it was just a huge success. It was covered in children and adults, actually, all weekend. We always find half a dozen iPhones and a few hundred quid in loose change on the Monday. So you'd say five and two, it's a feasible...

Oh, 100%. Do you have to bring your own tent? There are various options from glamping to pre-pitch down to kind of bring your own. But, I mean, there's just so much stuff for kids to do, like, from all ages up. We've got, like, parents' pit stops, so there's, like, nappy changing and baby feeding areas but actually you know even

even the toddlers that thing you know they like the camping there's not there's nothing yeah the kids like more than camping and this is like camping with all the bells and whistles like we've totally got you covered yeah because i went camping with the kids and they loved it and i hated it but we were just in a field whereas if we're here and we've got stuff to do all day and there's facilities like good food good drink music baby change it it changes it completely yeah yeah yeah yeah i mean so it is a source of endless satisfaction to me just because it was a bit of a gamble buying this place we bought it on our honeymoon at kind of the exact point when kind of blur had had enough of each other and you know we all needed to go off and do other things had you got kids at that point Alex no no no no we bought it on our honeymoon and uh it was like completely derelict

and I didn't I didn't I met and married Claire very very quickly and marriage is always a kind of leap of faith isn't it you don't you know what you're getting into, do you? So we moved to this, you know, I moved out of London to this place in the countryside where I didn't know anybody, with a woman I didn't know, really. Didn't really have a job. And it was absolutely, for years, you know, I had to work my nuts off, actually,

just to kind of keep the thing afloat. Because, you know, I wasn work my nuts off actually to just to just to kind of keep the keep the thing afloat because you know i wasn't really wasn't really earning any any money um you know my my job just kind of kind of yeah and if you buy a property when your job's flying and when that stops for you know whatever reason it sort of gets scary when you've got this massive i bought you know it wasn't just a home it's. It's a business as well, a farm, a crap business, as you'll know if you've watched Jeremy's farming show. Are the kids, are any of the kids looking to take over the farm? Because obviously that's one of the things with a farmer,

is a kind of, you've got a succession style situation on your hands where you're trying to not offload the farm, but you're thinking who's going to take it on when you know. Well, I've learned very early on that the festival the kids all need a job like even even from from when they're really because otherwise they just wander around to all the stalls going my dad's alex james can i have a free one and that's that's just it's actually my house this is my garden so no they've all kind of it's because it involves you know it involves music and

food and and kids that i remember there was one year there was a there was a shipping container full of lego response and there was a shipping container painted like a lego brick with a lego brand on the side but like being craned into the front field like just like just just over there uh and all the all the kids which were, yeah, it's just going absolutely mental. You know, they came to see Blur in Hyde Park and they were kind of like, yeah, yeah, yeah. But when the Lego, when the shipping container full of Lego was grained into the front garden,

that was like the happiest I've ever seen them. You know, there's definitely something to pique all of their interest, whatever they are. Are they fans of Blur? Oh, my God. So five teenagers. I mean, I know this is a family show, but all I can usually expect is fuck off, fatty.

That's basically. That's all they say to you. Yeah, yeah. Can you please, can you just not say that in front of Granny? Can you just not, just, just. Well, four of them came it was it was a polite decline from sable um for eastbourne i was like no come on it would be really good but four of them came and um beatrix who's um just turning 13. she she says 2015 eight years ago last

time so she was like four five last time and and i said you've seen before though she said no i was asleep by the time you came home because you know we're on quite a lot past bedtime so it was an exciting day going to a gig and stuff so she she you know she'd literally never seen this before and i knew i knew where she was standing in the audience i thought she's either going to love it or hate it and the lights on the audience came up a little bit and I looked over and I saw her and she was just like this. Oh. And afterwards they were all like, Dad, you're so cool. And Dad, that was so brilliant. Amazing.

Was that more nerve wracking than anything, having them there? Actually, no. No, no. I mean, they're kind of used to seeing me. And something strange has happened since the last time out. There used to be like a blur. Oh, yeah, my dad really likes blur or my mum likes blur. But now it's like my kids love blur.

Do you guys ever talk about it? Because three of you are dads. Do you ever sit backstage or you're having lunch during the recording and you're like, fucking hell, teenagers. Yes, yeah, every day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, because, you know, we're all checking it oh god yeah um but it's i know it's actually really nice because the the kids have all been the older kids

have all been coming out so this is lovely actually all of the kids seem to seem to really love blur and and uh it's great and they've all been hating so they were all out at primavera in barcelona um and they they loved it and then they went for Skrillex the next day and I think Skrillex slightly had the edge and how do you share your time between all five because obviously

you're busy with a farm you're busy with a festival it's an Excel spreadsheet it's actually a wonderful anchor it's been said famously many times

that you know you stop evolving at the point you become well-known. You know, I was basically acting like a child until I had one. You know, children do make adults. Don't adults make children, but children make adults. And, you know, it was many years of nappies. And, well, I was so glad to have done my last nappy. So many years of nappies.

But what they really need now, it's harder to connect with them as they get older, and they kind of need a different cone of support. I mean, what they all need now is kind of cooks, drivers, cooking with the kids, as that's something that has been, like, brilliant, like, right from the very beginning. Food does have a universal appeal you know yeah i mean i wonder if i wonder if the kids will like butter or not but i know they're all going to like chocolate you know they they like everybody likes chocolate and one of my

kids doesn't like cheese actually interestingly do you think that do you think that's a uh a rebellious decision or do you actually don't know he likes me they all like pizza so you know so they said that so like really every weekend we're um like since we moved here we've been making pizzas and talk so my kids love pizza and i want to make pizza with them but there's a million different pizza ovens and gosney's unis and all these different names you you've done it now for 19 years a pizza weekend we've done everything everything. We did everything from making the mozzarella, growing the tomatoes, even growing the wheat, and tried every kind of pizza oven. There's some little electric ones that you can buy.

Nisbet's got really good ones. They're like 200 or 300 quid. So it's your money back in. What if you've got like six, seven people in the family? We're like money back first. trips exactly i'd say because we got a pizza oven i'd say per pizza is the most money i've ever spent in terms of really but that's a reflection on my because it because it takes three hours to get warm ah you didn't get this one takes the 15 minutes my boy yeah i mean no this is this is wood.

Oh, the wood fire. Yeah, I tried the wood fire one, but you've got to light the fire. It's a lot faster. Yeah, it's a lot. The electric one gets the most. And you need it, like, I've got it right outside the back door, right under a kind of shelter, because otherwise it starts to smell like a takeaway shop.

It's a deep-fat fryer and pizza oven, and pizza oven, a barbecue right outside the kitchen door, underneath a little lean-to. That's been a game changer, that, my man, Kate. So yours are like little electric ones. You just put them in like little, they look like industrial. Yeah, yeah, one at a time. Because the thing with pizza is that it needs to be cooked hot.

So my record, and fast and hot, so pizza ovens go like 100 degrees hotter than a standard oven that's why you need one of the stone base is really good but my record is 17 seconds to cook a pizza that was in a wood-fired rayburn um with with anthracite it was like the whole thing was glowing red like just slid it in there you can explode you get this wonderful bubbling bubbly up base but you know food is a really good way to kind of engage and teach and um weekends are normally spent up the whole time cooking do they all like the countryside life or are there

some that are going i can't wait to move to london yeah so geronimo's in in brighton now um and i think he was ready for it. I mean, I think if you grow up in the countryside, then it's fine. I'd had absolutely enough of Bournemouth by the time I got to Geronimo's age. But actually, the fact that there's five of them, I mean, we are quite

isolated, you know, so it's a mile walk to the village. But there is a footpath going straight to the pub that was established hundreds of years ago. But the fact that there's five of them, they are their own peer group. And one thing that we shouldn't have done but used to make me very proud,

every Saturday we'd have to take them all to a swing park. But what was always good, we could go to any swing park anywhere in the world and the five of them could kind of take control of the swing park with a kind of twin pincer movement. But in like five seconds, they'd be on the best roundabout. Do you know what I mean? They really act as a team. So they all get on then? Do they all get on?

When they're not, I mean, you know, every day they're shouting and swearing and fighting, you know, and bristling. But they're five teenagers all at once. It's hardcore. Yeah. But, you know, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think they've all got each other's backs 100% for sure.

I get the feeling you're quite an emotional parent. I get the feeling you feel it quite strongly. Do you know what I mean? I do, yeah. you're quite an emotional parent i get the feeling you feel it quite strongly do you know what i mean the um i do yeah i mean it's it's what consumes me more more than anything absolutely first and foremost father there's no doubt five kids is um it's it's it's a big commitment you know i'm busy even before i started trying to do a show in portugal or or or make some cheese but i mean do a show in portugal or or make some make some cheese but i mean actually actually actually it's wonderful you go on tour you must go this is there is a bit of you get on the plane you're like thank yeah yeah i mean it's it's it makes it you know playing the bass in a rock band is the easiest thing compared to parenting it's actually really really relaxing like going back into that

blur bubble so when will youbley Stadium's more relaxing. Oh my God, so that's down as a night off. You know. You know, Alex, you're on here, we're chatting about kids, the big feast of all, but Josh is a blur superfan. So Josh, you know,

I might not want to ask, are there any questions you want to ask Alex that you've always wanted to ask that aren't necessarily on topic, but will give you a reprieve? You can go as nerdy as you want. It's all going to be quite boring, isn't it? No, come on, let's have it.

I'd quite like to hear what would be the deep dive question that you'd want as a mega fan, as it were. So do you feel, are there songs that you don't like That are In the sex they're big songs but you can't Stand them and conversely

Are there songs that you feel Have gone hugely been Ignored I'd say He thought of cars For me Really really interesting We've been rehearsing that uh no yes we have i mean damon damon is what is one for blowing hot and cold you know he's at the moment he's

refusing to do charmless man which was a huge which is a huge yeah it's bad i mean i'm a lot more kind of light-hearted like here's our here's our 20 most popular songs. Let's just play them in reverse order. That's the set list. It was like, why don't we just get the crew to put the words The Charmless Man on the big screens, and then I'll walk out for the encore and start playing it. They'll all start singing, and then Damon's got to get involved. So you don't dislike any of the big songs?

There's plenty of stuff I've done outside of Blur that I'm like, maybe that was a mistake, but I think, but you know, stuff that, I mean, anything that kind of tends to see the light of day with Blur, I sincerely believe that there's merit in all of it. There's literally nothing that I changed really. I mean, some some of them it's like oh my you know he thought because oh god he wants to do that one he's saying i said how does it even go and and you know have you got it written

down somewhere no no no no no no but i just i've got we've got a little amp set up here and just just just find it some of you got it't even find it on youtube um and and and just start playing like how does that go and it's amazing like two or three times around and it's just like oh my god oh my god i'm doing it and it's just all those those years of of motor memory i mean i you know i think we booked we booked calise for feastival um a few years back and it was when she's become a chef as well and I was really bigging her up in the promo like yeah we got police coming it's good she didn't do milkshake can we have our money back it's a shit gig about food there's a fucking link there mate you know it's a song about about food

at a food festival and it's I mean you've got one song basically come on come on do your song if success is going to come in music it tends to come quite quickly and at quite a young age. And it can give you a second act problem. How old were Led Zeppelin when they did Stairway to Heaven in their early 20s? You know, how old are they now? You know, if you had them on the podcast, you wouldn't be talking about Stairway to Heaven more than kind of what the new album. I mean, I, you know, that's, and I guess that, you know,

it can, it can give you, give you the heebie-jeebies. Can't, can't, you know, he still did 70 years. That's just what I mean when my kids come to see Blur and they're like, oh my God, that's amazing. It's not just what I do, I do cheese and I'm a dad. that's amazing it's not just what i do i do cheese and i'm a dad um uh but yeah i think the fact that all of us have managed to cope when i didn't choose for blur to stop happening when it did but i was what 33 34 i was like just about young enough to have enough energy yeah to kind of to kind of work something. And if I didn't,

if I didn't have feast, you know, feastable to, to sort of occupy me and engage me and, and, and the family to kind of consume me, it might be more difficult to just go just, you know,

country house Wembley fucking obviously. Yeah. You know, I've got a problem with any of it, you know, what's not to like. Oh, amazing.

Oh, it's been a pleasure talking to you. We always end with the same question alex uh which is um about parenting which is but you could do you know what you could do it about the other members of blur if you want which is uh if there's one thing that uh your wife does as a parent that makes you go fucking hell that's unbelievable uh i couldn't do that she's incredible and there's one thing that she does that really annoys you that you've keep to yourself but were she to listen to this is your way of communicating it to her yeah well i i yes i've squared this off with her my wife is completely ocd with with with like labeling and and and and meticulous i mean mean, I think you have,

you kind of have to be with five. It is like a military operation, but everyone's got kind of got a colour. Everyone's colour coded. Oh, really? Like their bags and coats? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And two of them are colour blind. So it's had to be reassessed over the years. But yeah, just the kind of OCD level of kind of labelling. But there's no way around it. I mean, she seems to have a real flair for that kind of precious Virgo kind of triplicate kind of paperwork. What's your colour?

Have you got a colour yourself? No, it was supposed to be that I was the only one without a colour. So where does it stretch to, Beds? Or just like shoes and coats? No, pillowcases, you know. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, pillows. Everyone's got their own favourite pillows. And yeah, I mean, the kids, the boys are all my height or taller now. So they can't steal my shoes anymore.

But I can never find socks. Socks is a problem. Yeah. We had to have a sock amnesty, my ass. And so what, do they wear, they have the same coloured socks every day? No, there's a little dot that goes, or a name tag that goes. I mean, I quite actually quite like the name tag. Have you got it on your socks now? Have I got mine on my socks today?

No, these actually must be my socks. But I noticed, I looked down at my feet on stage and I saw there was a, my foot was up on the monitor. Barcelona. And there's a little Galileo and Nick James name tag. For my socks. But there was a moment with Claire, very early days, when we were getting down to it and the condom split

and she was like, it's split. And there was this sudden epiphany that, oh my God, that's not a disaster. I want your babies. And I've never felt that like with anyone. And that was a kind of moment. What a romantic story. then what did you leave the car park and head out for dinner it's just a feeling isn't it i think when you're when you

were with someone that you really love and want to be with you can't it's hard to explain it but you just know yeah yeah that that it just definitely goes back to that moment i mean obviously we've been arguing ever since, but I'm blessed. Oh, brilliant. Thanks so much, Alex. A lovely ending. Thank you, Alex. Alex James.

How was that for you, Josh? I love that bloke. I love all four of them, obviously. He's a good guy. Alex's life sounds so busy. Fucking Nora, mate. Absolutely. Five kids.

Five kids. The thought that if I'd been in a band till I was 33 living that life and then I'd kind of on a whim bought a farm

and had to make it work as a business I'd have been like what the fuck have I done I wouldn't be laughing about it I wouldn't be laughing

about it but he's fucking made it work he's made it work anyway right speak to you next time. See you soon. Bye. Bye.

If you like Josh Winnicombe, you're in luck. That's because the co-host of Parents in Hell and The Last Leg Maestro is the guest on the first episode of the Always Be Comedy podcast. Out now, I'm and with me your host and emcee always be comedy james gill each week the cream of comedy curates their fantasy comedy gig who'd open who'd close what gig nightmare do they never want to relive all this and much much more it's essentially comedy gossip and chat you know i remembered this the other day. My first ever gig. It was like a Friday night open mic night.

And they said, we'll just announce you on when you're on. We haven't got a running order. It's a bit freeform. I got to the end of the night and then they wrapped it up and they'd forgotten to put me on. And I'd sat there the whole night. We've also got Stuart Lee, Harry Hill, Jen Brister,

Ben Bailey-Smith, Maisie Adam, Al Murray, Rachel Parris and many, many more coming up. That's the Always Be Comedy podcast, out now with new episodes every Tuesday. Politics. Sport. Climate change. Culture wars. I'm Jack Dee. And I'm Sean Walsh.

These are just some of the things we won't be talking about in our podcast Oh My Dog Not that we couldn't if we wanted to Of course, of course we could Obviously, we're both well known for our scathing satire and social commentary But we've decided to set that aside to talk about our favourite subject Dogs Do you let your dogs kiss you on the face? Tiggy and Molly will nibble you to your lobe.

Oh, Jack likes that. Jack likes that. I mean, from Dolly. Sorry, that sounded like Jack likes me doing that. Old French bulldog, Professor Snowball. If he can't see us in the house, you'll hear this horrible noise. There was once when Jay and I, we locked the bedroom door, we thought there was a man in the

house as we heard him shout no give me one sec grace is mildred chipped oh yeah no of course she is you know she is chipped sorry actually you'd be good if Grace could do the programme because... She seems to know more about what's going on. Join us on our podcast, Oh My Dog. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and follow us on Instagram at OMDPod.