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1997: The Year Of Whiplash

Articles from this James era:

The Whiplash Sessions

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During the 1994 US tour, James started to jam new material in preparation for the follow-up to the hugely-successful Laid album.  No-one was to know at that time that it was going to be three long years before that follow-up was to be finally released and that release would be without long-term guitarist and key member Larry Gott.

Following an outstanding performance at Woodstock 2 in August 1994, James set about the task of writing their new album. However, fate, in the form of Larry’s decision to quit, Tim’s desire to go off and work with Angelo Badalamenti and a massive tax bill, meant that the recording of what became the Whiplash album was to be spread out over almost 2 1/2 years.

Early sessions at the Windings at Wrexham and Westside Studios in London had seen the band lose none of the creative energy that has fuelled its songwriting from the very early days in a South Manchester scout hut to the more luxurious studios the band can afford to use today.

By the time the album came to be released after James had overcome the trials and tribulations that almost finished the band off, many of the songs written in that initial period following Woodstock were lost on studio DAT tapes or discarded by the band as new ideas and new songs took their place.

Over the history of James, so many songs have been lost to the binbags of cassettes and DATs that Jim Glennie claims to have littering up his house.  These songs never see the light of day despite continual badgering and the singles being littered with unsatisfactory mixes and live tracks.

Wah Wah was an insight into the unique working methods of the band, but it was merely a scratch on the surface. Below that one suspects there lies a wealth of improvised, off-the-cuff and truly inspirational music that we will never have the pleasure to hear as the band have deemed it unfit for our ears or it has simply got lost on tapes never to resurface. One only has to listen to the unreleased tracks that appear on bootlegs over the years – Somebody Help Me, Gregory’s Town and Pitiful as three examples, but the list is much longer – to realise this. Maybe one day James will be honoured with a boxset which reveals this previously unheard side to their music. We can live in hope.

Anyway, I digress. A selection of tracks in their early stages of development recorded during the post-Woodstock sessions has bubbled to the surface, featuring a total of twenty six tracks in total including fourteen songs that were not released on the Whiplash album or the singles that accompanied it. Dumb Jam and Make It Alright have since surfaced years later in a re-recorded format and Hedex featured in a different version on the studio disc of The Gathering Sound boxset, but there remain 11 songs, previously hidden somewhere away from the ears of the James faithful, a whole album of material that we were denied in place of the She’s A Star Dave Angel PAT Mix or the Tomorrow Droppin’ Cake Mix.

How these songs have surfaced is somewhat of a mystery. Why other songs from other sessions have not done so is equally mysterious. However, their existence must be addressed and documented as they are as much a part of the musical legacy James will leave as the commercially released material.

Brian Eno quite rightly identified in his first visit to a James rehearsal that the jams, the seedlings of James songs, are as much a part of the music James produce as the slick polished record that ends up in the shops.

These songs exist somewhere in the territory between the pure jams of Wah Wah and the finished product of Whiplash. There are pure pop moments as well as experimentation, both instrumentally and in vocal treatments. These are some truly fascinating pieces of music.

Many of the unreleased songs are documented in Brian Eno’s diary A Year With Swollen Appendices along with a number of other tracks which have yet to surface.

The Whiplash Sessions songs are:

  • Homeboy Or Girl
  • Hedex – Porn Organ, Synth Bass
  • Without You
  • Honest Pleasure
  • Make You Alright
  • Dumb Jam
  • Your Story
  • Exma
  • Maybe Jane – Stephen Hawkins
  • Help Yourself
  • Muscle
  • Hand On My Rocket
  • Last Orders
  • Maybe Jane – Normal
  • Whiplash (Play Dead)
  • Angel (Watering Hole)
  • What Time Is It?
  • Waltzing (Along)
  • Avalanche
  • Orson
  • Hedex – Spector Pastiche
  • Gone Too Far
  • Fishknives – Vocals
  • Star
  • Fishknives – Instrumental / Strings
  • Fire

Find out more about the songs:

Songs that have been released in some form:

Still unreleased songs:

James Takes New Crack With Whiplash – Billboard

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In recent times, a fair number of alternative rock’s success stories have happened overnight, but there are still those who’ve climbed the ladder one rung at a time. Such is the case with James, the Manchester, England-based septet that struck gold in 1993 with “Laid,” the seventh album in its decade-plus existence.

“I think the success we’ve had has been more a cumulative thing than anything,” says front man Tim Booth. “In a lot of ways, ‘Laid’ was less commercial than anything we’d done in the past, but it ended up selling loads of copies in the past couple years when we’ve been all but dormant.”

That respite will end Feb. 11, when Fontana/Mercury issues “Whiplash,” the first release from the band since 1994’s experimental remix set, “Wah Wah.” (In the interim, Booth released “Booth And The Bad Angel,” a collaboration with composer Angelo Badalamenti.)

“We desperately needed time off after working basically nonstop for 13 years,” says the singer. “We needed to find a new way of working, because we were going mad–or I was at least. I used to drive James and be there for every note, and I didn’t want to do that anymore.”

While he’s still at the forefront of much of “Whiplash,” Booth does cede more control to his bandmates on surprisingly abrasive, industrial-tinged tracks like “Greenpeace” and the largely improvised “Go To The Bank.” Fans of the band’s trademark aggro-folk sound will find plenty to like in songs like the first single, “She’s A Star,” which goes to radio the last week of January.

“They’ve delivered a very strong, very deep album, and I think ‘She’s A Star’ is their best chance yet at a multiformat hit,” says Josh Zieman, Mercury senior director of marketing. “Since it has been a while, we may have to solidify the foundation at radio and retail, but James does have a very loyal fan base.”

Anticipation is strong for new material from the band. “We’ve supported James since the beginning, and the band has always done extremely well here,” says Jane Purcell, PD at modern rock outlet WWCD Columbus, Ohio. “We played several cuts off the last album to good response, and quite a few things from their catalog are still in our gold rotation.”

Zieman says the band–which is signed to Fontana in Europe–will come to the U.S. for a promotional visit in late February. On that trek, James will perform on shows such as MTV’s “120 Minutes” and “Late Show With David Letterman.” A full tour, booked by Mitch Rose at Creative Artists Agency, will follow in April.

“Playing these songs live should be interesting for a number of reasons,” says Booth. “They lend themselves to performance a bit more than the songs on ‘Laid,’ which tended to be somewhat introspective. Besides which, we’re not playing with Larry any longer, which is a big change.”

The “Larry” Booth refers to is Larry Gott, the longtime guitarist who left midway through the recording of “Whiplash”–in Booth’s words “because he hated the whole fame thing even more than the rest of us.” Gott’s replacement is Adrian Oxaal, formerly of Sharkboy, who doubles on cello, making him a fine foil for longtime violinist Saul Davies.

“Bringing Adrian in shook us up, which was a positive thing, since we needed to find a new approach to things,” says Booth. “We’ve always tried our best to do that.”

Since a nascent fascination with the stripped-down style of bands like the Violent Femmes gave way to the more ornate, jaunty stylings of albums like 1986’s “Stutter” and 1988’s “Strip-Mine,” James’ career has been marked by more zig-zags than that of an all-star running back.

After moving from Blanco y Negro/Sire to Fontana in 1990, the band (which is managed by Peter Rudge of Mad Dog) reconfigured its sound, emphasizing grand structures, including string and horn sections. The enlistment of producer Brian Eno, who produced both “Wah Wah” and “Laid,” brought yet another about-face.

“Brian is as far from perfectionism as you can get. He’s very much into immediacy, into seeing what he can disrupt,” says Booth. “Stephen [Hague, who shares production credits with Eno on ‘Whiplash’] is just the opposite, which made for a fascinating mix.”

Mercury’s Zieman says he views James’ mercurial nature as one of the group’s strengths. “This isn’t the kind of band that will become stagnant,” he says. “They always manage to stay a step ahead.”

Fanzine: Change Of Scenery – Issue 6

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Change Of Scenery was a James fanzine produced by John Pude.

Download this fanzine as a PDF.

© copyright Change Of Scenery.

New Booth Explosion – NME

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JAMES plan to return in 1997 with their first single and album in more than two years, as well as embarking on their first UK tour for more than four years. Tim Booth, lead singer of the veteran Manchester band, speaking exclusively to NME, revealed that the new single, ‘She’s A Star’, would be released on February 4 and the new album, ‘Whiplash’, would be out on February 24.

He explained the band had made a conscious decision to take a break from each other and put James on hold, during which time it was agreed he could collaborate with Angelo Badalamenti on the album ‘Booth And The Bad Angel’, which was released earlier this year. “After the last tour we knew we needed to take a long break. We’d never really taken a year or two out for 11 years, so that’s what we did. We felt we’d overdone it, we needed a break and we felt people needed a break from us. Now it feels wonderful,” Booth said.

He added the band had decided they needed a fresh approach to songwriting, especially in the light of the critical mauling the last two James albums (1993’s ‘Laid’ and 1994’s ‘Wah-Wah’) received. “We’re looking to work in a new way, to do songs, then improvise them, smash them up again. The only way we can keep going is make it interesting. I was disappointed with the critical reaction to the last two albums. It can seriously damage your ego,” he explained.

“Will we split up if this album doesn’t do well? No, I think James will go on for a long time. But then, who the fuck knows in this world?” He also hinted there would be more Booth And The Bad Angel material, probably with the release of a re-recorded version of ‘Fall In Love’ from the album next year.

Meanwhile, the new James album, produced by Stephen Hague and Brian Eno, has been described by Booth as very “uptempo”. The tracklisting is: ‘Tomorrow’, ‘Lost A Friend’, ‘Waltzing Along’, ‘She’s A Star’, ‘Greenpeace’, ‘Go To The Bank’, ‘Whiplash’, ‘Avalanche’, ‘Homeboy’, ‘Angel’ and ‘Blue Pastures’. Fans will have a chance to hear the tracks live when the band head out on tour in March, visiting Leeds Town & Country (March 12), Middlesbrough Town Hall (13), Glasgow Barrowlands (14), Newport Centre (16), Exeter University (17), Southampton Guildhall (18), London Shepherd’s Bush Empire (20), Leicester De Montfort Hall (23), Cambridge Corn Exchange (24), Wolverhampton Civic Hall (25), Liverpool Royal Court (27) and Manchester Apollo (28).

Interview with Tim Booth and Angelo Badalamenti -Discover.de

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Discover.de | Interview | Helmar Giebel | 1st August 1996 | Related:Booth And The Bad Angel

English Google Translation:

With “Booth And The Bad Angel”, an extraordinary project by two artists who couldn’t be more different is being released these days. We are talking about Tim Booth, better known for the Manchester pop band James, and Angelo Badalamenti. The latter produced the pop singer Peggy March in the 50s. This has long been forgiven and forgotten. After all, this man is responsible for the stunning soundtracks to David Lynch’s works such as “Blue Velvet” or “Wild At Heart”, as well as the legendary “Twin Peaks theme”. Helmar Giebel had a long-awaited conversation with the two musicians.

? : The music you usually make is very different. How did this unusual collaboration come about?

Tim : Well, I was asked if I would like to perform for a music show on English television with an extraordinary artist. There’s this legendary Twin Peaks episode where Julee Cruise sings in a nightclub while a murder is happening at the same time. Although this scene lasts 20 minutes at most, it is one of the most fascinating moments I have ever experienced on television. So I really wanted to perform with Angelo Badalamenti. In this way, we have connected two worlds that do not normally meet.

Angelo: We knew immediately that we would complement each other perfectly. Right at our first session together, only with keyboard and a small drum computer, the work was tremendous fun. Tim sang his heart out, and I played as if my life was at stake. It was all so simple. Before we knew it, we had written 14 songs. After that, we recorded the songs in the studio pretty quickly. Later, in England, Tim Bernhard Butler (ex-Suede) had the pieces underlaid with guitar.

Tim wanted to incorporate more of my music into the project. I even had to promise him at the beginning that no guitars would be used. I, on the other hand, wanted Tim’s guitar music to have a greater influence. I’ve been making slow and quiet music for 13 years now. I then annoyed him until he agreed with me.

Tim : A song like “Life Get’s Better” for example would have been much dreamier and darker without guitars. “I Believe” was a much more melodic and flowing song at the beginning. Then the guitars came along…

Angelo:… and we had a radio hit….(laughs)!

? : That’s right, “I Believe” is what I imagine perfect pop music to be!

Angelo: The record company was very relieved to hear this song. I think she just didn’t think it was possible that Tim and I could do something that would eventually find buyers.

? : The “Bad Angel” in the album title surely refers to Angelo?

Tim : Yes, you’re right. First and foremost, however, it has a biblical reference.

Angelo : Bathroom is made up of the first three letters of Badalamenti. Angelo means “angel” in Italian. You have to interpret it in your own way, just like a good movie.

? : Is there a basic idea behind the lyrics of the album?

Tim : No, each song is a story in itself.

Angelo: We were very relaxed and worked a maximum of five hours a day. Tim danced around in my office in New York most of the time, and I made us tea. So we had a lot of fun. The lyrics arose from such moods. Even “Rising”, a song about dying, has become a happy song.

? : “Dance Of The Bad Angels” and “Life Get’s Better” stand out in particular. Can you comment on these songs?

Tim : Yes, of course, “Dance” is a strange song. He has no chorus, the voice is as if on a shear. Angelo plays this beautiful keyboard in the background. (Spontaneously, the two hum a sample of that very melody).

Angelo : A peculiar keyboard line that runs exactly against the monotonous bass. Later, we had Tim’s former singing teacher sing the background vocals.

Tim : I think it’s really successful, her multifaceted voice literally dances around my rather static voice. Originally, the song was over nine minutes long. We didn’t want to stop playing. The idea of “Life Get’s Better” is a dialogue with myself. On the one hand, my very critical and pessimistic self, on the other hand, my attitude of leaving everything behind me and wanting to set off into a new world. We then split these two roles.

Angelo : Of course, I sing the rather depressing lines, just as it suits my image… (laughs).

In the video for “I Believe”, Tim sits in a beautiful garden with beautiful flowers. I’m standing on the roof of a 25-story building in Manhattan and playing master of the sun, the birds and all life.

? : Will your cooperation continue? Or is a live performance in Germany even conceivable?

Angelo: That depends on the record sales. If the record company then approaches us, we will be happy to play live. Of course, we hope that the record company will also sponsor our future activities. Whenever we’re together, we work on new songs. (He immediately proudly presents the sheet music for a new song, hastily scribbled on a napkin). Tim started singing at lunch, and I wrote it down quickly. We have ideas for at least six more albums.

? : What about David Lynch’s new film “Lost Highway”? Were you responsible for the music again, Angelo?

Angelo : Yes, although the work on it overlapped with the joint recordings of Tim and me. So this time it was not possible for me to dissect the film minute by minute and compose it to it. But David wanted me back at all costs. So I wrote him a complete symphony with different tunings. David then had to cut it to the film himself.

? : Angelo, you are known for the rather dark sounds à la Twin Peaks. What other music do you listen to?

Angelo : Well, of course, I love the dark, bittersweet sounds I’m known for. But I also like pop music, ethnic sounds. Actually, I’m open to everything and deal a lot with music from all over the world. Speaking of Twin Peaks, there are a lot of stories about the show. I would like to tell you the most beautiful one at the end; it actually happened that way! The last time I met Paul McCartney, he told me that I had pretty much upset him with my music. He was once asked to compose 40 minutes of music for a reception with the Queen. However, the Queen said goodbye to him very early at this reception. To his disappointed question why she didn’t at least want to listen to his music, she only replied: “But Mr. McCartney, Twin Peaks is about to begin!”.

? : Thank you for the interview!

Original German:
Mit “Booth And The Bad Angel” wird in diesen Tagen ein außergewöhnliches Projekt von zwei Künstlern, wie sie unterschiedlicher nicht sein können, veröffentlicht. Die Rede ist von Tim Booth, eher durch die Manchester-Pop Band James bekannt, und Angelo Badalamenti. Letzterer produzierte in den 50ern die Schlagersängerin Peggy March. Das ist längst vergeben und vergessen. Schließlich ist dieser Mann für die umwerfenden Soundtracks zu David Lynchs Werken wie “Blue Velvet” oder “Wild At Heart”, sowie das legendäre “Twin Peaks-Theme” verantwortlich. Helmar Giebel führte ein lange erhofftes Gespräch mit den beiden Musikern.

? : Die Musik, die ihr normalerweise macht, ist ja sehr unterschiedlich. Wie kam es zu dieser ungewöhnlichen Zusammenarbeit?

Tim : Nun, ich wurde gefragt, ob ich Lust hätte, für eine Musiksendung im englischen Fernsehen mit einem außergewöhnlichen Künstler aufzutreten. Es gibt da diese legendäre Twin Peaks-Episode, in der Julee Cruise in einem Nachtclub singt, während zeitgleich ein Mord geschieht. Obwohl diese Szene höchstens 20 Minuten dauert, gehört sie zu den faszinierendsten Momenten, die ich je im Fernsehen erlebt habe. Also wollte ich unbedingt mit Angelo Badalamenti auftreten. So haben wir zwei Welten miteinander verbunden, die sich normalerweise nicht treffen.

Angelo : Wir wußten sofort, daß wir uns prima ergänzen werden. Gleich bei unserer ersten gemeinsamen Session, nur mit Keyboard und einem kleinen Drumcomputer, machte die Arbeit ungeheuren Spaß. Tim sang sich die Seele aus dem Leib, und ich spielte, als ginge es um mein Leben. Es war alles so einfach. Ehe wir uns versahen, hatten wir 14 Songs geschrieben. Danach haben wir die Lieder ziemlich schnell im Studio eingespielt. Später dann, in England, ließ Tim Bernhard Butler (Ex-Suede) die Stücke mit Gitarre unterlegen.

Tim wollte mehr von meiner Musik in das Projekt einfließen lassen. Ich mußte ihm am Anfang sogar versprechen, daß keine Gitarren zum Einsatz kommen. Ich wiederum wollte, daß Tims Gitarrenmusik einen größeren Einfluß hat. Langsame und ruhige Musik mache ich ja nun schon 13 Jahre lang. Ich habe ihn dann so lange genervt, bis er mir zustimmte.

Tim : Ein Song wie “Life Get’s Better” z.B. wäre ohne Gitarren viel verträumter und düsterer geworden. “I Believe” war zu Anfang ein viel melodischerer und fließender Song. Dann kamen die Gitarren dazu…

Angelo :…und wir hatten einen Radiohit….(lacht)!

? : Das stimmt, “I Believe” ist das, was ich mir unter perfekter Popmusik vorstelle!

Angelo : Die Plattenfirma war sehr erleichtert, dieses Lied zu hören. Ich glaube, sie hielt es einfach nicht für möglich, daß Tim und ich etwas zustande bringen, daß schließlich auch noch Käufer finden wird.

? : Der “Bad Angel” im Albumtitel bezieht sich doch bestimmt auf Angelo?

Tim : Ja, du hast recht. In erster Linie hat es aber einen biblischen Bezug.

Angelo : Bad setzt sich aus den ersten drei Buchstaben von Badalamenti zusammen. Angelo bedeutet im Italienischen “der Engel”. Du mußt das wie bei einem guten Film auf deine eigene Art und Weise interpretieren.

? : Gibt es eine grundlegende Idee hinter den Texten des Albums?

Tim : Nein, jeder Song ist eine Geschichte für sich.

Angelo : Wir waren sehr relaxed und haben höchstens fünf Stunden pro Tag gearbeitet. Tim tanzte die meiste Zeit in meinem Büro in New York herum, und ich machte uns Tee. Wir haben also viel Spaß gehabt. Die Texte entstanden aus solchen Stimmungen heraus. Sogar “Rising”, ein Song über das Sterben, ist ein fröhliches Lied geworden.

? : “Dance Of The Bad Angels” und “Life Get’s Better” fallen besonders auf. Könnt Ihr diese Songs mal kommentieren?

Tim : Ja klar, “Dance” ist eine sonderbarer Song. Er hat keinen Refrain, die Stimme ist wie auf einer Schur aufgezogen. Angelo spielt dieses wunderschöne Keyboard im Hintergrund. (Spontan summen die beiden eine Kostprobe eben jener Melodie).

Angelo : Eine eigenartige Keyboard-Linie, die genau gegen den monotonen Baß läuft. Später haben wir noch Tims ehemalige Gesangslehrerin die Hintergrund-Vocals singen lassen.

Tim : Ich finde das wirklich gelungen, ihre facettenreiche Stimme tanzt regelrecht um meine eher statische Stimme herum. Ursprünglich war der Song über neun Minuten lang. Wir wollte gar nicht mehr aufhören zu spielen. “Life Get’s Better” ist von der Idee her ein Dialog mit mir selbst. Auf der einen Seite mein sehr kritisches und pessimistisches Ich, auf der anderen Seite meine Einstellung, alles hinter mir zu lassen und in eine neue Welt aufbrechen zu wollen. Wir haben diese zwei Rollen dann aufgeteilt.

Angelo : Ich singe natürlich die eher deprimierenden Zeilen, ganz wie es meinem Image entspricht…(lacht).

Im Video zu “I Believe” sitzt Tim in einem wunderschönen Garten mit herrlichen Blumen. Ich stehe in Manhattan auf dem Dach eines 25-stöckigen Gebäudes und spiele Herr über die Sonne, die Vögel und jegliches Leben.

? : Wird Eure Zusammenarbeit fortgesetzt? Oder ist ein Live-Auftritt in Deutschland sogar denkbar?

Angelo : Das hängt von den Plattenverkäufen ab. Wenn die Plattenfirma uns dann anspricht, werden wir gerne live spielen. Wir hoffen natürlich, daß die Plattenfirma auch unsere zukünftigen Aktivitäten sponsort. Immer wenn wir zusammen sind arbeiten wir an neuen Songs. (Sofort präsentiert er stolz die Noten für einen neuen Song, flüchtig auf eine Serviette gekritzelt). Tim fing beim Mittagessen an zu singen, und ich habe das halt schnell aufgeschrieben. Wir haben Ideen für mindestens sechs weitere Alben.

? : Was ist mit David Lynchs neuem Film “Lost Highway”? Warst Du wieder für die Musik verantwortlich, Angelo?

Angelo : Ja, wobei sich die Arbeit dazu mit den gemeinsamen Aufnahmen von Tim und mir überschnitten. So war es mir diesmal nicht möglich, den Film Minute für Minute zu zerlegen und dazu zu komponieren. David wollte mich aber unter allen Umständen wieder dabei haben. So habe ich ihm eine komplette Symphonie mit unterschiedlichen Stimmungen geschrieben. David mußte sie dann selbst auf den Film zurecht schneiden.

? : Angelo, Du bist ja für die eher dunklen Klänge à la Twin Peaks bekannt. Was hörst Du sonst für Musik?

Angelo : Nun ich liebe natürlich die dunklen, bittersüßen Klänge, für die ich bekannt bin. Ich mag aber auch Popmusik, ethnische Klänge. Eigentlich bin ich für alles offen und beschäftige mich sehr viel mit Musik aus aller Welt. Wo du gerade Twin Peaks erwähnst, es gibt ja eine Menge Geschichten um die Serie. Die schönste möchte ich dir noch zum Schluß erzählen; sie hat sich tatsächlich so zugetragen! Als ich das letzte Mal Paul McCartney traf, erzählte er mir, daß ich ihn mit meiner Musik ziemlich aus der Fassung gebracht hätte. Er sollte einmal 40 Min. Musik für einen Empfang bei der Queen komponieren. Die Queen verabschiedete sich auf diesem Empfang jedoch sehr früh von ihm. Auf seine enttäuschte Frage hin, warum sie denn nicht wenigstens noch seine Musik hören wolle, entgegnete sie nur: “Aber Mr McCartney, gleich beginnt doch Twin Peaks!”.

? : Danke für das Interview!

Penny Kiley James Biography

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“James just wanted to wake people up. That was why we improvised so much on stage; it was a way of scaring ourselves awake as well.” Tim Booth.

James were formed in 1982 when would-be musicians Gavan Whelan (drums), Jim Glennie (bass) and Paul Gilbertson (guitar) spotted Tim Booth dancing at Manchester University (where he was studying drama), and asked him to join their band. Over the next few years James made their name on the Manchester scene, with two EPs on the city’s Factory label – Jimone (1983) and James II (1985) – and a tour supporting The Smiths.

In 1985, Gilbertson was replaced by Larry Gott, and the band signed to Sire, setting to work on a debut album. Stutter (1986), produced by legendary New Yorker Lenny Kaye (guitarist with Booth’s hero Patti Smith), confirmed them as contrary, cultish and unique. The track “Johnny Yen”, with its themes of exhibitionism, despair and violence, set the tone for years to come and became an enduring highlight of the band’s live appearances. And it was as a live band that

James were making their reputation, building a following strong enough to see them through more setbacks than most.

1988’s Strip Mine followed the course set by Stutter with its off-kilter folk influences, but added some simple singalong choruses which anticipated hits to come. But neither band nor label were happy, and they now parted ways, leaving James to finance their live album for Rough Trade, One Man Clapping (1989).

The album made the top of the indie charts, but Rough Trade never saw James as a commercial band. They could not have been more wrong. In 1990 a revamped James – Gavan Whelan had been replaced by David Baynton-Powell, who was joined by Saul Davies (violin), Andy Diagram (trumpet) and Mark Hunter(keyboards) – signed to Phonogram, released the anthemic Gold Mother album and had three minor hits in “How Was It For You”, “Come Home” and Lose Control”.

Then there was “Sit Down”, the re-recorded version of a 1989 single which gave James their breakthrough. It was the middle of the ‘Madchester’ boom, they had just supported the Happy Mondays (co-leaders of the scene), and their increasingly baggy (and big-selling) T-shirts were looking like fashion items. The band’s rhythmic sense and indie sensibility, present from the start, suddenly fitted into the indie/dance crossover sound that was making all the waves.

An anthem for outsiders, “Sit Down” got to #2 in the spring of 1991 and James were on a roll. By now they were playing big venues, even supporting David Bowie at Manchester’s Maine Road stadium, and it all seemed perfectly natural. But there was a down side to all this. The first time an audience sat down for “Sit Down”, it was something special. The twentieth time, it was a hollow ritual and the one thing that the band had always tried to avoid. So they upturned expectations with unpredictable live shows full of new songs, with the hits in the wrong places. The audience didn’t know what to make of it, and the press backlash followed with Seven (1992), an album widely dismissed as ‘stadium rock’.

But the big sound had gone as far as it could. 1993’s album Laid, produced by Brian Eno, had a subtle, stripped-down sound and improvisational feel, closer to the early days. The Laid sessions also produced a series of experimental, ambient jams which later surfaced on the Wah Wah album (1994). Meanwhile, James, still misunderstood at home, turned their back on the backlash, toured the US, and, at time of writing, are back in the studio preparing an album for 1997 release. Tim Booth, meanwhile, has recorded an album, Booth And The Bad Angel (1996), with the American composer Angelo Badalamenti (of Twin Peaks fame).

Booth’s In A Bad Way – City Life

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City Life | Interview | 1st July 1996 | Related:Booth And The Bad Angel

Who does Tim Booth think he is? Back in the public glare for the first time since 1993’s Laid LP, Booth has already done the one thing everyone else is falling over themselves not to do – he’s declared a total disinterest in the music of Oasis, dismissing them as “traditional” and “the mainstream.” Okay, it’s hardly cutting stuff, but it demonstrates a fundamental truth about Booth and his cohorts in James: they don’t enjoy playing by the rules.

“If we’d been a cooler band full-stop, James would have been much bigger,” says Booth. sipping herbal tea in Cyberia Cafe on Oxford Street. “But we never wanted that, it’s not what we’re about. We’re an awkward band, very awkward. But people want their traditional stuff, they want their rock’n’roll rebels, and that’s the mainstream. That’s Oasis, not us.”

Despite the talk about James, the reason Booth is back doing interviews is nothing to do with the band he has fronted for the last 13 years. Rather, he’s plugging a collaboration with the acclaimed New York composer Angelo Badalamenti, a 55-year-old bear of a man, best known for his sound track work with David Lynch for Twin Peaks. It doesn’t signal an end for James – their next LP is all but finished and should be released around January – it’s just a more public example of Booth’s life outside of James, something he says he’s always pursued with vigour. To Booth, the band have always been part of his life rather than his whole life.

“I do a lot of creative things outside James,” he says, gently yet confidently easing his way into conversation. “In that sense I’ve never wanted to be limited to working with one set of people. So now I’m branching out.”

Now aged 35, Booth has always maintained that he became the singer with James because of his dancing rather than his singing -the other band members spotted him in Manchester’s clubs in the early ’80s. In keeping with this, the last two years have seen him teaching dance at the drama college in Didsbury. “I do a lot of dance work. I go into a trance with dancing and I work with a woman in New York who does that -dance improvisation – which is very much about going into a trance. I love teaching it, it’s amazing; dancing is just incredible.”

And therein lies the conundrum, the stumbling block, that is Tim Booth and James. Yes, he’s fronted a successful guitar band for over a decade, has played with everyone from The Smiths to Neil Young, has had top ten singles. toured the world, sold millions of albums in both the UK and USA (Laid went Gold over there, which is a lot of records). But he is not very rock’n’roll: never has been and never will be.

“The dancing is actually more important to me than the singing,” he says, as he takes another dainty sip of tea. “And that’s kind of an accident – I became the singer with James because I danced, Angelo wanted to work with me after he saw me dance. So it’s like,” he begins to laugh, “that’s the thing I probably do the best.”

It’s also the thing that has helped define him as something of an oddball when it comes to great frontmen of our time. I remember first seeing Booth in 1986 and it was the flailing arms, the crazy eyes, the passion that stuck in my mind. Morrissey may have been throwing daffodils around and perfecting a similar off-the-wall dance, but his was choreographed, stylised. Booth, meanwhile, seemed so wrapped-up in it all that he didn’t care that he looked like a drunken reveller at wedding party. Strange days indeed.

“I’ve had knives pulled on me, glasses thrown at me when I’ve been dancing in clubs,” he recalls. “That was pre-house though. But then the dance thing came in and everyone was dancing like lunatics – they just didn’t know I wasn’t on drugs.

“Dancing is a very powerful, liberating thing,” continues Booth, getting into his stride. “That’s what draws me to it. It’s like to me, someone like Michael Jackson is more famous for his dancing than his singing – it’s more to do with the way he moves. That’s what pushed him through.”

Not everyone shares Booth’s fascination with dance. In fact it’s obvious that in many ways his exuberance, his lack of that all-important English reserve – check the likes of Ian Brown and Liam Gallagher for their cool stance – has been a barrier to wider acceptance. Like Joy Division’s Ian Curtis, whose very real epilepsy surfaced in his manic on-stage antics, Booth’s jerky gestures can both fascinate and repel. On a recent appearance for Jools Holland’s Later, the latter was apparent, at least it was as far as the camera work went. As Booth worked himself up into a frenzy, injecting some much-needed movement into the often staid, muso atmosphere of the Later studio. the camera panned away from him as if uncomfortable with what it was observing, choosing to focus on…the guitarist’s fret board. Booth’s exorcising of demons through music and dance don’t rest easily with what is expected of today’s rock’n’roll stars.

Of course the backdrop to all this is a time in the early ’90s when James were the toast of the town – admittedly after nearly a decade of false starts and media ridicule. There was a time when you couldn’t go out day or night without seeing someone wearing a James T-shirt. After the Roses played Spike Island, the band were the next Mancunian act to make the move to huge outdoor gigs, now the domain of Oasis, Simply Red and M People. The latter’s recent show at Alton Towers came some five years after James played to a crowd of over 30,000 people there. It was a turning point for both the band as a whole and Booth as an individual.

“Alton Towers was frightening. It was like 30,000 people turning up in the middle of nowhere and I remember thinking on the day, ‘what the fuck am I going to say to them’. It felt like I was holding a party and didn’t quite know what to do. And then after that we retreated.”

Well, not quite. A few years later with the release of the Brian Eno-produced Laid – arguably the band’s finest hour to date – they played more smaller-scale gigs, including G-Mex in Manchester. They also toured the US with Neil Young. It was around that time that tough decisions had to be made, specifically about where the band went next. After the departure of Martine McDonagh, the band’s long-term manager and mother to Booth’s eight-year-old son, the need for new management and a new direction was acute. The decisions that were made then have clearly shaped the last few years in Booth’s life.

“When Martine left, these guys who manage Metallica approached us. They took us in a room and said; ‘we’re going to make you all millionaires within two years, this is the plan’. And they just laid it all out in front of us – 120 date tour of America, stuff like that, and it was outrageous. And we just couldn’t go with them. We thought, ‘we can’t do that. That’s not us’.” Instead they plumped for New York-based Peter Rudge, someone they knew and who they got on with. Not that he’s a novice – he’s worked for the Rolling Stones for starters. His approach, however, gave the band the chance to do as they liked, to step back and contemplate.

And so Booth is where he is now, out on a limb, overshadowed in Britain by the phenomenal changes in the country’s pop culture since the last James record: the rise of Oasis, the resurgence of Blur, the eventual success of Pulp, the demise and return of Shaun Ryder, the second coming and slow collapse of the Roses, the mainstream acceptance of house music mirrored by the return of the guitar band as a pop staple. And that’s just the start of it. It’s a new environment which, unsurprisingly in the light of his band’s history, he seems somewhat at odds with. “It’s like all these bands at the moment who rip-off other bands and deconstruct their songs – I don’t get that. I could never do that and neither could James, it’s just not in our nature. We’re too proud. We just want to express ourselves, not someone else. And we want the whole thing on our terms.”

Still, a lot can happen, a lot can change in three years. Booth has spent a lot of time in New York, principally working with Badlamenti on the new LP, but also hanging out, exploring possibilites outside of James. One of the possibilities is the life of an actor – he was offered the role of Tommy in the musical of the same name, currently running on Broadway, but “I went to see it and it was shit, so I didn’t do it.” And of course, there’s this new non-James record, the worth of which shouldn’t be overlooked; it’s a classy, uplifting collection of songs, the type of album that will slowly sell as people begin to realise how good it is.

“The record’s a very happy one. I was dancing a lot at the time,” grins Booth, settling back into a sofa in the corner of Cyberia, following a brief City Life photo-shoot. “I was dancing, I was roller-blading. It was a real breakthrough in my life during that time. Anyone who affects my life is in this record.”

And his choice of collaborator? Booth has been a fan of Badalamenti:s work for many years – he first caught the bug after hearing Floating Into The Night by Julee Cruise, with music written by Badalamenti and lyrics by the director David Lynch. The story goes (or so the press release says, which means it should be taken with a pinch of salt) that Booth was told by a clairvoyant that he would find it creatively rewarding if he worked with ‘a man with the name of an angel’. Years later, and after a year of pestering Badalamenti with phone calls, they met after a gig in 1993 and agreed to work together. They began work in the summer of 1994, working over a period of one and a half years in three, one month sessions. The record was actually near to completion a year a go, but was held up by disagreements between Booth and his record company over who should remix it. In the end the job was split between Tim Simenon (of Bomb The Bass fame) and, most tellingly, ex-Suede guitarist Bernard Butler, who also plays guitar on the album.

“I think it will sell a lot and do really well,” says Booth. “And the James record’s going to ride on the back of that. It sounds really amazing.” For that record, James have somehow brought together the production talents of both the experimentalist Eno and the pop genius Stephen Hague, noted for his work with the Pet Shop Boys, amongst many others. Following on from Booth’s work with Badalamenti, it will mark a pivotal moment in both Booth and the band’s career. Will they battle back into the spotlight, or remain overshadowed by the new British pop royalty? Booth quite rightly feels there’s a struggle ahead. But does he crave acclaim and recognition once more?

“I don’t crave recognition but I think we deserve it,” he says. “I think we’ve made a lot of great records over a long period of time. I don’t see many bands doing that.” He pauses, smiles and adds, “I don’t see any bands doing that.”

Brave, and quite possibly foolish words. But for the moment the soft-spoken yet tough-talking Booth has made a powerful, moving LP to be proud off. Born of the creative urges of a man obsessed with dancing, the question awaiting an answer is whether it will make Booth the leader of the dance once more. Booth’s clairvoyant never provided an answer to that.

Tim Booth’s collaboration with Angelo Badalamenti, Booth And The Bad Angel (Mercury), is out now.

Review of Booth And The Bad Angel – Select

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Select | Review | 1st July 1996 | Related:Booth And The Bad Angel

In theory, this could have been complete arse. After three years’ silence, James singer Booth has hooked up with veteran composer Badalamenti for a semi-improvised ambient pop opus, with Brian Eno and Bernard Butler coming aboard halfway through. Imagine all those egos in one studio. Passengers 2, anyone?

And yet this is a glorious triumph of pop over pomp. James were headed towards these wide-open horizons anyway, but cutting loose seems to have freed Booth to truly soar. From the moment he swoops in over the anthemic ‘I Believe’ – wherein Badalamenti’s soft, ambient waves lap mellifluously against Butler’s leisurely twanging – Tim’s feet barely touch the ground. “Why be a song when you can be a symphony?” the singer beams, encapsulating the widescreen feel of this entire album.

Bathed in the same spectral half-light Badalamenti employed for his Twin Peaks and Julee Cruise projects, Booth croons euphoric lullabies like ‘Please Fall in Love’ with woozy grandeur. In the slinky funk-out ‘Dance of the Bad Angels’ he smooches like an indie George Michael, while the majestic final track, ‘Hands in the Rain’, twinkles into infinity, melting away to a warm afterglow.

But all is not lofty detachment here. Booth’s lyrics still babble about healing, inner children, astrology and other such New Age gubbins, though thankfully they’re undercut with a lusty exuberance and a self-mocking humour. Even sex, that force of nature which has little Timmy running scared on ‘Laid’, is heartily embraced in the frazzled mantra ‘Butterfly Dreams’, with Booth cheerfully crooning: “I’d love to sleep with the whole town”

This is a mighty album, with only one or two flawed experiments – and hopefully, Booth will maintain this standard on future James albums. In the meantime, just sit back and wallow in that rare phenomenon, a truly inspired collaboration.

Review of Booth And The Bad Angel – Sunday Times

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Sunday Times | Review | 1st July 1996 | Related:Booth And The Bad Angel

Pop seems to be riven with collaboration fever at the moment, as everyone from Tricky to the Prodigy goes in search of ever more unlikely people to work with. As far as this goes, Tim Booth, whose day job is as singer with the English group James, has outdone them all. Angelo Badalamenti is best known for having composed the ethereal soundtracks to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet, and his capture by Booth is quite a coup. On the whole, Booth and the Bad Angel sounds more like a James record than a Badalamenti one, veering as it does between up-tempo pop and often self-consciously dark slow-burners. For all that, it does contain traces of the composer’s textural genius – he thinks of his sound as “tragically beautiful” – in the ambient sweep of a synthesised string section here, the tentative lilt of a piano line there. Essentially though, this is a souped-up rock album, a James album with extra weird bits and a few good tunes, and it’s pleasant enough.

Review of Booth And The Bad Angel – I-Music.com

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I-Music.com | Review | Mike Pattenden | 1st July 1996 | Related:Booth And The Bad Angel

Booth And The Bad Angel is the name given to the collaborative project by vocalist Tim Booth and composer Angelo Badalamenti. Booth is perhaps best known as the vocalist for the pop band James (Laid, Wah Wah ) and Badalamenti as the man behind the moody, atmospheric soundtracks of “Twin Peaks” and “Blue Velvet,” as well as for his work with Marianne Faithfull and Julee Cruise (Floating Into The Night ). As the story has it, the two artists met up on a now-defunct British music show whose intention was to bring together musicians from disparate genres. Well, by all accounts, it worked, because not too terribly long after that chance meeting, this unlikely pair set out to make a record.

Together, Booth and Badalamenti have crafted a highly-textured collection of tracks. Rich, lush and ornate, the project successfully combines Badalamenti’s tendency toward the tragic and darkly ethereal with Booth’s energetic and upbeat pop sensibilities. The opening number, “I Believe,” is a catchy tune featuring ex-Suede Bernard Butler (who also receives mixing and production credit on nearly half of the tracks) on guitar and percussions. Other tracks include the dreamy, floating, “Fall In Love With Me,” (“I hear the sound of moons falling/surrender to this charm”); the poppy, hook-laden “Old Ways;” the hypnotic, psychedelic “Life Gets Better;” and the steamy, rollicking “Butterfly’s Dream,” (“Drag my lips across these mouths/Drag my hips across this crowd . . . I’d love to sleep/with the whole town”). In this unique collaboration, Booth and Badalamenti take various elements of their respective musical worlds and meld them into something entirely new. The end result is an engaging, atmospheric pop album.