Tag Archives: song-shes-a-star

With fourteen hit singles under their belts, a Best Of compilation was inevitable – a guaranteed hit album, minimum outlay and the chance for the band to pay off some of their debt to Mercury and secure the funds to make the next album. The band made all the noises about being surprised at the number of hit singles they’d had and given that, a Best of seemed the right thing to do, when there was no reason at all for them to justify it.

To go alongside the fourteen hits, James recorded two new tracks Destiny Calling and Runaground to be released as singles and added live favourite Out To Get You from the Laid LP and Hymn From A Village from the 1985 James II EP, which had been remastered for the Palatine Factory Records retrospective. Given the acrimonious end to the relationship between the band and Sire Records, there were no tracks from either the Stutter or Strip Mine albums.

As a bonus for early purchasers of the album, James played a secret industry-only acoustic show at London’s Whitfield Street Studios in January 1998, which was recorded for inclusion on a second “Unhinged” CD.

Destiny Calling was released a week before the Best Of in March and went to number 17 in the charts. The album release a week later saw a full-on promotional blitz by James – radio sessions for GLR, Virgin FM, XFM and Radio 1, an instore gig at London’s Virgin Megastore and a show for Manchester’s Key 103 on a barge in the Castlefields complex.

The promotional barrage worked – the album went straight to number 1, even beating the Titanic soundtrack in Oscar week. It dropped to number 2 the following week, selling only a few hundred copies less than Pulp’s new album. It remained in the Top 10 for over ten weeks and spent exactly a year in the Top 75.

Press coverage of the Best Of was almost universally favourable. Q and most of the broadsheet newspapers ran features and articles on the band recognising the longevity, quality and consistency of the band. There was the odd dissenting voice, primarily embittered hacks at Melody Maker, but they could not dampen the feeling that James were finally getting the recognition and the appreciation that they deserved.

A six-date mini-tour followed the album release, which was primarily a Greatest Hits set and a celebration of the band’s success both for them and the fans. A headline slot at the Fleadh and high placings on the bill at Glastonbury and the V98 festivals followed in the summer.

Runaground was released as a single at the end of May. Promotional activities were restricted as Tim was in the middle of his stint acting in Saved at the Bolton Octagon. The band’s high expectations for the single proved ill-founded as it struggled to number 29 in its first week and fell sharply.

To push Best Of sales further in the period leading up to Christmas, James announced an arena tour for December including venues such as Manchester Nynex, Wembley Arena, Birmingham NEC and Glasgow SECC – 10,000+ capacity venues filled by many of those to whom the Best Of had converted or reintroduced to the band. A remix of Sit Down by Apollo 440 was released to coincide with the tour and reached number 7, the band’s highest placed single since the same song hit number 2 in 1991.

The Best Of achieved exactly what it had set out to do, taking James back to a large audience, reminding them of how many great singles the band had produced over the years and introducing a new audience to the band.

• Born Of Frustration :1992
• Come Home :1989
• Destiny Calling :1998
• How Was It For You? :1990
• Hymn From A Village :1985
• Johnny Yen :1986
• Laid :1993
• Lose Control :1990
• Out To Get You :1990
• Ring The Bells / Ring Those Bells :1992
• Runaground :1998
• Say Something / Carousel :1993
• Seven :1992
• She’s A Star :1997
• Sit Down :1989
• Sometimes (Lester Piggott) :1993
• Sound :1991
• Tomorrow :1994
• Waltzing Along :1997

Open in Spotify

• Born Of Frustration
• Come Home (Flood Mix)
• Come Home (Original)
• Destiny Calling
• How Was It For You?
• Laid (Version 2) (Clean)
• Laid (Version 3) (Explicit)
• Lose Control
• Ring The Bells
• Runaground
• Say Something (US Version)
• Say Something (Version 1)
• Seven
• She’s A Star
• She’s A Star (Orchestral Version)
• Sit Down
• Sit Down ’98 Apollo 440 Mix
• Sit Down (Original)
• Sit Down ft. Joe Duddell & String Quartet
• Sometimes
• Sometimes (Orchestral Version)
• Sound
• Tomorrow
• Waltzing Along (Clean)
• Waltzing Along (Explicit)

• Virtual Manchester Bio
• James Coming Up – Melody Maker
• The Celebrated Reappearing Act – The Times
• Best Of 98 CD Destiny Calling – Q
• Sit Down 98 – BBC1 Top Of The Pops – 20th November 1998
• Amazon.com Biography
• Top Of The Pops Radio Interview
• Sit Down – Manchester Albert Square Commonwealth Games Handover – 21st September 1998
• Chelmsford V Festival – 23rd August 1998
• V98 Website Interview With Tim
• Seaside Rock! – Weston Mercury
• Irish News Biography
• Hollywood? I Chose Bolton Again – City Life
• People Who Aren’t As Rich As They Should Be : Tim Booth – Q
• Glastonbury Festival – 26th June 1998
• London Finsbury Park Fleadh – 6th June 1998
• BBC Glastonbury Interview
• Glastonbury Previews
• James Award Themselves A Red Card – NME
• Interview With Tim Booth – Radio 1
• James Last The Distance – The Sun
• VH1 Fleadh Interview
• James Score On Blur – Soccer Match
• Team Spirit World Cup Feature With Saul – Melody Maker
• James Fleadh Preview – Melody Maker
• Runaground – Channel 4 TFI Friday – 29th May 1998
• Mark And Tim Singles Reviews – Melody Maker
• Big Breakfast Interview with Tim Booth and Saul Davies – Channel 4
• O-Zone Interview with Tim Booth – BBC1
• Destiny Calling (Saved preview) – City Life
• Chief Sitting Down Bullshit – NME
• T.O. Musician Becomes Fully-Fledged Member Of James – Jam Magazine
• Tim Booth Explains The James Ethic – The Band
• How Was It For You? – The Band
• James Replace Jim At London Fleadh – NME
• Later With Jools – 24th April 1998
• Manchester Apollo – 11th April 1998
• Lucky Jim – Melody Maker
• Tim Booth’s Rebellious Jukebox – Melody Maker
• In Residence With Tim Booth – Select
• A James Axeology – The Guitar Magazine
• The James Gang – The Guitar Magazine
• My First Gig (Saul Davies) – Melody Maker
• They Sat Down Then They Got Up Again – Vox
• Manchester Renegades – Uncut
• James Addiction – Uncut
• On The Couch – NME
• One Of The Three Webmaster Interview With Tim
• Coming Up Tour Preview – Melody Maker
• James Sinks Titanic In The UK – Billboard
• Bravo TV Interview with Tim Booth and Saul Davies
• Videotech Interview
• Reentry fuer Stubenhocker – Intro.de – in German
• Destiny Calling – BBC1 Top Of The Pops – 26th March 1998
• Granada Reports Castlefield Interview – 25th March 1998
• The Best Of EPK
• Top Of The Coco Pops – Melody Maker
• Eurostar Magazine
• Castlefields Show – Melody Maker News
• Short-Take – Record Collector
• James Bond – Scotland On Sunday
• Britpop’s Big Brother – The Independent
• All Rise For The Second Coming Of James – The Independent
• James Pop Group Deny They’re Splitting Up – The Mail
• The Best Of – Band Biography
• MTV Interview with Tim Booth and Saul Davies – March 1998
• Best of James Due This Month – Rolling Stone
• The Difference A Day Made : Tim Booth – The Guardian
• Hit Therapy – The Times
• Destiny Calling – Pepsi Chart Show – March 1998
• MTV Up For It – March 1998
• Manchester And Success Bound… Thanks to a Crystal Ball – Manchester Evening News
• Destiny Calling – Channel 4 TFI Friday – February 1998
• 1998: The Best Of James
• Studio Eye – Melody Maker
• Top Of The Crocks – Manchester Evening News
• James To Leave Home – NME
• Winner By A Neck – Melody Maker

• Glasgow SECC – 15th December 1998
• Glasgow SECC – 14th December 1998
• Manchester MEN Arena – 12th December 1998
• London Wembley Arena – 11th December 1998
• Brighton Centre – 9th December 1998
• Newport Centre – 8th December 1998
• Plymouth Pavilions – 7th December 1998
• Birmingham NEC – 5th December 1998
• Hereford Leisure Centre – 4th December 1998
• Dublin Slane Castle – 29th August 1998
• Chelmsford V Festival – 23rd August 1998
• Leeds V Festival – 22nd August 1998
• Carlisle Sands Centre – 21st August 1998
• Oporto Festival, Portugal – 2nd July 1998
• Glastonbury Festival – 26th June 1998
• Oxford Brookes University – 25th June 1998
• London Finsbury Park Fleadh – 6th June 1998
• London Brixton Academy – 18th April 1998
• London Brixton Academy – 17th April 1998
• Doncaster Dome – 14th April 1998
• Glasgow Barrowlands – 13th April 1998
• Manchester Apollo – 11th April 1998
• Manchester Apollo – 10th April 1998
• Manchester Castlefield Bowl – 25th March 1998
• London Virgin Megastore – 24th March 1998
• London Whitfield Street Studios – 21st January 1998