Setlist
Sit Down / Tomorrow / She's A Star / Laid / Jam J / Honest Joe,Out To Get You / Say Something / Lost A Friend / Come Home / SoundSupport
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At last Tuesday’s Lollapalooza stop at Pine Knob in Clarkston, the Manchester, England, sextet James played an impressive 10-song, 45-minute set of compelling rock ‘n’ roll. Unfortunately, very few people witnessed James’ performance or applauded the group’s efforts, in all likelihood due to an overwhelming number of fans going to the show to see hard rockers Korn and Tool, both of whom followed James on the bill.
Despite the less-than-ideal background for its performance, James nevertheless played with much enthusiasm, determined to win over the cheese-fried minds of the Korn fans who heckled them. James commenced its set with “Five-0,” an intimate song off of James’ landmark 1993 album, “Laid.” Sporting a shiny, metallic disco-ball shirt, black cowboy hat and sunglasses, lead singer Tim Booth joked, “Hi, we’re James. We’re from Las Vegas.” When the song ended, a stagehand assisted Booth with fixing a microphone box attached to his back. Booth then muttered, “He gets to fiddle with me for free,” before violinist/guitarist Saul Davies deadpanned, “The rest of us have to pay.”
After a sweet version of “Waltzing Along,” the next single from James’ new album, “Whiplash,” the group played its biggest U.S. hit to date, the title track off “Laid.” The rather silent crowd – with the exception of a handful of diehards wearing James’ flowery T-shirts – finally came to life during “Laid,” trying unsuccessfully to match Booth’s inimitable falsetto.
Booth surprised just about everyone during “Say Something,” yet another hit off “Laid,” when he left the stage, walked slowly through the pavilion seats and onto the grass, all the while singing perfectly in tune. Numerous teenyboppers in the crowd suddenly affected adoration for the band, trying desperately to touch Booth. He then made his way back down the pavilion and back onto the stage for the rest of the set.
James followed by moving away from its more pop-influenced songs to a couple of more adventurous – and less well-received – ones, the little-known “Jam J” and “Honest Joe,” both of which can be found on the group’s free-form 1994 release, “Wah Wah.” Both had traces of techno in them, and were solidly executed. Perhaps sensing, though, that the crowd’s attention had diverted somewhat, James returned to its trademark three-minute gems.
“Lost A Friend,” from “Whiplash,” was quite winning, but the fans were more appreciative of James’ next song, “Sit Down,” a huge international hit in 1991 that inexplicably didn’t get played much at all stateside. Booth explained to the crowd, “This is English rock, a different species, but from the same tribe,” which brilliantly summed up the less-than-harmonious cultural divide between the band and the Lollapalooza audience. Nevertheless, the group earned respectable applause by many meatheads on the lawn who found the song catchy.
The penultimate song, “Tomorrow,” the intro track to “Whiplash” (and initially found in a more skeletal and raw format on “Wah Wah”), was simply stunning. James ended its set with the keyboard-heavy “Come Home,” an older song found on the band’s 1990 album, “Gold Mother.” When the group left the stage, many people were clapping, but sadly, an even greater number of unenlightened audience members were cheering that James had left and that Korn was about to come on.
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Transparent marketing ploy or legitimate injury? That was indeed the question on everyone’s minds as lead singer Tim Booth appeared in a neck brace as he and the rest of the James gang took to the stage, ironically enough in support of their new album entitled Whiplash. “I have whiplash,” Booth stated, answering our silent inquiry, then added laughingly, “It’s not some cheap marketing tool.” Thankfully, rather than canceling this, their long-awaited return to Vancouver, James decided to go ahead, and performed about 90 minutes of material from their first to their most recent albums.
As they opened the show with “Out to Get You” off of their Laid album, a tranquil, yet hauntingly exciting choice, I knew the show was going to be a classic. The audience, myself included, proceeded to sing along with Booth every word of practically every song performed, much to the delight of the band (who helped by concentrating on the Laid and Whiplash CDs, the band’s more commercially successful products).
James do not simply put on a show — they put on an event, and the Rage was the place to be this Thursday. A James show is entertaining to the point of leaving the audience and the band on the same level (despite, this time, Booth having to sit down periodically, leaving the audience yearning for his trademark spastic dances). The band looked like they were having fun, as did the audience.
Their light show was nothing short of excellent and well worth noting, whether it was the beat-triggered strobe lights during “Sound” or the multi-coloured bombardment during “Sit Down,” (which was disappointingly lacking in pogoing by the audience). Considering the fact that this was the Rage, envisioning the stage performance James would put on in an arena or stadium gives me goose bumps. But for now, we’ll just have to settle for clubs. Either way, they’re entertaining to the extreme.
The second single from the Whiplash album reached 12 in the UK Singles Charts.
CD JIMDD 17 – Tomorrow / Lost A Friend (live) / Come Home (live) / Greenpeace (live)
CD JIMCD 17 – Tomorrow / Gone Too Far / Honest Pleasure / All One To Me
CD JIMED 17 – Tomorrow / Tomorrow (Full On Vibe Mix) / Tomorrow (Archive Mix) / Tomorrow (Droppin’ Cake Mix)
Release Name: | Tomorrow |
Artist Name: | James |
Release Date: | 21st April 1997 |
Format: | Studio Single |
Catalogue: | CD JIMDD 17; CD JIMCD 17; CD JIMED 17 |
Related Release(s): | Whiplash (Album) |
Following the Top 10 success of She’s A Star and the Whiplash album and a sold-out UK tour, James released Tomorrow as the second single from the album, having resurrected the track from the Wah Wah album and rerecorded it with a more conventional sound. The obligatory TFI Friday performance and a Radio 1 session for Mary Ann Hobbs preceded the single release.
As with She’s A Star, the single was released on three CDs. The first featured three tracks recorded live for Radio 1’s Mark Radcliffe show in January. Three new tracks – All One To Me, Gone Too Far and Honest Pleasure, the pick of the b-sides from the Whiplash singles, were featured on the second CD. Rather unsuccessful remixes of the title track by Fila Brazilia, Midfield General and Archive made up the third CD. Artwork for the singles was again designed by Blue Source and photography by Davies and Davies.
The video featured the band playing the song stood in large circle with a camera spinning round at high speed above them causing them to duck and dive to avoid being hit. Whilst a relatively simple concept, the video complemented the energy of the song perfectly.
A poster campaign with the fetching slogan “Tomorrow : Coming Soon” preceded the release. The singles were once again priced at £1.99 each in attempt to boost sales. Tomorrow entered the charts at number 12, another commendable performance, although it was to fall sharply in the following weeks.
Don’t write off the old ponces off just yet – this is classic latter-day James, a huge anthemic stadium sparkler, co-written by Eno and the perfect vehicle for Tim Booth’s Broadway show-stopping tendencies. The extra tracks flirt with jungle, glam and even rap, but James don’t really make convincing postmodern dilettantes. Tomorrow is what they’re still great at; soaring sincerity, heroic emotion, wide-eyed new-aged optimism. Recently Booth has been instructing his live audience to ignore what the music press says, so here’s our advice : THIS IS A FINE RECORD, GO OUT AND BUY IT. There you go – ignore that at your leisure.