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Booth’s voice is undimmed, his exuberant, rubber-limbed ’90s dancing is still intact, and his plea part way through to “not be looking back at a bunch of Samsungs” is largely respected. He’s clearly having fun, standing back to beam upon the audience as they sing back to him, clasping hands with those in the front rows, and at one point launching himself into the audience to crowd surf, all without missing a note.
Read the full review at smh.com.au
“What happens next is something that will live in the memory as one of the most incredible gig moments as the audience takes the chorus of new song Many Faces, which remember the vast majority of them will never have heard before and it’s not been released or even played on radio, and sing it back to the band for more than five minutes. Its chorus of “there’s only one human race, many faces, everybody belongs here” might have been written about Trump’s threat to build a wall to keep out Mexicans, but it embodies how this band write songs that are specific to Tim’s thought processes, but which allow everyone to put their own meaning to them and the two be completely compatible. In true James fashion, they probably won’t release it as a single.”
Read the full review on EvenTheStars.co.uk.
“Booth performed with real energy, dancing around on stage like a spinning top. The music covered a range of emotions, but the primary feeling was one of anthemic celebration.” EastLife.co.uk
“A faultless performance.” – East Anglian Daily Times
James were supported by Peter Hook And The Light. James’s Tim and Jim turned up on stage to play Love Will Tear Us Apart during Hooky’s set.
“With the release of remastered versions of Stutter and Strip-mine this week, it’s wholly appropriate that Johnny Yen gets played and it feels like welcoming back an old friend, but one that’s changed since you last met. It should have been a single way back in 1986 and it could have been a game changer, yet thirty one years on it feels as fresh as if it were a new song.”
This wasn’t the easiest gig James will ever play, working conditions weren’t in their favour, but they’re not a band to just lie back and take the easy route out. The setlist wasn’t full of crowd-pleasers, but anyone who knows this band, and even more those that understand them, should know that they’re never going to be dull performing monkeys like so many of the bands that are rightly deemed heritage bands have become. James are a living mutating beast, evolving constantly, reinventing themselves, turning themselves inside out and twisting themselves round and round.
Read the full review at EvenTheStars.co.uk
James are a band that all collaborate to deliver something truly special and this showed throughout the entirety of the gig, especially during ‘Attention’; their favourite track to play from ‘Girl at the End of the World’. Beginning with piano, ‘Attention’ is a slow starter until keyboardist Mark Hunter leads a euphoric breakdown, before the track proceeds in a truly exhilarating manner. ‘Sometimes’ was another euphoric moment, though in a different sense as the band stopped playing at the end of the song, allowing the crowd to continue the chorus at a volume that could surely have been heard for miles, before beginning to play again.
James produced a unique T-shirt for the Castlefield gig, with each sale providing a donation to the Manchester Emergency Fund.
This type of stage was made for James and tonight they deliver possibly the finest hometown show we’ve seen them deliver. There’s something for everyone in a set that spans the best part of three and a half decades from their Factory single Hymn From A Village, that still sounds as fresh and vital as it did when it came out through to a brand new song called Busted that is being played for only the second time and which makes us firmly believe that this is a band with years still left in their tank with their creative spark burning stronger than ever rather than dimming with age.
Read the full review at EvenTheStars.co.uk
…Nothing But Love has the crowds in raptures, many giving random strangers high fives and hugs, and up on the sloping grass upper-echelons of Castlefield Bowl the giddier kippers in their daisy t-shirts are near sliding up and down with joy.
Read the full review at ManchesterEveningNews.co.uk
It’s hard to explain the ragged attraction of a James show to people who are used to polished and over-rehearsed slick performances or acts that rely on backing tapes, but it’s that knife-edge of excitement of knowing that a song the band have played a million times could fall apart any second that keeps the diehards coming back. It’s called live music; you should try it sometime.
Read the full review at SoundsMagazine.co.uk
James well and truly came home and whilst Booth sang the lyrics “I’m in awe of you” during ‘Of Monsters & Heroes & Men’ earlier in the evening, the bands set left a sold out Castlefield Bowl full of fans well and truly in awe of James.
Read the full review at GigSoupMusic.com
Having attended a fair few James gigs over the years their ability to draw in a crowd as they perform is a joy to behold, I don’t think I have ever encountered a band who can layer up a song is such intricate layers that drag you some place new.
Read the full review at FlickOfTheFinger.co.uk