Tag Archives: 1998
1998 Gigography
Top Of The Crocks – Manchester Evening News
It was not so long ago that Tim Booth of Manchester band James was known as one of the most energetic dancers in rock.
Not for him the slow-motion so-called “live” approach of Liam and Noel Gallagher.
A show by James — who have had 13 top 40 hits in a 12-year career — was always notable for the former Manchester university student’s jerky dancing.
Alas, all that livewire frugging caused a nasty neck injury to the frontman not long after their appearance at the Manchester Apollo last year. The mishap was so serious it cut short their American tour. But the band were determined to play last summer’s Reading Festival, at which the poor chap appeared wearing a neck brace to go with his spangly shirt.
Now James are set to roll again with the charismatic Tim braceless but still bouncing. They’ll take the stage again at the Apollo on April 14 — tickets go on sale today — and doctors have told Tim he’ll have to restrain himself.
“He can dance, he can express himself, but he’ll just have to be careful where his neck is concerned,” says a band insider.
Maybe he should take his own advice from one of the group’s biggest hits — and Sit Down.
James To Leave Home – NME
James kick off the year with news of a Greatest Hits LP featuring two new songs and a short UK tour.
The album was due to be released before Christmas but was put back because singer Tim Booth was still suffering from the neck injury that caused the band to pull out of their Glastonbury and V97 performances last year.
The album called “Best Of” is released by Fontana on March 23. It is preceded on March 2 by a new single “Destiny”, produced by Ott, who has worked with Embrace, Elastica and Gene.
The single marks a departure for James. “It’s a mad little song about the whole notion of fame and success and the machine”, Booth told NME.
“I’m happy putting out a greatest hits album but it’s all part of the machine so the lyrics to the single highlight that. Watching MTV I get the impression that rock n roll is just as manipulative as any crap game show or chat show”
The album features material spanning from the band’s Factory days to the present and includes the single and another new track “Run Aground”
“It’s about general rock band attitudes to women”, Booth said of Run Aground. “When you’re in a band, you’re offered sex on a plate and you get to see what happens if you take that and if you then try to have a relationship of substance”
James play a handful of dates in April, by which time Booth hopes to be fit again.
“The Lollapalooza tour was hell for me” he said. “I was in a neck brace and in a lot of pain. It’s still not healed. I’m hanging upside down a lot at the moment. I’m gonna start doing some training soon.”
James play Manchester Apollo (April 11), Glasgow Barrowlands (April 13), Doncaster Dome (April 14) and London Brixton Academy (17).
Winner By A Neck – Melody Maker
James’ Tim Booth has revealed how a Tibetan healer is helping him recover from a neck injury which has been plaguing him for months.
Booth hurt his neck onstage in Vancouver in April last year, at the beginning of a six-week US tour. The band called off the rest of the dates while doctors told Booth to remain horizontal for seven days. He was then ordered to rest for at least six weeks.
The injury had not healed at the end of the six weeks, but Booth carried on as James played the Lollapalooza tour and Reading Festival, where he surprised fans by appearing in a neck brace. The pain got no better as the weeks went by, and it was only last week that Booth was well enough to attempt physiotherapy for the first time.
Nevertheless, James are coming back with a full schedule, and they launched their latest projects with an acoustic gig last week in a London studio. Bernard Butler, Zoe Ball, Orbital, Jo Whiley, Texas, Dubstar, and Chris the mechanic from “Coronation Street” were among the audience watching the band run through a selection of favourites and a couple of new songs.
“Destiny Calling”, one of the new tracks, will be released as a single on March 2. Along with “Run Aground”, another new song, it will be included on a greatest hits album, “The Best of James”, which follows on March 23, and a UK tour will follow.
Dates are Manchester Apollo (April 11), Glasgow Barrowlands (13), Doncaster Dome (14) and London Brixton Academy (17).
The band will be playing electric instruments on the tour, although they may separately set up a few acoustic gigs – which the specially enjoy, being multi-instrumentalists. They plan one for Radio 1 and another in Manchester, possibly on a barge. Acoustic gigs are also less of a threat to Booth’s neck injury, which is more serious than anyone realised at the time.
“At one point, I was looking at being crippled,” he said. “I only started doing any exercise, physio, in the last week. Before that, every time I tried to do physio, I’d be on my back for two days. It just wasn’t healing. I couldn’t lift a paper bag.”
The Maker suggested that playing the Lollapalooza tour probably hadn’t helped his recovery.
“It probably would have been quicker if I hadn’t done those dates,” he agreed. “We couldn’t get out of them because of insurance. It was very interesting, I was one of the main survivors of Lollapalooza. A lot of bands split after that, or got seriously damaged. I think I did quite well.”
“I was being moved around all the time in the bus and I had to withdraw and be quite quiet, and I had a nurse with me virtually the whole time.”
“I’ll still have to be more careful for a while but I can’t not react to the music. I’m a dancer, and dancing’s the thing I love. I adore it. I can’t stay still. When I had the neck brace on at Reading, I was still moving more than most people. So we’ll see how it goes. I’ll be a bit tentative on this tour, and the band will be shouting at me if I forget.”
Asked if he intends to do what the doctors tell him, he said: “I’ve never really gone with established medicine, ever since I nearly died of a liver disease. I’ve had a number of injuries, but they’ve also been life-saving.”
“Illness is an amazing teacher. I’m happy with the end result, and I’ve gone through hell in some periods, but it teaches you a hell of a lot. I will get better from this one.”
“As I said, I feel it [the healing] has really started now. If you’d asked me two months ago, I’d say it hadn’t started.”
“I’ve been having some really good treatment from a lunatic. I know enough shamens and healers around. I’m seeing a Tibetan doctor.”
“I had two ruptured discs in my lower neck – the spongy discs between the vertebrae. Two of them burst. Eventually, the bones fuse together naturally. That’s what traditional medicine says, but I don’t necessarily think that’s what we’ll be doing.”
“You can heal anything, that’s my attitude. I’ve done that before.”
James, meanwhile, have been working on new material – “the best we’ve ever done” – with a view to an album release in the autumn.
Fanzine: A Sound Investment – Issue 4
A Sound Investment was a James fanzine produced by California based Chris Zych and Lori Chin.
Download this fanzine as a PDF.
A Sound Investment is © copyright 1998 Chin and Zych.