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Category Archives: Gigography

Dublin Witnness Festival – 5th August 2001

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Johnny Yen / Sometimes / English Beefcake / Senorita / Laid / Space / She's a Star / Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) / Sit Down / Ring the Bells

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Guildford Festival – 4th August 2001

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Say Something / Sometimes / Laid / English Beefcake / Senorita / Johnny Yen / Waltzing Along / Stutter / Out To Get You / Destiny Calling / She's A Star / Falling Down / Born of Frustration / Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) / Sit Down / Ring the Bells

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Dotmusic

Tonight’s headliners James survived Britpop and now find themselves arguably more popular then they’ve ever been. And despite declaring on this very website that they’re not “a safe bet” that’s not the impression their audience gives off.

Aside from Tim Booth’s manic, man-battling-internal-demons dancing, this is pop, albeit cloaked in stories of sexual politics and paranoia. It’s pretty fine pop, too, with the opening ‘Say Something’ firing the audience into a sea of hands as rain begins to cascade from the sky.

Tracks from new album ‘Pleased To Meet You’ are slotted in alongside the hits in a festival-friendly set that ebbs and flows – from the slow whirl of new song ‘Senorita’ to the euphoric high of ‘She’s A Star’.

‘Born Of Frustration’ sees Booth missing his cue but he soon makes up for it by spinning around like a dervish, hand cupped to his face as he screams out the track’s signature “Woo-woo-woo-woo”.

They even deign to play ‘Sit Down’, although the verses are delivered in a subdued fashion which only reinforces the anthemic nature of the chorus. As the crowd sing and jump, the band stare out with barely concealed smiles of pride.

As they take their bows at the end, the band look mightily pleased with life. “We didn’t deserve this,” Booth admonishes the crowd, perhaps too mindful of a few glitches. He’s being unfair as, a few drawn-out jams aside, they plundered their back catalogue for maximum crowd pleasers.

James may not have the credibility of their contemporaries, but when it comes to pure pop with a sting in the lyrics, few do it better. And that’s why they’re so loved.

Guildford Festival Official Site

James entered the stage in a haze of red–lighting that certainly added an element of atmosphere to the start of the proceedings which were to follow.

James are very adept at producing a complicated and engaging sound, and they certainly know how to belt out a good tune or two. We were taken on a vocal roller coaster, as Booth’s voice spanned from soul-inspiring falsetto to a gutsy provocative tone. We were treated to favourites like “Sit Down” and to some exciting new material (one particularly memorable song about “sexual addiction”).

I’ll admit I set out only knowing and liking about two James songs, but now I’m irretrievably obsessive. This is doubtless indicative of the genius of the band, that they can take a mild interest and make the audience love them.

As far as the visual aspect of the performance goes, Booth can certainly move. With pelvic movements other performers can but dream about, he moved and shaked (with a look of effortless satisfaction on his face) to the amazement of all.

To gauge the reaction to James, one need only look to the mosh pit. Beginning small at the start, the jumping crowd grew till it met with the very extremities of the stage.

James have proved themselves capable of covering almost every kind of human emotion. Joy to melancholy, sexuality to exploration of soul, all seem to be dealt with employing versatility and brilliance.

James left the audience dying for more, and it was only noise-control that stopped them from delivering it. An audience left soaked with rain, satisfied, and totally euphoric.

Surrey Advertiser

From the moment they stepped onto the stage on Saturday night, James held the Guildford Live audience in the palms of their hands.

Expectations of favourite songs ran through the crowd, and when James launched into ‘Say Something’ there was a reactionary cheer.

Three songs in, and at the words, “This is a song about being hit by lightening”, the crowd erupted again to sing along with ‘Sometimes’, jumping fiercely and singing their hearts out despite the rain that was beginning to pour down on them.

Running through the hits that have secured James a place as arguably one of the greatest indie bands of all time, including ‘Laid’, ‘Born of Frustration’, and the instant crowd pleaser ‘Sit Down’, lead singer Tim Booth added his unique dance style to the set. Like a man possessed, he captivated the crowd, flinging his arms about passionately, jumping across the stage, the centre of attention.

Proving that they are still producing some great new material, the band blasted out songs from their new album, ‘Pleased to Meet You’, including the new single ‘Getting away with it (All messed up)’.

But it was the old favourites that made the night such a success. And as the rain gave way to a cool breeze, James rounded off a perfect performance with ‘Ring the Bells’, the final chorus building up to an amazing crescendo of whooping and cheering from the crowd.

Our only complaint was that James didn’t have time for an encore – timing restrictions meant that the band had to be offstage by 11pm.

Benicassim Festival – 3rd August 2001

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Laid / Sometimes / Waltzing Along / She's a Star / Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) / Ring the Bells / Lost a Friend / Johnny Yen / Sit Down/ Born of Frustration / Out to Get You / Space / Falling Down / Senorita / Tomorrow (partial setlist)

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Review

by Jesse

Without so much a courtesy as letting the public know, James’ slot was swapped with the Divine Comedy’s, so instead of showing up at 12:40, as scheduled, they appeared on stage at about 2:00 am. They seemed to be in good spirits, and started out with, if my memory doesn’t fail me, “Laid”, initiated with the now usual “ándale, ándale, arriba!” Speedy González cries (which would be more appropriate in a Mexican environment rather than a Spanish one, and even that is debatable). From there on the night was a zig-zag of crowd-pleasers and lesser-knowns, particularly those from Pleased To Meet You, where as far as I´m concerned, seems to have never been released in Spain at all. The band was cheery, although I couldn’t avoid feeling Tim was acting a bit mechanically, but that may be just because I saw them 3 times in like 2 weeks last year. Saul was, as usual, trying to grab a little attention, both by his appearance on stage (showing up with an open shirt and completely getting rid of it later on) and by appropriating the microphone once in a while. It was funny, though, when, after they had said goodbye, he ran back to say something and discovered the mics had already been switched off.

Their setlist was quite long, or at least it seemed that way, considering it was a festival. My estimate is that it lasted about an hour and a half. I was beginning to conclude the resceduling was to let them perform longer, but when Hooverphonic came on stage after them I realised they were not the last band of the night. The crowd was surprisingly participative, singing along and jumping and dancing with the band, which was a nice surprise. My guess is that there were around 10,000 people there, maybe a bit more. The camerawork, displayed on two screens beside the stage, was also a welcome novelty to the previous occasions I had seen them, and very well managed, as well as the sound quality.

The songs I remember they played were: Laid, Lost a Friend, Johnny Yen, Sit Down, Born of Frustration, Ring the Bells, Out to Get You, She’s a Star, Space, Falling Down, Getting Away With It and Señorita (dedicated to the Spanish ladies). I´m ashamed to admit I don’t clearly recall if they played Lose Control, Say Something, Just Like Fred Astaire or maybe some other song off Pleased to Meet You.

I´ll add a bit of value to this attempt of review by mentioning that El Pais, Spain’s most important newspaper, threw in a very cool, almost page-size picture of Tim the next day in their report of the first day of the Festival. They mentioned James, despite being a band whose glory days were behind them, whose last album was “dense” and who were not quite fancied by the majority of the attendees, were the stars of the night, albeit out of sheer musical craftmanship. “Tim Booth is convinced his music still has a purpose, and applied his skill and veteranship to round off a concert that pleased his followers but probably earned him no new ones”.

I´ll finish with a little personal appreciation on the execution of the new songs. In posts to the James mailing list, I have mentioned I am very fond of the first and last 3 songs on the new album, all but one of which were never performed live in last year’s fall tour. All of the songs in the middle were, and I had already developed a strong appreciation for them (Junkie, Señorita, What Is It Good For, Pleased to Meet You, The Shining…). Listening to them on the album they sound weak and cheaply recorded, unlike the openers and closers. I can now add assuringly that I prefer the studio versions of Space and Falling Down over the live versions.

Liverpool Kings Dock Summer Pops – 8th July 2001

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Pleased To Meet You / Fine / Waltzing Along / Sometimes / Senorita / Destiny Calling / She's A Star / English Beefcake / Laid / Falling Down / Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) / Vervaceous / Just Like Fred Astaire / I Know What I'm Here For / Ring The Bells / Space / Johnny Yen / Say Something / Born of Frustration / Sit Down

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Johnathon Deakin

A review written over five months after the event is never going to be the most factual of accounts. But given the fact that I have only discovered this web-site in the past week, which has coincided with my attendance at the Manchester gig, I thought my memories might be worth a place somewhere. Even if nostalgia is the only real product.

I’ll say it now. Kings Dock was the best concert I have ever been to. Maybe it was the lack of expectation. In fact, it WAS the lack of expectation. I’d seen James before on a number of occasions but this one-off (as part of Liverpool’s Summer Pops season) had passed me by until a week before when I spotted an advert in the Liverpool Echo and phoned for tickets. Chance is a fine thing.

The setting was a “Big Top” on the Kings Dock, next to the more famous Albert Dock. Basically, a tent in a car park. Inside however there was a small arena (3000 people?). The reasonably low swung “top” made for an inviting, warm welcome into the darkness from what has been a gorgeous summer’s day.

This was Sunday and “Pleased to Meet You” had only been released on the Monday. A few reels round the car stereo was all I knew of it, but already I had my favourites. James opened the show with the title track and through the night played about eight songs from the album. “Have you done your homework?” was Tim’s question and he also apologised for the band’s indulgence in playing so many songs from the album, “We thought we’d made a great album and the critics have panned it.”

No apology needed of course. Highlights from the new album included “Senorita” a song about “Sexual obession” according to Tim. The end-jam from “English Beefcake” was absolutely mesmerising as the sound filled the tent and swept across the arena.

My personal highlight was the first song not from the new album. We had all listened carefully to the new tracks but were waiting for a classic. Tim said quietly, “Back on familiar ground now. Happy song” and the band launched into “Waltzing Along”. The crowd went berserk and the atmosphere remained on that high for the rest of the show. As part of the encore James did the longest version of Johnny Yen I’ve heard which was clearly unfamiliar to a fair few of the audience. Still, eight minutes later they were all jumping around, as was a dreadlocked stage-invader who Tim moved and shook with in unison.

It’s hard to put a finger on the atmosphere, other than to say it was truly intimate. About five songs in Tim said, “I can tell it’s going to be one of those nights”. It was. There were a lot of kids around 12 or 13 years old in the audience, perhaps products of an early 1990s conception that reminded their parents of a happy time? All were ushered to the front for a good view, in the same way youngsters used to stand at the front of football terraces. Meanwhile everyone else got on with having a great time, the sort of time where you grin at strangers and all raise your hands at the same time in the same way. The “Johnny Yen” encore took the show way past 11pm (it had started at 9pm) but one song was still missing from the set list.

Saul returned on stage saying something along the lines of, “They’re saying we’ve got to finish, but we’re breaking the curfew.” Cue “Sit Down” at pace. Everyone lit up in bright yellow. Scallies wandering around who had nipped in from outside for the last number. Beer everywhere. Arms around the security men. Massive sing-a-long.

No expectations had become great celebrations. Isn’t it always the way?

T In The Park – 7th July 2001

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Space / Senorita / Waltzing Along / Sometimes / Laid / English Beefcake / Sit Down / Out To Get You / Junkie / Fine / Destiny Calling / Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) / Ring The Bells

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Grimsby Auditorium – 6th July 2001

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Space / Waltzing Along / Sometimes / Senorita / English Beefcake / Pleased To Meet You / Destiny Calling / Just Like Fred Astaire / Junkie / Fine / Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) / I Know What I'm Here For / Ring The Bells / What Is It Good For / Say Something / Laid

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A rearranged gig from 2000 due to venue storm damage that acted as a warm-up for T In The Park

London Leicester Square Sound – 18th June 2001

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Alaskan Pipeline / Space / Stand / Senorita / Junkie / Waltzing Along / Sometimes / Just Like Fred Astaire / Pleased To Meet You / The Shining / Falling Down / I Know What I'm Here For / Destiny Calling / Fine / English Beefcake / Born of Frustration / Ring The Bells / What Is It Good For? / She's A Star / Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)

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A show recorded for XFM broadcast and effectively a preview show for the soon to be released Pleased To Meet You album.

Review by OneOfTheThree.com

The thought of James playing a small club in London to promote their new album sounds like something out of the wildest dreams of an avid James fan, those who long for the intimacy for which the band are famed and that many considered lost in some of the arenas they’ve been playing in the past few years. XFM’s Sound Sessions provided the opportunity for that and 250 or so lucky competition winners and various record industry folk crammed into the Sound club off Leicester Square to witness this.

What they got, or what this avid James fan got, was not quite what was expected. To use the words of the great Roy Keane, there was too much of the “prawn sandwich” brigade about last night’s gig. There were people who would have travelled hundreds of miles to see last night’s show, so why were there people in there insisting on trying to talk over Tim on the slower more melodic moments from the new album. Compare this to the sheer ecstasy and delirium of the slightly bigger Embassy Rooms where James played two years earlier to launch the Millionaires album, and the problem comes more into focus – great set, wrong crowd. The cheers that greeted the more familar tunes told it all.

Anyway to the set, the band opened with five new songs – four from the album and the b-side Stand. Alaskan Pipeline provided a soothing start with its lilting instrumental introduction and very sombre and plaintive lyrics and vocal delivery.

Space opened up a series of four songs where it was immediately evident that although Pleased To Meet You is a very restrained album, the band are going full out with guitar and drum attack when they play these songs live. Stand was a particular highlight, described by Tim as “the best song that didn’t make it on the album”. Tonight it stood out as the single it really should have been rather than being locked away on a b-side. Senorita was driven by an extremely passionate vocal performance by Tim, enunciating clearly every syllable on the Senorita title with a real passion.

Junkie, once the machines had started working, sounded a little more claustophobic than on previous hearings, a little strangled by the sound quality of the venue and system, which was not the best and emphasised loudness rather than subtlety in the music.

The crowd livened up for a mini-medley of hits in Waltzing Along, Sometimes and Just Like Fred Astaire, the first two played with a refreshing vigour and freshness, the subtleties of the latter again lost somewhat in the mix.

Back to the new album and Pleased To Meet You was an unexpected success. A song of three parts, the beautifully delivered simple opening section, the almost funeral organ middle section and then the loud improvised end section with Tim hollering into a microphone. One of the weakest tracks on the album, but possibly the best song here tonight.

The Shining came and went, most noticeable for Tim’s return to the “I could be the Nazi or I could be the Jew line”. The epic feel was lost on a lot of the audience though. Not having heard the new album is not an excuse to try and shout over the top of it, listen to it, go to the bar, go home or give your ticket to someone who wants to listen to it.

Falling Down was a complete and utter shambles, it didn’t appear to have much of a tune, Tim tried moving from one vocal delivery style to another and the song just fell apart. What looked like an obvious single needs some serious work on in the live arena if it can be considered for future release as such.

I Know What I’m Here For was the undoubted highlight of the older songs. An impassioned performance driven along by Mark’s keyboard line and powerful guitars. Saul suddenly came to life and urged the crowd and the rest of the band on. Destiny Calling was lapped up by the crowd as well, even though the delivery tonight was a little flat.

Fine and English Beefcake were both pulled off wonderfully. Saul picked up his violin for the first time this evening and he really should be made to use it more often. It adds so much light and shade to the James sound and was apparent in its absence from Alaskan Pipeline and Pleased To Meet You earlier and in particular What Is Good For? later in the set. Probably the two most complex tracks on the new album, both were ratched up a notch in their live performance and were real highlights of the set.

A wild Born of Frustration and Ring The Bells brought the main set to a close and brought a little more reaction from the crowd. For the first time I actually felt someone pushing against me into the barrier. Tim’s dancing was restricted by the incredibly small stage, but as ever, he used the space available to him to maximum effect.

Returning for the “encore ritual” What Is Good For? was started and stopped because it was too slow and it failed to recapture the simple power of the album version or the way the track was played on last Autumn’s tour. Saul’s guitar proved too much of a distraction and sat awkwardly where there should have been violin.

She’s A Star came and went and was received as rapturously as ever. The set concluded with the new single Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) which has to be described as a “grower”, a song that gets better and better with each listen and which gnaws its way slowly into your brain.

So the overall verdict? A good performance by the band, but not their best. This has to be mitigated by the fact that the sound system was awful, at one stage Mike’s backing vocals were drowning out Tim, and the fact that there were elements in the crowd that weren’t too interested in listening to the new album material.

James feed off the energy of the crowd at their concerts, each one is a celebration. Whilst there was a lot of audience interaction between songs with the chattering element shouting for their favourite Best Of track, there was surprising little during the songs. Tim stayed on the stage and Saul was relatively quiet.

To sum up – great set, good delivery, crap sound and disinterested audience.

Voxstar Review

James wow the crowd at Sound and leave that song backstage at exclusive London gig…

Music fans who know there’s a lot more to James than ‘Sit Down’ are falling over themselves to get tickets for this exclusive gig tonight. No wonder, as the band premieres a massive amount of new material. ‘You will learn to love these songs,’ quips singer Tim Booth.

As well as the new songs, another unmissable attraction is Tim Booth’s unique style of dancing. He moves at times as fast as someone having a fit, then slow like some kind of loony raver. Most memorable of all though is when he turns his back to the crowd and sways his whole body, moving and swivelling from the shoulders and the hips, resembling a snake that’s got the rhythm.

It isn’t just Booth’s dancing which is quirky. He performs one song with the aid of a megaphone, and peppers his delivery of ‘Born Of Frustration’ with bursts of its distinctive `whoo-hooing’. The song is so danceable that it inspires several wannabes in the crowd to start moving their heads and shoulders erratically in a well-meaning attempt to imitate him.

There’s nothing remotely manufactured about James or their route to success, a fact of which Tim Booth is obviously proud. Responding to a call of ‘Come On!’ when they stop to allow the guitarist to retune his instrument he says: ‘What’s your hurry… This isn’t on tape you know. This isn’t pop crap.’ A bold statement, it notably echoes the sentiments of ‘Destiny Calling’, a song containing several blatant digs at boy and girl bands.

The crowd is clearly in a party mood as displayed by the reception of set closer ‘Ring The Bells’, one of many arms aloft crowd-pleasing sing along numbers. ‘She’s A Star’, dedicated to Tim’s sister Penny on her birthday, is an incredibly popular choice for an encore and probably the best-known track of the show.

James then, purveyors of real music since 1984, and still defying our expectations. This evening by performing a whole ninety-minute set without playing ‘Sit Down’. Remarkable.

Verdict: 4/5

Geneva Villars 24 Heures Grand Prix – 13th January 2001

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Out To Get You / Sometimes / She's A Star / Destiny Calling / Just Like Fred Astaire / Senorita / Johnny Yen / Come Home / Someone's Got It In For Me / Born Of Frustration / Ring The Bells / Sound / Top Of The World / Sit Down / Laid / Tomorrow

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A show performed in Switzerland at the personal request of F1 driver Jacques Villeneuve.

It was almost unbearably cold on the night of January the 13th. We were somewhere in the Swiss Alps, not too far away from the French and Italian borders, more than 6000 feet above sea level, in a little village called Villars, a first class ski resort. In fact, it looks even better in real life than on its brochures. Formula One driver Jacques Villeneuve was amazed by the landscape and decided to make it his second home and therefore bought a house nearby. Together with his British American Racing ( BAR ) team colleague Craig Pollock they founded the “24 heures Grand Prix de Villars”, an annual benefit ski race, first run in 1998. The event comes along with a big party including several DJ’s and bands performing on a an outdoor stage surrounded by snow, ski slopes and lifts, bars, restaurants and hotels. A rather extraordinary sight.

Tonight’s headlining act though: James. Jacques Villeneuve himself invited the band over to Switzerland. He has been a diehard fan from very early on and was spotted many times at their gigs in the UK. It was around 9.30 pm and freezing cold when they hit the stage all dressed in woolly jumpers or long coats, apart from David, who only had a t-shirt on, since he obviously got warm from all his drumming.

They kicked off with a slow one. “Out to get you” was absolutely suitable and created a great atmosphere. It was followed by “Sometimes”, those songs also happen to be the first two tracks from their highly acclaimed and (probably) best album to date “Laid”. What a great opening for every James obsessive!

More and more people gathered together when they started into their “Best of” set. The largely Swiss audience were not too familiar with their newer songs, since the best (or only really well) selling album in Switzerland was”Seven” back in 1992. Nevertheless, the crowd was won over by the band. Their new “Senorita” song received a very warm reaction. Some more classics followed,the likes of “Johnny Yen”and “Come home”.

The band then started with three songs off “Seven” which were well known by the crowd. The gig reached its peak. Everyone was singing and jumping along. At one stage a girl, who must have had one too many “vin chaud” (this was evident because she was short sleeved in minus temperatures?!?) leapt on stage and not only got to dance but also kiss (aaahhh) the fabulous Tim, who was in great form. You can tell by the way he does his shake dance. Incidently she injured herself by jumping off the stage onto rock hard snow. The entire band was also in a brilliant form and ended their set with a hypnotic version of their epic “Sound” and believe me it sounded amazing.

After a short break, they returned and performed “Top of the world” which couldn’t had been more appropriate followed by the anthemic and bestselling single to date “Sit down”, which, by the way, they don’t perform in the U.K. anymore. The highlight of the gig was still to come. It was when Jacques Villeneuve walked on stage to support the the band on his guitar for “Laid” and “Tomorrow” and finally everyone of the about 3000 strong crowd went bananas! He did a great job even tough he looked a bit lost sometimes, especially when it came to changing chords. Well, his guitar wasn’t really turned up loud. It was an absolute triumphant and astonishing night for James who came and won! An unforgettable night for everyone who was there, despite minus temperatures!