Setlist
Nothing But Love / She's A Star / Catapult / Come Home / Dear John / Heart Of Gold / SoundDetails
- Venue: BBC Maida Vale Studios, London, UK
- Date: 15th June 2016
Tag Archives: song-shes-a-star
Birmingham Barclaycard Arena – 20th May 2016
Setlist
To My Surprise / Move Down South / Catapult / Alvin / Waking / Ring The Bells / Sometimes / PS / Dear John / We’re Going To Miss You / She’s A Star / What For / Honest Joe / Surfer’s Song / Curse Curse / Tomorrow / Sound / Attention / Just Like Fred Astaire / Moving On / Nothing But Love
Support
Jack Savoretti
Review
(Review from Even The Stars)
The penultimate night of the Girl At The End Of The World tour saw James reach the National Indoor / Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham.
Opening the set with five new songs is even more a risk in places like this where you can’t see the whites in the eyes of the band such is the distance from crowd to stage, but that’s exactly what James do. To My Surprise opens the set for the first time and feels like an inspired selection – it’s a song that has grown throughout this tour, aided by a brilliant lighting arrangement, into far more than the sum of its parts. That chorus “were you just born an arsehole?” feels celebratory with thousands singing it back to Tim. “Thank you fellow arseholes” he tells us at the end.Move Down South is starting to catch fire now live and fulfil our expectation that it would be one of the songs from the Girl album that would really connect. It’s taken a while, but now the energy is channeled and when it reaches its climax and multiple voices kick in, it feels uplifting and life-confirming. Catapult sees Tim go crowd-surfing for the first time, a brave move for a man in a kilt, but he later tells us he’s got cycling shorts on underneath.
The dual salvo of Alvin and Waking, tracks 10 and 11 on the album where songs that don’t get played live often reside on James albums (I’m making that up off the hoof), but Girl is such a powerful record with no weak tracks that these two, segued together by Dave and with Andy’s trumpet taking a bigger role than on the recorded versions, far more than hold their own with everything else around it.
Tim talks of a divide of those who have come to listen to Girl and those only interested in “older ideas” and the next three (or two depending on the depth of those older ideas) cater to the latter – well, all of us, but them specifically. Ring The Bells and Sometimes are exultant, powerful and feel almost spiritual as Birmingham finds its voice and sings along to every word as if it were their last. PS is a complete contrast, finishing with a delicious Saul violin solo and then a few finger plucks as he walks towards Tim who’s been stood transfixed by his friend’s talent and tells us “there’s nothing like a violin to touch the heart.”
Dear John is all menacing and shimmering and feels like it has a lineage from We’re Going To Miss You that follows it. The latter has a magnificent extended outro section that’s being made up on the spot adding mystery and even more spontaneity to the evening’s events.
The two-song acoustic slot tonight is She’s A Star and What For. The Birmingham crowd’s reaction to the former tells its own story although the response to the latter (dedicated to Simon Moran, their promoter since the mid-eighties) is muted at first, but the song soon wins people over by sheer weight of its unifying power (it was the first real James ‘anthem’ or whatever you call them in the days where radio ignored them).
What For into Honest Joe is the sort of move that the wet dreams of hardcore James fans are made up of. Again, it gives them so much scope to do something different with a song (or a piece of improvised music, which is effect what Honest Joe was), Tim prowling the stage, dueting on megaphone with Saul, watching Adrian let loose on guitar and finishing it lost in a world of his own, megaphone swinging round above his head. Quite what the casual fan makes of it would be interesting to hear, but it’s one of the reasons why James are unique.
If the set started with five songs that meant parts of the audience took time to get a foothold in the gig, the last five of the main set bury them waist deep so they can’t escape. Tim comes out amongst us again for the appropriately named Surfer’s Song, not dropping a word as he’s passed hand to hand across the top of us . Curse Curse is bold, powerful and celebratory as everyone punches the air at the moment the chorus kicks in. Tomorrow starts off slow and builds, Tim and Saul eyeball to eyeball singing in the first verse before the light show illuminates the whole place as the song blasts its way through to its end leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.
Sound is another song where James take the opportunity to improvise and no two versions ever sound the same as they lose themselves in the moment. Andy appears in the seated area and his trumpet call rebounds around the cavernous space as his band mates twist and turn the old favourite seeking new sounds and new avenues. The main set concludes with Attention, “a new song because we’re difficult Mancunian bastards”, but it demonstrates why Girl is such a reinvention for them. Often new songs do get bullied on a tour and either move from such key positions or vacate the set, but this tour is different. Attention is the perfect closer, the middle section between the two main parts of the song where it drops down perfect for these dark halls and a build back in.
Just Like Fred Astaire, in its rearranged acoustic form, opens up the encore and confirms its status as one of the most loved James songs. Two couples in the soundcheck talked about it being their wedding song and around us other couples hold hands or more. Moving On feels like it belongs in these big venues, it has a lift and a power to it that transmits and amplifies the words that make it up and Nothing But Love, which finishes the set and sees the stage and band covered in confetti, has a similar impact as thousands of voices join in one to prove that this is a band still making music that connects in the same way they did a quarter of a century ago.
Glasgow Hydro – 19th May 2016
Setlist
Out To Get You / Move Down South / Catapult / To My Surprise Walk Like You / Waking / Ring The Bells / Sometimes / PS / Bitch / Dear John / She’s A Star / Just Like Fred Astaire / Come Home / Surfer’s Song / Tomorrow / Sound / Attention / Sit Down / Moving On / Nothing But Love / Say Something
Support
Jack Savoretti
Review
n/a
Newcastle City Hall – 17th May 2016
Setlist
Dream Thrum / Walk Like You / Move Down South / Catapult / To My Surprise / Curse Curse / Alvin / Come Home / Sometimes / PS / Girl At The End Of The World / Dear John / She's A Star / Just Like Fred Astaire / Interrogation / Surfer's Song / Tomorrow / Sound / Attention / What For / Moving On / Nothing But Love / Waltzing AlongSupport
The Slow Readers ClubMore Information & Reviews
None.
Hull City Hall – 16th May 2016
Setlist
Dream Thrum / Walk Like You / Move Down South / Catapult / To My Surprise / Alvin / Curse Curse / Come Home / Sometimes / The Shining / Girl At The End Of The World / She's A Star / Just Like Fred Astaire / Surfer's Song / Tomorrow / Sound / Attention / Bitch / Moving On / Nothing But Love / Say SomethingSupport
The Slow Readers ClubMore Information & Reviews
As James’ Girl At The End Of The World tour enters its third and final week, the band made a long-awaited return to Hull and the resplendent surroundings of City Hall after a nearly quarter of a century absence. The Slow Readers Club supported.
It’s great to have The Slow Readers Club back on the tour after they weren’t on the bill at Leeds. Whilst Jack Savoretti might have sold a million copies of his last album, they are the ones that have won the hearts and minds of James fans on this tour like no support band I can recall since the eighties when the likes of Inspiral Carpets, Happy Mondays and New Fast Automatic Daffodils were in tow.
It doesn’t take much listening to them to realise why that is. Their ten-song set of powerful electronic anthems hits the mark each and every time with a diversity and range that’s impressive for a signed band, let alone an unsigned one. With three of the standout tracks from their debut self-titled album (Sirens, One More Minute and Feet On Fire) being given extra life and fire with this line-up and seven from last year’s Album Of The Year Cavalcade, there isn’t a weak spot in the forty-minute set.
The five singles from that album are all present and correct as well as the more contemplative but no less impactful Days Like This Will Break Your Heart and the bold album and set closer Know The Day Will Come. The sound in City Hall is almost perfect so every little nuance in the music can be heard clearly – the intricate patterns that the effervescent Jim Ryan weaves on his bass and Kurtis Starkie on his guitar and the clarity and dexterity of David Whitworth’s drums.
It’s a revelation how much they’ve blossomed in these rarefied surroundings. Aaron’s stage presence has developed in two short weeks to the point that we wonder how he’ll manage when the stages get smaller again at their headline shows – although the recently announced November Ritz show might mean it’s not a problem he might have to face. At one point he tells us they’re having the “best time of our lives” on the tour and it shows. They’re also winning over a new army of fans as the prolonged applause when he tells us they’re just an unsigned band from Manchester and also at their end of their set testifies.
The Slow Readers Club played Start Again, Sirens, One More Minute, Days Like This Will Break Your Heart, Don’t Mind, Feet On Fire, I Saw A Ghost, Forever In Your Debt, Plant The Seed and Know The Day Will Come
A Monday night in Hull City Hall is quite a different experience for both band and audience than arenas in Manchester and Leeds at the weekend. Firstly, it’s far more sedate, those with alcohol or other substances in them stand out more (although a girl constantly shouting “Get your fucking knob out” to Tim would probably stand out anywhere) and there isn’t the outpouring of pent-up energy and emotion at the end of a working week that the release valve of the big shows gives the crowd.
It’s with that in mind that Tim tells us they’re going to start slow and build. They’ve already done that on this tour with Out To Get You and Top Of The World, but tonight they choose to start with Dream Thrum. We’ve already mentioned the quality of the sound in the venue, which is the best of the tour so far of the dates we’ve attended, and that allows the understated beauty of this song to shine through and its subtlety to be appreciated as Saul brings the song to its conclusion bathed in blue light focused on his violin.
Walk Like You, the opening track from La Petite Mort follows and doesn’t feel at all like them easing us in as its breakdown section is something truly special with Andy Diagram taking centre stage with trumpet as Tim, as he does often tonight, roaming the stage seeking connection with his band mates as a lift and spur to himself to help take us to higher plains. Move Down South is the first of nine songs from Girl At The End Of The World (Dear John is dropped due to technical issues with Dave’s drumkit) and it still feels like they’re searching for an additional spark to really set this one alight. Catapult has no such issues though, its tumultuous journey assisted by Tim disappearing off stage and reappearing up on the balcony, making his way round the front row of seats connecting with the audience up there before surveying the scene below him and grabbing a girl’s camera phone and pretending to throw it off the balcony.
It wouldn’t be a James gig without a false start to a song and tonight it’s To My Surprise once Tim has made it back downstairs. It’s the price of a band taking risks, not playing the same set every night and trying to do something different with songs that stay in the set from night to night. Tim takes the opportunity to remind us that the tour is called the Girl At The End Of The World tour for those who haven’t immersed themselves in the number 2 album they’re promoting and also to request that people treat him with care if he ventures out amongst us. He only makes it to the barrier at this point, but as he stands perched on it surveying us, To My Surprise confirms to us that it’s one of the songs that has blossomed most of the album tracks when translated to the live environment. Alvin has had a similar transformation though – its French lyrics taking on an even more playful tone live and the more expansive approach taken to the music makes it one of the highlights of the set.
Tim explains Curse Curse is about being a hotel room and hearing the couple next door making love and the natural jealous male reaction of turning on the football on the TV. When Tim describes it as “almost a hit” before they play Come Home and Sometimes to follow it, it feels like it was just born at the wrong time as it has that same forceful impact on these ears as those two. Naturally the familiarity of the crowd with them means the response is more delirious and the static crowd around us start to move a bit. Sometimes once again has the audience taking the song away from the band and making it their own – but what’s most refreshing is that it’s being done at a different point each night dependent on where we are, a sign of spontaneity and freshness that has revitalised the song.
The Shining is also given its first airing on the tour. Whilst probably not as much a rarity as Saul suggests, it’s a very welcome reminder of the massively underrated Pleased To Meet You album that was released as the band was disintegrating at the turn of the century. The stunning acoustics of City Hall are the perfect environment for it too, uplifting and allowing the rich detail of the song to be heard properly. The title track from Girl has a similar uplifting effect on us, now they’ve nailed it with a beautiful slide guitar opening from Adrian (who is really blossoming in his role as the tour progresses) and the power as the chorus kicks in after a slight delay.
There’s technical problems with Dave’s bass drum that causes a rethink. Tim thinks it’s his drum stool that’s the problem and jokes about the power of Dave’s drumming going all the way through his haemorrhoids to the stool and whether there’s a music shop open in Hull at 9 o’clock at night. We lose Dear John as a result as they huddle centre stage for acoustic versions of She’s A Star and Just Like Fred Astaire. Tim’s almost drowned out on both songs, clearly crowd favourites in this part of the world even in this wonderful stripped-down form that reinvents particularly Fred.
Surfer’s Song has been one of the revelations of the tour and a game changer in the set and tonight is probably the best example of that. Tim comes down to the barrier, ponders it and then launches himself across us and he’s raised on a sea of arms all the way back to the mixing desk, turned round and dispatched back to the stage, not missing a word in the process. As he sails past us facing up towards the sky it’s an intense moment of connection where band and audience become one.
Tomorrow starts off slow with Tim eyeball to eyeball with Saul who slowly ratchets up the tempo of the song through the first verse until it reaches the chorus where it explodes into life with Andy’s trumpet once again playing a central role. As it reaches its octane-fuelled conclusion, Tim’s at the other side of the stage encouraging Adrian whilst Ron and Andy weave circular patterns with their tambourines.
There’s no Honest Joe tonight, but Sound more than makes up for that, a song that they manage to continually find new twists on as they improvise when the song hits the breakdown, there’s flashes of gorgeous violin from Saul that the sound quality allows us to hear, there’s even a mini drum solo at one point as the other instruments drop and Andy ends the song leaning over the balcony upstairs sending shards of trumpet across the hall. Before it Saul tells us that this was one of the first places he and Adrian played music together as teenagers in Hull and that it means a lot to him to come back here and do the same thirty four years later.
Attention is no less powerful in its impact. The band are rightly proud of this and it’s refusing to be budged from its position at the end of the set – it starts all brooding and menacing before dropping away to almost nothing then rebuilding. Tonight’s light set-up for it is very dark, almost in darkness at some points with white rotating lights shattering the black and adds much to the impact it has as well.
The encore tellingly is three songs from the past two albums rather than the obvious rush to the greatest hits to prop up the set. Bitch is struck up by the band before Tim makes his entrance dressed in one of the band’s striking BI-T-CH takes on the classic JA-M-ES shirt and loses himself in the swirling cacophony of sound. Moving On and Nothing But Love are songs that in another time and place would be nestled alongside some of the big-hitters that people are calling out for in vain and deserve their places at the end of the set. Both are uplifting in contrasting ways. As Tim stands high on the monitor, arm raised as the chorus of Moving On kicks in and Hull responds in kind, it feels like we’re all joined together as one celebrating those that are no longer with us, whilst Nothing But Love celebrates those that are by our side.
There’s still time for a second encore and in democratic fashion Tim asks us if we want Sit Down or Say Something. The audience’s vote is clear, although there’s a few disgruntled advocates to the contrary, ourselves included, that they want to hear Say Something. As the song finishes with Tim down amongst us on the barrier, the audience bring it back up and it finishes with the band and audience together as one sharing the moment.
Whilst Hull might have lacked the adrenalin highs of the weekend, it was probably the best performance of the tour so far and definitely the best sounding of the shows that we’ve been to in an environment that allows detail in the band’s music to be heard fully. It would have been very easy to simply replicate the weekend’s set list but to the band’s eternal credit they’re not resting on their laurels and want to challenge us as well as themselves and, after the crowd took a while to get going, they did exactly that.
Leeds First Direct Arena – 14th May 2016
Setlist
Top Of The World / Move Down South / To My Surprise / Surfer’s Song / Curse Curse / Come Home / Sometimes / Feet Of Clay / Girl At The End Of The World / Catapult / Say Something / Bitch / We’re Going To Miss You / She’s A Star / What For / Dear John / Honest Joe / Sound / Attention / Sit Down / Moving On / Nothing But Love
Support
Jack Savoretti
Review
Moving on from the previous night’s spectacular Manchester show, James moved across the Pennines to Tim Booth country for a Saturday night show at Leeds’ relatively new First Direct Arena.
Top Of The World was an unusual choice to open up an arena set, particularly on a Saturday night with a crowd that had been on the lash for the main part of the day and which, noticeably if the relative lack of James t-shirts on show was any indication, possibly was more inclined towards the band’s back catalogue than the new album. The stage is lit in a hazy blue as the song’s eerie bass and then Saul’s violin solo pierce through – it’s beautiful in its execution and a brave move for a baying crowd that had emptied the bars en masse as the lights went down minutes earlier. Move Down South, the first of ten songs from Girl At The End Of The World, doesn’t quite manage to spark the crowd into life other than in pockets.
Any concerns that the new material might not connect to this audience are summarily dismissed though by To My Surprise. It’s blossomed spectacularly from the recorded version (think how Getting Away With It has for reference). Tim had earlier given a speech about the crowd looking after him if he came down after the attack on him in Llandudno, asking us to treat him like a precious ming vase and to be gentle with “this old man and have a fucking good evening” to which Saul wisecracks “Ming The Merciless.” Leeds crowds have a reputation in James’ past for being boisterous, but he’s treated with the respect he asked for as he surfs out amongst us, never missing a word or dropping the microphone. Suddenly the mood of the night has changed in a moment.
Surfer’s Song is another one of the Girl songs that has taken on a new life since the tour start. Addressing the crowd stage left, it has the thrill of a rollercoaster or the riding of the waves alluded to in its title. It feels very different to anything James have ever done before, but at the same time it’s a skin that they have taken to naturally, the raw energy that burns at the core of the band shooting out in all directions. The Leeds crowd, whether they know it or not, love it.
Curse Curse has been notable by its absence so far on the shows we’ve been to as it’s probably the song that pointed them in the direction that they’ve taken on Girl. The fact it stands tall and proud against the giants that are Come Home and Sometimes that follow it is testament to the fact that the band are still making that vital connection to their audience even though we’re all a little older in the tooth and greyer of hair than we were back then. Come Home sends the crowd into a frenzy, recalling days of university, trying and failing to imitate Tim’s inimitable dance, and ending up soaked in beer. As Sometimes, with Adrian yet again coming centre stage for a guitar solo that absolutely nails it, comes to its close, the band stop playing and the crowd just take it and run. When it’s so spontaneous as it is tonight, there’s nothing the band can do but go with the flow – they stop and gaze in awe for a minute, before joining back in. The only way they’ll ever stop this is by not playing it.
It’s back to the Girl though for three more songs, a steadfast refusal to play by the game of arena-straddling bands that just pump out their best known songs with new album tokenism. Feet Of Clay is the most beautiful and fragile moment on the record, but it’s built of much sterner stuff than its counterparts on La Petite Mort (Bitter Virtue) and Hey Ma (Semaphore) and refuses to get bullied by what’s around it. The sound is crystal clear and Tim’s vocal delivery particularly exceptional on this, his voice crackling with emotion that just makes this even more poignant. Girl itself is another one that has blossomed as the tour has progressed, it has lifts at different stages in the song as so many of James’ most connecting work does and Catapult has a similar impact and sees Tim back amongst us, almost making it all the way back to the mixing desk, a very brave move with a Saturday night crowd.
Tim starts to sing Say Something without accompaniment at first and by the time the band come in, they’ve taken control of the song. It’s one of the more simple songs in James’ catalogue and one that’s been twisted and turned so many ways it’s difficult to be surprised by it anymore, but it’s undeniably one of the most loved as well as the reaction it gets attests to. Bitch, with its soaring threatening opening that’s so loud it’s on the brink of, teetering on the edge of, distortion is a completely different animal – it feels strange hearing it mid-set when it’s a perfect album and set opener, but that’s quickly forgotten as several thousand people sing back the title to the band.
We’re Going To Miss You is a real triumph too, Tim sitting down in awe at what’s happening around him on stage as the songs hits the breakdown and the band are very clearly improvising in front of him and us as it weaves its way through the sauna-like air. The acoustic part of the set features She’s A Star, before which Saul quips that they don’t know what they’re doing although five thousand plus Yorkshire women and men might disagree as Tim and Ron, who provides some beautiful vocals that complement Tim’s perfectly, are almost drowned out. What For doesn’t quite get the same ecstatic response as it did in Manchester the night before, but our gaze is fixed to the screen that focuses in on Jim’s finger work on his beautiful acoustic bass.
The shimmering treachery of Dear John is a precursor that doesn’t prepare the crowd for the final onslaught that descends upon them. In these big halls Honest Joe feels even further from anything you’d expect from a band filling places like this. It rumbles away with an unsettling menace before exploding into a wall of green light, duelling megaphones, ecstatic dance and drumming so rhythmic and tribal that you fear the apocalypse is about to engulf us all. Sound is rife with improvisation tonight from the almost jazz tones of its opening bars through its lyrics to Andy dashing along the barrier, illuminated red trumpet in one hand, high fiving the crowd with the other, Ron on a second set of drums and Adrian marking his mark on the breakdown. As Andy clambers back on stage, he’s greeted by a huge hug from Tim that tells its own story about how the band are functioning on this tour.
Attention brings the main set to its conclusion, introduced as the song that they’re most proud of on the new album and rightly so. It’s the perfect way to end the main set, its middle section where the song stops and comes back in slowly thanks to Mark’s keyboard trickery, building, building, creating an expectant buzz before its crescendo.
Whilst the First Direct Arena is probably the best of its kind in the country, built to give the maximum number of people the best view and for the sound to feel right everywhere, it isn’t set up for the walkabouts that James like to do, so Tim tells us that they’re going to do the unexpected which is what people would expect from them. Sit Down is played full band all of them on stage and feels as fresh and triumphant as it has ever done and it looks like the band are having a blast playing it again, reconciled with the way it does sometimes overshadow the rest of their work in the eyes of some, but that’s something out of their control unless they deny it completely.
Moving On and Nothing But Love close proceedings, that in itself a statement that James in 2016 are not just about their past but the here and now. These two songs were born in a different era to their big hit singles when radio was king and what was loosely collected as indie guitar ruled the airwaves and the charts, but that in no way distills or lessens the impact these songs have – one above death is turned around into a celebration of life and the other simply is an unquestioning love song that leaves us streaming out of the arena on a high. It might not have reached the heights of Manchester the night before, but those type of gigs come along once in a very long time.
Manchester Arena – 13th May 2016
Setlist
Out To Get You / Move Down South / To My Surprise / Surfer's Song / Catapult / Come Home / Ring The Bells / Sometimes / PS / Girl At The End Of The World / Bitch / She's A Star / Just Like Fred Astaire / Dear John / Honest Joe / Sound / Attention / Sit Down / Moving On / Nothing But Love / What For / TomorrowSupport
Jack Savoretti / The Slow Readers ClubMore Information & Reviews
Manchester so much to answer for. Manchester is home for James although none of the line-up on stage tonight currently reside in the world’s greatest city. It’s still their spiritual home though where they formed, where they survived the barren early years, where they wrote their best known songs in the dark satanic mills of Ancoats. The city may have changed unrecognisably since then and James may have died, been reborn and reinvented time and time again, but tonight’s show in the Arena felt like a triumphant return of the prodigal son.
Opening up are local band The Slow Readers Club at the personal invitation of Jim and Saul from James who have tirelessly championed them this year – and with good reason. Of the hundreds of unsigned bands in Manchester these are the ones that are most ready to make bigger stages their own. As they did at Brixton Academy last Saturday they don’t look or sound out of the place in one of the largest halls in the land and with a Ritz show announced for November, things do look to be taking off for them good and proper now.
Those that have assembled early are treated to a half hour seven-song set that’s primarily taken from last years’ Cavalcade album plus the magnificent One More Minute from their self-titled debut. It’s a sign of where they are that people are bemoaning their favourite song not being in the set – something that echoes with the headline act as well. Four of the singles from Cavalcade are present and correct though and I Saw A Ghost even prompts a mini sing-along down the front. Plant The Seed, Forever In Your Debt and Know The Day Will Come are a powerful trio of songs to close their set that feel like they were made for nights like this in places like this and watching them blossom and grow into these halls has left us grinning from ear to ear most nights.
You can see the confidence oozing from them too. Front man Aaron invokes images at points of Ian Curtis, down on his knees, head on hand during I Saw A Ghost or the staccato movement of his arms as he channels the song as a means of exhuming the demons that live in the lyrics. Kurt and Jim provide the irresistible guitar and bass combination whilst one of the revelations of the tour, in these venues with sound that allows you to distinguish properly, has been David’s drumming, crisp, crystal clear and dictating the tempo of the songs. We once described them as the best band you’ve never heard, it’s time to right that wrong.
By the time James come to the stage around 8.45 the Arena is packed although it’s clear, at least where we were, that there’s none of the atmosphere that sometimes tarnishes these big hometown gigs. People are here for a celebration of their band, the one that unlike some of their more celebrated contemporaries can still fill places like this and do it on their terms and not as part of some greatest hits recycled package aimed at the pocket rather than at the heart and mind.
They open with Out To Get You, a song that they considered resting on this tour, but one which sets the right tone for the evening. As Saul’s violin and Mark’s melodica ripple over us, up the sides of the hall and back down it feels like something special is about to occur and it’s exactly what does happen. Tim shows us his battle scars from his venture out into the crowd the night before in Llandudno and asks us to be gentle with him and to treat his 56 year old body like a porcelain ming vase when he comes out to meet us.
This is the Girl At The End Of The World tour and tonight they ensure that it lives up to its billing. One minor criticism of James’ sets in the past has been that their sets for these big gigs are, understandably given this venue holds about the number of people that got them to number 2 in the charts, sometimes less directed towards the new, but there’s none of that tonight as we get nine of the twelve songs from the record. Four of those come in a row, once they’ve done the obligatory false start on one of them given the complexities of getting eight people on stage, tonight it’s Move Down South. Once it starts though, like all the new songs tonight, they don’t feel out of place, they belong in places like this and those that haven’t pulled their finger out and got to know the Girl need to do it. Jim wisecracks at the end of the set, deadpan as ever, that “it’s the last thing you should do.”
To My Surprise is probably, of all the new songs, the one that has had the most stunning transformation to a live song. It has a surging pulsating energy coursing through it and as thousands bellow back the “were you just born an arsehole?” chorus as the stage is illuminated in blinding white light. Tim comes down to the crowd and dives in head first, lifted across us on a sea of hands without losing a note. Surfer’s Song follows and as he jumps on one of the boxes, standing tall and proud surveying the crowd like a lighthouse keeper as the (sound) waves crash against him, it’s not the James of the big hits, but the adrenalin surge that the song injects as it takes everything in his path with it is something the band’s detractors would never envisage. Catapult has that same raw invigorating energy to it as well, Tim making his way into the seats to connect with more people.
Tim telling us “It’s good to be home motherfuckers” is almost drowned out by the deafening roar that accompanies the unmistakable siren call that is Come Home. It’s aged like a fine wine, still having that potency with which it announced itself all those years ago, but having grown within its own skin. Manchester predictably goes nuts, the aching limbs of the older ones amongst us being stretched to the limits whilst those experiencing this for the first time around us joyful and excited. Tim prowls the stage, eyeball to eyeball with Saul at one point, driving each other on. Ring The Bells and Sometimes have a similarly delirious effect from the barrier back up in the gods of level 2 and it’s great to see Adrian take centre stage and some well-deserved recognition for a solo as Sometimes builds up to its climax.
Part of the unique magic of James though is how they move from that euphoric outpouring of the likes of Sometimes to the aching longing of the beautiful PS that follows it. As the stage is drenched in yellow light, the focus turns to Saul and Andy, side by side, the fragility of the violin accompanied by the softness of the trumpet to stunning effect and fifteen thousand of us are stunned into silence.
The title track of Girl and Bitch might bookmark the album but they’re placed together mid-set and perfectly demonstrate the diversity of the record. Girl is probably the most “James” song on the record, whatever that means from a band constantly searching for new ways of expressing themselves, whilst that brooding menacing intro to Bitch is from a completely different place and time.
“From the sublime to the ridiculous” is how Saul describes the transition from Bitch to an acoustic version of She’s A Star and Just Like Fred Astaire. Both are met with a roar of appreciation from the crowd, but what’s so utterly magnificent about them is the way both songs have been transformed into something so different yet in the same breath absolutely capturing and distilling the simple beauty that’s at the heart of both songs. Dear John which follows has something similar going on at its core and the response it gets as it finishes is no less enthusiastic as to what’s gone before.
The final trilogy of Honest Joe, Sound and Attention is once again something genuinely special, not your traditional set closer for a band of this size and the level of history they have. Honest Joe is a shock to the system, not a song by any traditional measure, but an experimental wall of sound through which melody and rhythm come to the surface. There’s a few bemused faces around us as it starts but by the end everyone has been drawn in. Sound has taken on the challenge of the new pretenders to its throne at the end of the set and feels like it’s been given yet another new lease of life, always on the edge, always different as someone takes it down new paths before Andy appears in the seats with a fluorescent red trumpet. Attention is the real show-stopper though, at one point it feels like at the breakdown that the world has stopped in time. Tim stands stock still, head cocked back taking in what’s going on around him as the song comes slowly back in. No one else is making songs like this, yet alone the H-word bands that James get lumped in with.
James answer the question on how to deal with your most famous song in the way only they can. There’s a trumpet call from the very back of the arena as Andy is lit up in white light, Adrian starts up on one side of the arena, mandolin in hand, whilst Tim appears the other side, spotlight on him as he makes his way through the adoring masses, almost drowned out on the chorus. By the time he makes it back to the stage, everyone else is back on and the song finishes with a magical moment where the song is taken up and the arena joins in en masse.
Moving On and Nothing But Love finish the first encore, testament to the belief that James have in these songs above the list of more obvious songs that could fill these places. The former feels like it’s had life breathed back into it, a celebration of life rather than the mourning of death that looking round feels like it means something to everyone around us. Nothing But Love has a new ending where the song drops down to just vocals that works brilliantly as part of its exultant celebration of love.
They’re not going to be allowed to go anywhere as we’re still ten minutes from the curfew, but what they do next is far from the obvious. What For is a long-time old school James fan favourite – in a way it did what Sit Down did three years later on a lesser scale, taking them from the likes of The Green Room and the International into The Ritz. It’s given the acoustic treatment that Star and Fred got earlier, they start before everyone’s ready, it feels like there’s some sort of magnificent busking session going on, but it’s one of those songs that if you don’t know it, you almost don’t need to because the song will make its acquaintance and feel like your best friend by the end of it. There’s tears around us as people thought they’d never hear this song again live, yet alone in these circumstances. They finish with the propelling whirlwind of Tomorrow, as fast, frenetic and life-confirming as ever.
It’s a real shame that unlike those two legendary shows at G-Mex and in here in 2001 that this show wasn’t recorded for posterity and as proof, if any were needed, that James are as fresh and vital now as at any point in their long career. Like so many of the very best gigs, words will never be able to capture the experience. Whisper it quietly, but this was probably the best hometown arena show they’ve ever done.
Llandudno Venue Cymru – 12th May 2016
Setlist
Move Down South / To My Surprise / Alvin / Surfer's Song / Ring The Bells / Sometimes / Bitch / PS / Dear John / Girl At The End Of The World / She's A Star / Just Like Fred Astaire / Señorita / Honest Joe / Sound / Attention / Sit Down / Moving On / Nothing But Love / Say SomethingSupport
The Slow Readers ClubMore Information & Reviews
We’re back on the James tour after a few dates off and next stop is Llandudno, a beautiful seaside town on the North Wales coast that seems mostly untainted by the cataclysmic decline of so many similar places. Support came from Manchester’s The Slow Readers Club.
These bigger stages are starting to feel like home for The Slow Readers Club now and it’s a pleasure to witness them blossoming before our very eyes and to witness the incredible responses they’re getting for a band that the majority of the audience have never heard of before let alone listened to. It’s no real surprise though when you consider the set they’ve got to present – tracks from their debut album such as Sirens, Feet On Fire and the magnificent One More Minute are freed from the production shackles of their recorded versions and fill the hall in the same way their hosts’ classic songs do a couple of hours later. Then you have their most recent singles – Forever In Your Debt, Don’t Mind, the set-opening Start Again, I Saw A Ghost and Plant The Seed – that have exactly the same effect.
Whilst we might repeat ourselves saying this, the band don’t. Each song has a life and personality of its own whilst retaining a connection of varying strengths to a sound that makes them stand out. As well as sounding like they belong in these halls, they’re now starting to look it, the confidence of a thrilling response at three sold-out London shows giving them that further boost. There’s a moment where Aaron moves towards brother Kurt, their eyes meet, and both smile and then turn back round – it doesn’t look much but it means a lot. The audience’s reaction at the end of the set tells its own story – that “small unsigned band from Manchester” feel like everything but that.
The Slow Readers Club played Start Again, Sirens, One More Minute, Days Like This Will Break Your Heart, Don’t Mind, I Saw A Ghost, Feet On Fire, Forever In Your Debt, Plant The Seed and Know The Day Will Come.
This is James’ first time in Llandudno and hearing accents in the crowd it feels like there’s a mix of locals and those that have made the trek across the border from Liverpool and Manchester for the show and a day at the seaside. Those that attended the VIP soundcheck got the extra-special treat of them effectively busking a version of Burned from 1989’s One Man Clapping live LP when an audience member asked them a question about the song – it’s been played once in 25 years.
It’s therefore an even more challenging set for this audience that it might be in towns and cities where James have played before many times, particularly when they start with four songs from the new album Girl At The End Of The World, but the response at the end of opening song Move Down South tells the story that the acquaintance has already been made and they’re on first name terms. To My Surprise is a revelation live, it’s blossomed with a stunning stretched out middle section where Andy Diagram’s trumpet is king and Tim is down on the barrier for the first time of the night and a stunning light show that matches perfectly the playful questioning of the chorus as the 2,000 assembled ask the question “were you just born an arsehole?” Sometimes some of the weaker songs off an album have lost their place in the set this far into a tour, but the Girl songs have dug their heels in and aren’t going anywhere and there’s no reason why they should.
Alvin is another case in point. Tim tells us he doesn’t know why he wrote it in French because it’s impossible to learn, but it’s one of those James songs that the band take away and twist and turn into something that almost doesn’t need them such is the uplifting joyous sound that they create. Surfer’s Song has been one of the highlights of the new songs, that incessant forward propelling motion that runs from its start to finish perfect for a live show in a big sweaty aircraft hanger like this.
Ring The Bells and Sometimes provide light relief for those that haven’t yet got to the new album. The stage is lit in yellow, Tim lost in dance as Bells sends the hall into a wild frenzy whilst Sometimes is a little more composed in its nature and sees us all joined as one in declaring that we can see your soul with something that approaches religious fervour.
Bitch is a big song, possibly the strongest statement on Girl of where James are at the moment. The fact that Tim doesn’t sing for the first two and a half minutes gives him a brief respite, but he’s too tied up in the moment not to dance around the stage as his bandmates create a brooding, menacing backdrop. It has an immediate and very marked counterpoint with the next track PS though as if the band are toying with us, moving from one sound to the next with no thought for continuity like the best random playlists always do. As the song melts the hearts that minutes earlier were beating close to bursting point, the stage is lit in yellow, lights focus on Saul on violin and Andy on trumpet as the other instruments drop down and Tim improvises some lyrics about following footsteps and fire.
“This is a song about getting dumped” is the deadpan intro to Dear John, a song that’s now beginning to really flourish live, a slow burner that’s possibly not as robust as those songs around it on the record when played live, but one like a butterfly that shows its wings late is developing into the most beautiful of the lot. The title track from Girl similarly feels like they’ve got it nailed down where earlier in the tour they were searching.
They congregate centre stage for the two-song semi-acoustic set and as the opening bars to She’s A Star strike up and the crowd realise what it is we have seven minutes of the band almost being drowned out by the scale of the reaction and the singalong to that and the “unadulterated love song” that is Just Like Fred Astaire which follows it. Saul describes it as “a bit mad” but that would be downplaying the connection that has been made.
Señorita makes a welcome return to the set. It’s a song that (for some unknown reason) the people of Greece have taken to their heart and it probably would have been a single here at some point had Pleased To Meet You gone its full promotion cycle as the band disbanded in 2001. It wouldn’t feel out of place on any James Best Of / singles type record and tonight it proves that point. Tim goes down on the barrier again, a brave move for a man wearing a kilt, although he does resist crowd-surfing.
Honest Joe, Sound and Attention appear to have built foundations at the end of the set and are refusing to budge. They’re three songs where James show a very different side to the one that most people will know them for. Honest Joe came from the improvised Wah Wah sessions and its genesis is very evident in its lop-sided structure that allows the band to improvise around it, take it to the very extremes as drums and keyboards collide and scrap it out with Tim and Saul’s duelling megaphones. Sound is a little more controlled and defined in its make-up, but that doesn’t prevent them stretching its skin to the very limits of its elasticity. The crowd join in with clapping as the song is taken down waiting for someone to pick up the baton and drive the song to its conclusion. Attention is the new kid on the block but has that cocky confidence of youth, the Marcus Rashford or Kelechi Iheanacho of the set, that means it stands toe to toe against the heavyweights it has displaced at the end of the set and makes it immovable. The tension in the air is palpable as it stops then slowly builds back up before exploding into life with spectacular results.
A familiar sounding set of chords on a mandolin come from the back of the hall as the encore starts and Tim goes walkthrough, interrupted on his path by a “dickhead who can’t respect space” who grabs him and scratches him as he walks by. It’d be a shame if the actions of one idiot caused him to stop doing this, but it’s a real risk. The rest of the band come in as they continue their journey through the crowd to the stage and the last chorus has everyone singing along all for one.
We’ve felt Moving On has been a little flat on some of the dates on the tour compared to what’s been around, but we have no such qualms tonight. Aided by beautiful white and purple lighting, it has that lift that kicks in with the chorus that makes it feel like a transcendental call to those departed and manages the mean trick of sounding both intimate and poignant whilst filling a room of this size.
Nothing But Love feels like a celebration of what this is all about, its radiant positivity a message that the good will always come out and win the day. Llandudno becomes a sea of hands and a wall of voices joined as one. No one is going anywhere though and the band come back out for Say Something which sends the hordes out of the doors singing the chorus of a song that, despite not being one of their most inventive, is always guaranteed a hugely powerful response because of the undeniable connection that it makes.
Bournemouth Academy – 10th May 2016
Setlist
She's A Star / Dear John / Move Down South / Catapult / We're Going To Miss You / Alvin / Surfer's Song / Sometimes / Bitch / PS / Feet Of Clay / What For / Just Like Fred Astaire / Girl At The End Of The World / Honest Joe / Sound / Attention / Say Something / Moving On / Nothing But LoveSupport
The Slow Readers Club (acoustic)More Information & Reviews
None.
Norwich UEA – 9th May 2016
Setlist
Top Of The World / Dear John / Move Down South / To My Surprise / We're Going To Miss You / Alvin / Waking / Tomorrow / Sometimes / Bitch / PS / Feet Of Clay / She's A Star / What For / Honest Joe / Sound / Attention (take 1) / Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) / Attention (take 2) / Moving On / Nothing But LoveSupport
Birds Of HellMore Information & Reviews
The band’s official setlist picture includes a second encore with Say Something, however it wasn’t played. The start of Attention was mucked up, and the crowed started singing Getting Away With It, that the band then joined in with for a full and spontaneous rendition. Attention was then played (properly). This extra song probably caused Say Something to be dropped as the band hit the curfew.
London Brixton Academy – 7th May 2016
Setlist
Move Down South / To My Surprise / Catapult / Bitch / Alvin / Born Of Frustration / Sometimes / Surfer's Song / Girl At The End Of The World / English Beefcake / PS / She's A Star / What For / Dear John / Honest Joe / Sound / Attention / Say Something / Moving On / Nothing But Love / Come Home / TomorrowSupport
The Slow Readers ClubMore Information & Reviews
A sold-out Brixton Academy is one of the most thrilling places to experience a gig. Saturday night and James are in town with their new number 2 album Girl At The End Of The World and Manchester’s The Slow Readers Club in tow.
This is probably the biggest gig of The Slow Readers Club’s career to date and Brixton is already packed, helped by the buzz that’s been generated their performances on the tour to date and the unflinching support of their hosts. They take it all in their stride though, looking increasingly confident as the set progresses and the audience reaction to them grows with each and every song.
Their sound is tailor-made for rooms like this, the shackles that the small venue circuit in their native Manchester are being cast off with each and every show they play – songs like One More Minute, Forever In Your Debt and Know The Day Will Come are made for spaces like this. You look around and people who were talking at the start of the set are clapping along by the end and the roar that greets the end of their set tells its own story.
I Saw A Ghost, a dark tale of depression, is turned into some form of catharsis, a release of tension, but one that’s turned into a form of celebration by the pulsating drumbeat that drives it along. It’s not just the songs that are at home here now though – in just five shows Aaron has blossomed into the front man with the confidence to take on a crowd of this size, Kurt and Jim strut their stuff whilst the crystal clear sound allows us to recognise just how fine a drummer Dave is. Aaron keeps reminding us who they are – although the banner behind the stage should probably have “best unsigned band in Britain” in brackets after it. We know the music industry is fucked, but surely that can’t be the case for too much longer.
James make their way to the stage shortly before 9 and open with five songs from Girl as if to set the standard for the rest of the night. It’s a bold statement of intent on their biggest tour for years, but one that’s fully justified for a number of reasons. Firstly the album’s succeess, secondly they’re no heritage band despite the response their biggest hits get later on, but lastly and by far from leastly it’s probably their most in your face record ever, one that was made to be played live. It’s also one that’s fresh so we can hear them trying out new things each night; to try and add something extra to take the song to a new level. Move Down South is definitely a case in point, it feels like they’re still striving for that little bit more to take it to an even more exalted plain although when the vocals come together at the end and the music drops they’re there. To My Surprise needs no such lift though, the umbilical cord to its creation has been cut and it has a new life of its own, the chorus “were you just born an arsehole?” one of the more unlikely singalongs of the year, but one that makes perfect sense. As it reaches the breakdown, Andy’s trumpet takes over proceedings, white lights pulsate on and off behind them and the marker has been laid down.
With some sound problems on stage, Tim comes down amongst us for connection as they start Catapult. He’s already stood up tall on the barrier when the song comes to a grinding halt because he comes in at the wrong time because he can’t hear. It’s fixed quickly and they start again and he’s lifted on a sea of arms across us, never dropping a word despite being twisted and turned, almost dropped.
Bitch has been a highlight of the new songs so far on the tour and tonight is no exception. That brooding instrumental opening creates a menacing feel that’s amplified in the live environment and Tim shimmers those snake like hips of his across the stage as the song builds and he fixates on Saul. As it hits the punchline 5,000 people sing back “I’m just a bitch, bitch, bitch.” Alvin has been one of the revelations of the tour; its almost nonsense French lyrics actually make sense in the context of the song. Quite often, for a band so much associated with their front man (who some assume to be “James”), it’s about the music and not the words (see PS and Honest Joe later) and the playful abandon of this song reveals a different side to James not always recognised in their public persona.
Although we hear tales of it from others around the venue, there’s no restlessness around us at the amount of new material, but as that unmistakable opening call to arms of Born Of Frustration kicks in then Tim’s almost drowned out. For most of the song he’s up on the speaker stack surveying his disciples. Much has been said about the Sometimes singalong that has finished so many gigs over the past few years and the song has been moved forward in the set, but tonight as it finishes something magical happens. As the band change instruments and prepare to start the next song, the crowd come back in taking them completely off-guard so they go with the flow and come back in for another few minutes. At moments like this, you can’t fight that connection that gets made, a moment of spontaneity that only happens once in a while. Special mention also needs to be made of Adrian’s guitar solo in this song – as the tour progresses it’s noticeable how much more he’s coming to the fore.
It’s back to the Girl after the flirtation with the hit singles. Surfer’s Song has been one of the revelations of the album live and tonight it gets the same ecstatic reaction from the crowd as it has on previous nights. Of all the dance grooves on the album this is where it’s at its most strident and in your face as it feels like the song is about to career out of control as it accelerates, but it never does. It’s one of the songs that, even if you don’t know it, it’s almost impossible not to get caught up in the adrenalin wave that it generates. Tim comes out into the crowd twice, surfing on a wave of arms, putting himself at real risk of being dropped at times, but the grin on his face tells its own story.
“This song is about dying in a car crash with joy. It’s our new single” is the deadpan introduction to the album’s title track which is starting to become one of the highlights of the set. Of all the songs on the album it’s probably the most direct in its lineage to the hit singles that made the band their name, an understated first verse with Adrian’s slide guitar simply beautiful before transcending into a soaring uplifting chorus.
It’s at this moment that the majority of bands touring a new album would cast it aside and head for the sanctuary of the greatest hits through to the end of the set. As James have already played nearly two-thirds of the album, they delve into the back catalogue and come out with English Beefcake and PS for the “old James fans.” Beefcake is a song that sort of disappeared in the messy ending of 2001, Pleased To Meet You fighting a losing battle with the greatest hits as James bade farewell, but it feels like a genuine fan favourite. The stage is drenched in yellow light for a jaw-dropping beautiful PS – Saul’s violin and Andy’s trumpet creating a beautiful longing duet that you don’t want to end before the lights dim and Dave’s soft drums provide the final moments.
Jim, Saul, Adrian and Tim huddle centre stage, acoustics and cello in hand and strike up She’s A Star. It takes a moment for the crowd to recognise it, but once they do Tim’s almost drowned out again. Despite, or because of, the stripped back arrangement, the song feels even more poignant than it usually does. What For retains its place as well after the overwhelming response it got the previous night. With only two of the seven in the band at the time the Factory and Sire material were in the band it’s understandably taken a bit of a backseat in more recent set selections, but there’s a lot of love in the fanbase for that period and Brixton becomes a sea of arms and there’s people around us singing the chorus even those that might not have known it before. Dear John suffers from a stuttering start as there’s big feedback issues on stage that startle Tim a couple of times.
As the unfamiliar to many opening bars to Honest Joe strike up, Tim jumps down to the barrier, but rather than joining us, he plucks out four of the front row to join the band on stage. It’s still a mesmerising cross between song and aural assault as the strobes light up the furthest recesses of the magnificent hall we’re stood in as Tim picks out one of the girls to dance eyeball to eyeball with it. It does miss Saul’s second megaphone tonight as the duel between him and Tim is one of the key parts of the song, but as it finishes with violin fighting with drums fighting with guitars fighting with whatever box of tricks Mark has at his disposal whilst Tim is lost in another world of his own, it’s still extraordinary even for a band that thrives on just that in their live shows.
Having been a little bullied by Honest Joe and Attention around it the night before Sound roars back with a vengeance tonight. The rolling floor of Brixton creates the perfect stage for the sound to ripple back across the audience to the back of the room whilst the band find new ways to improvise in the middle section as the lights play merry hell behind them and Andy makes his way along the barrier exalting us all to leave ourselves behind. Attention has a similarly potent feel to it, a song that builds, drops and then rises again, exploding into life, never quite sure of what’s going to happen next, that uncertainty, that anticipation of something special created in that moment.
The first encore starts with Say Something. Due to the size and layout of the venue there’s no opportunity for walking about in the crowd tonight realistically, so Tim’s confined to the stage and at points he’s at risk at getting drowned out again. This is always a crowd favourite and the band have to constantly seek ways of reinvigorating it to keep it fresh and in the set. Moving On, which we’ve felt has been a bit flat at the start of the tour, feels a lot more alive and clearly means a lot to the people around us as does Nothing But Love, a cursory glance back into the hall shows a sea of arms raised aloft singing along to the song that has probably made the most impact on the public conscience outside of the fan base than anything since they came back together.
They’re not done yet though. London, as with everything else in this country, gets more than the rest of the land and the second encore has both Come Home and Tomorrow. There’s a little bit of discussion about which one first as Saul has guitar issues and has a playful argument with Tim and Mark about who should start. Brixton is reduced to a heaving seething mass by these two established crowd favourites and they send the crowd off home happy and sated.
London Kentish Town Forum – 6th May 2016
Setlist
Bitch / To My Surprise / Catapult / Alvin / Waking / Ring The Bells / Sometimes / Move Down South / Girl At The End Of The World / English Beefcake / PS / Feet Of Clay / She's A Star / What For / Dear John / Honest Joe / Sound / Attention / Say Something / Moving On / Nothing But Love / TomorrowSupport
The Slow Readers ClubMore Information & Reviews
Night two at Kentish Town Forum meant a new setlist, more surprises and some inspired improvisation from James in front of a fervent sell-out crowd. Still heavy on Girl At The End Of The World but with something for everyone including a couple of resurrected favourites, James left the audience wanting much more. Support came from The Slow Readers Club who are blossoming on these expansive stages.
These are heady times for The Slow Readers Club. An unsigned band from Manchester hand-chosen by Jim Glennie and Saul Davies from James for the majority of the dates is something out of an aspiring musician’s dream, but in this case that’s turning into reality and you suspect that they won’t remain unsigned for very long. There are already people around the hall singing and dancing along to Start Again and there’s plenty more you can see being bowled over by them as the set progresses and the queue at the merchandise desk at the end tells its own story. That nervousness of the first night has gone – or if it’s still there it’s well-hidden. They look and sound like they belong here – their songs big enough and anthemic enough to reach to the farest corners of this beautiful theatre.
They introduce One More Minute into their set tonight to replace Fool For My Philosophy with Start Again moving to opening duties. It’s a song, like so much if not all of their set, is made to fill indie dance floors the country over, far more than so much of the insipid four boys with mummy and daddy’s guitar that passes for alternative culture these days. Aaron’s using the bigger stages far more now than he did even earlier in the week and that just adds to the impact of the likes of Don’t Mind, I Saw A Ghost, Forever In Your Debt and Plant The Seed. If you’re doing any of the remaining shows and you’re fortunate enough to have them supporting you need to get down early to catch them because they’re something special, and if you don’t believe me ask Jim and Saul.
Bitch is a great opening song to the both the album and a live show. You suspect it hasn’t opened before because it is an obvious choice and James try and avoid the obvious choices as tonight’s set proves yet again. It allows Tim to come on stage after the rest of the band have created a fanfare for his arrival, the smouldering potent two and a half minute intro building the anticipation in an already sweltering venue before he’s even sung a word. It’s a marker being laid down for the rest of the night, but one that the other songs clamber to meet. The accusatory chorus of To My Surprise is turned into a joyful thing, thousands singing back “were you just born an arsehole” to a sea of white lights exploding behind the band. Tim comes down and joins us for Catapult, dodging mobile phones being waved in his face, almost dropped as he ventures on to rather than in to the crowd.
Alvin is a song that has probably divided fans more than any other on Girl. Its made-up French lyrics and the stardust style frivolity of the tune make it a wonderfully playful two and a half minutes, a world away from the dark introspection of some of the lyrics on the last record La Petite Mort, but a sign of a band that’s ever changing and evolving and one that wants to have fun. Waking, with Andy’s trumpet far more to the fore than the album version, evokes a similar response. Girl is very much an album to experience live as well as at home, far more so than probably any other James album ever.
The anticipation that’s been building in the crowd is released by Ring The Bells and Sometimes. The former ends with Andy’s trumpet fighting its way through the sonic madness that propels it through the breakdown to its triumphant conclusion whilst Sometimes feels invigorated when stripped of its formal duty of ending the set with a communal singalong. The lights and sound are, it has to be said, the best on this tour I’ve ever seen – how they manage it when these songs are being played differently each night is a mystery, as if that magical connection the seven (eight with Swiss Ron) have is being shared across some top-secret invitation-only wireless network.
Move Down South is a case in point, the orange lights and the fog effect it creates feels like the perfect setting for the music to break through it as the band’s voices come together for its almost evangelical denouement. Girl itself feels like she’s finally found her feet, taken over her high heels and put some proper shoes on, lit up by a backdrop of stars as the song reaches its euphoric ending.
“This is one for the old faithfuls” says Tim as the opening chords to English Beefcake strike up. For a band that, by nature of its age and history, has been often tagged alongside heritage bands either simply turning up for a pay cheque to recreate their Madchester / Britpop albums in full, it’s telling that they see this a song for their old hardcore when it came out after their two arguably biggest waves of popularity and within the second half of their lifetime as a band such is their focus on the new. It’s a sign too of how they moved on from that – it’s a song of two sections, probably from two different jams, that they fused together to create something far more than the sum of the parts, Tim losing himself on the journey that his mates plot ahead of him before they all come together as one at the end.
The drums drop straight into PS and a moment of real magic happens at the end of the song where Saul’s violin and Andy’s trumpet meet centre stage for a duel in white light and Tim starts to improvise lyrics on the spot. Normal bands just don’t do this, but then despite some people’s expectations and prejudices, James are nothing like that. Tim does need to tell those people to shut up as he introduces Feet Of Clay as “from the heart, a message from our sponsor.” It’s the moment where Girl shows its more tender side in the middle of her story. Five of them – Jim on his beautiful looking and sounding acoustic bass, Saul on acoustic guitar, Andy on trumpet and Adrian on cello and Tim – huddle centre stage and She’s A Star feels even more poignant and powerful than ever before in this half stripped back mode.
But it’s only an hors-d’oeuvre for what comes next. Without looking back, the last time What For was played live at a gig in my memory was 1999 (excluding soundchecks). It was the hit James single that was born in the wrong time and place. Had it been birthed four years later when Seven was being recorded, things might have been very very different. I’m not sure whether the audience all know it or whether they’re just carried away by the moment it creates, but the Forum becomes a sea of clapping hands, Tim loses himself in dance slightly set back from the other four who feel like they’re ad-libbing it in parts but it’s exactly that feeling that makes it one of the most memorable moments at a gig for a long time. They can’t start the next song until the audience stop their prolonged applause at the end. You almost feel sorry for Dear John having to follow that, but like Girl it’s a song that’s finding its own way now, only the bottom half of the stage is lit which adds to that growing in menace electronic backing to the track.
The final trio of the songs in the main set are like the apocalypse coming at you full-pelt with nowhere to shelter. Honest Joe, Sound and Attention are far more than songs; each one breaks free for the borders of what you would define as one, structures are thrown out of the window and replaced with an amorphous mass that devastates everything in its path, growing bigger as they envelop and encompass anything left in their wake. It’s also telling that of the three, the by far best known one, Sound, majestic and swaggering with its badges of having been the show-stopping moment of so many shows, actually feels a little overwhelmed and outmuscled by megaphone duelling, strobe channeling madness that is Honest Joe and outmenaced by the brooding Attention despite the moments where the lights work in perfect tandem with Dave’s drum beats. But if you can show me a more powerful set of three songs to blow away an audience at the end of a gig, then I’m all ears.
Say Something starts with Tim and Adrian (not that half the downstairs audience can see) up on the balcony for an acoustic version of the song where we assume he wanders through the seated area before making their way to the stairs, where Tim gracefully holds the gate open for Adrian whilst still singing. He lingers at the bottom whilst Adrian gets back to join the rest of the band as they bring the song up with all seven of them for a final chorus. They finish with Moving On and a triumphant Nothing But Love with the stage bathed in orange light before being called back by an insistent crowd for a frantic, adrenalin-propelled Tomorrow that leaves those wanting an ending they know sated and the whole place a little warmer and sweatier than even before.