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There’s something really magical happening with the band at the moment. Debbie and Chloe together have reinvigorated them and created new sparks off which the rest of them feed, particularly Tim, who has lost the ability to come down and do that off the audience. It opens new avenues for the songs with two more agitators on stage and this is a band that are at their very best when responding to each other. Add to that the joy and relief of actually being able to do what they love the most and do the best and it genuinely feels like a new phase of the band’s evolution is opening up before as they approach forty – where life begins if the old saying holds true.
Read the full review at EvenTheStars.co.uk
Next came what was potentially the stand out track of the night – ‘Wherever It Takes Us’ from All The Colours Of You. Despite its unpredictable melody and spoken word verses, the track is almost biblical, with every band member singing the chorus in a choir-like manner. The thought-provoking ‘Zero’ followed, with frontman, Tim Booth encouraging the crowd to scream along with him, letting out the frustrations of the last eighteen months. The last track to be played from All The Colours Of You was the bass-driven and infectiously catchy, ‘Beautiful Beaches’, which had the whole crowd dancing along. If any of the crowd hadn’t listened to the new album, we’re fairly certain that they went home to because each of the four tracks included in the setlist soared, perfectly demonstrating how despite being a band of such longevity, James are a band continually experimenting with their sound and challenging themselves..
Read the full review at godisinthetvzine.co.uk
All The Colours Of You are performed in preference of Five-0, and Laid instead of Zero.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this was James’s first live gig in nearly two years, and acted as a warm-up gig for the delayed summer festival season.
They finish on a darker than normal, broody, moody Sound, notable for an extended outro that builds in pace, some trumpet sounds you wouldn’t believe were trumpet if you weren’t witnessing Andy channeling them through his box of distortion tricks as the song winds on its dozen-minute plus sonic journey. It’s a song that’s come to represent how James take their hits, reinvent and twist them and use them as the melting pot for new ideas that keeps them excited about what they’re doing as a means of ensuring their audience do too.
Tonight was a reminder of the power of live music. We laughed, we cried a few times, we felt the power of the drum feel like it was beating in our chest, we caught a glance with a stranger lost in the same emotion as us, we stood on someone’s foot (sorry, it was a few times), closed our eyes and completely lost ourselves in what was coming from the stage. There is no greater feeling than watching the greatest band in your world and we should never forget that and let anyone take it away from us.
Read the full review at EvenTheStars.co.uk
Four track live session to support the All The Colours Of You album release. The video replay of the session is below.
A live CD / DVD / vinyl / download released in December 2020 recorded during the Living In Extraordinary Times tours in 2018 and 2019.
Deluxe CD tracks :
Five-O / Waltzing Along / Leviathan / Broken By The Hurt / She’s A Star / Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) / Stutter / Feet Of Clay / Moving On / Many Faces / Sometimes / Come Home / Hank / Picture Of This Place / English Beefcake / PS / Heads / All I’m Saying / Extraordinary Times / Tomorrow / What’s It All About / Laid / Attention
Vinyl tracks (From Madrid To Manchester) :
Madrid – Five-O / Broken By The Hurt / Feet Of Clay / She’s A Star / Waltzing Along / Extraordinary Times / English Beefcake
Manchester – Hank / Picture Of This Place / What’s It All About / Attention / Many Faces / Sometimes
DVD tracks (Madrid and Philadelphia) :
Madrid – Five-O / Waltzing Along / Moving On / Broken By The Hurt / She’s A Star / Stutter / Feet Of Clay / Leviathan / English Beefcake / Many Faces / Sometimes / Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) / Come Home
Philadelphia – Hank / What’s It All About / Heads / All I’m Saying / Picture Of This Place / PS / Tomorrow / Laid
Manchester – Attention
| Release Name: | Live In Extraordinary Times |
| Artist Name: | |
| Release Date: | 11th December 2020 |
| Format: | Live Album |
| Catalogue: |
“You asked (okay – pleaded, pestered, perhaps even profaned) and finally we’ve delivered: a new live double album and DVD! Including a beautiful photo-book set, as well as coloured vinyl, deluxe double CD, signed prints (get in early!), t-shirts, the full works.
“As requested by many lovers of the band – a live DVD and album to capture the spirit of the gigs of the last few years. Hopefully this will help us through the long nights of lockdown – reliving these gatherings of intimacy and passion. Thank you for coming along for the ride in the crazy world of James.” – Tim
In a year feeling anything but ordinary, this special collection reminds us of the power and connection of live music.
Released just in time for St. Nick to get his hands on it for you…11th December 2020. Sorry we can’t put on one of our traditional winter tours to warm your quarantined cockles but hopefully this is the next best thing.”
Live In Extraordinary Times is a beautifully presented package that has clearly been a labour of love for a band that is fiercely proud of their live performances. It’s in the flesh that they come alive and dismiss all the lazy perceptions of them as a band. The choice of songs here alone does that. Whilst it’s almost impossible to recreate the thrill of a live concert on a shiny disc, this DVD captures a band at the peak of its power – as their Come Home Live video did back in 1990. The Philadelphia concert is the most powerful visual representation of the band they’ve ever released. It’s an absolutely essential document to understand one of the country’s most misunderstood and underappreciated bands in their most natural environment.
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She’s A Star
Extraordinary Times
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Sometimes the best gigs can take place in the strangest surroundings. Five o’clock in the evening, in bright sunshine, on a stage at a racecourse with a mix of die-hard fans and those out for a drunken day at the races and a huge gap and fences between band and audience weren’t auspicious, but somehow James turned their Doncaster racecourse show into a triumph.
Read the full review at EvenTheStars.co.uk
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