Category Archives: Press Release

Fontana/Mercury artists James have secured an opening slot for nine west coast dates on the upcoming Neil Young acoustic tour. The normal seven-member band will be short one from their line-up (trumpeter Andy Diagram had already committed to another outside project) – as they play many of these US cities for the first time ever.

James performances on this tour will be solely acoustic, giving them a chance to present slightly different interpretations of their songs from one of their usual plugged-in concerts, and allowing both old and new fans to experience their material in a whole new light.

The group’s current album ‘Seven’ was released this spring and has garnered James an enormous amount of positive press attention as well as a Top 5 single at Modern Rock Radio with the track ‘Born of Frustration’. Additionally, the band completed their first American club tour in March which included many SRO shows. On a slightly larger scale in their native UK, James just recently played to a crowd of roughly 100,000 during the annual Glastonbury Festival in June as well as putting on a spectacular July 4th concert at Alton Towers which attracted a crowd of about 40,000 fans.

After completing the dates with Neil Young, James will remain in the US and begin a non-acoustic fall tour with the Soup Dragons, Black Sheep and the Tom Tom Club which is scheduled to start in late September and continue through November.

“We started during the era of Joy Division and the Buzzcocks,” says Jim Glennie of James. “It spilled over into the Smiths, New Order, and the beginnings of Simply Red. The Manchester scene came along, though we were there before it. It’s gone now, but we’re still around.” He laughs. “Guess it all means something, hey?”

It looks that way, though Glennie could easily win first prize for understatement. It’s no surprise that James have broken through in Britain after nearly ten years of sweat and patience. Ten years of building an audience. Album by album. Song by song. Fan by fan.

But it finally paid off in 1990. The band’s third studio outing ‘Gold Mother’, went platinum over there. It delivered four UK hits, spearheaded by the anthemic ‘Sit Down’ – which after rising high in the indie charts early on, unexpectedly shot to number 2 in the UK Top 40 nearly a full year later. James’ first full-length concert video simultaneously hit the top spot in the UK video chart. Due to their captivating live performances, sold out tours, the band was asked to headline major European festivals, including the prestigious Reading Festival in England.

On this side of the Atlantic, Fontana released ‘James’ in mid-91, a retrospective collection designed to introduce the band to America. They began as a foursome in Manchester : Tim Booth, Jim Glennie, Larry Gott and original drummer Gavin Whelan. Today, James is seven members strong : Jim Glennie (bass), Tim Booth (vocals / lyrics), Larry Gott (guitar), Dave Baynton Power (drums), Andy Diagram (trumpet), Mark Hunter (keyboards) and Saul Davies (guitar / violin).

Now there’s ‘Seven’, the fourth studio album – one that’s already pumped out a UK Top 10 single ‘Sound’. Produced by Youth (formerly of Killing Joke), the band and Steve ‘Barney’ Chase at the Manor in Oxfordshire and Olympic Studios in London, the new songs span a widescreen, technicolour range of different moods and messages.

After the band signed with Manchester-based Factory Records in 1983, their debut EP ‘Village Fire’ and two subsequent singles ‘Hymn From A Village’ and ‘What’s The World’ (later covered by The Smiths), caught the attention of key British critics. Although James shift to Sire Records in 1985 resulted in two extraordinary albums ‘Stutter’ and ‘Strip-Mine’, the band broke camp again and moved to Rough Trade in 89 to unveil a live collection ‘One Man Clapping’.

All of it paved the way for the success of ‘Gold Mother’ in Britain during 1990-1. But it’s James potent stage performance that have cemented its bond with audiences there. As Jim Glennie sees it, “A lot of our concerts end up quite celebrational, though there’s a mixture of emotions going on. It can be stripped bare. Not sad, but emotive. On the other hand, we have some songs that are pretty nasty, with cutting lyrics. We have songs that are quite uplifting as well. Overall, we try to be positive. We want people to leave feeling knackered and sweaty, feeling they’ve gone through a range of emotions. We hope they feel better because of it.”

The challenge now? To make their mark in the US – something the band members trust they have an honest shot at with ‘Seven’. As Jim Glennie admits, “All we’ve ever wanted to do is to have the opportunity to let people listen to our records. To say to them, ‘Do you like it?’ and if they don’t, then fair enough. We’ll content ourselves with playing in the drummer’s kitchen.”

“But you know, we’ve always had this belief in what we do. Almost an arrogance. There were times when it felt like there was no place for us. We’d start feeling down, but then we’d walk into the rehearsal room and songs would appear. Wonderful songs. That’s why we kept going. It’s why we’ve kept faith. It’s the main reason why we’re still here.”

March 1992

6 February 1992

James have their fifth album ‘Seven’ released by Fontana on February 17th.

This is the follow up to their ‘Gold Mother’ album, which since its release in June 1990 has gone on to sell over 300,000 copies in the UK.

‘Seven’ contains different versions of the group’s recent hits ‘Sound’ and ‘Born of Frustration’ – plus nine new songs.

The cassette and CD contain and extra track – ‘Next Lover’

James return to the States next month to play their first ever American gig when they do a one-off open air show in Union Square, San Francisco.

The group are still set to headline a major outdoor show in the UK this summer.

The full tracklisting for the album is as follows

SIDE ONE

Born of Frustration

Ring The Bells

Sound

Bring A Gun

Mother

SIDE TWO

Don’t Wait That Long

Live A Love Of Life

Heavens

Protect Me

Seven

LP 510932-1

CASSETTE 510932-4

CD 510932-2

For more information please contact : Philip Hall, Hall or Nothing

“‘Seven’ is a substantial document that marks James out as one of the few bands around who are capable of framing the anxiety and apprehension of eternal adolescence. It is the sound of a band moving into a new phase – one with longetivity stamped all over it.”

Vox – February 1992

“James are ambitious, proud, moving, and unconvincingly self-important. ‘Seven’ is big, brash, unafraid, unashamed, but also miserable, paranoid and eccentric. Musically, ‘Seven’ is James at their most ambitious and diverse.’

Melody Maker – February 1992

“James were part of something, but now they’ve become one-offs. Intrigiung, difficult, unhinged at the fringes.”

Q – February 1992

James fifth album ‘Seven’ is released by Fontana on 17 February. The follow-up to the platinum ‘Gold Mother’ LP, ‘Seven’ sees the band continue to span a wide range of moods and messages. There’s the stark anti-war ‘Mother’, the electric waltz of ‘Protect Me’, the sensuous hothouse ‘Next Lover’ and the caustic commentary on Manc nightclubbing ‘Bring A Gun’ and of course, both top twenty hits, ‘Born of Frustration’ and ‘Sound’.

‘Seven’ was produced by Youth, who as Tim Booth explains had his own way of working – “Youth decorated the studio before we got there. There were Moroccan and Indian hangings on the walls, exotic carpets, enormous flower displays. There were no electric lights, just altar candles, though he got a strobe going for the fast songs. We cracked up with laughter when we first went in. But the crazy thing was it worked. It broke that studio sterility. There was Youth in the candlelit control room, barefoot with beads like a hippie guru&ldots;. it was the working vibe.”

James only UK show to promote the LP will be a huge open air gig at Alton Towers Leisure Park in Staffordshire on 4 July. Two major support acts will be announced shortly.

Since Tim Booth (vocals), Jim Glennie (bass), Larry Gott (guitar) and Gavin Whelan (drums) formed James in Manchester in 1983, their career has followed a chequered course.

Signed as awkward press darlings to Factory, they released two cult singles – ‘What’s The World’ (later to be covered by The Smiths) and ‘Hymn From A Village’. A major deal with Sire followed, resulting in two critically acclaimed albums ‘Stutter’ and ‘Strip Mine’. However, relations with the label were notoriously difficult and the group left in 1989 to reassess their future.

Whelan left the band to be replaced by drummer Dave Baynton-Power, injecting a harder edge to their sound and the group pursued an independent path once more, releasing a live album ‘One Man Clapping’ on Rough Trade.

Enjoying two of the biggest indie hits of 89 with ‘Sit Down’ and ‘Come Home’, James new found confidence saw them agree with Fontana.

Now expanded to a seven piece with multi-instrumentalist Saul Davies, keyboard player Mark Hunter and trumpeter Andy Diagram, the new look James finally achieved major chart success with their ‘Gold Mother’ album.

A string of top forty singles – ‘How Was It For You?’, ‘Come Home’ and ‘Lose Control’ – during 1990 set the way for their biggest hit to date when ‘Sit Down’ reached Number 2 in March 1991.

A full-length live video, filmed at one of the band’s two sell-out Manchester G-Mex shows, came out in April, entering the video charts at number one.

Now established as consistent hit makers, James had built up their following through a string of spectacular live shows, from two sellouts at Blackpool’s Empress Ballroom to shows at Glastonbury, Maine Road (with Bowie) and Crystal Palace (with The Cure).

James t-shirts had become an essential fashion item and this was never plainer to see than when the group played their biggest show to date headlining the 1991 Reading Festival to a 40,000 capacity crowd.

The group’s commitment to live work continued when James embarked on a gruelling 28-date sellout tour of the UK at the end of 1991.

1992 will see James take their highly charged live show around the world, the first date being an open air gig in Union Square, San Francisco in February.

CATCH JAMES IN THE UK AT ALTON TOWERS IN JULY.