One Of The Three - The James Band Archive

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Pacific Amphitheatre, Costa Mesa, Los Angeles – 25th September 1992

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Setlist

Ring The Bells / Protect Me / Maria / Walking The Ghost / America / Sound

Support

(supporting) Neil Young

More Information & Reviews

None.

7-Track James Live (US promo, 1992)

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7-Track James Live (US promo, 1992), a 1992 promo by James.

Summary

Seven-track US promo featuring two acoustic tracks from KROQ, four from the Seven Live video and one from Come Home live video

Track List

Protect Me (acoustic) / Lose Control (acoustic) / Sound (live) / Heavens (live) / Don’t Wait That Long (live) / How Was It For You? (live) / Seven (live)

Details

ReleaseAboutSongsGallery
Release Name: 7-Track James Live (US promo, 1992)
Artist Name:
Release Date: 1st July 1992
Format: Promo EP
Catalogue: SACD561

Seven-track US promo featuring two acoustic tracks from KROQ, four from the Seven Live video and one from Come Home live video

Songs related to this release:

Lisbon Coliseu dos Recreios – 8th May 1992

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Setlist

Protect Me / Johnny Yen / Lose Control / Heavens / Ring The Bells / Top Of The World / Sunday Morning / How Much Suffering / Low Low Low / Next Lover / Come Home / Seven / How Was It For You / Sit Down / Sound / Say Something / Born of Frustration / Stutter

Support

n/a

More Information & Reviews

None.

Frankfurt Live Music Hall – 3rd May 1992

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Setlist

Ring The Bells / Sound / Seven / Gold Mother / Don't Wait That Long / Lose Control / Low Low Low / What's The World / Stutter / Top Of The World / Heavens / Born of Frustration / Come Home / Johnny Yen / Protect Me / Say Something

Support

n/a

More Information & Reviews

None.

Seven

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Seven, a 1992 Studio Album by James.

Summary

Seven was a difficult fourth studio album for the band to produce. It was originally scheduled to be released to coincide with the September 1991 tour, but eventually emerged the following year. Even though it was initially panned by critics, it has remained a fan favourite for 33 years.

Track List

Original Release:

Born Of Frustration / Ring The Bells / Sound / Bring A Gun / Mother / Don’t Wait That Long / Live A Love Of Life / Next Lover (not on vinyl) / Heavens / Protect Me / Seven

2001 Reissue:

Born Of Frustration / Ring The Bells / Sound / Bring A Gun / Mother / Don’t Wait That Long / Live A Love Of Life / Next Lover / Heavens / Protect Me / Seven / Protect Me (live acoustic) / Sound (live) / Heavens (live) / Don’t Wait That Long (live)

2017 Vinyl Reissue:

Born Of Frustration / Ring The Bells / Sound / Bring A Gun / Mother / Don’t Wait That Long / Live A Love Of Life / Next Lover / Heavens / Protect Me / Seven

Details

ReleaseAboutSongsListenVideosGalleryArticlesGigs
Release Name: Seven
Artist Name: James
Release Date: 17th February 1992
Format: Studio Album
Catalogue: LP – 510 932-1, CAS 510 932-4, CD 510 932-2; CD 548 786-2 (re-issue)

Most of the tracks that would form the Seven album were written in 1990, several were debuted on the World Cup tour and others on the December tour, with Ring The Bells, Bring A Gun and Next Lover featuring on the Come Home live video. A secret gig at Paris La Locomotive club in March 1991 saw the band start with ten new unreleased tracks from the demos they had just completed for Seven (Pressure’s On did not see the light of day until Wah Wah and Somebody Help Me remains unreleased).

The recording process for Seven did not go at all to plan. The extended success of Sit Down and the associated promotion delayed recording. The album was scheduled for the autumn originally and a massive 30-date UK tour had been announced to coincide.

Recording with Youth was a strange experience for the band. Shunning conventional methods he set the studios up with no artificial light but used candles to light the studio. The band were not happy with the sound of the initial recordings and when the studio time they had booked was completed, the album was only half-finished. Phonogram’s suggestions for producers to complete the job were rejected by the band, the job in the end going to the band themselves with the assistance of Steve Chase.

The delays meant that the album went ahead with no new product to promote, the single Sound coming out only at the very end of the tour. Audiences expecting a set full of Sit Downs were met by a peppering of the new album and some wilfully difficult selections from the band’s earlier material. Just before Christmas, the band organised a fan club show at Warrington Parr Hall where the whole album was previewed, this show being recorded for release as Seven The Live Video.

With the album finally finished, another single, Born of Frustration, was released in January followed by the album in February just as the band had set off on their first tour of America, thus being unable to put in the traditional promotional activities to coincide with the release.

The album was generally panned by the critics with lazy accusations of stadium rock being thrown at the band. The band still spring to the album’s defence – Tim said in Q in 1993 “I stand by Seven. It’s a good record. And if people have a problem with that they can fuck off”. The general consensus within band circles was that a backlash was inevitable after Sit Down whatever the band had released.

Lyrically, the band makes very strong references to the fallout of Tim’s relationship with the band’s manager Martine. The depth of feeling in some of the tracks was self-evident in Tim’s emotional reaction to some of the songs as he had been singing them live on the autumn tour.

Disappointingly the album only reached Number 2 being held off top spot by Simply Red’s Stars although it was Number 1 in the less significant Network chart.

The band toured the album around Europe in April and May which coincided with Ring The Bells as the third single which struggled to reach the Top 40, again partly down to the lack of promotion and live appearances.

The summer saw James biggest headlining live performance of their own at Alton Towers fun park on July 4, broadcast live on Radio 1. A fourth single from the album, a remix of the title track with the three new tracks added to make the EP at the band’s assistance was released the following Monday and failed to reach the Top 40, peaking at number 46.

Seven did however cement James position as one of the UK’s leading alternative bands despite the press mauling it received. It also had some consequences that would alter the course of the band – it prompted the invitation to support Neil Young on his acoustic US tour that autumn and Brian Eno to want to work with the band.

The album was reissued in 2001 and again on double heavy 180g vinyl in 2017. Read about the 2017 reissue on EvenTheStars.

Songs related to this release:

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Videos related to songs on this release:
Gigs at the time of this release:

Seven (Japan)

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Seven (Import, Japan), a 1992 Album by James.

Summary

Japanese version of Seven with OBI sleeve and fold out lyric sheet in Japanese and English.

Track List

Born Of Frustration / Ring The Bells / Sound / Bring A Gun / Mother / Don’t Wait That Long / Live A Love Of Life / Next Lover / All My Sons / Heavens / Protect Me / Seven

Details

ReleaseAboutSongsGallery
Release Name: Seven (Import, Japan)
Artist Name:
Release Date: 17th February 1992
Format: Studio Album
Catalogue: PHCR-30

Japanese version of Seven with OBI sleeve and fold out lyric sheet in Japanese and English.

Songs related to this release:

Seven – The Live Video

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Seven - The Live Video, a 1992 Live VHS by James.

Summary

Seven – The Live Video was recorded at a preview gig at Warrington Hall in December 1991 before the album release. The VHS is the video companion to the album.

Track List

Protect Me (acoustic) / Bring A Gun / Ring The Bells / Sound / Mother / Live A Love Of Life / Next Lover / Heavens / Protect Me / Seven / Born of Frustration / Don’t Wait That Long

Details

ReleaseAboutSongsGigsArticlesGalleryAboutSongsGigsArticlesGallery
Release Name: Seven - The Live Video
Artist Name: James
Release Date: 1992
UK Chart: n/a
Format: Live VHS
Label:
Catalogue:
Produced:
Engineered:
Mixed:
Additional Musicians:
Recorded: Recorded live at Warrington Hall, December 1991

Reviews

NME 2.92

When we expected Red Rocks, we get Warrington Parr Hall. When Tim Booth should take his shirt off and triumphantly climb the speaker stacks, he pulls on a woolly hat and settles for jittery tambourine playing. When everything’s set for a heroic guitar solo, all we get is another bloody trumpet flurry….

Seven The Live Video, then, does a pretty good job of defusing the epic aspects of the big, bold James band. Sharing an identical track listing to the current studio album – new marketing concept ahoy! – it relies on nostril-tickling close-ups rather than wide-ranging camera sweeps endowing the likes of Born of Frustration and Sound with some desperately needed intimacy.

It’s a clever trick, but it can’t disguise every weakness. Much of the video showcases a startlingly accomplished band flaunting their control and power on a batch of vaguely nondescript album tracks.

Booth – the inevitable focal point – is always immensely watchable, vibrating as if he’s permanently caught in a strobe’s fast-flickering glare, even if his jerky awkwardness is now well polished. But all the magnetic frontmen in the world would do well to enliven some of the stodgy, irredeemably pompous songs on display here.

That said, Bring A Gun and especially Ring The Bells are terrific, proving James can still be far smarter and edgier than the stadium dullards they’re increasingly compared with. Frustrating, but it isn’t quite time to lose faith.

Seven Go Mad On Stage – Liz Torres, Q Magazine

Since “Sit Down”, James passage into superstardom has continued apace. Seven instantly ensconced itself at the top of the album charts, their singles are always sure-fire successes, and they confidently moved into Stadiumsville with the announcement of a summer show art (of all places) Alton Towers.

One consequence of their ascent, of course, has been the band’s “new Simple Minds” tag, a label that they show no sign of shaking off. As this live reading of the new LP proves, James do stray close to the atmospheric pomp pioneered by Jim Kerr and Co: Tim Booth strikes the requisite Messianic poses, sidekick Larry Gott’s guitar sounds as strident as football grounds require, and the strains of songs like “Mother” and “Ring The Bells” have the aura of sense-filling hugeness that characterises the Minds’ much-maligned oeuvre.

Thankfully, James have retained a measure of sensitive fragility, infusing almost everything they do with a humanity that saves them from collapsing into bombastic emptiness. The trick is pulled off to great effect on “Sound” (this video’s highlight), a beautifully edgy opus that only benefits from an extended, suspense ridden live treatment.

It’s lapped up by an audience whose slavish adoration is astounding. Despite their unfamiliarity with almost everything performed (the concert took place a good two months before Seven was released), the crowd greets each song with rapture, prompting Booth’s trademark boyish grin to frequently spread across his face. There are times when the hysteria seems unfounded – “Live A Love Of Life” and “Next Lover” are nondescript – but when the festivities draw to a subdued close with “Don’t Wait That Long”, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that James, unlike so many of their unit-shifting contemporaries, fully deserve every adulatory scream that comes their way.

Songs related to this release:
Gigs related to this release:

Reviews

NME 2.92

When we expected Red Rocks, we get Warrington Parr Hall. When Tim Booth should take his shirt off and triumphantly climb the speaker stacks, he pulls on a woolly hat and settles for jittery tambourine playing. When everything’s set for a heroic guitar solo, all we get is another bloody trumpet flurry….

Seven The Live Video, then, does a pretty good job of defusing the epic aspects of the big, bold James band. Sharing an identical track listing to the current studio album – new marketing concept ahoy! – it relies on nostril-tickling close-ups rather than wide-ranging camera sweeps endowing the likes of Born of Frustration and Sound with some desperately needed intimacy.

It’s a clever trick, but it can’t disguise every weakness. Much of the video showcases a startlingly accomplished band flaunting their control and power on a batch of vaguely nondescript album tracks.

Booth – the inevitable focal point – is always immensely watchable, vibrating as if he’s permanently caught in a strobe’s fast-flickering glare, even if his jerky awkwardness is now well polished. But all the magnetic frontmen in the world would do well to enliven some of the stodgy, irredeemably pompous songs on display here.

That said, Bring A Gun and especially Ring The Bells are terrific, proving James can still be far smarter and edgier than the stadium dullards they’re increasingly compared with. Frustrating, but it isn’t quite time to lose faith.

Seven Go Mad On Stage – Liz Torres, Q Magazine

Since “Sit Down”, James passage into superstardom has continued apace. Seven instantly ensconced itself at the top of the album charts, their singles are always sure-fire successes, and they confidently moved into Stadiumsville with the announcement of a summer show art (of all places) Alton Towers.

One consequence of their ascent, of course, has been the band’s “new Simple Minds” tag, a label that they show no sign of shaking off. As this live reading of the new LP proves, James do stray close to the atmospheric pomp pioneered by Jim Kerr and Co: Tim Booth strikes the requisite Messianic poses, sidekick Larry Gott’s guitar sounds as strident as football grounds require, and the strains of songs like “Mother” and “Ring The Bells” have the aura of sense-filling hugeness that characterises the Minds’ much-maligned oeuvre.

Thankfully, James have retained a measure of sensitive fragility, infusing almost everything they do with a humanity that saves them from collapsing into bombastic emptiness. The trick is pulled off to great effect on “Sound” (this video’s highlight), a beautifully edgy opus that only benefits from an extended, suspense ridden live treatment.

It’s lapped up by an audience whose slavish adoration is astounding. Despite their unfamiliarity with almost everything performed (the concert took place a good two months before Seven was released), the crowd greets each song with rapture, prompting Booth’s trademark boyish grin to frequently spread across his face. There are times when the hysteria seems unfounded – “Live A Love Of Life” and “Next Lover” are nondescript – but when the festivities draw to a subdued close with “Don’t Wait That Long”, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that James, unlike so many of their unit-shifting contemporaries, fully deserve every adulatory scream that comes their way.

Songs related to this release:
Gigs related to this release: