Blur bassist Alex plugs pottery industry

Bonechinaplates make your food taste better. So says foodie and one-time Blur bassist Alex James in his latest column in Observer Food Monthly today.
 

 
In what is a rare celebrity boost for the Potteries' signature industry, the musician turned cheesemaker devotes his words to the parlous state of manufacturing bone china, particularly after the collapse of Wedgwood and - until recently - perilous position of Spode.

 
Admittedly, there's a couple of gaffes. He talks about the factories which first turned to Stoke-on-Trent's marl pits to create the bone china. He namechecks Wedgwood and Spode, but then picks out Dalton (surely Doulton) and Worcester (which had no concrete links to the city until its merger with Spode, and even then was more famed for its porcelain).
 
But that's not to take away from the overall thrust of the piece, summed up by the single sentence, "I have grown to love the stuff [bone china] and now I don't want to eat my dinner of anything else."
 
He even urges people to go out to Stoke and pick up some fine china at rock-bottom prices.
 
IGiven the pressure that the pottery companies have been under, it's maybe only a tiny gesture, but it does show there is support for the product, it just needs to be marketed in the right way.