Tag Archives: song-jam-j
Newcastle Utilita Arena – 5th June 2024
Setlist
She's A Star / Waltzing Along / Our World / Hey / Life's A Fucking Miracle / Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) / Tomorrow / Five-O / Shadow Of A Giant / Better With You / Mobile God / Jam J / Sit Down / Nothing But Love / Sometimes / Way Over Your Head / Come Home / Beautiful Beaches / Laid / SoundSupport
RazorlightMore Information & Reviews
Aberdeen P&J Live – 3rd June 2024
Setlist
Is This Love / Hey / Mobile God / Life's A Fucking Miracle / Ring The Bells / Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) / Johnny Yen / Shadow Of A Giant / Jam J / Stay / Born Of Frustration / Better With You / Sit Down / We're Going To Miss You / Sometimes / Way Over Your Head / Beautiful Beaches / LaidSupport
RazorlightMore Information & Reviews
Bournemouth O2 Academy – 29th May 2024
Setlist
Is This Love / Hey / Life's A Fucking Miracle / Better With You / Stay / Shadow Of A Giant / Five-O / Born Of Frustration / Waltzing Along / Ring The Bells / Jam J / Our World / Nothing But Love / Come Home / Sometimes / Way Over Your Head / Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) / Sit Down / SoundSupport
Mitch SandersMore Information & Reviews
Madrid La Riviera – 16th May 2024
Setlist
Johnny Yen / Leviathan / Hey / Is This Love / Waltzing Along / Ring The Bells / Our World / Moving On / Come Home / Jam J / Shadow Of A Giant / Five-O / Government Walls / Tomorrow / Say Something / Life's A Fucking Miracle / Beautiful Beaches / Sometimes / Way Over Your Head / Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)Support
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1994 Singles & B-Sides
Summary
The fifth of a series of streaming-only compilations of singles and b-sides from James years with Fontana / Mercury. 1994 features the UK single – Say Something / Jam J and the US single Say Something
Track List
Say Something / Jam J / Assassin / Say Something (New Version) / Jam J – James Vs The Sabres Of Paradise / Say Something Utah Saints Radio Edit / Say Something Hardkiss Mix / Laid Acoustic Live Atlanta 1994
Details
Release Name: | 1994 Singles & B-Sides |
Artist Name: | James |
Release Date: | 24th November 2023 |
Format: | Compilation Album |
Catalogue: | |
Related Release(s): |
The fifth of a series of streaming-only compilations of singles and b-sides from James years with Fontana / Mercury. 1994 features the UK single – Say Something / Jam J and the US single Say Something
- Assassin :1994
- Jam J :1994
- Laid :1993
- Say Something :1993
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Carlisle Sands Centre – 20th March 2019
Setlist
VIP Soundcheck: Nothing But Love / Jam J / Maria’s PartyAcoustic Set: Coming Home (Pt2) / Pressure's On / All I'm Saying / I Wanna Go Home / Just Like Fred Astaire / Destiny Calling / Broken By The Hurt / Hello
Electric Set: Born Of Frustration / Extraordinary Times / What's It All About / Moving On / Jam J / Heads / Picture Of This Place / How Hard The Day / I Defeat / Waltzing Along / Leviathan / Attention / Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) / Nothing But Love / Come Home / Many Faces / Top Of The World
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James (acoustic)More Information & Reviews
Review: EvenTheStars.co.uk
“Extraordinary Times, with its rumbling guitars and the contemporary feel that U2 wish they could still create, is an impressive introduction to the album it gives its name to’s material that forms a major part of the set. The live version of James 2019 feels hell-bent on challenging any perception of them being a hits-churning heritage act and the next three-song salvo provides compelling evidence to back up any waverers on this matter. In the soundcheck Saul described Jam J as post-industrial folk and it’s a pretty apt description for a song that has such a sharp-edged metallic bass line that feels like it’s warning of an impending apocalypse. Set to a wonderful strobe-lit background and Tim barking the verses through a megaphone, it might be twenty-five years old this year, but you wouldn’t know if you weren’t aware of their history.”
Read the full review on EvenTheStars.co.uk
Beatherder Festival – 15th July 2016
Setlist
Bitch / To My Surprise / Curse Curse / Come Home / Jam J / Honest Joe / Dear John / Catapult / Surfer’s Song / Sound / Sometimes / Attention
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Review
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Edinburgh Ross Bandstand – 26th August 2015
Setlist
Walk Like You / She's A Star / Just Like Fred Astaire / Gone Baby Gone / Johnny Yen / Say Something / Laid / Jam J / PS / Out To Get You / Curse Curse / Sit Down / Sound / Moving On / Come Home / Top Of The WorldSupport
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Headline slot in the grounds on Princes Gardens in Edinburgh as part of the Magners Live series of concerts.
James headlined the first night of Edinburgh’s Magners Nights festival on the Ross Bandstand in Princes Street Gardens. In front of a boisterous crowd, James played a set mixed with some of their biggest hits, tracks from last year’s La Petite Mort album and a few less well-known tracks from their back catalogue.
With the most picturesque of backdrops, Edinburgh Castle, in the background, James started their set with Walk Like You, the seven-minute opening track from La Petite Mort. As with previous gigs, it’s been refreshing to see how the album appears to have been well-received and people know the songs when they’re played rather than just wanting the greatest hits. The song itself is a great introduction to the set and allows the band room to breathe and experiment, Saul changing instruments mid-song to add some gorgeous violin. She’s A Star and Just Like Fred Astaire follow and Tim comes down to the barrier, joking that he wasn’t going to go crowd surfing as the last time he did in Glasgow resembled the South Park episode where Cartman got an anal probe.
Gone Baby Gone is fresh and loose, the one point where Larry’s absence is at its most noticeable as the jagged guitar riff that runs through the song is replaced by something a little softer. Johnny Yen might be over thirty years old now but it’s as bold and poignant tonight as it’s ever been, a song that’s been through several transformations over the years but is still loved as evidenced by the reception it gets at the end.
Say Something and Laid build the crowd into a frenzy. The former is one of James’ most straight-forward songs but one of the most loved and tonight five-thousand alcohol-fuelled Scots sing back every word. They then go a little bit bonkers as the unmistakable intro to Laid kicks in. As a song usually held back for the finale it’s unusual to hear it mid-set, but no one minds too much as they’re too busy dancing or bouncing around.
The strange set-up of the stage means that the band are a bit hemmed in so Tim is constantly prowling round charging the others up, encouraging them on to improvise and to inspire each other. Adrian puts his own mark on a frantic, frenetic Jam J, all stop-start aural pyrotechnics, before they sooth us with a quiet but emotionally fierce PS and Out To Get You, which again demonstrates Saul’s reluctant mastery of the violin and being able to use it to steal the show.
Curse Curse has become a huge James anthem in the tradition of many of their huge hits. It’s got all those key criteria, you can dance along to it, sing and chant along and yet it’s wrapped up in a packaging that’s very different to anything they’ve done before it. Last time James played in Scotland there was a furore involving the leader of the Scottish Conservatives because they hadn’t played Sit Down on the night, but this year it’s back in the set to remind us all what a singular piece of music it is, a call for unity and togetherness that’s perfect for drunken nights like this. They finish the main set with Sound and tonight it feels like it’s on the edge of breakdown as they improvise and take the song off on tangents that never quite come back to the same point. As the stage fills up with people pulled from the audience, no one minds.
The encore starts with Moving On and a dedication to a young fan that recently passed before the calling card introduction to Come Home sends the crowd into delirium and some frankly atrocious attempts at recreating the 1990s around where we’re stood. They finish, just as the fireworks from the tattoo at the castle on the hill start, with a poignant eerie Top Of The World, a last minute call instead of the more obvious upbeat Sometimes. It’s a brave move to finish the set on such a song, but also feels completely appropriate as the sky behind the stage is lit up.
Jersey Folklore Festival – 14th June 2015
Setlist
Walk Like You / Sit Down / Ring The Bells / Gone Baby Gone / Interrogation / Waltzing Along / Born Of Frustration / Moving On / Out To Get You / Jam J / Just Like Fred Astaire / Curse Curse / Come Home / Sound / Sometimes / LaidSupport
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James’ first ever performance in The Channel Islands.
Laid / Wah Wah Super Deluxe Edition
Summary
This re-issue of Laid and Wah Wah combined both albums as originally intended by the band, and was released 9 years ago. The boxset includes two extra CDs of rehearsals, demos, B-sides and radio sessions. The boxset also include a booklet, prints and badges.
Track List
Disc 1 – Laid:
Out To Get You / Sometimes (Lester Piggott) / Dream Thrum / One Of The Three / Say Something / Five-O / P.S. / Everybody Knows / Knuckle Too Far / Low Low Low / Laid / Lullaby / Skindiving
Disc 2 – Wah Wah:
Hammer Strings / Pressure’s On / Jam J / Frequency Dip / Lay The Law Down / Burn The Cat / Maria / Low Clouds / Building A Fire / Gospel Oak / DVV / Say Say Something / Rhythmic Dreams / Dead Man / Rain Whistling / Basic Brian / Low Clouds / Bottom Of The Well / Honest Joe / Arabic Agony / Tomorrow / Laughter / Sayonara
Disc 3 – Rehearsals, Demos & Jams:
Carousel / Unknown Track 8 / Dream Thrum / Chicken Goth / Jam J / You Were Born / Bruce Jam 1 (Mix 1) / Jam D Rhythmic Dreams / Jam E / Jam 11 / Jam 12B / Jam P / Jam P2 / Jam Q / Jam R / Who Is Gospel Oak? / Falsetto / Jam 13
Disc 4 – B-Sides, Radio Sessions & Live:
America / Building A Charge / Wah Wah Kits / The Lake / Seconds Away / Say Something / Assassin / Laid / Low Low Low / Sometimes / Tomorrow / Five – O / Jam J (Arena Dub) / Jam J (Sabresonic Tremelo Dub)
Details
Release Name: | Laid / Wah Wah Super Deluxe Edition |
Artist Name: | James |
Release Date: | 23 March 2015 |
Format: | Compilation Box Set |
Catalogue: | ASIN B00RYGDNQ6 |
Related Release(s): |
According to Tim Booth, Laid and Wah Wah are “the culmination of playing four or five hours a day four or five days a week in Manchester and the new band adapting to that. It is about the transition of becoming more of a band but with Brian at the helm.” Booth remembers jamming “hundreds of songs that never saw the light of day” and guitarist Larry Gott suggests it might have been “as many as 340 tracks.” The simultaneous, coupled reissues are particularly notable, however, due to the fact that producer Brian Eno and the band had originally favoured releasing the records as a double package.
Recorded concurrently in 1993 during a frenetic six week period at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Complex, the albums were always intended as companion pieces – Laid being referred to as the “song” album whilst Wah Wah was known as the “experimental” or “jamming” album – but the record company’s decision to release them months apart put paid to this conception: Laid, released in the UK in October 1993, reached the No.3 spot in the UK and became the band’s biggest album to date in the US, selling 600,000 copies and breaking the band in the USA in the process but the subsequent follow-up Wah Wah effectively sunk the band over there and – according to Booth – “put paid to us breaking America at all!”.More pertinently perhaps, by the time Wah Wah came out, U2 (and Eno) had released Zooropa and “everyone thought we were copying off them instead of the other way round!”The 4CD 12’x 12’ Super Deluxe box set features 20 previously unreleased recordings.
- America :1993
- Arabic Agony :1994
- Assassin :1994
- Basic Brian :1994
- Bottom Of The Well :1994
- Bruce Jam :2015
- Building A Charge :1993
- Building A Fire :1994
- Burn The Cat :1994
- Carousel :2010
- Dead Man :1994
- Dream Thrum :1993
- DVV :1994
- Everybody Knows :1993
- Five-O :1993
- Frequency Dip :1994
- Gospel Oak :1994
- Hammer Strings :1994
- Honest Joe :1994
- It’s A Fine Line / Jam P (Fabulous Melody But Unusual Bass) :2012
- Jam 1 / Unknown Track 8 :2012
- Jam 11 (Slow Jam – Grotesque / Angular) :2015
- Jam 12B (Dreamy Later Singing) :2015
- Jam 13 (Fast Marcus Has Mixed) :2015
- Jam 2 / Chicken Goth / Never Forget :2012
- Jam D (Rhythmic Dreams alt) :2015
- Jam E (outtake) :2015
- Jam J :1994
- Jam P2 (Later) :2015
- Jam Q :2015
- Jam R – Beefheart Jam :2015
- Knuckle Too Far :1993
- Laid :1993
- Laughter :1994
- Lay The Law Down :1994
- Low Clouds :1994
- Low Low Low :1993
- Lullaby :1993
- Maria / Maria’s Party :1994
- One Of The Three :1993
- Out To Get You :1990
- P.S. :1993
- Pressure’s On :1994
- Rain Whistling :1994
- Rhythmic Dreams :1994
- Say Say Something :1994
- Say Something :1993
- Sayonara :1994
- Seconds Away :1993
- Skindiving / Falsetto :1993
- Sometimes (Lester Piggott) :1993
- The Lake :1993
- Tomorrow :1994
- Wah Wah Kits :1993
- Who Is Gospel Oak? (rehearsal jam) :2015
- You Were Born :2015
- Boxset: Laid / Wah Wah
- XS Manchester – James 'Laid' with Saul Davies (plus bonus 'Yummy' interview)
- Isle Of Wight Festival – 13th June 2015
- James To Release Laid And Wah Wah Albums in Deluxe Editions – Even The Stars
- BBC Maida Vale Studios – 10th October 2014
- T In The Park – 12th July 2014
- Portland Kink Lounge – 8th October 2010
- KCRW Santa Monica – 6th June 2008
- Later With Jools – 29th April 2008
- Benicassim Festival – 3rd August 2001
- Chelmsford V Festival – 23rd August 1998
- MTV Up For It – March 1998
- TFI Friday (Tomorrow) – April 1997
- 1993 – 1996: Laid Back Years
- Wuss-Stock – Select
- Wah Wah Album Release – Press Release
- No Folk On The Wah Tour – NME Magazine
- James Let Loose – Manchester Evening News
- Woodstock MTV Interview
- James Wah Wah – Melody Maker News
- Washington Post Feature
- James Take A Dip – Melody Maker News
- The Musician Interview And Feature
- James To Make Ambient Football Album (Mr Agreeable Parody) – Melody Maker
- The Jessie In James – Vox
- Home James – Chicago Sun
- Acoustic Tour Leaves Imprint on James – St Louis Post
- Band Outgrows Cult Status – Wisconsin State Journal
- James On World Cup Album – NME News
- Interview With Jo Whiley – BBC Radio 1
- James Find Another Wave – The Advocate
- More Where They Came From – Rocky Mountain News
- Say Something / Jam J – Press Release
- Happy Accident Makes It All Happen – LA Times
- Tim Booth’s Rebellious Jukebox – Melody Maker
- British Band James Returns – Seattle Times
- Mr Agreeable – Melody Maker
- James Wins Applause In The States – Providence Journal
- MTV 120 Minutes – 16th January 1994
- MTV 120 Minutes Interview
- Vous Avez Dit James – Le Soir (French)
- Laid (Conan O’Brien Show) – January 1994
- City Life Tim Interview
- A Typical James Gig – Tour Pamphlet from December 1993
- Best Yet To Come? – Stop Press
- Laying Low With James – Toronto University Varsity
- Listen To James And You’ll Get Laid – London UWO Gazette
- Hey Nonny Eno – NME
- The Village View Interview
- Strobe Magazine Interview
- Laid North American Tour Dates – Press Release
- Mean Street Article And Interview
- World Cup Song Is Our Goal – Manchester Evening News
- Mercury Bets Touring Can Make James a U.S. Name – Billboard
- Larry Interview with Guitar Magazine
- Interview with Alan Pell (James A+R man)
- Jay Leno Show (Sometimes) – October 1993
- The American Music Press Interview
- Telemoustique Interview (French)
- James And The Art Of Getting Laid – RCD
- La Folie Douce – Les Irrockuptibles (French)
- NME Discography
- Creem Magazine Interview
- James Daily Insider Article
- London Astoria – 28th September 1993
- Radio 1 Interview about Knuckle Too Far
- Laid Press Release Biography
- Sometimes – Press Release
- O Zone Interview BBC1
- Top Of The Pops (Sometimes) – September 1993
- The James Gang Rides Again – Entertainment Today
- Best Magazine Interview (French)
- James Tour – NME News
- Laid US Album Release – Press Release
- MTV Interview
- Melody Maker News Article on Sometimes
- What’s Eating You? – Select
- James Laid In Italy – Melody Maker
- The Beat (Sometimes) – August 1993
- James Still Folking Around – NME News
- James Get Laid And Improvise With Eno – Melody Maker
- Kevin Westerberg on the Laid Cover – I Music
- Eno’s Wah Wah Notes
- James Support Neil Young – NME News
- Tim’s Bunk Diary – Chain Mail
- Martine McDonagh Interview with Andy Diagram – Chain Mail
Compilation release not related to gigs.
Lisbon MEO Arena – 29th November 2014
Setlist
Lose Control / Oh My Heart / Walk Like You / Frozen Britain / Seven / Curse Curse / Laid / What's The World / I Wanna Go Home / All Good Boys / Quicken The Dead / Just Like Fred Astaire / Jam J / Dream Thrum / PS / All I'm Saying / Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) / Moving On / Gone Baby Gone / Sound / Born Of Frustration / Interrogation / SometimesSupport
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James concluded their touring for the year with a twenty-three song set in the cavernous surroundings of the MEO Arena in Lisbon. Urged on by a fanatical Portuguese crowd they made the hall feel intimate as they ran through eight tracks from their recent La Petite Mort album as well as classic singles and rarities from their back catalogue.
The La Petite Mort tour came to a conclusion in Lisbon, scene of James’ unforgettable performance at Rock In Rio a couple of years ago and this was their first visit since then. The 20,000 MEO Arena was an ambitious choice of venue, but they still pulled in a crowd in excess of what they get in most British cities, testament to their undying appeal here.
They start with Tim walking through the crowd with Andy singing Lose Control. Immediately you feel the enthusiasm and vigour of the Portuguese audience, the noise almost drowning out the music as they cheer and clap along. It’s a theme of the evening, as it was in Guimaraes the previous night, none of the incessant chatter from the wings that you get in Britain. The Portuguese don’t get bands coming here as if on a conveyor belt and they make sure they enjoy every minute of it when they do.
Oh My Heart is the first of two tracks from 2008’s reunion album Hey Ma, which has generally been ignored throughout this tour, and it’s an unusual choice for the first full band song of the evening as opposed to a more obvious crowd pleaser, but its soaring chorus where Tim Booth implores his heart to “come break me in two” is sung back by 10,000 voices with arms and camera phones raised in salute of one of Portugal’s more unlikely musical heroes.
The band are on good form tonight. Tim thanks the crowd with the only Portuguese word he claims to know before Saul Davies, once a resident of Porto, speaks to the crowd. Tim jokes that Saul’s probably talking dirty in Portuguese. It’s reassuring to note how well they are interacting up on stage this year as it’s that which drives their creativity and their instinctive ability to jam new ideas into songs and get themselves out of trouble when things start to go wrong technically.
Walk Like You and Frozen Britain are two of the high points of a series of peaks on this year’s La Petite Mort album. As the gig is being filmed we’re treated to eight of the ten songs from the record. The former clocks in at over eight minutes and feels like three songs rolled into once as it muses on the parent / child relationship whilst musically it’s a song that opens up so many possibilities and never quite sounds the same every night. Frozen Britain was the first focus track (single) from the album and has been (in my view wrongly) somewhat overshadowed by the big guns of Moving On and Curse Curse, but live that guitar hook is an invitation to dance and throw off the shackles. It’s a joyful exclamation of finding love after a series of let downs, there’s sexual overtones mixed in there as there are in many of the lyrics which the crowd around us sing back to him word for word.
Seven is the first of the songs from the album of the same name that broke them here and it turns the already feverish atmosphere up a notch further. Probably exhausted from all his exertions over the past three weeks, and he tells us later he’s getting by on sticky tape and ibuprofen, Tim goes down on to the barrier to sing and crouches down as the song reaches its “love can mean anything” conclusion. Tonight love means James, the adulation the band have here is unlike anything I’ve seen with them anywhere else.
Curse Curse and Laid are like a match made in heaven together in the set, their central themes, their joie-de-vivre making them blood relatives and they both induce the whole hall to bounce along to their rampant hedonism and slightly cheeky slightly disconcerting lyrics about sex and desire. Tim takes to the crowd, surfing over a sea of arms, many ignoring his request to put the camera phones down and live for the present and not save it for later. It takes a brave man in his fifties (he calls himself an “antique”) to put himself in that vulnerable position, but you see the joy on his face and the people he goes out and connects with and James make ultimate perfect sense in those moments, a group of outsiders coming together and celebrating that very fact.
They go right back to their early days for first single What’s The World, which sounds as fresh and vibrant thirty one years after its release as it did back then. It’s been adapted for the times, no more so than in Dave Baynton-Power’s opening drum salvo, and toughened up to allow it to fight with the better-known big hitters around it. The Portuguese crowd probably don’t know it, but they don’t care, they’re here to party and dance and they love it. Next up is I Wanna Go Home, not played in the UK, but tonight it’s a real show-stopper despite Tim’s claims to not remember the lyrics, building, brooding, hovering over the red-hot atmosphere until the key change where everything comes crashing in, guitars, violins, bass, keys and drums in a crescendo of noise that departs as suddenly as it arrives leaving Tim’s voice on its own for the conclusion “I am dying”.
All Good Boys has been the revelation of the tour, a discarded b-side the band admit to have forgotten about until recently (and guitarist Larry Gott, who wasn’t in the band when it was released, never having even heard it until tour rehearsals), but which fills rooms like this perfectly. The group vocals approach to the refrain is something James don’t do very often and Saul gets to sing a whole verse as a contrast to Tim. It’s powerful and testament to the quality and depth of their back catalogue that they can pull a gem like this out of the hat.
Quicken The Dead hasn’t seen much time on this tour, but it’s clearly one of Tim’s favourites and he explains that it’s a summation of the themes of La Petite Mort, that it’s important to live with death at your shoulder and to kiss those that you love. It’s a curious almost-waltz in parts, not what you’d expect from a James song, but it fits ideally into the set tonight.
Just Like Fred Astaire is one of James’ most popular and most requested songs and one that they’ve shied away from playing regularly until this tour. It’s a song that connects with their audience in a different way to most James songs – it’s not fighting self-doubt, relationship issues, death, it’s a pure unadultered declaration and love and not surprising that so many James fans have got married to this song. Lisbon is united in one big expression of its own love.
Tim jokes that the next song is one that no one gets married to unless they’re dark. The front rows gesticulate wildly to Tim that the second microphone he uses to sing this song (the same one that’s failed a couple of times on Greenpeace) isn’t working so we’re treated a wild instrumental section of Jam J, complete with a show-stopping light extravaganza. Tim tells us it’s not how you fuck up that matters, it’s how you handle it, before they kick it up again and Tim grabs the megaphone and goes with that and rescues the song and without the distortion it feels different to the other nights on the tour, an accident resulting in something unique. It’s not the type of thing you’d associate with James, but hidden away on Wah Wah there’s a few pieces of this industrialist jam-fuelled material that will shock and delight you if you’ve never investigated it (see also Honest Joe).
They take the mood back down for two tracks from Laid, James’ most popular album here. Dream Thrum showcases a different side to James, the almost heraldic nature of the lyrics being suppressed by understated guitar that makes it feel like a beautiful musical interlude in the midst of what’s going on around it. We’re further soothed by PS, the dark spite of the lyrics being enveloped by James’ mastery at these lower volumes, evidenced by both Jim Glennie’s spine-tingling bass and then when Saul takes centre stage with his violin. This is the James that makes people fall in love with them, the flip side to the big hits, the songs with a different gamut of musical excellence, improvisational genius and the desire to take risks and play these type of songs whilst other bands churn out album tracks that are mere imposters and weaker siblings of their singles. The Portuguese crowd respect this in a way that would shame some of the louder UK crowds this year. This continues for recent single All I’m Saying, a eulogy to his close friend Gabrielle Roth. As they play it, a guy stood near us closes his eyes, looks up and sings every word with his eyes closed.
Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) sees Tim back out in the crowd surfing, the song being another favourite in Portugal. Whilst it’s James theme tune, it translate to mean something to everyone in the hall, it’s a big two fingers to convention and fitting in and very apt for the traditional Portuguese approach to life where they’re proud to be different and proud of their culture and history. It’s why this band are so loved by the people here. They then kick into Moving On, Tim dedicating it to anyone who’s lost anyone, but something goes awry at the start of it so Saul leads the audience in a chant of the punchline of the previous song. Moving On feels like as much like a song of union and communion as Sit Down does – it’s a collective arm round everyone else’s shoulder and that’s why James are so special to so many people.
Tim handpicks people out of the audience as the rumbling bass intro of Gone Baby Gone echoes around the room, giving them strict instructions that they’re there to dance. He bravely suggests people should make a run to get on stage, and fortunately no one takes him up on it otherwise the stage might not have held the weight of people. The song itself has been one of the unexpected revelations of the tour. It’s been cut loose, given a new life of its own, it’s a bit ragged around the edges compared to the studio version, it gets extended out to allow Tim to dance with each of those pulled up on stage (as well as Larry joining in and spinning one of the dancers round) making it unpredictable, Tim plays with the lyrics, but it’s got everything that’s core to what makes James special.
After the night before’s events in Guimaraes when they invited thirty local Nicolinos drummers on stage for Sound, it’s a hard act to follow, but what they do is to simply follow their own commands in the song, taking up the invitation to leave themselves behind, do something out of character and show us something they’ve never done before. It’s another song that’s benefited from a rest because they’re now still playing around with it, keeping its freshness and vibrancy and never resting on their laurels. It’s accompanied by a light show that’s every bit as wild and improvised in parts as the music.
Born Of Frustration and Interrogation open the encore proceedings. The former is another song with particular resonance here, the song that started to open doors for them in 1992 when they first came to Lisbon, the latter evidence that with La Petite Mort that they haven’t lost the ability to create songs that transcend the usual verse / chorus routine of so many bands’ complete works. Live, the dramatic twists and turns of the song are multiplied as it builds to the judgement section and then is taken away from us as it soars to its instrumental conclusion.
Sometimes is really the only fitting end to the gig and the tour. It’s the song here that is most identified with them, the one that gets local pulses raising the most. As it drops down the crowd take over, Tim goes surfing again, putting not just himself but the song in the hands of the audience, but it’s a safe pair. The seated area are all on their feet, the band exchange elated glances as they take control back from the crowd and improvise the song to its conclusion. There’s nothing you can do to follow this, not even one of the many big hitters that are conspicuous by their absence tonight (Sit Down, Ring The Bells, Tomorrow, Come Home, Say Something, Waltzing Along et al). It feels like it’s never going to end until people lose their voices.
Whilst the tour has had celebratory moments like this throughout and seen some unusual revelations (All Good Boys, Go To The Bank, Greenpeace), it’s fitting that the songs from La Petite Mort have nested themselves in the setlist and steadfastly refused to budge and be muscled aside. The crowd reactions throughout, both in the UK and Portugal, showed that it’s cemented its place as a favourite already and they still have that same ability to connect and touch with their audience as they had when people first heard them.