Alex James Britpop Classical

11th March 2026 at Royal Albert Hall, London

This is the first night of the tour: “A celebration of Britpop, brought to life by Blur’s Alex James, a full orchestra and special guests.”

With a heavy dose of nostalgia right from the start, warming up the crowd with a DJ set was Chris Moyles. He stuck to the 90s vibe (arguably a bit wider than Britpop, in my humble opinion), but alluded to avoiding playing anything that was actually in the live set. If Britpop classics by the likes of Dodgy, The Bluetones and Paul Weller, didn’t make it into the Britpop Classical set, I’m sure it must be full of bangers. Chris Moyles played some great tunes to get everyone in the mood, too many to mention. Biggest singalongs were Stereophonics’ Dakota and Weezer’s Buddy Holly. Everyone is now thoroughly warmed up for the main act.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra are onstage, along with the band, including Alex James on bass. 

The live set opens with an onscreen montage of the British bands that influenced the Britpop era – The Beatles, The Who, The Kinks, and more. The band and orchestra kick off with a medley, from Help to My Generation via Waterloo Sunset and Get It On. While this whole event is a blast from the past, this is a lovely nod to Britpop origins in influential British classics. 

The first guest joins the stage and it’s Simon Fowler from Ocean Colour Scene with a nostalgic rendition of The Riverboat Song.

The second guest joins the stage and it’s Saffron from Republica with a powerful version of Ready To Go. The screen at the back of the stage shows the video, with a younger Saffron belting it out on screen while real-life Saffron matched the energy of the Britpop days. 

A strong start, but it would be too much to ask to have all the original vocalists for the entire set. There are various singers brought out for different songs. We heard quintessential Britpop classic Supergrass’ Alright, and then some inspired mashups – Elastica’s Connection with EMF’s Unbelievable; Blur’s Song 2 with Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit (“woo hoo”).

The next segment is introduced by Alex James as homage to a city that is the home of many great British bands, and the screen flashed up a road sign to… Manchester. It wouldn’t be Britpop without reference to the Blur vs Oasis battle of 95, of course. 

Rock and Roll Star was followed by Happy Mondays’ Step On, The Charlatans’ The Only One I Know, The Stone Roses’ I Wanna Be Adored (with beautiful bass line) and Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart. I’m not sure that these really fall under the label of Britpop, technically, but they are fantastic songs and great to sing along.

Swerving back to upbeat jaunty Britpop, with Blur’s Country House. As a song about excess, Alex James told us that it was about someone at their record label.

Another guest singer joins the stage and it’s Gary from Reef for Place Your Hands. The screen also showing the music video of a younger Reef in an orange box.

This is followed by much-loved indie anthem, You and Me Song (I learnt more than I wanted to about Swedish band, the Wannadies, from Louise Wener’s biography Just For One Day recently).

More Blur needed: Girls and Boys is followed by a short blast of Chumbawumba’s Tubthumping before turning to Parklife, with Phil Daniels on guest vocals.

For the next song, the orchestra is in the spotlight, and the strings for The Verve’s Bittersweet Symphony are just sublime, with a stunning light show at the same time. Alex James swapped his bass guitar for a double bass. This is the pinnacle of Britpop Classical.

A piano leads the next song, Creep by Radiohead, a hauntingly beautiful piece.

Alex James quips, in a mockney accent, “Let’s blow the bloody doors off!” this home of British music.

Next is The La’s The She Goes, a Pulp double of Disco 2000 and Common People, and an Oasis double of Wonderwall and Don’t Look Back In Anger. A strange choice for a Blur man to end the show on an Oasis song, surely? But of course, there’s more!

The encore sees Alex James pick up the conductor’s baton and lead the orchestra with I Vow To Thee My Country, with a slide show of Great British institutions, including this very venue. Very patriotic.

All the guests return to stage for the grande finale of Blur’s The Universal. Another song where the strings are prominent and it sounds lush with the full orchestra. Streamers are released and everyone celebrates in a wonderful first night of the tour. 

The set list was magnificent, every song was a singalong favourite, and heavy on the nostalgia. I would have liked the orchestra turned up a bit. The guest vocalists singing their own songs was superb and while having different singers was necessary as it would haven been impossible to get all the original vocalists, it felt a bit like listening to a covers band, at times.

Overall, it was a clever idea, well executed, but the best songs were those that featured orchestra parts anyway – Bittersweet Symphony and The Universal – so I feel like the orchestra could have been more prominent. More classical in the Britpop Classical please!