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Following the lack of success of Ring The Bells, the band did not want to release a fourth single off the Seven album for fear of ripping off their fans. The record company however wanted a release to coincide with the band’s 30,000 sell-out show at Alton Towers which was being broadcast live on Radio 1.  A compromise was reached with the record company allowing the band to rerecord the title track and release the single as an EP with three new tracks.

Goalies Ball is not about football, but the state of human evolution. William Burroughs is a frenzied three minute burst about a young man who became old before his time. Still Alive is a lonely almost a cappella bluesy reflection on one man’s misfortune.

The single’s video showed the band dressed in t-shirts starting at 1 and increasing through to 7 by the end, playing the song in different weather conditions -snow, rain, wind and with fire behind them.

As with the previous two single releases, a John Carroll watercolour was used for the cover artwork of the single.

Radio 1 did A-list the single as they were heavily promoting the live broadcast of the Alton Towers show, but the music press paid very little attention to it. As the band was out of the country playing the European festival circuit, there was little promotion of the single.

Despite being the fourth single off the album, the final chart position of 46 was still disappointing. It was not helped by the cancellation of a second CD entitled “Seven plus three” which was due to include Seven and three extra tracks recorded at Alton Towers but which was shelved due to recording problems with the BBC mobile recording studio.

Reviews

NME

Seven is all about filling the available space. And in 1992 James have all the wide open space they want. Which is why the recent single Born of Frustration had us all on edge with its shameless Simple Minds chorus. But James are still capable of playing their cards close to their chest: they just can’t stop themselves from beating it when the indie police aren’t looking. Yet we forgive them this excursion into pomp-dom because they are James.

Press Release

James:  Seven Single Press Release June 1992

James release a new four track EP on July 6th. Available on a 33 RPM seven inch, CD and cassette, the EP features a different version of ‘Seven’ (the title track of their recent Top Ten LP), plus three brand new songs – ‘Goalie’s Ball’, ‘William Burroughs’ and ‘Still Alive’.

This weekend James make a guest appearance at Glastonbury while on Saturday July 4th they headline their own Alton Towers bash in front of a capacity 30,000 crowd.

The rest of the summer sees the band busy playing a series of continental festivals which includes an appearance at the Feile Festival in Ireland on July 31st

• 7″ JIM 12             SEVEN / GOALIE’S BALL / WILLIAM BURROUGHS / STILL ALIVE
• CASSETTE JIMC 12          SEVEN / GOALIE’S BALL / WILLIAM BURROUGHS / STILL ALIVE
• CD JIMCD 12        SEVEN / GOALIE’S BALL / WILLIAM BURROUGHS / STILL ALIVE

• Goalie’s Ball :1992
• Seven :1992
• Still Alive :1992
• William Burroughs :1992

Open in Spotify

• Seven