Press Releases
Browse the archive of James press releases.
Article Title | Excerpt | Date |
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Strip-Mine US Press Biography | JAMES A band of four square men. Manchester-based. Their music reflects their relationship with each other over a seven year period. Two singles released on Factory Records, which, when combined, reached No. 1 on the Independent chart. The last six years spent sharpening their songs, with the occasional tour as support to New Order and The Smiths. Signed worldwide by Seymour Stein’s Sire label, with Blanco Y Negro in collaboration in the UK, for a modest advance on 11.11.84, in return for their independence in the material world. The single “Chain Mail” was released in February 1986. The LP Stutter is released in August 1986. Both produced by Lenny (Suzanne Vega) Kaye. A second album, Strip Mine, released 8.9.88. Produced by Hugh Jones. Features the cuts “What For”, “Medieval”, “Not There” and “Return”. Looking forward to meeting your aquaintance. | Aug 1988 |
One Man Clapping – Press Release | James Live Album For you, the doldrums are over. On March 20th, One Man Clapping Records, through Rough Trade, release One Man Clapping, JAMES first vinyl output since September 88 and an ill-fated liaison with Sire Records The new album shows the band at their very best – totally live – recorded at a series of 3 special concerts at Bath Moles Club in October 1988. One Man Clapping features the “classic” James line-up of Tim Booth (vocals), Gavan Whelan (drums), Jim Glennie (bass) and Larry Gott (guitar). Following Gavan’s departure, JAMES take to the road with new members David Baignton Power, known for his session work with It’s Immaterial and other leading North West bands, on drums and Saul Davies on violin, guitar and percussion. The tour dates are : March 14th : Newcastle University March 15th : Sheffield University March 16th : Hull University March 18th : Manchester Free Trade Hall March 21st : Birmingham Powerhouse March 22nd : London Dominion | Feb 1989 |
Sit Down – Press Release | James Single News June 1989: James kick off a long-term recording relationship with Rough Trade Records with the single Sit Down released on June 19th. Sit Down looks set to build on the success of the indie chart-topping One Man Clapping live album; the b-side Sky Is Falling shows the band have lost none of their out-spoken concern for environmental issues. The full track listing for the twelve inch version is as follows :
Keyboardist Mark Hunter is welcomed aboard the line-up for a national tour – dates as follows : June
July
| Jun 1989 |
How Was It For You? Press Release | James are one of the original wave of new Manchester bands, they appeared at the same time as The Smiths, and were accorded the ‘Morrissey’s favourite band’ label. Previously the band have released three albums, and built up a sizeable live following, enabling them to sell out large venues across the country. Their first single for Fontana will be ‘How Was It For You?’ produced by the band and Nick Garside and mixed by Tim Palmer. Each format of the single will feature a previously unavailable James track, and will be very much in demand from their very loyal fan base. James play an extensive UK tour right through June and three shows in May, Cambridge, Brighton and the WOMAD Festival. The band are guaranteed extensive music press coverage around the release of the single and are recording a John Peel session to transmit in May. The band’s last single on Rough Trade was a Mark Goodier hit-lister on Radio One and they are no strangers to daytime radio. PREVIOUSLY UNAVAILABLE TRACKS 7″ ‘WHOOPS’ (live) Recorded in Manchester 12″ ‘HYMN FROM A VILLAGE (live)’ Recorded in Manchester, ‘LAZY’ – New Track not on forthcoming LP CD ‘HYMN FROM A VILLAGE’ (live), ‘UNDERTAKER – New Track not on forthcoming LP RELEASE DATE : 30th APRIL, 1990 JIM 5 How Was It For You? / Whoops (Live) JIM 512 How Was It For You? / Hymn From A Village (Live) / Lazy JIMCD 5 How Was It For You? / Hymn From A Village (Live) / Undertaker | Apr 1990 |
How Was It For You Single Release – Press Release | Press release for James’ single How Was It For You. | Apr 1990 |
James: Sit Down Press Release and Band Biography | Official Press ReleaseDate: February 1991 Formed in 1983, James turbulent career finally came good in 1990. Their ‘Gold Mother’ LP went silver, their dates at Blackpool’s Empress Ballroom, Glastonbury, Maine Road (with Bowie), Crystal Palace (with The Cure) saw them build up a fanatically loyal live following, while James’s t-shirts became an essential fashion item for indie kids up and down the country. The band also had their first top forty hits with ‘How Was It For You?’ and ‘Come Home’. Originally signed to Factory Records seven years ago, they released two cult hits, ‘What’s The World’ (later covered by The Smiths) and ‘Hymn From A Village’ plus the ‘Village Fire’ EP. Signing to Sire in 1985, the group put out two albums ‘Stutter’ and ‘Strip-Mine’ during an awkward three-year relationship with the label. Leaving Sire, James pursued an independent path once more, releasing a live album ‘One Man Clapping’ through Rough Trade Records. Following the departure of original drummer Gavin Whelan, the nucleus of James – vocalist / lyricist Tim Booth, bass player Jim Glennie and guitarist Larry Gott – injected a new harder edge to their sound with the addition of Dave Baynton-Power on drums. Following two of the biggest indie hits of 89 – ‘Sit Down’ and ‘Come Home’, James had their freshly recorded ‘Gold Mother’ album released by Fontana. Expanding to a seven-piece with man of many instruments Saul Davies, keyboard player Mark Hunter and Andy Diagram on trumpet, the new look James bounced into the charts with ‘How Was It For You?’ and ‘Come Home’. The group ended the year with a new single ‘Lose Control’, two triumphant hometown Manchester shows and a short tour of Russia’s major cities. Coming bang up to date, James release a re-recorded version of their live classic ‘Sit Down’ on 18 March 1991. Out on Fontana, the seven-inch version of ‘Sit Down’ is produced by Gil Norton and mixed by Dave Bascombe. The b-side is backed by a nine minute version of ‘Sit Down’ recorded live at Manchester G-Mex last December. A full length live video, filmed at the December G-Mex gig is released on 15 April 1991, while an hour long TV version of the gig is to be transmitted by Granada on 27 March 1991. The group are currently recording their new album which is set for Autumn release – a massive UK tour is being booked to coincide with the release. | Feb 1991 |
Sit Down Press Release And Biography | Formed in 1983, James turbulent career finally came good in 1990. Their ‘Gold Mother’ LP went silver, their dates at Blackpool’s Empress Ballroom, Glastonbury, Maine Road (with Bowie), Crystal Palace (with The Cure) saw them build up a fanatically loyal live following, while James’s t-shirts became an essential fashion item for indie kids up and down the country. The band also had their first top forty hits with ‘How Was It For You?’ and ‘Come Home’. Originally signed to Factory Records seven years ago, they released two cult hits, ‘What’s The World’ (later covered by The Smiths) and ‘Hymn From A Village’ plus the ‘Village Fire’ EP. Signing to Sire in 1985, the group put out two albums ‘Stutter’ and ‘Strip-Mine’ during an awkward three-year relationship with the label. Leaving Sire, James pursued an independent path once more, releasing a live album ‘One Man Clapping’ through Rough Trade Records. Following the departure of original drummer Gavin Whelan, the nucleus of James – vocalist / lyricist Tim Booth, bass player Jim Glennie and guitarist Larry Gott – injected a new harder edge to their sound with the addition of Dave Baynton-Power on drums. Following two of the biggest indie hits of 89 – ‘Sit Down’ and ‘Come Home’, James had their freshly recorded ‘Gold Mother’ album released by Fontana. Expanding to a seven-piece with man of many instruments Saul Davies, keyboard player Mark Hunter and Andy Diagram on trumpet, the new look James bounced into the charts with ‘How Was It For You?’ and ‘Come Home’. The group ended the year with a new single ‘Lose Control’, two triumphant hometown Manchester shows and a short tour of Russia’s major cities. Coming bang up to date, James release a re-recorded version of their live classic ‘Sit Down’ on 18 March 1991. Out on Fontana, the seven-inch version of ‘Sit Down’ is produced by Gil Norton and mixed by Dave Bascombe. The b-side is backed by a nine minute version of ‘Sit Down’ recorded live at Manchester G-Mex last December. A full length live video, filmed at the December G-Mex gig is released on 15 April 1991, while an hour long TV version of the gig is to be transmitted by Granada on 27 March 1991. The group are currently recording their new album which is set for Autumn release – a massive UK tour is being booked to coincide with the release. | Feb 1991 |
Sound – Press Release | James end a triumphant year with a brand new single ‘Sound’. Released by Fontana on November 18th this is a taster for their new album, which is set for release in the Spring of 92. ‘Sound’, a new Booth/Gott/Glennie song. was produced by Youth and mixed by Tim Palmer. The 7″ is backed by another new song, ‘All My Sons’. while the four track 12″ and CD contain extended versions of ‘Sound’ plus Youth’s Pressure Dub Mix of ‘Come Home”. James chequered eight year history finally came to fruition in 1991. They enjoyed a number two hit with ‘Sit Down’ in April, their live ‘Come Home’ video topped the video charts, their ‘Gold Mother’ LP has sold quarter of a million in the UK, while the band played their biggest show to date when they topped the Saturday night at the Reading Festival, going on to play a 36 date sellout UK tour. In Europe a series of summer festival appearances saw the band enjoying a long deserved continental success, while American alternative radio has embraced ‘Sit Down’. 7″ JIM 9 SOUND / ALL MY SONS 12″ JIM 912 SOUND (FULL VERSION) / (EDIT) / COME HOME (YOUTH’S DUB) / ALL MY SONS CASSETTE JIM 9 SOUND / ALL MY SONS CD JIMCD 9 SOUND (FULL VERSION) / (EDIT) / COME HOME (YOUTH’S DUB) / ALL MY SONS | Nov 1991 |
Sound Single Release – Press Release | Press release for James’ single Sound. | Nov 1991 |
Born Of Frustration Press Release | James follow up their second Top Ten hit ‘Sound’ with a new single. ‘Born of Frustration’ is released by Fontana on January 20th. It is backed by ‘Be My Prayer’, which won’t be on the forthcoming album, with the CD and 12″ containing an extra track, the Mark “Diceman” Hunter mix of ‘Sound’. The group’s new album ‘Seven’ is set for release in February and will be followed by dates in America and Europe. James hope to headline their own major outdoor date in the UK during the summer. 7″ JIM10 Born Of Frustration / Be My Prayer 12″ JIM1012 Born Of Frustration / Be My Prayer / Sound (Diceman Mix) CASSETTE JIMC 10 Born Of Frustration / Be My Prayer CD JIMCD 10 Born Of Frustration / Be My Prayer / Sound (Diceman Mix) | Jan 1992 |
Seven UK Press Release And Biography | “‘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. | Feb 1992 |
Seven UK – Press Release | 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 | Feb 1992 |
Alton Towers – Press Release | James, currently in the Top Twenty with their single ‘Born of Frustration’ have announced details of their summer show. The band will headline a huge outdoor concert at Alton Towers, Alton, Staffordshire, on July 4th, supported by two major acts to be announced shortly. The gig will be the only one around the release of their fifth LP ‘Seven’, out through Phonogram on February 17th. The album is already being hotly tipped as a number one seller. Alton Towers is a theme park set in five hundred acres of open parkland, woods and gardens and contains over 125 rides and attractions, in fact, a fun day out for all the family. Tickets for the concert only are £17.50 (subject to a booking fee) and are available from the box office on xxxx xxxxxx, selected outlets across the country and by credit card from xxxx xxxxxx. Tickets for the concert and admission to Alton Towers all day including free access to rides and attractions are available at £25 (no booking fee), available only from Alton Towers. Booking office xxxx xxxxxx. By post, tickets are £17.50 plus 75p per ticket booking fee. Send to James Tickets, PO Box xx, Warrington, WAx xxx. Cheques payable to ‘James Alton Towers’. Enclose a SAE and allow 21 days for delivery. Dated 6/2/92 | Feb 1992 |
Seven Album USA Release – Press Release | Press release for James’ album Seven in the USA. | Mar 1992 |
Ring The Bells – Press Release | James have a new single – ‘Ring The Bells’ – released by Fontana on March 23rd. Taken from their current Top Ten album ‘Seven’, this is set to become the group’s seventh consecutive Top Forty hit. The single is backed on the twelve inch and CD by Andy Weatherall’s legendary mixes of ‘Come Home.’ The ‘Skunk Weed Skank Mix’ was previously only available as an underground twelve inch while the ‘Hugo Live Dub Challenge’ has never been available at all before. ‘Once A Friend’, the bonus track on the twelve inch is a new song recorded during the ‘Seven’ sessions, while ‘Fight’, the extra track on all formats is another new track specially recorded for this single. James are currently on a sellout club tour of America. Their only British date this year is their summer extravaganza at Alton Towers on 4th July. 7″ JIM 11 RING THE BELLS / FIGHT 12″ JIM 1112 RING THE BELLS / FIGHT / COME HOME (SKUNK MIX) / ONCE A FRIEND CASSETTE JIMC 11 RING THE BELLS / FIGHT CD JIMCD 11 RING THE BELLS / FIGHT / COME HOME (SKUNK MIX) / COME HOME (HUGO LIVE DUB) | Mar 1992 |
Seven US Press Release and Biography | “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 | Mar 1992 |
Seven Single – Press Release | James release a new four track EP on July 6th. Available on a 33 RPM seven inch, CD and cassette, the EP features a different version of ‘Seven’ (the title track of their recent Top Ten LP), plus three brand new songs – ‘Goalie’s Ball’, ‘William Burroughs’ and ‘Still Alive’. This weekend James make a guest appearance at Glastonbury while on Saturday July 4th they headline their own Alton Towers bash in front of a capacity 30,000 crowd. The rest of the summer sees the band busy playing a series of continental festivals which includes an appearance at the Feile Festival in Ireland on July 31st 7″ JIM 12 SEVEN / GOALIE’S BALL / WILLIAM BURROUGHS / STILL ALIVE CASSETTE JIMC 12 SEVEN / GOALIE’S BALL / WILLIAM BURROUGHS / STILL ALIVE CD JIMCD 12 SEVEN / GOALIE’S BALL / WILLIAM BURROUGHS / STILL ALIVE | Jun 1992 |
Neil Young Support Slot – 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. | Aug 1992 |
Laid US Album Release – Press Release | Press release of James’ Laid album in the US. | Sep 1993 |
Sometimes – Press Release | New Single and December Tour Dates James return with their first single of 1993, ‘Sometimes’ released through Phonogram Records in August 31st. Taken from their eagerly awaited, Brian Eno-produced LP ‘Laid’, the seven inch and cassette versions of ‘Sometimes’ are backed by a new song, not on the LP, called ‘America’. This track was produced by Bob Margouleff for Greenpeace Records and was recorded live in Los Angeles using solar power. The twelve inch and CD versions carry ‘Sometimes’, ‘America’ and another new track not on the LP entitled ‘Building A Charge’, also produced by Brian Eno. James who recently appeared at WOMAD on Saturday 28th August, head out to the US to join Peter Gabriel and the rest of the WOMAD bill for a nationwide tour. The band return at the end of September for the release of the LP and a major live tour in December. James hit the road for the first time in over two years when they headline a national tour in December. December 1993 1st Glasgow Barrowlands 2nd York Barbican Centre 4th Manchester G-Mex 5th Wolverhampton Civic Hall 7th Derby Assembly Rooms 8th Gloucester Leisure Centre 9th Brixton Academy 11th Portsmouth Guildhall 12th Norwich UEA 13th Newport Centre Tickets are priced at £11 at all venues except for London and Manchester where tickets will be £12. | Sep 1993 |
Laid Press Release Biography | Most bands can do little more than gamely chase fashion and look forward to the day when they catch up with it. But James are not most bands. For the best part of a decade, James have stood alone, ploughing their own furrow, individual and unique, innovative and original, letting fashion and popularity try to get hold of them. James are a cult group whose cult includes potentially everyone. They have the broad emotive sweep of the major rock band, able to fill arenas and stadiums with anthemic songs of mass appeal. And yet they have the alternative perspective of the most independently minded; a scorn for the easy move and the slick cliche. What James offer and demand from their fans is honesty, spirit and a natural elation far beyond the confines of most contemporary rock. In the bet sense of the word James are a people’s band. Amazingly for a group who are still growing, still developing, still climbing towards the optimum of their success. They formed in Manchester in 1983 when bassist Jim Glennie spotted singer Tim Booth dancing in his unique, whirling dervish style in a college bar. They quickly came to the attention of the enormously influential and unimpeachably cool Manchester label Factory Records. Their first two singles, “What’s The World” and “Hymn From A Village” immediately set them apart from nearly all their contemporaries. James had a sound all of their own; the angularity of the new wave married to an almost folkish tranquility. Then the band was singer Tim Booth, bassist Jim Glennie, guitarist Larry Gott and drummer Gavan Whelan. Plaudits were not slow in coming. James found themselves on every front cover in England and found champions in every quarter, most famously with Morrissey who professed a public love for the band and invited them to go on tour with The Smiths. In 1985 James signed up with New York based Sire Records, beginning a three-year phase of their career that was, by turns, exhilarating and perplexing. The albums from this period, “Stutter” and “Strip mine” drew praise for their striking individualism. But, despite critical acclaim, these records never reached the audiences they deserved and James, frustrated, left the label in 1988. At the very point where it seemed that their career may have stalled, James discovered a new lease of life. Drummer Whelan left and in came a massive injection of new blood in the shape of drummer David Baynton-Power, keyboard player Mark Hunter, trumpeter Andy Diagram and violinist Saul Davies. Inevitably the James sound changed. It broadened, became more expansive and colourful. It had long been recognised that James were one of the most compelling live acts around, their concerts characterised by improvisatory daring and adrenalin highs. In an effort to capture this excitement, the band financed their own live album, “One Man Clapping”, Phonogram snapped the band up and their next studio album “Gold Mother” was to prove the turning point. Here it seemed James had at least fully realised their potential with music of extreme originality, but mass popular appeal, passionate, infectious, all their own. The hit singles “Come Home” and “Sit Down” became centrepieces of their live shows, the latter the scene of nightly celebrations where thousands of people would commandeer the song for fifteen minutes at a time. Then and now, being in the middle of a James crowd is a goose-pimpling experience. 1992’s million selling “Seven’ consolidated their position as a major modern rock band, although by now there were only six following the amicable departure of Andy Diagram. Their new album “Laid” – an album that confirms James’ international status and yet is a bold stride in a totally new direction. Since the release of “Seven”, James have performed a succession of acoustic tours, both alone and as invited guests of Neil Young, another of the band’s champions. “Playing acoustically is playing without a net” says Tim Booth. “You’re naked, you’re vulnerable, but it’s exhilarating. That experience is certainly reflected in the new record. It’s not an acoustic record, but it’s a stripped down sound. We were quite sure that we didn’t want it to be cluttered with overdubs. If anything it’s more subtle than “Seven”, The lyrics sometimes tackle bigger themes, but are often quite intense and personal in their scope.” The album is produced by renaissance man Brian Eno, The partnership has been a long time in the making. “We wanted him to produce “Stutter”. but he said he was a bit busy and he’d call back in a couple of years. Well, one morning he did. He’d heard the demos and loved them. “Eno’s influence is evident in the delicate, shifting nature of the sound. “As a producer, he’s quite unlike anyone we’ve ever worked with. Very balanced, very focussed and extremely encouraging. He encouraged us to improvise and take chances. He’s never outwardly critical. He gets his own way inmore subtle ways. It was a very productive time. I came up with 34 completed lyrics in 6 weeks. We even managed to record a whole other double album of jamming type that will hopefully come out next year.” On the new album the classic James trademarks remain. Powerfully compelling songs, the result of a kind of organic interplay between the band’s musical fluidity and Booth’s plaintive, yearning voice. “Sometimes” is a personal favourite, I like “Laid” because it’s daft and uplifting, and “Low Low Low” would make a perfect football chant. The new James album is set to convince doubters and delight the converted. Reaction in Britain is already strong. They recently drew rave notices for their massive Finsbury Park show with Neil Young, “When you get that kind of encourage- ment,” says Tim. “that kind of support from people you’ve always respected like Neil Young and Brian Eno, it just vindicates what you’re doing. It really gives you the impetus to move forward.” For James the move forward to a new level of success and acclaim begins here. | Sep 1993 |
Laid North American Tour Dates – Press Release | Press release announcing James’ US and Canada tour for Laid. | Nov 1993 |
Say Something / Jam J – Press Release | James release a totally awe-inspiring brand new EP on March 21st. ‘Jam-J’ / ‘Say Something’ will be released as a double A-side through Fontana. ‘Jam-J’ – the first track on the double header, taken from the bands forthcoming alternative LP, is produced by Brian Eno, and sees James stripped down and dubbing it up with an electro dance floor mantra that is nothing like you’ve ever heard James do before. ‘Say Something’ is taken from ‘LAID’, the bands current LP and is the kind of lyrically disturbing yet beautifully rendered love song that James are so good at, again produced by Eno. The third track, ‘Assassin’, is a funky little number with Booth drawing out the word Asssssasssin ’til it hurts – A track produced by James and totally unavailable anywhere else. This initial CD (JMCD152) also carries a completely new version of’ ‘Say Something’ produced by the band themselves. The cassette (JIMMC15), released the same week, carries the previously mentioned versions of’ ‘Jam-J’ and ‘Say Something’. The twelve inch – ‘James vs The Sabres Of Paradise’ carries an amazing version of ‘Jam-J’ which can only be described as a thirty minute ambient techno trip – produced again by Eno and remixed by ‘The Sabres Of Paradise’. The instrumental tracks have been described as “Soundscapes to a space oddity 1994”. A second CD (JIMCD15), featuring the same tracks, ‘James V’s The Sabres Of Paradise’ will be released on March 28th – this is a 10,000 limited edition digi-pak. James are currently ‘Heatseekers’ in the US billboard chart with LP ‘Laid’ at number 95 and rising, and packing em’ out at gigs all over America. | Mar 1994 |
Wah Wah Album Release – Press Release | Press release announcing James’ album Wah Wah. | Sep 1994 |
Whiplash Press Information (US) | For the better part of a decade, the English sextet James have followed their own muse with little regard for British music trends. Formed in Manchester, England in 1983, James transcended their position as England’s C86 progenitors, their hyper-strummed pop eventually giving way to a modern and mature folkadelia. The new album ‘Whiplash’ (US release : February 25) displays the whole bandwith found in all of James work : the focused pop of ‘Laid’, the experimentation of ‘Wah Wah’ and the tragically beautiful arrangements found on Tim Booth’s recent release with Angelo Badalamenti. The germ of Whiplash began in August 1994, with pencil sketch tracks recorded at David Baynton Power’s studio at Cafe Mullet. In the spring of 1995, sessions reconvened with Brian Eno for two weeks at Westside Studio in London and Windings studios in Wales. James spent this time rehearsing and fleshing out matters organically, with Eno encouraging the band to explore every possible avenue. After the tracks ‘Avalanche’ and ‘Play Dead’ crystallised, producer Stephen Hague entered the picture. James spent January and February of 1996 recording the remainder of the album with Hague at Real World Studios and finished ‘Whiplash’ at RAK studio in London. Contrary to the advance cassette, two tracks have title changes : ‘Whiplash’ is now titled ‘Play Dead’, while ‘Angel’ is called ‘Watering Hole’. Tomorrow Play Dead Lost A Friend Avalanche Waltzing Along Homeboy She’s A Star Watering Hole Greenpeace Blue Pastures Go To The Bank produced by Stephen Hague, frequent interference and occasional co-production by Brian Eno additional production by David Baynton-Power mixed by Stephen Hague and Mike “Spike” Drake engineered by Richard Norris additional engineering by Steve Williams, David Baynton-Power and Mark Hunter, Sam Hardaker and James Brown assisted by Graham and Alex at RAK, Jacqui at Real World and Dave Green at Westside recorded at Rak, Real World, Cafe Mullet, Westside, The Windings mixed at Rak Studios, London mastered by Ian Cooper at Metropolis Mastering | Feb 1997 |
Whiplash Press Biography (US) | August 1994 on the East Coast of America. After practically three years of non-stop touring in the States, James are about to come off the road. The non-stop slog has finally paid off: the band’s sixth album ‘Laid’ has sold 600,000 copies in America, while the title track has become the most played track on some US radio stations. For the 11 year old sextet, James, it had been a long march to freedom – freedom from a rollercoaster past that went from cult acclaim on Manchester, England’s Factory label, to an ill-starred sojourn at Sire Records, to their self-saving live album ‘One Man Clapping’ to hitting the motherlode with 1990s ‘Gold Mother’, 1992’s ‘Seven’ and 1993’s ‘Laid’. So now James are setting the seal on their success, by playing Woodstock II. Between Live and The Cranberries, in front of 300,000 people. In the rain, in the mud, in the middle of the biggest corporate advertising free-for-all in the history of rock music. And James being James, Woodstock was where they began writing their new album. “We improvised a few songs in a weird barn near Woodstock,” Tim Booth recalls, “Those were the first seeds….” “Apart from that,” smiles Jim Glennie, “Woodstock wasn’t massively pleasurable. Sweetness through strength, and strength through adversity. James have always been about finding leg ups in the breakdowns, the diamond in the muck, the brilliance in the humdrum. Tim Booth’s searching lyrics, the band’s insistent melodies, Booth’s yearning vocals, James epic intimacy – these are the things that make James unique and the things that shine on their new album. Through the deft simplicity of ‘Lost A Friend’ or the sparse electricity of ‘Blue Pastures’, through the clattering industrial disco of ‘Go To The Bank’ to the urgent energy of ‘Greenpeace’, to the bold pop of ‘She’s A Star’ and ‘Tomorrow’, Whiplash is a band proclaiming full steam ahead. All of which is remarkable given the backdrop to the writing and recording of Whiplash. After escaping the Woodstock mire with a few nascent song ideas, the band decamped to Wales and London for further writing sessions. Booth recalls that “at that time we had a very loose framework for the next album. We were gonna make 11 songs under three minutes, very well composed, almost Beatle-like. But we never got around to doing that, and anyway, other bands have taken that idea in the meantime….” Soon after came what the band refer to as Black Thursday, the day that Larry Gott (a founder member of James alongside Booth and Glennie) announced that he couldn’t go on being a part of the touring James; the day that the band found out that they owed five years in back taxes; the day emotional crisis gripped everyone in the band; the day James nearly split. “Still,” sniffs Glennie, “we’ve had a lot of these days, we have been together for a long time. It had been me, Tim and Larry for hundreds of years. And when Larry left it really altered the balance. Suddenly everything was completely broken. All we had was totally shattered. Which meant that the rest of the band came closer into things. And what we’ve rebuilt form that is much stronger, much more open and much more of an honest reflection of what James are about. But it was painful, seriously painful.” Throughout 1995, James worked. Dave Baynton-Power set up a studio in his house in North Wales. There, the entire band (sans Booth) began tinkering and overhauling and underdubbing and reworking and reflecting. They had big, big plans. They had a glut of song ideas, sound ideas, new ideas to work through. ‘Wah Wah’, late 1994’s double album of improvisations thrown up under the aegis of Brian Eno during the making of ‘Laid’, had energised the band. “We experimented with sound,” says Davies, “we tried to interact with each other differently. It wasn’t that it was drawn out, all this was just a logical extension of their earlier collapse. We needed to rebuild James and that’s gonna take a little bit of time. We did that through music.” Booth, for his part, was doing his own rebuilding. He had hooked up with renowned composer Angelo Badalamenti, and the two spent much of 1995 working on their ‘Booth And The Bad Angel’ album in New York. The sessions at Baynton-Power’s house let James regroup and rebuild. Jamming things together, unjamming things apart, constructing songs with Booth’s vocals, deconstructing everything except Booth’s vocals; five-sixths of James fiddled and noodled and doodled and drew together a new conception of making James music. One sixth of James, meanwhile, finally let go a little. “Things would have gone on festering otherwise,” Booth now shrugs. “and we needed a new way of working.” “I do a lot of things. I act, I dance and teach dance, and I wanted to work with Angelo. On past James records, I’d be there on every note, but I didn’t want to do that anymore. And the band wanted more creative input, so we decided we had to find a completely different way of working in order for James to continue. And we found it….” In February 1996, James finally began recording properly at Rak Studios in London and Real World, near Bath. As with ‘Laid’, they set up two recording workstations in the studios, one for the final tapedown and one for experimentation. As with ‘Laid’, Brian Eno was on board, less of a producer, more of a provider of tangential input, technological hints, backing vocals and production. Oh, and there was a third studio as well, for Booth to explore new lyrical and vocal avenues. Couple this with the proven pop suss and gloss of ‘actual’ producer Stephen Hague and ‘Whiplash’ was always going to sound special. So, three recording studios, two producers, nearly two years of writing and taping, one double album of improvisations, one solo album, one near band split, a welter of personal, emotional and financial crisis… Any other band would have been ripped apart by such conflicting forces. “Yeah, I know!” Booth laughs, “But we somehow have a good centre of gravity. This album has the same restless spirit of other James albums, it’s looking for some new language, something new. It’s got a lot more energy to it. ‘Laid’ was a hard record to tour because it was so delicate, but we want to tour this album. So it’s a definite thumping record, and it’s looking to combine the esoteric side of ‘Wah Wah’ with the pop ideas and rock angles that we obviously have as well. We’re always looking to take a snapshot of where we are.” And that’s James ’97. United, invigorated, hungry – creating hymns from the global village. And that’s ‘Whiplash’; born of frustration, but shaped in visionary contentment. And Tim Booth still dances funny. | Feb 1997 |
Whiplash Germany Album Release – Press Release | Press release for James’ album Whiplash in Germany. | Feb 1997 |
Whiplash USA Album Release – Press Release | Press release for James’ album Whiplash in the USA. | Feb 1997 |
Waltzing Along – Press Release | Following their chart-topping single ‘Tomorrow’ and a sell-out UK tour, James release a new single on 23rd June – ‘Waltzing Along’. It is a completely re-recorded version of the song from the band’s gold album ‘Whiplash’. ‘Waltzing Along’ is released on 3 CDs – CD1 contains 3 brand-new songs, ‘Your Story’, ‘Where You Gonna Run’ and ‘Long To Be Right’ as b-sides, whilst CD2 has live versions of ‘Homeboy’, ‘How Was It For You?’ and ‘Greenpeace’ recorded at the band’s sell-out show at the Shepherds Bush Empire in March this year. CD3 is the remix CD with Skint’s Midfield General chopping out the big beats and Flytronix smoothing the edges with mellow drum n bass. ‘Waltzing Along’ is produced by Stephen Hague with additional production and interference from Brian Eno and drummer, David Baynton-Power. The full details of ‘Waltzing Along’ are : CD1 (JIMCD18) – Waltzing Along (Single Version) Your Story Where You Gonna Run? Long To Be Right CD2 (JIMDD18) – Waltzing Along (Single Version) Homeboy (Live At Shepherds Bush Empire) How Was It For You? (Live At Shepherds Bush Empire) Greenpeace (Live At Shepherds Bush Empire) CD3 (JIMED 18) – Waltzing Along (Single Version) Waltzing Along (Disco Socks Remix) Waltzing Along (Flytronix Remix) ‘Waltzing Along’ is released on 23rd June through Fontana. The top ten album ‘Whiplash’ is out now. James tour America as part of the notorious Lollapolooza and return to the UK to play Reading Festival. | Jun 1997 |
Millionaires Press Biography | Musical history is littered with bands who have briefly blazed brightly, to sink prematurely into depressing mediocrity as they repeat themselves with ever-diminishing effect. The path JAMES have forged has taken the band in exactly the opposite direction. Endlessly inventive, always taking risks and never satisfied with the easy option, James have dug deep into the wellspring of their creativity and come up with ‘MILLIONAIRES’ – the most adventurous and rewarding album of their 16 year roller-coaster career. That they were threatening to produce something special was signalled last year when the band raced to the top of the album charts with ‘The Best of James’. Although the collection contained 14 of their (top forty) hits, significantly it was the two new songs, ‘Destiny Calling’ and ‘Runaground’, which caught the attention and suggested a band returning into peak form. Both, of course, became hit singles in their own right and heightened the anticipation for the next album. “We were aware that last year’s success had created an expectation of this record,” says guitarist Saul Davies. “The songs were written just as that album was kicking off and it generated a lot of energy. I think we struck a really good balance between being commercial and being interesting and different”. “But we made the new album on the back of a mixture of things,” adds Tim Booth. “The optimism of last year did give the band a real lift. But there were a lot of problems and conflicts at the same time which hadn’t been resolved. Those tensions are all there in the songs as well. I think this is the best album we have ever made.” It is a bold claim given James’ impressive track record since they began recording for the Manchester-based Factory Records back in 1983. Championed by Morrissey as “the best band in the world”, they toured with the Smiths, became Hacienda favourites and cult heroes and signed to Sire Records. Their debut album ‘Stutter’ in 1986 and ‘Strip Mine’ two years later established the basic guitar-driven James sound, and marked Tim out as a provocative lyricist and an emotive singer, but they found the label unsympathetic and unsupportive. By 1989 they were delighted to escape from Sire’s clutches, even though it left them skint. “After seven years we were living on dole-level wages and radio wouldn’t play us,” Tim recalls. Many bands would have folded. Instead James volunteered as human guinea pigs in medical tests at a local hospital and used the cash to release ‘One Man Clapping’, a rather fine live album on their own label. Although it included an early version of ‘Sit Down’, the distributors Rough Trade told them it was “minority music with no commercial appeal” and let them go. They then re-grouped later and added new members Saul Davies, Mark Hunter (keyboards) and David Baynton-Power (drums). They recorded an album of songs for Rough Trade who sold the record on to Fontana. It was released as ‘Gold Mother’ and was the breakthrough they had waited so long for, selling 350,000 in Britain alone while a reworked ‘Sit Down’ became one of the most memorable anthems of the nineties. The Madchester scene was in full swing and, together with the Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays, James suddenly found themselves at its apex, hailed as the saviours of British rock music. The sweepingly epic ‘Seven’ followed in 1992 and was only kept from the number one spot by Simply Red. The following year they secured the services of Brian Eno to produce the extraordinary’Laid’ and it’s experimental off-shoot ‘Wah Wah’. Spending increasing amounts of time in America (including playing Woodstock Two),’Laid’ took off there too, selling 600,000 copies at a time when British bands were finding it particularly difficult to penetrate a grunge-fixated market. Then, at the highest point of their career, James almost fell apart. One day in 1995 guitarist Larry Gott, the longest serving member apart from Tim and bassist Jim Glennie, decided to quit. So did manager Martine and, for good measure, the band learned that they owed a huge sum in back tax. Shell-shocked they took a break that as it stretched into its third year looked like becoming terminal. Booth went off to make a solo album with Angelo Badalamenti and no one seriously expected ever to hear from James again. Yet adversity has always brought the best out of the band. With the addition of new guitarist Adrian Oxaal they eventually re-emerged in 1997 with the boldly melodic ‘Whiplash’. Brimming with rejuvenated confidence, it went gold and gave the band one of it’s biggest singles in ‘She’s a Star’. Last year’s ‘Best Of James’ only served to confirm their resurgence and gave them their first number one album keeping “Titanic” from the top slot in Oscar week, going on to be the band’s first double platinum album and sell out tour. ‘Millionaires’ finds Brian Eno back as co-producer and the band at a new creative peak with a set of sumptuous songs full of light and shade – accessible and yet complex, dense but somehow full of space. “Saul and I basically disagree when we are writing a song. There are a lot of contrasts and paradoxes. We have totally different philosophies to life and that gives us a certain creative tension. It’s that fight between us which produces the best writing,” says Tim. “James is a very intense group. There’s usually one of us cracking up at any given time.” The conflicting lifestyles on the surface appear irreconcilable. The band has strongly hedonistic impulses while Tim is these days famously sober and ascetic. But as Saul explains: “We’re all trying to get to the same place in our different ways. I can write the music for a song like ‘Someone’s Got It In 4 Me’ at six in the morning after I’ve been up for three days drinking litres of vodka. Tim gets there through his trance states and meditation. But we’re both experimenting with removing ourselves from the normal humdrum day-to-day existence.” ‘Surprise’ was written about a friend Tim thought was on the verge of suicide – although it could also be taken as an allegory for the band and a response to those who wrote them off. “Fred Astaire” is simply one of the best love songs the band has ever recorded. “I am completely and totally in love but I also have this English embarrassment that goes with it. That’s what the song is about,” says Tim. The slightly sinister ‘If Anybody Hurts You’ is a protective charm, he says. “There have been people who wished me harm and someone actually put a curse on me. The song is a shield.” Several of the songs emerged from jams, a traditional way of working for the band who like to trust first instincts. ‘Hello’ is an entirely intuitive song with an improvised lyric Tim professes not quite to understand. ‘Vervacious’ similarly started life as a jam before Sinead O’Connor was invited to lend some hypnotic vocals. Jamie Catto of Faithless helped out on ‘Someone’s Got It In 4 Me’ and also on ‘Afro Lover’, an anti-war song with an almost religious intensity but a contrastingly upbeat arrangement. Eno’s ineffable influence weaves its magic throughout the album’s eleven songs. “On some things he had fixed ideas and on others he was prepared to roll with the flow”. “We derived enormous encouragement just from him being there.” As for the title, Tim has a strong belief that words have certain properties of cause and effect. “The album should have been called “Love, Money and Revenge”, because those are the themes. But when we made ‘Laid’, we got laid. When we made ‘Whiplash’, I got whiplash. This is the best album we have ever done so we settled on ‘Millionaires’. Well you can see the logic. And if there is any justice, it should prove to be yet another of James’s self-fulfilling prophecies. | Sep 1999 |
TFI Friday Biography | The original members of alternative folk-pop group James met at Manchester university, forming the band in 1982 with singer Tim Booth, guitarist Paul Gilbertson, bassist Jim Glennie and Gavan Whelan on drums. The band played local club circuits before releasing 2 EP’s in ’83 and ’85 then signing to Sire Records in the summer of 1985. The debut album, Stutter, was released in 1986 and featured new guitarist Larry Gott. Stripmine followed in 1988, establishing James’ sound as Booth’s falsetto leaps rose above the underlying Gaelic feel of their music. After being released penniless by their record company, the band convinced their bank manager to load them the money to release a live album on their own record label, proving their viability to him at one of their shows. One Man Clapping was released in 1989 and went to number 1 in the UK indie album chart. By 1990 the band had increased their sound, adding keyboardist Mark Hunter, trumpeter Andy Diagram and violinist Saul Davies, with Whelan being replaced by David Baynton-Powell on drums. The third album, Gold Mother, was released on Fontana Records in the same year, becoming the breakthrough record for the band as a re-recorded version of the single Sit Down went to number 2 in the UK chart. Often overlooked, Seven was released in 1992, followed by the US popular album Laid. Brian Eno’s production of the 1993 album changed the direction of the band, steering them towards the darker musical corners of their career. During the Laid session, Eno co-wrote and performed tracks with the band that became the 1994 LP Wah Wah. The album contained 23 songs and was the last album release before the band returned in early ’97 with Whiplash. Millionaires is released October 1999, as high expectations have been building up around the transcendent sounding band’s new album. | Sep 1999 |
We’re Going To Miss You – Press Release | Just when you thought it was safe to close the book on James, music’s favourite survivors go and prove everyone wrong (again) and deliver one of the albums of the year. Millionaires was released on the 11th October and entered the charts at Number 2, quickly becoming a gold status record. James are also set to finish the year on a high… ‘We’re Going To Miss You’ is the third single to be taken from Millionaires, and it is released by Mercury Records on the 6th December 1999. The track is one of the standout moments on the album and the band went back into the studio to remix the track themselves into another anthemic James single. It retains the “helium heavenly chorus” (The Guardian) that first attracted attention in it’s album format and the track was also praised in Q (who made Millionaires Album Of The Month) as an “an intoxicatingly dark pleasure”. ‘We’re Going To Miss You’ has already received great support from Radio 1, with Simon Mayo making it his ‘Big Single’ for two weeks running and James are also performing an acoustic session for the Jo Whiley show on Wednesday 1st December. ‘We’re Going To Miss You’ is backed by the Brian Eno mix of the track, two brand new Tim Booth and Michael Kulas penned songs, ‘Pocketful Of Lemons’ and ‘Wisdom Of The Throat’ and a live version of ‘Top Of The World’ taken from their recent performance at the Embassy Rooms. December also sees James embarking on their first major tour since 1998’s sell-out arena dates. The James tour bus rolls into Brighton on the 4th December and take in all the major U.K. venues en route to Wembley Arena, where the tour concludes on the 12th December. The band are at their best when playing live as anyone who caught one of their show stealing performances at this year’s festivals, or saw either of James’ one-off specials at Blackpool Tower Ballroom and London’s Embassy Rooms, can testify. CD 1 JIMCD24 We’re Going To Miss You Wisdom Of The Throat Top Of The World (Live at the Embassy Rooms CD 2 JIMDD24 We’re Going To Miss You Pocketful of Lemons We’re Going To Miss You (Eno’s Version) MC JIMMC24 We’re Going to Miss You Wisdom Of The Throat | Nov 1999 |
We’re Going To Miss You – Video Article | Taken from Rushes Hypnotists site New James Promo Title: “We’re Going To Miss You” Band: James Commissioner: Tess Wight at Mercury Records Production Co: HLA Director: John Hardwick Producer: Derrin Schlesinger Facility Producer: Graham Bird Telecine: Gary Szabo, Simone Grattarola Fire artist: Derek Moore Edit: Andrew Wharton Air Date: week commencing 5th Dec 1999 Using the services of a hypnotist found in the local Yellow Pages, lead singer Tim Booth is first put under hypnosis and the band then performs “We’re Going to Miss You”, singing, playing instruments, and performing in a state of hypnotic reverie in what appears to be a local community centre. Director John Hardwick clarifies: “We wanted to reveal a more intimate side to a well known band and felt hypnotic trance was a way to create a vulnerable and poetic performance. We shot it with a documentary approach in a deliberately anonymous location to induce the least promo-like atmosphere possible. Two band members refused to be hypnotised so they are seen observing the process.” Posted at Rushes by colourists Gary Szabo and Simone Grattarola in Ursa Diamond, edited by Andrew Wharton, and composited by Derek Moore in Fire. | Nov 1999 |
Pleased To Meet You – Press Release | Single: ‘Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)’ RELEASE DATE – 25th JUNE 2001 Album: ‘Pleased To Meet You’ RELEASE DATE – 2ND JULY 2001 This summer sees the return of James. Following on from their stunning last album ‘Millionaires’, James release a brand new album on 2nd July. ‘Pleased To Meet You’ is the band’s 11th album release and it will be preceded by the single ‘Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)’, which is set for release on 25th June. James never take the easy option and are always keen to try new approaches, this is exemplified in the band’s approach to recording the album. ‘Pleased To Meet You’, whilst bearing all the hallmarks of a classic James record, shows why they have been relevant since their inception in the early 80’s. Re-united with the legendary Brian Eno as producer, the approach this time was a change from the band’s normal process. Late in 2000 James embarked on a low key tour which gave them a chance to road test new material. The band always felt that their songs developed once they had played them live and so they made the brave decision to unleash up to 10 new songs a night. Once the tour had finished James went straight into the studio with Eno and recorded the tracks as a full band. The results are amazing and see the band going from strength to strength, producing what could well be their best album… so far. The first release from the album is ‘Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)’. The single is the perfect introduction to the sound of the album. Honed into shape live and perfected in the studio, the song builds and builds into another timeless classic James single. Never ones to repeat a formula the rest of the album sees James pushing their sound on tracks such as opener ‘Space’ through the awesome ‘Falling Down’ to the closing beauty of ‘Alaskan Pipeline’. This is not just another James album… James recently recorded 3 tracks, including the new single, for BBC2’s flagship music show ‘Later with Jools Holland’ which was transmitted on Friday 18th May. On the same day, Radio 1’s lunchtime show had the exclusive first play of ‘Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)’. | Jun 2001 |
Mercury Split – Press Release | JAMES AMICABLY PART COMPANY WITH FONTANA/MERCURY LABEL AFTER FULFILLING CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATIONS James would like to announce their departure from Fontana/Mercury Records, a decision which was agreed upon prior to the release of their final album for the label. Contrary to recent rumours, the band have successfully completed their contractual obligations to the label, and through mutual consent, have amicably parted company after more than a decade. Following previous independent single and album releases during the Eighties through Factory, Sire and Rough Trade, James were signed to Fontana Records, part of the Polygram Group, in 1990, and were contracted to deliver six albums, in addition to a greatest hits package. It was to be a formidable partnership. After building up a sizeable underground following, their third album, and Fontana debut, ‘Gold Mother’, was released in 1990, and brought James the crossover recognition they deserved, reaching platinum selling status, and containing arguably their greatest anthem on record, ‘Sit Down’. Their second Fontana album ‘Seven’ reached No.2 in the UK album charts on it’s release in 1992, and featured hit singles ‘Sound’ and ‘Born Of Frustration’. With the legendary Brian Eno producing, their third Fontana album, ‘Laid’, was released in 1993 and received critical acclaim, not just in the UK, but also the States, where it sold in excess of 600,000 copies and the band became a headline act throughout the country. On a more ambient tip, during the recording of ‘Laid’, James had recorded another album with Eno, entitled ‘Wah Wah’, which was released on Fontana in 1994. During a three year break, after the completion of ‘Wah Wah’, there was a brief interlude where singer Tim Booth recorded an album with movie composer Angelo Badalamenti entitled ‘Booth And The Bad Angel’. James regrouped to record the ‘Whiplash’ album which included ‘She’s A Star’, a track which saw the band back in the U.K. Top Ten. Following on from that album the band recorded two new tracks for a greatest hits package ‘James: The Best Of’. The resulting singles ‘Destiny Calling’ and ‘Runaground’, again saw James in the upper echelons of the charts and on it’s release, ‘James: The Best Of’ sold just under a million copies worldwide. The album was supported by a sell-out UK arena tour. Their fifth studio album ‘Millionaires’, released on Mercury, is widely regarded as their best album to date. Featuring the hit singles, ‘I Know What I’m Here For’ and ‘Just Like Fred Astaire’, the album received unanimous rave reviews in the UK press. Their final studio album for the label, ‘ Pleased To Meet You’ has just been released and with another major arena tour lined up for later this year (dates listed below), James are looking forward to the future. Howard Berman, M.D. of Mercury Records, comments, “In an era often obsessed with instant gratification and substantial taste shifts, it’s been very rewarding to have seen James through to the conclusion of their original commitment to this label. I genuinely wish them every success in the future” James Tour Dates – December 2001: 2nd – Brighton Centre 4th – Newcastle Arena 6th – Birmingham NEC 7th – Manchester Arena 9th – Glasgow SECC 10th – Wembley Arena | Sep 2001 |
Tim Leaves James – Press Release | This December will be the last chance to catch the current line-up of James perform together in a nationwide tour. After 10 studio albums, a million-selling Best Of and 20 Top Forty singles in the UK as well as considerable success in the USA, James can rightly claim to be one of Britain’s most successful bands. Although this will be Tim Booth’s final tour with the band, the remaining members of James will continue making music together, and will make an announcement regarding their plans at a later date. Statement from Tim Booth: “Dear Friends, enemies and anyone else who is listening. After 11 albums it’s time for me to leave James. The timing feels right – 20 years and still peaking. I am deeply proud of just about everything we’ve done. The gigs at Christmas will (I believe) be my last with James and will enable us to have a massive farewell celebration. I’d like to thank my co-conspirators in James for the great adventure. I am looking to act, teach trance dance, write and make some music next year.” James’ arena tour will commence on Sunday 2nd December at the Brighton Centre. Support will come from acclaimed Mercury Music Prize nominee, Turin Brakes. In addition the band have invited former members Andy Diagram and Larry Gott to appear with them on selected dates. November Thu. 22nd La Riveria – Spain Fri. 23rd Lisbon Coliseum Sat. 24th Oporto Coliseum December Sun. 2nd Brighton Centre 0870 900 9100 Mon. 3rd Leeds University Tue. 4th Newcastle Arena 0191 263 5000 Thu. 6th Birmingham NEC 0870 909 4133 Fri. 7th Manchester Arena 0161 930 8000/832 1111 Sun. 9th Glasgow SECC 0870 040 4000 Mon. 10th Wembley Arena 0870 739 9444 24 hour credit card hotline: 0115 912 9000 or online: www.gigsandtours.com. | Oct 2001 |
Seven Remaster – Sleeve Notes by Stuart Maconie | And then they were seven. and pop stars to boot. James the group were ten years old by the time they came to record Seven in the sumptuous surroundings of The Manor in Shipton-on-Cherwell, Oxfordshire; ten years of high hopes and heartache, wonderful music and offstage chaos. Having burst onto the fertile early 80s indie scene and entranced many with their refreshing, unorthndox, gripping elision of pastoral levity and post-punk energy, they’d lost their founder and guiding light Paul Gilberston to a drug-related breakdown and, having produced two fabulous singles with Factory Records, had thrown their lot in, disastrously, with Seymour Stein’s Sire Records. This move had effectively put their career on hold and seen two erratically entertaining albums – Stutter and Strip-mine – released to widespread indifference. Surviving on bank loans and the proceeds from offering themselves as human guinea pigs in drug trials, they’d extricated themselves from Sire’s deathly embrace and financed a live album, One Man Clapping, which had at least reminded the world they still existed. Then they acrimoniously parted from drummer Gavan Whelan and again the future looked uncertain. But the turn of the 90s brought solace and support from unexpected quarters. Their live shows were rapidly attaining a religious fervour; cult gatherings where growing legions of devotees in their characteristic daisy-logo’d tee-shirts came to see and hear electrifying performances from a band now incrementally expanded from the long-standing nucleus of Larry Gott, Jim Glennie and Tim Booth to include four “new boys”. Dave Baynton-Power had served his apprenticeships in various indie outfits in North Wales, Cheshire and Merseyside and been reluctantly persuaded to take his chances with James afrer a clairvoyant friend of Tim Booth’s had predicted the arrival of a Dave from Wales. Guitarist/violinist Saul Davies, a sparky bohemian, was throwing pots in rural Hampshire before Larry Gott spotted him at a blues amateur night. Mark Hunter was recruited via mutual mend Mick Armistead who’d contributed keyboards to One Man Clapping. Lastly, former Diagram Brothers, Dislocation Dance and Pale Fountains trumpeter Andy Diagram was absorbed into the band. This loose collective recorded the watershed Gold Mother album that, with the happy coincidence of the Madchester craze, re-ignited their career and saw them relocate to Fontana Records. Fontana installed them in the Manor for the recording of what was destined to be their major league breakthrough, the album you’re holding now. The cover features a foetus hanging suspended in its mothers amnionic fluid. but the birth of the record was far from easy. After years of breadline subsistence, the band found The Manor distractingly well equipped and appointed. And then as well as the Manor’s gorgeous grounds, pool tables, tennis courts and local country pubs, came another distraction. With James’ star very much in the ascendant a re-issued version of 1991 ‘s Sit Down became a huge hit. Jim Glennie recalls taking a break at the Manor to listen to Radio One’s chart run-down “I know it was in there somewhere and the excitement rose as thc rundown went on and it wasn’t mentioned, because it had to be higher At 17, another now entry and that wasn’t us so it was higher than that. It went in at 7. Funnily enough I thought, I thought, well, I could kick it in the head now. I’ve achieved something”. But, as Larry Gott recalls, the tremendous success of Sit Down complicated the Seven sessions. “We were trying to get a new album done and then there’s all this mayhem surrounding Sit Down. It doesn’t happen to bands very often that a song from the past comes back to life like that. It became a real distraction We had to put the recording on hold; we did Top Of The Pops, we had the press coming down to the Manor all the time. Every day started with 3 or 4 phone interviews. We spent our lives talking about this thing we’d done ages ago.” To kick-start the new record, Fontana suggested a new tack. Producer Youth, once of cult band Killing Joke, was installed and the sessions reconvened in London. As Mark Hunter remarks “Youth got us back in a room and playing like a band together”. The room was Olympic Studios in London, which Youth, famed for his eccentricity, filled with candles, oil wheels, strobes and incense in order to create a “vibe”. Creatively back on course, the band completed the album at Christmas time When Seven appeared in Spring 1992, purist critics were suspicious of its expansive gestures and big sound. But they were ignoring, perhaps deliberately, the fact that James music had always sought to reach out from beyond the confines of the indie ghetto. Those critics who sneered “stadium rock” and “Simple Minds” chose to ignore Seven’s diversity and mistake its self-belieffor self-importance. There are moments of high drama such as Sound, Ring The Bells and Born Of Frustration. But elsewhere, there’s the taut abrasiveness of Bring A Gun, the plaintive Mother, the infectious Live A Love Of Life and the ethereally graceful Next Lover, proof of the group’s peerless control at minimal volumes and slow tempo. Seven is a big record by a big band, the high watermark of the band’s arena-filling phase, along with their performance to 30,000 people at Alton Towers, Cheshire. And then just when the media had them tagged them as a huge corporate rock band, their next move, acoustic work with Neil Young and Brian Eno, was to wrong foot everyone again. But Seven is where James were at in the flowering spring of 1992; confident, mature and punching at their full weight. | Dec 2001 |
Press Release: Tim Booth releases new solo album “Bone” | Sanctuary Records | Press Release | 14th June 2004 | Related:Bone
| Jun 2004 |
Hey Ma – Press Release | James return… Again HEY MA on April 7th 2008 through Fontana / Mercury Records. By: Jeremy Chick Editor-In-Chief When, in early 2007, James announced a series of concerts to celebrate their reformation, even they were surprised that 35,000 tickets were snapped up in a matter of hours. They shouldn’t have been; since their inception, in the Whalley Range district of Manchester in1981, James have consistently upset the odds, persistently proving themselves the glittering thorn in the side of an industry that always had them down as perennial outsiders: witness the fact that the band easily headlined two nights at the 9,000-capacity GMEX Arena in 1990 well before their literate, rabble-rousing pop hit critical mass; witness too, their inevitable, though somewhat unlikely rise to the top of a Britpop pile notable at the time for its cartoon irony and moronic laddishness. When Sit Down, a caring stadium hymn about everyday transcendence, became one of the touchstone singles of the year, it eclipsed the secular world of indie fandom to assume the kind of status afforded a much loved football chant in the national consciousness. It reached No.2 in 1991 reinforcing James’ position as Manchester’s “best kept secret.” And when Gold Mother – the album that subsequently included Sit Down – went on to sell two million copies, James’ transformation into the biggest cult band in Britain was complete. James are Tim Booth (singer), Larry Gott (guitars), Jim Glennie (bass), Saul Davies (guitar, violin), Mark Hunter (keyboards), David Baynton-Power (drums) and Andy Diagram on trumpet. ‘Twas not ever thus but this is the line-up that recorded Gold Mother (spawning the hits How Was It For You, Come Home, Lose Control and the aforementioned Sit Down), and Seven (although Diagram was absent for the subsequent Eno-produced Laid and Wah Wah albums). It is also the septet that has just completed work on the band’s first new studio album in seven years. The story of James is the story of rock and roll itself. Whilst James – the phenomenon – has gone on to release nine studio albums and sell a total of 12 million albums worldwide, James – the band – has undergone a personal history that would have killed off lesser individuals. Briefly signed to Factory Records in the early 1980s, they released two EPs before signing to Sire and releasing their debut album Stutter in June 1986. Unfortunately, upon releasing their follow-up, Strip Mine, in September 1988 they were promptly dropped by Sire and featured (quite correctly as it turns out) in a television documentary as an example of how rock stars can be forced to become human guinea pigs in medical experiments in order to make ends meet. In reality, what kept the band a going concern was their incredible live performances and in Booth they were in possession of a unique talisman. Booth, a former drama student, had originally been asked to join the band as a dancer before being “promoted” to singer and it is his wired, shamanic, part rock star part dancing character from a silent movie presence that lends James their edge. Of course, the band as a whole has always had a rare understanding of their musical strengths and it was no doubt these two facts that attracted the attentions of Rough Trade who distributed the self-financed the 1989 live album One Man Clapping. The relative triumph of this record (it went to No.1 in the Independent Charts), persuaded Fontana to add James to their roster and, in June 1990, with hope rather than expectation, the band released the groundbreaking Gold Mother. The original version of Gold Mother did not contain Sit Down (or Lose Control) but the huge success of the new Gil Norton mix and the two sell out GMEX shows meant that the record was repackaged (in 1991). In 1991 the band also released Seven, headlined the Reading festival and played to 30,000 people at Alton Towers, before heading into the studio with Brian Eno to work on the songs that would become the seminal Laid (which broke the band in the USA) and the experimental Wah Wah albums in 1993 and 1994 respectively. A Best Of reached No.1 in March 1998 before a new record, Millionaires, reached No.2 the following year and another, Pleased To Meet You, in 2001, again saw Eno at the controls and would prove to be the band’s last. A farewell tour culminated in a Manchester Arena show and a Wembley Arena performance that included a guest appearance by Eno himself. James essentially split at the end of 2001 but the seeds of this split first appeared in 1995 when guitarist Larry Gott quit the group. Gott and Glennie (the band is named after Glennie’s Christian name) were founder members and, together with Booth, form the nucleus of the band. Booth has admitted, however, that “in the last few years James were a dysfunctional family” and when he quit in 2001 the split was irrevocable. The band that thought nothing of jamming for five hours a day five days a week had finally stopped jamming for good. In 2006 Gott and Glennie contacted Booth again and asked him if he was interested in a reunion. For their part, Gott and Glennie had already demoed eight songs and come to the conclusion that they could “hear” Booth all over them. For the first time in five years they wrote and jammed together – “the best language we have for cementing our relationship” – and remembered why they were such a great band in the first place. Last year James released a Best Of ..Singles compilation entitled Fresh As A Daisy and went on to play a series of concerts at Brixton Academy as well as the V and T In The Park Festivals. In September the band headed off to Warsy Chateau in northern France to write and record what was to become their first new record in seven years. Their brief may have been immodest – “to not only match our earlier work but surpass it” – but the results are somewhat more spectacular: a record, Hey Ma, that recaptures the spirit of Laid and catapults James into the pantheon of artists who are more alluring and even more relevant second time around. A number of songs on Hey Ma seem furiously personal. The Lou Reed-esque Waterfall (surely a single) recalls an occasion when Booth, during his time working with composer Angelo Badalmenti, bathed naked at Snoqualmie Falls – the spectacular waterfall complex near Seattle featured in the television drama Twin Peaks – and felt a special energy connected with the place. There’s an interesting theme running through the song, of a man with too much junk in his attic and a fear that his average dream of a life may contain too much television. In Whiteboy, the lyrics appear autobiographical: “My mum says I look like Yul Brynner, Too old for Hamlet, too young for Lear” – as Booth imagines a teenage boy, stoned at the kitchen table, listening to his mother prattle on about her fears and dreams whilst in the background TV images interject. And Bubbles is surely inspired by the birth of Booth’s son: ‘Wash the boy in the stream, so tenderly, Press his lips to your lips, Give him your breath, He awakes with the weight, Of the vision he holds, Sees the rent in time, Through which he must fold’. Booth admits that he wrote this song whilst “half asleep” at 5 am – aware that “the more unconscious the words are the deeper they are” – and that when the band performed the song in Edinburgh for the first time they’d only just heard of the death of Tony Wilson. It had been Tony that had given James their first break all those years ago and the song and performance felt all the more poignant and emotional because of it. There are, of course, several more blistering tracks on Hey Ma (I Wanna Go Home, about a man dying of remorse in a bar, and Of Monsters and Heroes and Men, a song that’s intricately constructed around an extended poem, immediately spring to mind) but it would be churlish at this stage to be so particular. James may have always written “uplifting songs about insecurity, disaffection and mental illness” but Hey Ma is something else entirely: world-wary, rather than world-weary, intimate yet intimidating, foreign yet somehow fleetingly familiar, Hey Ma documents the sound of a band at the top of their game. It is also the sound of a band upsetting the odds like never before. | Mar 2008 |
Michael Kulas – Press Release | Toronto’s Michael Kulas of James Fame NXNE Rivoli date confirmed for June 19th Toronto-based singer, multi-instrumentalist and globally-acclaimed composer, After James split in 2001, Kulas returned to Toronto to promote his solo Most recently, Kulas has embarked on an entirely new venture and founded In 2008, James went on to re-form with their original band line-up from the Don’t miss Michael Kulas’ NXNE showcase at The Rivoli on Saturday, June | May 2010 |
The Morning After – Press Release | What does one expect from a James record these days? Sit Down? I don’t think so. And yet, when James released that legendary tune not many people were expecting that either. James have always been about jamming and feeling the groove and some of their most successful songs and albums have emerged after a seemingly endless foray into the realm of the unexpected. But even here you might find the typical James record full to the brim with ‘James’ type anthems and ephemera. And haven’t you always suspected them of being capable of something else? Enter The Morning After. James are Tim Booth (singer), Larry Gott (guitars), Jim Glennie (bass), Saul Davies (guitar, violin), Mark Hunter (keyboards), David Baynton-Power (drums) and Andy Diagram on trumpet. This is the line-up that recorded Gold Mother (spawning the hits How Was It For You, Come Home, Lose Control and Sit Down), and Seven (although Diagram was absent for the subsequent Eno-produced Laid and Wah Wah albums). It is also the line-up responsible for the band’s superb recent new mini-album The Night Before and the imminent new companion piece The Morning After. The Morning After has an intuitive, low-key “campfire” feel and features some of the saddest, darkest lyrics Booth has ever come up with. The bluesy opener Got The Shakes is a song about an alcoholic guy waking up and realizing he has beaten his wife where the line “some people shouldn’t mess with thunder” is as menacing as it sounds. Dust Motes concerns a man checking the dust motes in the light, devastated that his relationship is over and the kiss-off line “I’ll forgive you your transgressions, I’ll forgive you – if you die!” is as clever, funny and twisted as this paradox suggests. Tell Her I Said So is about Booth’s mother dying in a home (which she compares to boarding school – “staff are cold the rules are rules, how can children be so cruel”) – and her being shocked that her life should end this way (“if I could leave I wouldn’t stay, never thought I’d end this way”) and yet here are the first signs of light: the song suddenly embraces disco, employs a childrens’ choir to sing the refrain “here’s to a long life, here’s to a life that’s lived too long” and becomes curiously life affirming. It’s a respite of sorts. On the ballad Kaleidoscope, a man overhears his wife (of twenty years) on the phone (presumably) continuing an extra-marital affair and concluding that he is too scared to divorce: the irony is that she is really on the phone to her doctor who has told her she has cancer and only weeks to live. (Incidentally Booth got the idea for this song after being constantly caught on the phone organizing a surprise party for his wife!) The misperceptions are exacerbated on Rabbit Hole (featuring lovely slide guitar and deranged keyboards) where some Alice In Wonderland allusions compete with the generic acknowledgement that nothing is real and everything is imagined. Booth finishes the tune in falsetto and the song leads beautifully into Make For This City, another projection song or city in the mind/imagined utopia where everything works and we can leave our front doors open and be fascinated with each other rather than be scared. Subsequently, The Morning After’s key track could easily be Look Away for the simple reason that it is almost impossible to listen to it without singing along: this is electronica (if not Electronic!) without the indifference, a song about not facing up to the facts and where the line “All that really matters is that you weren’t in the building when the walls came tumbling down” is bleak beyond compare. But you want bleak? Listen to the album’s closer Fear for here is a song with a mood and a mission. Atmospheric, experimental and just a little bit haunted, Fear tackles that dominant inner monologue that stalks (perhaps) the life that’s lived too long: “Fear fights for the drivers seat/Keeps breaking the chain/Next time he rides in the boot/We got wise to his game”. | Aug 2010 |
James Announce Girl At The End Of The World Album And Tour 2016 | New Album Released March 18 2016James are proud to announce their new album Girl At The End Of The World out on BMG Recordings on 18th March, plus a major headline tour for 2016. James are one of the UK’s most creatively restless and loved artists. Known for their unique and diverse style over their 13 studio albums, they’re both critically acclaimed and commercially successful, having sold over 12 million albums worldwide. The band originally signed to the iconic Factory Records in 1982, and have since gone onto produce a string of massive hit singles, including: Sit Down, Come Home, She’s A Star and Born of Frustration. Now, 32 years on they have come up with a record that the band consider their best ever. Girl At The End Of The World sees the band team with producer Max Dingel (The Killers, Muse, White Lies) with the legendary Brian Eno infusing his unique influence into the blend. The new album is both anthemic and euphoric, with it’s simmering electronica continuing James’ long connection to the dance floor. The band’s trademark songwriting and Tim Booth’s distinctive vocal & evocative lyrics prove once again to be amongst Britain’s finest. “Bands talk about that difficult second album but it’s the trickster 14th one that’s the real M*&^%R F&%$#R,” says Tim Booth of the making of the new record. “As always with James it’s a collaborative process allowing ample room for improvisation, intuition, skill and dumb luck. From the outside our process looks like chaos but chaos is our friend and we have a history that gives us confidence that something magical will eventually appear. Most of my best lyrics are unconscious typos so don¹t ask me what it’s about; your projection is as good as mine. This was perhaps the most difficult and stressful album we have ever made. I hope you find it as rewarding as we do. OYSTER- GRIT-PEARL.” Jim Glennie says ‘The essence of James is live. The pleasure never diminishes. I can’t wait for us to get our hands on these songs in front of the best audience a band can have’. The Girl At The End Of The World Tour spans the UK, including a giant hometown show at Manchester Arena and a 3 date takeover of London at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, O2 Forum Kentish Town and O2 Brixton Academy. | Nov 2015 |
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