Category Archives: News

Everyone knows that it rains a great deal in England, but after recent watery events, bands like James and Placebo might be ready to move to Florida. This weekend James was forced to cancel its show in Grimsby due to stormy weather conditions. Slated to take place at the Grimsby Auditorium, James’ show was postponed because prior wind and rain damaged the roof of the auditorium itself. A spokesman for the Grimsby Auditorium explained that the damage that the roof sustained in earlier storms rendered it an unsafe arena for a live show. Although the show will be rescheduled, James is not alone in being a band that has to find a drier date and locale to play. U.K. favorites Placebo was forced to cancel its show earlier this week in Nottingham Rock City due to extensive water damage to the venue.

September 2000, © NME
JAMES are abandoning stadiums to test-drive material for their forthcoming album, tentatively titled ‘WE WANT OUR MONEY BACK’, on a tour of medium-sized venues next month, nme.com can reveal.

The band are currently recording the album, due out in April, with their long-time producer Brian Eno and former Blur producer Stephen Street.

Regarding the tour, Guitarist Saul Davies told nme.com: “It’s a deliberate move on our part. Basically it’s come out of the fact that we started work on our next album and we decided we should do something we haven’t done since we did ‘Laid’, which is play the songs out on the road before we record them.

“I’m really looking forward to it cos’ they could potentially be quite special shows. I think a band like us that’s been going on so long, it’s really necessary to invent a way of performing on [a special] occasion. It’s very easy for us to play big venues and take the cash and go away. ”

He added: “Being on top of people where the communication with audience is intense I think will [make it] much easier to play these tunes and dig in and find out what they’re about really.”

James have written 25 new songs for their forthcoming album including ‘Coffee On Toast’, ‘Please To Meet You’, ‘Gaudi’, ‘Senorita’, and ‘Nicola Louder’.

JAMES have announced a UK tour in October/November.

Currently working on a new studio album, the group, who attracted much praise for their sets at the recent V2000 festival, are to play 12 dates to coincide with the release of their forthcoming biography Folklore: James – The Official Story.

The full dates for the tour are as follows:

Leeds University Union (October 21)

Liverpool Royal Court (22)

Edinburgh Corn Exchange (23)

Bristol Colston Hall (25)

Exeter University (26)

Poole Arts Centre (27)

Blackpool Empress Ballroom (November 2)

Grimsby Auditorium (3)

Norwich U.E.A. (4)

Sheffield City Hall (6)

Nottingham Rock City (7)

London Brixton Academy (8)

Having postponed the scheduled release of their forthcoming B-sides album until 2001, James will now be releasing two albums next year.

Fans are still being invited to vote for their favourite B-sides on the band’s official website before the final track listing for the that album is finalised, while the band themselves are sifting through the 30 “sketched out” songs they’ve demoed for their next studio album, which they’re hoping to begin with producer Stephen Street following the tour. The band previewed three new songs – ‘Coffee And Toast’, ‘Everyone’s A Junkie’ and ‘Senorita’ at V2000.

Finally, the band’s official biography is to be released on November 9. Fans who’re gagging to read about the Manchester band’s long and winding road to international stardom however, can obtain advance copies of Folklore&ldots; from the band’s website before it officially hits book shelves.

Is James’ ‘Sit Down’ the greatest student anthem of all time? Have the Manchester band really got the acclaim they deserve over the years? And what’s your favourite James’ B-side and why? Email us with your views.

You may have to Sit Down after the following announcement.

Indie stalwarts James have announced a 12-date national tour.

You can see the student faves play their vast collection of memorable hits in Leeds, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Bristol, Exeter, Poole, Blackpool, Exeter, Norwich, Sheffield, Nottingham and London throughout October and early November.

James formed in Manchester in 1982, and have successfully outlasted most of their peers to release a plethora of memorable anthems. Early material such as Come Home and How Was It For You? soundtracked many students’ lives in the late 80s and early 90s, and the hits have continued to flow with She’s a Star, Sometimes and Destiny Calling.

In a barren period for indie-pop, where chart rock music has become increasingly anodyne and few bands survive the expectations of the masses, reliable tunesmiths James prove a welcome respite.

1998’s compilation The Best of constituted a timely reminder of the outfit’s rock pedigree, while 1999’s offering Millionaires is probably their most adventurous and rewarding album to date.

The tour will also showcase songs from their next album tentatively titled We Want Our Money Back, which is currently being recorded by their long-time producer Brian Eno.

In a roller-coaster career spanning 18 years, there’s never been a better time to catch them.

LONDON–James has announced an 11-date U.K. tour to kick off in October. The pop group, who released its last album “Millionaires” in 1999, will start the outing in Leeds, England, on Oct. 21 and finish up in London on Nov. 8.

According to its official website, tickets will go on sale “exclusively to James fans” beginning at 9 a.m. on Thursday (8/31) and to the general public at 9 a.m. on Friday (9/1).

The next studio album, for which “30 new songs have been sketched out,” is tipped to be released in May, 2001. The group reports that it will work on the album with Brian Eno (U2, David Bowie) and Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur).

Led by Tim Booth, James formed in 1982 in Manchester, England, which was also the breeding ground for other “Madchester” acts from the ’80s, including the Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses.

October

21 – Leeds, England – Leeds University

22 – Liverpool, England – Royal Court

23 – Edinburgh, Scotland – Corn Exchange

25 – Bristol, England – Colston Hall

27 – Poole, England – Arts Centre

November

2 – Blackpool, England – Empress Ballroom

3 – Grimbsy, England – Grimsby Auditorium

4 – Norwich, England – University of East Angland

6 – Sheffield, England – City Hall

7 – Nottingham, England – Rock City

8 – London, England – Brixton Academy

James have told Radio 1 that they’re bringing out an album of b-sides.

It’ll be released next February – and two months later, there will be a new album from the band with a tour planned for the end of the year.

They’ve just got back from China where they played an historic gig in Beijing. It was the first time the audience were allowed to stand up and dance!

Saul and Jim told Radio 1, the B sides album is one of the best things they’ve ever done: “We’re going to call it ‘The Best B-side in the World Ever: Volume 1’! We’ve got tonnes of stuff, the sound’s fantastic! We’ve got about forty songs.”

Making the album is bringing back memories for the band. They told us: “There are all the associated events that come with listening to those things, going through puberty – things dropping, things falling out – aghhhh!”

dotmusic has been treated to an exclusive unplugged James performance at the Virgin Radio tent at V2000.

A handful of delighted revellers were so surprised to see Tim Booth and his keyboard player take to the stage an hour before hitting the main stage that they forgot to applaud, until Tim told them otherwise.

Tim, wearing obilgatory hat and shades as well as headphones, treated us to a sublime rendition of ‘Laid’ as two fans in James t-shirts almost choked on their free lager.

Tim looked relaxed and ready for the main action and revealed to dotmusic that he’d mistakenly said ‘Thankyou Chelmsford’ at the end of last night’s set in Staffordshire.

BETWEEN FOUR LETTER OUTBURSTS, JAMES TELL US ABOUT THEIR NEW NO SELL-OUT STYLE

“Remember this when you read the reviews slagging us off” Tim Booth yells at the end of James set, as hordes of happy fans walk slowly away from the stage. Remember, we think he means, that in this particular set on Staffordshire’s V Stage they played none of their best-known hits and none of the singles from last year’s “Millionaires” album and it was still a minor bombshell of a performance.

And, after this outburst, when we go backstage to try and find out what’s eating James, we find them in defiant mood. Tim is calm and friendly, but prepared to state his case. Bassist Jim Glennie wants to explain exactly why James get a raw deal. But guitarist/violinist Saul Davies, eyes bulging, swearing for Britain, is just about ready to explode.

“I just feel like James gets f**king hammered,” he snaps. “We take far more risks than Paul Weller would, or Cypress Hill would take or f**king anybody at this festival. We’ll play new songs that nobody’s even heard of that we don’t even know! Then people go ‘You’re bollocks because you didn’t play Sit Down'”

“There are all these c**ts who are playing around us on the bill – and we’re always the ones who get shit for being corporate f**kers,” he gasps. “We’re here with our f**king balls in our hands going ‘Come on then! Let’s f**king do it!’ We’re not corporate whores, we like to challenge our audience.”

From this you might assume that James new direction involves art-concept Sonic Youthery. At least one new single previewed at V2000 – a frothy pop tune called “Coffee And Toast” – suggests not.

“It’s what I call a scientific love song,” Tim laughs. “It’s about this guy who tries to impress a girl with all this scientific stuff about black holes, when he just wants to get her back home. He wants her to come back home and have coffee and toast, but you know what he’s really after! I find the scientific chat up line works every time, but only with a certain type of girl. There’s another new song called “Everyone’s A Junkie” which is much darker. You know, we’re James, we don’t have one direction. We fire a shotgun and maybe some of the pellets will hit.”

So far, the band have taken this scattergun approach to recording, having demoed 25 tracks, from which they’ll compile their new album in March (working title “We Want Our Money Back”). They’ll also be going back to their roots touring University venues in October. But don’t expect them to play “Sit Down.” Unless it includes a 30-minute jazz odyssey mid-section. Nice.

James played an unusual gig this weekend because they’re big in Beijing. China’s still a relatively isolated country with credible western bands playing there on rare occasions, but this weekend saw an attempt to change that.

Bands from all over the world arrived to play in the Chinese capital. Tim Booth took the opportunity on stage to criticise the country’s human rights record, saying: “This is a song about tortured artists which may have a different meaning over here.”

Backstage, he said: “This is the way to break down barriers, I think. More than making big bold stands. We could be a young rock’n’roll band and get ourselves arrested, but it wouldn’t really help anybody, would it?”

He explained: “Basically, what you come and do is start, hopefully, a process of communication to start and change things. This is why we do this, to reach people.”

For every person present in Ritan Park for the Heineken Beat Music Festival, the 90 minutes from 21:30 to 23:00 on May 13th, will be very hard to forget. The explosive atmosphere created by the UK’s James gave people a real idea of the power of popular rock and roll music. At last Beijing had the chance to experience this kind of passionate and exciting live music performance.

The difference between the wild cheers and waving arms and dancing feet at Ritan and the enthusiasm of the thousands of people last year at the worker’s stadium for Zhang Huimei’s concert was fundamental. First of all, on stage was a famous band from one of the original homes of rock and roll and secondly, the music resounding in the arena was far more likely to set the blood pumping in your veins.

When James was announced, the trees just outside the wall surrounding the altar of the sun were full of people. On May 13th there was an audience of more than ten thousand of people in the park, both inside and outside the arena.

JAMES are off to China next month to become one of the few western rock bands ever to play in Beijing.

The band are set to perform at the fabulously named Altar Of The Sun in the Chinese capital over the weekend May 13-14, as part of the Heineken Beat 2000 festival.

Also on the bill is Afrobeat king Femi Kuti as well as local Chinese acts. Last year’s Heineken festival was the first such outdoor event ever held in China.

James’s Chinese fanbase is said to be “small but passionate.” Meanwhile the band also plays V2000 this summer and is due to start recording an early follow-up to last year’s Millionaires album