Wah Wah

Wah Wah was recorded during the six-week sessions for the Laid LP at Real World Studios in Bath. The band had set up a second studio where they could jam when not working on the Laid album. Brian Eno or Markus Dravs would then select a piece of this improvised music and mix it, but only doing one take on the mix to keep in the spirit of the improvisation. Tim was then left to come up with lyrics, but with many of the tracks they remained instrumentals or had soundbites rather than coherent structured lyrics.

All but three of the tracks on Wah Wah were conceived this way according to Tim’s liner notes. Pressure’s On dated back to 1991. Maria, albeit in more conventional form, had been in the James live set since 1992, but failed to make the cut for Laid. Tomorrow was said to have been conceived at BBC’s Maida Vale studios on the day Laid was released, when the band had time between playing a song into each show that day on Radio 1.

The concept of Wah Wah came about when Eno visited the band’s rehearsals in Manchester before the album sessions began and witnessed the unique jamming process which provided the seeds for James songs. He felt that the results of these jams were as important to James sound as the songs that emerged and encouraged them to consider releasing these jams.

Plans to release Wah Wah coincidentally with Laid were shelved as the record company were initially reluctant to release it. Jam J was coupled with Say Something from Laid as a double a-side in March 1994 – however it was the latter that received the majority of the radio play and the MTV-friendly video.

Struggling to decide how to release the album, it eventually came out as a limited edition which was to be deleted after one week in September 1994. There was to be no single, no tour and very little other promotion of the album.

Despite this the album reached number 11 in its week of release although it did disappear quickly from the charts. Pressure’s On, Basic Brian, Jam J, Honest Joe and Tomorrow (later to be resurrected for Whiplash) had featured regularly in James live sets, but there was little to appeal to the more casual James fan in the rest of the album. For the more committed, it provided a previously unseen insight into the band’s working methods.

The press response to the album was mixed. The low profile of the release saw it ignored in certain quarters. Some reviewers missed the concept of the album and were puzzled as to why James were releasing it at all. The NME bizarrely called it “one of the few genuinely engaging dance albums around.”

• Arabic Agony :1994
• Basic Brian :1994
• Bottom Of The Well :1994
• Building A Fire :1994
• Burn The Cat :1994
• Dead Man :1994
• DVV / Jam R – Beefheart Jam :1994
• Frequency Dip :1994
• Gospel Oak / Who Is Gospel Oak (rehearsal jam) :1994
• Hammer Strings :1994
• Honest Joe / Jam Q :1994
• Jam J :1994
• Laughter :1994
• Lay The Law Down :1994
• Low Clouds :1994
• Maria / Maria’s Party :1994
• Pressure’s On :1994
• Rain Whistling :1994
• Rhythmic Dreams / Jam D (Rhythmic Dreams alt) :1994
• Say Say Something :1994
• Sayonara :1994
• Tomorrow :1994

Open in Spotify

• Honest Joe
• Tomorrow

• James To Release Laid And Wah Wah Albums in Deluxe Editions – Even The Stars
• Wuss-Stock – Select
• Wah Wah Album Release – Press Release
• Honest Joe Folk Testosterone Abort Mix
• No Folk On The Wah Tour – NME Magazine
• James Let Loose – Manchester Evening News
• James Wah Wah – Melody Maker News
• James Take A Dip – Melody Maker News
• The Musician Interview And Feature
• James To Make Ambient Football Album (Mr Agreeable Parody) – Melody Maker
• Mr Agreeable – Melody Maker
• Vous Avez Dit James – Le Soir (French)
• Eno’s Wah Wah Notes
• 1993 – 1996: Laid Back Years

• Woodstock 2, New York – 14th August 1994
• Portland Beatfest – 7th August 1994
• Seattle Endfest – 6th August 1994
• Glastonbury Festival – 25th June 1994
• San Diego Sunfest – 12th June 1994
• Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre – 11th June 1994
• Mountain View Shoreline Amphitheatre – 10th June 1994
• Tucson venue unknown – 8th June 1994
• El Paso venue unknown – 7th June 1994
• Lubbock venue unknown – 6th June 1994
• Houston venue unknown – 4th June 1994
• Arlington Six Flags – 3rd June 1994
• Goal Goal Goal – Unknown TV Broadcast – June 1994
• Oklahoma City venue unknown – 31st May 1994
• Lawrence Liberty Hall (KS, USA) – 30th May 1994
• Columbus venue unknown – 28th May 1994
• St Louis Mississippi Nights – 27th May 1994
• Minneapolis First Avenue – 24th May 1994
• Chicago Riviera – 22nd May 1994
• Cleveland Agora Theatre – 21st May 1994
• Toronto Ontario Place Forum – 20th May 1994
• Norfolk venue unknown – 18th May 1994
• Chapel Hill venue unknown – 17th May 1994
• Atlanta venue unknown – 15th May 1994
• Washington RFK Stadium (HFStival) – 14th May 1994
• New Haven Toad’s Place – 9th May 1994
• Boston Orpheum Theatre – 8th May 1994
• Say Something (Top Of The Pops) – 31st March 1994
• Phoenix The Grind – 27th March 1994
• Las Vegas Huntridge Theatre – 25th March 1994
• San Diego SU Montezuma Hall – 24th March 1994
• Los Angeles Hollywood Palace – 22nd March 1994
• Los Angeles Hollywood Palace – 21st March 1994
• San Francisco Marriott Hotel – 19th March 1994
• San Francisco Warfield Theatre – 17th March 1994
• Sacramento Crest Theatre – 16th March 1994
• Vancouver Commodore Theatre – 13th March 1994
• Portland La Luna – 12th March 1994
• Seattle Moore Theatre – 11th March 1994
• Boston Orpheum – 9th March 1994
• Denver Ogden Theatre – 7th March 1994
• Houston Numbers – 5th March 1994
• Dallas Deep Ellum Live – 4th March 1994
• New Orleans Tipitina’s – 1st March 1994
• Laid – Jay Leno Show – March 1994
• Laid – David Letterman Show – March 1994
• Memphis New Daisy Theatre – 27th February 1994
• Atlanta Roxy 26th February 1994
• Cincinnati Bogart’s – 24th February 1994
• Columbus, Newport Music Hall – 23rd February 1994
• Bloomington Jake’s – 22nd February 1994
• Chicago Vic Theatre – 20th February 1994
• Milwaukee Marquette University Varsity Theatre – 19th February 1994
• Detroit St Andrew’s Hall – 18th February 1994
• Cleveland Peabody’s Down Under – 17th February 1994
• New York Irving Plaza – 15th February 1994
• Washington WUST Music Hall – 14th February 1994
• Philadelphia Trocadero – 12th February 1994
• Boston Avalon – 10th February 1994
• Providence The Strand – 9th February 1994
• New Haven Toad’s Place (CT, USA) – 8th February 1994
• Toronto Opera House – 6th February 1994
• Toronto Opera House – 5th February 1994
• Montreal Club Soda – 4th February 1994
• Evanston Northwestern University – 16th January 1994
• West Lafayette Elliott Hall – 15th January 1994
• New York Radio City Music Hall – 13th January 1994
• New York Radio City Music Hall – 12th January 1994
• New York Radio City Music Hall – 11th January 1994
• Fairfax George Mason University – 9th January 1994
• West Point Eisenhower Theatre – 8th January 1994
• Hartford Civic Centre – 6th January 1994
• The Palace, Auburn Hills – 4th January 1994
• Minneapolis Target Centre – 2nd January 1994
• Laid – Conan O’Brien Show – January 1994
• York Barbican Centre – 16th December 1993
• Newport Centre – 13th December 1993
• Norwich UEA – 12th December 1993
• Portsmouth Guild Hall – 11th December 1993
• London Brixton Academy – 9th December 1993
• Gloucester Leisure Centre – 8th December 1993
• Derby Assembly Rooms – 7th December 1993
• Wolverhampton Civic Centre – 5th December 1993
• Manchester G-Mex – 4th December 1993
• Glasgow Barrowlands – 1st December 1993
• Porto Coliseum – 28th November 1993
• Lisbon Pavilhao dos Belenenses – 27th November 1993
• Madrid Pacha – 26th November 1993
• Barcelona Zeleste – 25th November 1993
• Paris, Casino de Paris – 23rd November 1993
• Lyon Transbordeur – 22nd November 1993
• Geneva Salle du Lignon – 20th November 1993
• Marseille Theatre du Moulin – 19th November 1993
• Toulouse Le Confluant – 18th November 1993
• Besancon Montjoye – 16th November 1993
• Munich Charterhalle – 15th November 1993
• Frankfurt Music Hall – 13th November 1993
• Cologne Live Music Hall – 12th November 1993
• Hamburg Markthalle – 11th November 1993
• Los Angeles Roxy – 28th October 1993
• San Francisco Slim’s – 27th October 1993
• Coimbra Pavilhao Estadio Universitario – 9th October 1993
• Sometimes – Jay Leno Show – October 1993
• London Astoria – 28th September 1993
• San Francisco WOMAD – 19th September 1993
• Los Angeles WOMAD – 18th September 1993
• Milwaukee Marcus Amphitheatre WOMAD – 12th September 1993
• Chicago WOMAD – 11th September 1993
• Buckeye Lake Centre, Thornville, OH – 10th September 1993
• Sometimes – BBC1 Top Of The Pops – 9th September 1993
• Burgettstown Starlake Amphitheatre WOMAD – 8th September 1993
• Saratoga Springs Performing Arts Centre WOMAD – 6th September 1993
• Carlyon Bay WOMAD – 28th August 1993
• Sometimes – Channel 4 The Beat – August 1993
• Bad Mergentheim Schlosshof – 18th July 1993
• Milan Assago Forum – 13th July 1993
• London Finsbury Park – 11th July 1993
• Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall – 8th July 1993
• Bath Moles Club – 21st March 1993