One Of The Three - The James Band Archive

Category Archives: Person

Glennie, Jim

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Dates connected with James: 1980+
Contribution/Role/Speciality: Bass Guitar, Percussion

Birthday : 10th October 1963

Band Nickname : “doesn’t have one as he’s “f**king untouchable” (Dave)

Football Team : Manchester City

Jim Glennie is the only remaining original member of James left, his youthful looks belying his age. Born within spitting distance of Manchester City’s Maine Road ground, Jim has remained faithful to the blue side of Manchester, which has experienced as many ups and downs over the years as James.

He was introduced to music by best mate Paul Gilbertson who talked him into buying his first bass and took him along to concerts in Manchester where his early influences were The Fall and Joy Division.

Jim is often seen as the quiet man in James due to him saying very little and moving even less on stage. This belies the fact that he is impossible to shut up once he has a drink, particularly Scottish single malt whisky. Tim often recalls stories of him losing his temper, once threatening to kill someone who was haranguing Tim at the Brit Awards.

Jim was a member of the Lifewave group along with Tim in the mid 1980s and was seriously into meditation and abstinence at the time and at one stage offered the group to give up James.

Find out about Jim on Wikipedia.


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Baynton-Power, David

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Dates connected with James: 1989+
Contribution/Role/Speciality: Drums, Percussion

Birthday : 29th January 1961

Dave was born in Kent and moved to Holyhead on Angelsey aged nine with the rest of his family.  Even with a history encompassing many locally well-known Welsh bands such as The Modernaires, It’s Immaterial and Pink Military Stand Alone, Dave was very reluctant to audition for James when he was recommended to the band after Gavan left in late 1988.

Tim pursued Dave after being told by his clairvoyant to watch out for a “Dave from Wrexham”. In the end, the band offered to pay for a van to bring Dave and his gear and his family over from Wales to audition. Dave was “streets ahead” of the other drummers James had auditioned and was offered the job, his first show being at Newcastle University in March 1989.

In the early years, Dave was frustrated by the band’s insistence on rehearsing in the heat of the afternoon, stories of Dave working all night on his parts or on mixes abound from both the Laid and Whiplash sessions.

According to the rest of the band, Dave is the most difficult to get to know of the band and has an extremely dry sense of humour.  Brian Eno described him as dependable, the one member of the band always pushing the envelope and seeking a way round logjams with his dry and frank nature.

The 1992 acoustic tour where most of Dave’s equipment was taken away and he was pushed forward on the stage brought his drumming ability to the fore with audiences regularly applauding his drumwork which became much more pronounced in the sound.

Dave maintains an interest in dance music, being part of the Money project, working on a drummer only project with the drummers from Catatonia and Stereophonics and following the local rave culture in North Wales closely.

Find out more about David on Wikipedia.


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Booth, Tim

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Dates connected with James: 1982+
Contribution/Role/Speciality: Lyrics, Lead Vocals, Percussion, Backing Vocals

Birthday : 4th February 1960

Band Nickname : Monty Moneybags – dates back to early years in the band and Tim’s middle-class background

First Gig : Cockney Rebel, Leeds Town Hall

Football Team : Leeds United

Tim Booth, Manchester University drama student and ex-pupil at Shrewsbury School where he gained 11 O Levels, joined Model Team International when he confronted Jim, Gavan and Paul stealing his drink at a Manchester University disco in March 1982. Impressed by his dancing and thinking he could write them some lyrics as he was a student, Tim was asked to dance with the band and sing backing vocals initially, making his debut at a Sheffield gig supporting Orange Juice soon after. When Danny Ram and Jennie Ingram were subsequently kicked out of the band, Tim was asked to take over lead vocals.

Tim had got into music whilst at school when he was informed that his father was critically ill and he listened to Patti Smith’s Horses that evening – she was to become one of his major inspirations artistically.

During James early career, Tim was plagued by a liver disease which dated back to his childhood and it was this that contributed to his pursuit of altenative forms of healing and stimulation, including membership of the Lifewave group in the 1980s and his interest in shamanic dancing which he still pursues actively today. The liver condition has lead Tim to abstain from the traditional rock n roll lifestyle of drink and drugs and his abstinence and beliefs have led James to be labelled as Buddhists, vegans and all sorts of other implied insults.

Tim’s interest in certain themes – religion (Tim went to the religious Shrewsbury School and was expelled for being a bad influence), suicide, victimhood, betrayal – run through James whole career. The embittered lyrics of Seven and Laid reflect the fallout from his relationship with the band’s ex-manager Martine, mother of Tim’s son Ben – the inspiration for Gold Mother whilst the lovestruck Just Like Fred Astaire and Shooting My Mouth Off reflect Tim’s contentment with his wife-to-be Kate.

Tim spoke openly to ITV’s Faith And Music documentary about his beliefs in June 1999 and narrated an ITV documentary commemorating the tenth anniversary of the Strangeways riots the same year.

In addition to his vocal duties with James, Tim maintained his interest in acting, taking the lead in Edward Bond’s production of Saved at Bolton Octagon in May 1998 before appearing in a cameo role in Batman Begins in 2005 and an independent production Poor Wee Me in 2010. He also played Judas in the televised recreation of the Easter story in Manchester in April 2006, singing The Smiths’ Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now and duetting with Darren Moffitt (Jesus) on Blue Monday.  He also has taught Five Rhythms dance on a regular basis in Manchester, New York and California during quiet periods for James.

In October 2001, Tim announced his intention to leave James after the December 2001 tour to pursue other interests outside James. He had already released an album with Angelo Badalamenti and Bernard Butler in 1996 entitled Booth And The Bad Angel and then released his debut solo album Bone in 2004. He later released a second solo album Love Life in 2011 and still actively writes outside of the band although there are currently no plans for any future releases.

Tim lives in California.

Find out about Tim’s on Wikipedia.


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Diagram, Andy

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Dates connected with James: 1989-1992, 2007+
Contribution/Role/Speciality: Trumpet, Backing Vocals, Percussion

Birthday : July, 1959

Andy Diagram, born in London, had a history in the music business before he came to James in 1989. He had been the trumpet player and percussionist in bands such as Dislocation Dance, The Diagram Brothers and Mick Head’s (of Shack) Pale Fountains.  Ironically, Dislocation Dance once gave James a lift back from an Orange Juice gig in Sheffield in 1982.

Out of work after the dissolution of Dislocation Dance and living in the same house as the guy who was printing James t-shirts, he went along to the sessions for the Gold Mother album with his friend, saxophone player, Vinnie Corrigan.  Whilst the sax didn’t fit in with the sound James were creating, they were intrigued by Andy’s trumpet playing and percussion and asked him to join them on a couple of live dates.

The shows went well and Andy was offered a place in the band on a retainer.  He joined primarily for financial rather than artistic reasons as he was developing an interest in free-form jazz at that stage.

The trumpet however added a new element to James sound.  With percussion and backing vocals to boot, Andy’s sonic contributions were a central point of the band’s sound in the Gold Mother and Seven era.  He appeared at several live shows on crutches having broken his leg.

Andy’s contribution to Seven was highly criticised in some areas of the music press, NME describing songs as “another bloody three-minute trumpet arcadia”.  He was looking personally at pursuing other musical interests and in the summer of 1992 he left James just as they were departing on their acoustic tour of the US.  Parting on good terms, The Spaceheads were asked to support James on the short UK acoustic tour in December 1992 and Andy did make a guest appearance at the Manchester G-Mex show in December 1993.

The Spaceheads are still around as a band, ironically playing Manchester’s Night and Day Cafe the day James played the nearby MEN Arena in December 1999.

Andy has also played on several albums with David Thomas and the Two Pale Boys and completed a three month stint as the musical element of the Shockheaded Peter goth musical at London’s Albany Theatre.

Find out about Andy on Wikipedia.


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Gott, Larry

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Dates connected with James: 1984-1996, 2007-2016
Contribution/Role/Speciality: Guitar

Birthday: 24th July 1957

James Lawrence Gott was a member of James between 1984 and 1996, and again from 2007 to 2016. He joined James to replace Paul Gilbertson and had previously been a guitar teacher for Paul and Jim Glennie after a number of years on the road with touring cabaret bands of varying quality.

He left the band on the infamous Black Thursday, having had enough of the grind of touring as it meant spending more and more time away from his family. He offered to stay if he could be a non-touring member as he wanted to pursue other interests including a University degree in Manchester. But this was turned down.

He had been spotted at James gigs in Manchester in the intervening years and also at the first post-Larry show at Sheffield Leadmill in January 1997. A scheduled guest appearance at December 1998’s Nynex gig had to be cancelled due to a hand injury.

He was present at Real World Studios in April 1998 when the Best of went to Number One and participated in the first jam of I Know What I’m Here For. Larry is still writing his own material and recently appeared at a Manchester cellar bar with a group of friends.

He rejoined James in 2007 before leaving again in 2015 during the recording of Girl At The End Of The World.

Larry Gott, a great guitarist, a Red in an oasis of blue and a true gentleman.

Find out about Larry on Wikipedia.


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