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Interview with Tim Booth of James on Absolute Radio at the Isle Of Wight Festival
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The event, called THIS IS FOR THE NHS, was held in support of the UK National Health Service (NHS) for its work during the Covid-19 pandemic. Local NHS workers were offered free tickets.
James head onto stage and launch into Isabella from All The Colours Of You and it’s clear that, even though this band have played as a nine-piece half a dozen or so times, they’re in one of those phases of the band where they spark off each other. Contained to the stage Tim searches looking for connection, finding them with each member of the band at some point in the evening. Born Of Frustration feels bigger and bolder than before whilst Ring The Bells shows how they’ve been working on the songs and integrating the bigger line-up with Chloe taking a bigger vocal part allowing Andy to add his signature trumpet and experimentation – something that’s noticeable as the evening progresses. It’s one of those subtleties the expanded line-up offers them.
Five-O takes us on wonderful wandering journey, with Saul’s violin taking the song off its beaten track, Tim transfixed by his colleague’s work like many of the audience around us. Wherever It Takes Us is clearly a band favourite and is evolving before our eyes and ears, but it feels like it’s missing something tonight – which may well be the sound that isn’t loud enough down the front and seems to be lacking a bit of body to it as if the festival have done it on the cheap for the main stage (the second was fine).
Honest Joe is a surprise inclusion after a long absence and a real indication of how this new James are, like when they’ve played Stutter in previous gigs, going to deliver some very special nights with this new line-up. Tim alludes to this when he tells us that this is the real James and it makes them fresh and alive and why they’re still going. For a band that says it’s bedding in, they’re still making an awful lot of changes to the setlists.
The crowd is very sterile around us all the way through, even for the big-hitters Getting Away With It (All Messed Up), Sometimes, Sound and Come Home that finish off the evening, standing arms folded, complaining at people dancing (swaying rather than anything remotely moshing if we’re talking details), chatting incessantly and getting offended at others moving around.
It’s the opposite of our experiences of Newcastle crowds from the past, particularly at the Academy which was always a highlight of the tour. Tonight was one of those where, from our vantage point at least, the performance didn’t get the audience it deserved.
Read the full review at EvenTheStars.co.uk
“Booth’s effervescence, incredible energy and sheer love for what he does kept everyone singing and dancing along before a stunning encore which included Sometimes, Tomorrow and the all-time favourite of many, Laid.
It was brilliant stuff from start to finish which left many of the band’s followers already planning their next James gig.”
Read the full review at YorkshirePost.co.uk
If I had one complaint it was that the gig had to finish, it felt like one of those nights where the band and the crowd were in perfect syncopation, even the confusion about the song to be played added to the night, making you feel this was a gig you would remember for a long while.
If you haven’t seen James live then you should, Tim Booth is one of British musics great frontmen, every member of the band is spot on, even the newer members who clearly haven’t been there from the start. If anything this is a band who are getting better and better. Go see them!
Read the full review at ThreeSongsAndOut.com
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There’s something really magical happening with the band at the moment. Debbie and Chloe together have reinvigorated them and created new sparks off which the rest of them feed, particularly Tim, who has lost the ability to come down and do that off the audience. It opens new avenues for the songs with two more agitators on stage and this is a band that are at their very best when responding to each other. Add to that the joy and relief of actually being able to do what they love the most and do the best and it genuinely feels like a new phase of the band’s evolution is opening up before as they approach forty – where life begins if the old saying holds true.
Read the full review at EvenTheStars.co.uk
Next came what was potentially the stand out track of the night – ‘Wherever It Takes Us’ from All The Colours Of You. Despite its unpredictable melody and spoken word verses, the track is almost biblical, with every band member singing the chorus in a choir-like manner. The thought-provoking ‘Zero’ followed, with frontman, Tim Booth encouraging the crowd to scream along with him, letting out the frustrations of the last eighteen months. The last track to be played from All The Colours Of You was the bass-driven and infectiously catchy, ‘Beautiful Beaches’, which had the whole crowd dancing along. If any of the crowd hadn’t listened to the new album, we’re fairly certain that they went home to because each of the four tracks included in the setlist soared, perfectly demonstrating how despite being a band of such longevity, James are a band continually experimenting with their sound and challenging themselves..
Read the full review at godisinthetvzine.co.uk
The stream session, part of the Mastercard Priceless programme of events, was performed and streamed live from Metropolis Studios in Chiswick, London. The first two songs, All Good Boys and Maria’s Party, were recorded live directly to vinyl as a limited edition double sided single for stream purchasers.
Recorded “Live To Vinyl” on 24th August 2021 at Metropolis Studios featuring All Good Boys and Maria.
Maria / All Good Boys
| Release Name: | Live To Vinyl |
| Artist Name: | |
| Release Date: | 24th August 2021 |
| Format: | Studio EP |
| Catalogue: |
Recorded “Live To Vinyl” on 24th August 2021 at Metropolis Studios featuring All Good Boys and Maria. The songs were performed live to an online audience through Mastercard Priceless and then pressed to 10″ vinyl. The songs are incorrectly labelled on the centre stickers – the wrong sticker on the wrong side.
All The Colours Of You are performed in preference of Five-0, and Laid instead of Zero.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this was James’s first live gig in nearly two years, and acted as a warm-up gig for the delayed summer festival season.
They finish on a darker than normal, broody, moody Sound, notable for an extended outro that builds in pace, some trumpet sounds you wouldn’t believe were trumpet if you weren’t witnessing Andy channeling them through his box of distortion tricks as the song winds on its dozen-minute plus sonic journey. It’s a song that’s come to represent how James take their hits, reinvent and twist them and use them as the melting pot for new ideas that keeps them excited about what they’re doing as a means of ensuring their audience do too.
Tonight was a reminder of the power of live music. We laughed, we cried a few times, we felt the power of the drum feel like it was beating in our chest, we caught a glance with a stranger lost in the same emotion as us, we stood on someone’s foot (sorry, it was a few times), closed our eyes and completely lost ourselves in what was coming from the stage. There is no greater feeling than watching the greatest band in your world and we should never forget that and let anyone take it away from us.
Read the full review at EvenTheStars.co.uk
The band James were supposed to be headlining at a concert at an outdoor venue in north London next week, their first official big gig in the capital since the pandemic began.
The Mancunian group behind hits such as Sit Down and Come Here have already had five festival spots cancelled this summer because of uncertainty over the rules.
Just after the prime minister’s announcement, we spoke to the band’s lead singer Tim Booth and began by asking him how his planned gigs would be affected.