November 2, 2006 14:24

Blur still hopeful of Coxon reunion

Alex James is talking to the guitarist

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Blur hope to reunite with Graham Coxon for one last album, Alex James has revealed.

The bass player believes that the band – in its original line-up – is “too good a thing to let it disintegrate”.

And James revealed that he is on good terms with the estranged guitarist, who left the band acrimoniously in 2002.

He told the BBC: “I’ve got high hopes that Blur will have a happy four-piece ending. I think it would be a shame if it didn’t really. I think we’d all like to make another record. We’d all like to do it with Graham. I’ve been talking to Graham a bit and hopefully I can persuade him. I’m going to have to beg him though."

While Coxon has enjoyed solo success, Blur’s remaining members have been concentrating on side-projects since 2003’s ‘Think Tank’, James with WigWam and Damon Albarn with Gorillaz and The Good, The Bad & The Queen.

But James insisted that Blur would be back in action soon. He said: “One way or another, there’ll be another Blur album, with or without Graham – but hopefully with Graham. I think it’s definitely worth trying. I’m sure Paul McCartney feels the same, but I still don’t think we’ve made our best record yet. That’s one of the things you get when you’re a musician. You think, ‘I’m going to do something brilliant in a minute’. If you don’t think that, you’ve got to stop.”

As well as a musical project with actor Steven Berkoff, James tries his hand at presenting this Friday, hosting the new radio version of classic music TV show 'The Tube'.