None.
After a gorgeous day in the wonderful (except for the hills) city of Porto, what better than to spend the evening, or the early hours of the morning watching your favourite band against the backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean with a crowd of 20,000 baying fanatical Portuguese fans who seem to know each and every word of every song? Certainly, there’s not many better ways of spending a weekend.
First we are treated to a couple of very different, but rather humourous support acts. Macy Gray seems to want to ingratiate herself to the fiercely proud Porto crowd by asking them if the capital of Portugal is Lisboa or Lisbon, and seems bemused by the chorus of boos the question gets. She’s absolutely dreadful, murders Radiohead’s Creep and screeches like a banshee and even turns her own biggest hit, which is mildly listenable in recorded form, in a long drawn out jam interspersed by random bollocks. Not good really.
But then, the whole thing takes a turn for the surreal. The Doors are legends, one of the greatest bands to walk the planet, so Riders On The Storm, featuring two of the original band, sound like a cracking way to warm up for James. But from the minute, Ray Manzarek shouts “JIM MORRISON, HE GOT HIGH, MORRISON, MORRISON”, it descends into pure comedy. The whole world are legends, Jim MORRISON got high, everyone is a sex machine, particularly the session musicians and the singer who sounds like a piss poor pissed up karaoke singer butchering classics in a backstreet pub. We’re treated to such revelations that Bo Diddley, James Brown and Jim MORRISON are coming back to earth, have formed a superband in heaven and are fucking all day long and that LSD and weed are good for you and that Dick Cheney and George Bush should have done it at college in the sixties. We get some attempts at talking the crowd in Spanish, which makes Macy’s faux pas look like a blip and a flamenco guitar solo that you’d need more than LSD to make sense of. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to listen to my Doors albums in the same light again without rolling around laughing and we have a new catchphrase.
Anyway, it’s 1.30 in the morning when James finally make the stage and they’re more than worth the wait. Whilst last year’s V and T performances were met with silence by the popkids down the front waiting for The Killers and Kasabian, there’s no such issues here. The opening bars of Born of Frustration kick in and everyone has their hands in the air, clapping, trying to imitate Tim’s holler. The sound is beautiful, crisp and clear, Larry, reunited with his beret, nails the guitar lines and the crowd’s won over. Oh My Heart follows, and although the new ones do suffer a little with unfamiliarity (given the lack of decent promotion in the UK, heaven knows what it got it Portugal), it still carries the crowd along with its pace and passion. Ring The Bells has the arms back in the air clapping so much that it’s actually difficult to see too much of what’s going on up on the stage, so it’s just as well there’s screens to capture Tim’s dancing, Andy prowling the stage, although he does suffer the ignomy of tripping over his lead at one point. She’s A Star generates a similar response, with the crowd even singing back Tim’s call to himself to “hit it” before the high note in the later chorus.
Waterfall makes use of a powerful but simple lighting set up and builds to a stunning “one drop is lonely .. DIVE” section before the outro whips the crowd into another clapping frenzy as Tim loses himself in dance on stage. He drops down into the crowd for Say Something, which sounds fresh and invigorated tonight in the surroundings. You get the feeling this crowd would love them whatever, but this is certainly the best festival set I’ve seen since the reunion, and up there with the best of all the shows.
“This is our favourite of the new songs” is how Tim introduces I Wanna Go Home, and the newly-crowned winner of the One Of The Three messageboard Survivor justifies its award. It builds and builds and then explodes in a sea of light, stunning violin and keyboards and Tim holding a “home” for what seems like an eternity. Moments like this encapsulate everything that makes James the band they are.
Out To Get You is so good that it doesn’t feel like a drop down. The arms are back up in the air everywhere, everyone is singing along, not often in time, but whatever, the impact is almost enough to drive you to tears, the reception at the end has the band stood in admiration out at the mass of arms. Lose Control is a recent addition to the set, and with just Tim and Larry on stage, calms the mood down slightly and gives the rest of the band a rest. I think it’s 16 years since I last heard it live, let’s hope it’s not that long before it’s heard again.
Over the opening refrains of Upside, beautiful guitar and keyboards combining perfectly, Tim says “this is the sound of a heart breaking” and the song is gorgeous and yearning, dripping with the emotion and personal meaning of the lyric. The contrast between the mellow verse and the passion with which the chorus is delivered is uniquely James, indescribable to those who don’t get it. Tim stops and stands stock still before the last chorus kicks in and the band take the song away after the key change.
Whiteboy gets the most recognition of the new songs and it’s a riot. Whilst some of the other songs from Hey Ma walk through a whole series of human emotions, Whiteboy is fun, almost joking in its tone and delivery but you can’t help smiling wide as Tim admonishes the character in the song with a playful wag of his finger.
And then, after an elongated intro, Saul is given the task of counting in the intro of Sit Down in Portuguese. I’ve missed the old bugger and it’s given the same loose ragged treatment that Come Home, surprisingly absent tonight, has and it sounds all the better for it. Sure it has been overplayed on radio and it’s the only song radio play regularly in the UK, but so what? It’s a communion when it’s played, as long as that’s not forced then why not play it – throw it in the middle of the set and let it work its magic. It’s not their best known song in Portugal but it gets possibly the biggest cheer, the most arm-waving and a magnificent reception.
Sound gets a harder edge than I’ve heard for a long time, Larry taking the lead on this with almost staccato guitar before it drops down and then comes back in. The crowd are already won over, but, held together by Jim’s bass and Andy’s trumpet, it ensures that, even at close to 3am, noone is leaving or taking their hands off the stage. Tomorrow seals the deal, even if it doesn’t quite reach the heights of what’s gone before it. The band stand on stage stunned at the reception and applause they receive from the massive crowd. It’s fully deserved though.
The encore opens with Hey Ma, which Tim introduces as the title track of the new album. Larry quips that it’s difficult to find in the shops. The lights and the extended builds into the chorus from Mark’s keyboards simply add to its stunning effect. Getting Away With It is a big favourite in Portugal and is greeted as such, with the crowd waving and clapping over the intro as far back as the eye can see.
Sometimes is James’ biggest hit in Portugal, so it’s no surprise, it’s retained at the end of the set, the crowd drown the band out over the opening section. There’s no need for Larry to encourage the crowd to sing the chorus back. And it’s the loudest, most sustained singback I’ve heard so far. Tim looks genuinely stunned and moved by the response. To finish off, they swing into Laid, with Tim encouraging the at first reticent crowd to climb over the barriers and onto the stage. At one point it looks like it’ll be overwhelmed with people, but security prevent more getting on. It’s a wild way to finish off a magnificent show and demonstration that James can take themselves to crowds of this size, connect and make the event more than just a simple rock concert. Saul thanks the crowd in what sounds like fluent Portuguese and they’re gone. It’s going on for 3.30am, but you suspect people would have stayed all night for more.
The band have always talked passionately about their love of shows in Portugal and Greece and the amazing reaction from the crowds. Without having experienced it previously, it was easy to be cynical. No more. James are serious business in Portugal, for example, Fresh as a Daisy was playing in the big Media Markt store in the city in its entirety earlier in the day. If they add some Portuguese dates to the end of the year tour, I’ll be there. If you’re considering US shows in September and October and the cost is putting you off, then I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending you wait for the return to Portugal Tim promised at the end of the show. As well as being a beautiful and fascinating country to visit, the passion and the energy of the crowd will take you with it if you’re not hollow inside.
Obrigado James, obrigado Porto.
James made their first ever appearance at the Isle Of Wight festival today (June 15), but revealed the island looms large in their tradition.
Taking to the main stage just after 6pm (BST) on the final day of the event, the band sported a hotch potch of costumes from frontman Tim Booth’s beenie hat, through suits and ties to even a red woman’s dress.
“Thanks mother fuckers, it’s great be here,” declared the singer. “Let’s wake this place up!”
The band then played a set which mixed songs from comeback album ‘Hey, Ma’ – including the title track which Booth said was about the “foolish response of the British and American governments to 9/11” – with a host of classics including ‘Tomorrow’, ‘Sometimes’ and ‘Laid’, the latter of which saw the band “sneak” fans onstage to dance with them at the end of the show.
Notably ‘Sit Down’ was absent from the set.
Despite it being the band’s first show on the Isle Of Wight Booth earlier revealed the island figured strong in their camp’s history.
“Our manager, tour managed The Who here on the first Isle Of Wight festival,” he told Virgin Radio “He is in the film of the Isle Of Wight festival shouting at people! But it’s our first time.”
“We’re here to connect with music” proclaimed Tim Booth halfway through what was a memorable performance by James at a dull, cloudy, and at times, rainy Sunday at Seaclose Park.
The upbeat sound of “Born Of Frustration” and “Waterfall” followed by “Tomorrow” (which received the biggest cheer of the day so far) got James’ audience up and dancing on their feet straight away.
Mid way through the set, James seemed to have lost the attention of their public as played a few of their down beat songs. But it wasn’t long before the charismatic Tim Booth won them over again with hits like “She’s A Star” and “Sometimes.”
James’ stay at IOW 2008 is finished off superbly by a stage full of festival goers singing along with the band to “Laid.” Excellent!
None.
A semi-acoustic last minute gig with a five piece James (minus Andy and Dave) who were in town for a session with KCRW to promote Hey Ma.
None.
None.
None.
None
So, the last night of the tour. It’s a bit of a schlepp from Edinburgh to Aberdeen and the venue is right on the north end of the city, meaning a frustrating trip round the most pointless ring road in the UK which meant I was late for the interview with Tim I’d scheduled (coming soon somewhere). The venue looked pretty uninspiring like a massive aircraft hanger and later, as we approached in the rain, it looked as if this could be trouble, lots of people seemingly worse for wear and chanting some of the hits rather badly and wrongly. But how wrong Aberdeen was to prove me to be.
The venue was still an aircraft hanger, but the sound was absolutely superb, probably the best on the tour so far. The extra space in the hall allowed the full effect of the lights to be seen and they were simply astonishing from start to finish. There’s a section of Bubbles, just after when the song moves up in pace, where it’s bathed in yellow, red and green light that is almost idyllic. Strobes and bright white light punctuate the set, but they’re not overused. And the crowd? Well, a few flying pints and the odd crafty cigarette apart, they’re great, they dance, they singalong and they don’t talk through the new songs and there’s not a million mobile phones in the air at every opportunity.
For the last night, the set is mixed up a bit. Top Of The World takes over use of the mirrorball duties from Of Monsters And Heroes And Men, which had suffered most from revelations that would save the world and discussions about dinner and Hollyoaks that suddenly struck people in the middle of the song the previous night. It’s eerie in the big hall, but stuns the crowd into silence. Born Of Frustration though has the crowd up singing, dancing, hollering and the atmosphere is fantastic. Tim asks the crowd to stop throwing beer on stage as it could stop his dancing and damage the electrics, before introducing a “most requested obscure song”. It’s not Island Swing, Folklore or Withdrawn, but Pleased To Meet You stalwart Senorita. Tonight, it sounds just like the single I thought it should have been at the time.
Oh My Heart and Boom Boom just grow in the bigger arena. There’s pockets of dancing around the arena, hands being punched in the air and those that aren’t are listening, cheering at the end of the songs and giving the band the attention and respect they deserve. People actually start dancing as well.
Ring The Bells is absolutely massive. Tim’s dancing is as free and frenetic as it’s been on the whole tour. He comments how the crowd has turned a soulless shed into something throbbing with life and more beautiful.
Waterfall and Bubbles get the same respect from the crowd. Both, as with all the Hey Ma material tonight, sound as vital to James as anything in their back catalogue. It’ll be sad to see some of these fall by the wayside in the winter for the more hit-laden arena shows, but there will be very difficult decisions to be made on which ones stay and which ones go. Getting Away With It is greeted with cheers and mass arm-waving and becomes a communal singalong.
72 returns to the set for tonight, having been dropped earlier in the tour. The lights accompanying it are stunning and it sounds great, but doesn’t quite reach the heights of most of the other Hey Ma material. It was certainly good to hear it again though.
I Wanna Go Home, yet again, was simply mindblowing. It risks encouraging people to lose interest and talk with its quiet opening, but the minute Dave’s drums kick in, people are hooked. The vocal interplay between Tim and Andy works perfectly and then the band demonstrate why they have no peers at songs like these as Tim stalks the stage, pausing to scream the title into the microphone as the lights flash behind him. Stunning stuff.
Out To Get You gets as big a cheer as anything else tonight. There’s a wonderfully touching moment when Tim sings inches from Saul’s face. The crowd holler back the “is you” backing vocals and a thousand pairs of arms are held aloft. Not bad for a b-side to a number 38 single that nearly got lost.
Upside gets punctuated by Tim holding the crowd before the last chorus to try and get the venue silent. This has worked well on previous nights, but didn’t tonight, and the song, which was sounding superb up to this point, kind of gets lost, before the band kick back in and it soars again at the end.
Whiteboy is a mad mad three minutes of fun, leading into the final section of the set. Tim ventures out close to the crowd for She’s A Star, which sounds as uplifting and revelatory as it ever has done. Sound is so good it gets difficult to keep describing it each and every night so I won’t try for the thirteenth time. Tomorrow is a perfect set-closer, the crowd are eating out of the band’s hands by this point, dancing, singing along and generally having the best time Aberdeen has had since Fergie lead them to break the Old Firm monopoly. There’s a comedy moment where the sound cuts out temporarily and Tim turns to the crowd and makes a face.
The encore starts with a rough, ramshackle version of Come Home. The longer in the tour it’s got, the more close to collapse it sounds, and the better it sounds. Hey Ma, inspired by the Black Watch theatre show as Tim tells us, follows the trend of being a dark celebration and the lights just add to the contradiction between subject matter and the song.
Sometimes is amusing. The crowd sing along, but don’t quite catch taking over the refrain as has happened on previous nights. To their credit, the band don’t try to push it, but start up Laid, which brings the night, and the tour, to a rather triumphant close. I’ve told people I’d be happy not to hear Laid again live, but tonight it just made perfect sense as three thousand people dance, sing and try to recreate Tim’s falsetto in union.
A great close to a wonderful tour. The Aberdeen crowd was possibly the best on the tour so far, and the performance also one of the strongest. A soulless venue was transformed into something magical for a couple of hours. It feels a bit empty this morning with the knowledge that we won’t be able to do all this again for seven months.
The Edinburgh Corn Exchange is a dreadful venue. It’s my second visit, the first being last year’s triumphant festival gig, and the magnificence of that show was put into perspective by tonight’s events. The band didn’t play badly, quite the contrary, it was as polished and as fierce a performance as on the tour, but the shape of the venue with it’s lower ceilings at either side and a sound set up that would disgrace small “toilet” venues took a lot of the edges off the overall impact. The hits managed to survive this through sheer force of recognition from the crowd and the closing duo of Sometimes and Laid were up there with any moment on the tour so far as the whole crowd moved in one mass. However, the sound in the venue and the unwillingness or inability of large sections of the crowd around the fringes to shut up and listen to the new songs was grating. Why pay £35 to go and watch a gig and then just talk all the way through half of the set?
Come Home is opened by a bagpipe player on the balcony as the band come on stage. It’s a more direct opening than recent shows and the crowd respond in kind. The bagpipes I thought were unnecessary and possibly a little bit patronising, but the response probably tells me I’m in a minority on that one. Waltzing Along segues in wonderfully and Tim is matched word for word by the crowd.
Oh My Heart and Boom Boom follow, and whilst sounding huge, the subtleties of Andy singing into the trumpet and Saul’s strings seem to be lost in the sound. Ring The Bells suffers no such problems though, again being sang back by most of the room as it builds and builds to its spectacular climax.
Waterfall and, in particular, Bubbles are not helped by the awful sound that muddy together some of the stunning instrumentation that these songs have characterised over the rest of the tour. They’re not helped by the chattering masses. A very good friend of mine observed that Scottish audiences in general (so please don’t take this to mean YOU personally reader) have always tended to be an album behind on James tours and his point would seem to be proved out tonight.
Born Of Frustration changes the mood back though, the crowd starting to sing before Tim comes in. It doesn’t last long though as the chatterers are back for Of Monsters And Heroes And Men which from half way back in the venue gets ruined by it. I Wanna Go Home is strong enough to overcome it, Tim’s dancing stopping people in mid-sentence. Out To Get You similarly survives. Upside still sounds as vital as ever despite some of the indifference around me and the edge being taken off such delicate moments as Mark and Saul’s opening keys and guitar.
Whiteboy is a riot, you can’t fail to love the swinging lights, the “ah ah ah ah ah ah ah” and Tim smacking ten bells out of the cowbell. The closing trio of She’s A Star, Sound and Tomorrow are absolutely massive, there’s very little chatter going on and the deficiencies in the sound are obliterated by 2000 Scots. Sound takes a whole set of new twists, Tomorrow is sung back so loud it almost drowns out Tim.
The encore starts with a surprise as Tim appears at the back of the arena on the balcony next to a very static and expressionless Billy Sloan (Clyde 1 DJ). The cameraphones come out and rather than listening people around me talking about the quality of the pictures they’ve got. They ignore Tim’s pointing towards the stage when Saul plays his violin solo which is a real shame. Hey Ma starts with bagpipes and is accompanied by a drummer on stage throighout.
Then it’s down to Sometimes. No need to encourage the crowd to sing along, it’s the most spontaneous joining in with the refrain of the tour so far, and the loudest. Tim and Larry dance on stage as the crowd take over the song completely. The band respond by kicking into Laid and win over all the doubters and chatterers and send them home happy.
For me, although it was still a good gig, this was the least enjoyable of the tour so far. The sound did the band no favours and they battled valiantly against it and the constant chattering during the less recognisble numbers. The quality of the performance however shone throughout and the smiles on people’s faces as the lights went back up showed that James have no peers in the live arena even with a set full of new songs that the majority of the audience seemingly didn’t recognise.