Alex James compares watching Gorillaz at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to La La Land film

23 June 2026, 12:54 | Updated: 24 June 2026, 12:58

Alex James doesn't want to poke the Oasis "hornets nest"!

By Jenny Mensah

The Blur bassist and Big Feastival founder praised his Blur bandmate's recent stadium show, saying he "absolutely smashed it".

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Alex James has praised Gorillaz after watching them play their first ever stadium show at Tottenham Hotspurs on Saturday (20th June).

The bassist-turned-cheese farmer took one of his children to see his Blur bandmate Damon Albarn and co at the North London football ground and he thought they "smashed it".

"I came in with one of the twins, Galileo, to see Albarn at Spurs," he told The Chris Moyles Show this week.[Gorillaz] absolutely smashed it."

He joked: "There was a lot of Arsenal fans there saying it was the first time the stadium's been full".

However, the Big Feastival founder also compared watching Albarn on stage to the final scenes in 2016 musical film La La Land, where the starring couple live alternative lives.

He explained: "Going to see Gorillaz is like, it's - have you seen La La Land? You know the bit at the end of La La Land where they're both kind of living their dream, but they're not together anymore."

"But I guess, Blur's got a happy ending," he added. "'Cause we do kind of occasionally [get back together]."

Blur's Alex James, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in La La Land and Damon Albarn with Gorillaz. Picture: Sipa US/Alamy Live News, Pictorial Press, Amy Harris/Invision/AP

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The show itself saw Gorillaz play a career-spanning milestone set at the stadium, which consisted of an epic 30 songs and special appearances from the likes of Johnny Marr, Sparks, Little Simz, Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder, Kano, Anoushka Shankar, Bootie Brown, Trueno, Yasiin Bey, De La Soul's Posdnuos and more.

Shaun Ryder performs DARE with Gorillaz at Tottenham Hotspurs

Gorillaz setlist at Tottenham Hotspurs on Saturday 20th June:

The Mountain (with Anoushka Shankar)
The Happy Dictator (with Sparks)
Tranz
Tomorrow Comes Today
19-2000
Rhinestone Eyes
Saturnz Barz (with Popcaan)
The Moon Cave (with Asha Puthli) (and Black Thought and Anoushka Shankar)
El Mañana
Empire Ants (with Yukimi) (Tour debut)
With Love to an Ex (with Moonchild Sanelly)
Casablanca(with Johnny Marr) (and Paul Simonon; with “The Hardest Thing”)
Delirium
Andromeda
Désolé (with Fatoumata Diawara)
Stylo (with Yasiin Bey)
Damascus(with Yasiin Bey) (and Omar Souleyman)
Dirty Harry (with Bootie Brown)
Garage Palace (with Little Simz)
White Flag (with Bashy) (and Kano and the Syrian National Orchestra of Arabic Music; Tour debut)
The Shadowy Light (with Gruff Rhys) (and Zanai Bhosle)
The Sad God (with Black Thought) (and Anoushka Shankar)

Encore:

23. Cloud of Unknowing
24. Plastic Beach (with Johnny Marr) (and Paul Simonon; Tour debut)
25. On Melancholy Hill
26. Orange County (with Kara Jackson) (and Anoushka Shankar)
27. The Manifesto (with Trueno)
28. DARE (with Shaun Ryder) (and Roses Gabor)
29. Feel Good Inc. (with Posdnuos)
30. Clint Eastwood

Albarn and co have now will now continue their European shows with a show at Croatia's Inmusic festival tonight (23rd June, before moving onto Release at Athens, Greece on Thursday (25th June).

Meanwhile, Alex James' Britpop Classical kicked off at London's Royal Albert Hall in March and returns for dates this summer with stops at Halifax's The Piece Hall and Latitude Festival 2026.

Visit britpopclassical.com for the remainder of the dates and to buy tickets.