This piece was originally published on the James official site Jamestheband.com that was lost when the band split in 2001
James
Musical history is littered with those who have briefly blazed brightly, to sink prematurely into depressing mediocrity as they repeat themselves with ever-diminishing effect. The path JAMES have forged has taken the band in exactly the opposite direction. Endlessly inventive, always taking risks and never satisfied with the easy option.
Since they began recording for the Manchester-based Factory records back in 1983, James have never been a band to follow the predictable path. They toured with The Smiths, became Hacienda favourites and cult heroes and signed to Sire Records. Their debut album ‘Stutter’ in 1986 and ‘Strip Mine’ two years later established the basic guitar-driven James sound and marked Tim out as a provocative lyricist and an emotive singer, but they found the label unsympathetic and unsupportive. By 1989 they were delighted to escape Sire’s clutches, even though it left them skint. “After seven years we were living on dole-level wages and radio wouldn’t play us”, Tim recalls. Many bands would have folded, instead James volunteered as human guinea pigs in medical tests at a local hospital and used the cash to release ‘One Man Clapping’, a rather fine live album on their own label, which included an early version of ‘Sit Down’.
They then re-grouped later and added new members Saul Davies (violin, guitar), Mark Hunter (keyboards) and David Baynton-Power (drums). They recorded an album of songs for Rough Trade who sold the record on to Fontana. It was released as ‘Gold Mother’ and was the breakthrough they had waited so long for, selling 350,000 in Britain alone while a reworked ‘Sit Down’ became one of the most memorable anthems of the nineties. The Manchester scene was in full swing and, together with the Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays, James suddenly found themselves at its apex, hailed as the saviours of British rock music.
The sweepingly epic ‘Seven’ followed in 1992 and was only kept from the number one spot by Simply Red. The following year they secured the services of Brian Eno to produce the extraordinary ‘Laid’ and it’s experimental offshoot ‘Wah Wah’.
Spending increasing amounts of time in America (including playing Woodstock Two), ‘Laid’ took off there as well, selling 600,000 copies at a time when British bands were finding it particularly difficult to penetrate a grunge-fixated market. Then, at the highest point of their career, James almost fell apart.
One day in 1995 guitarist Larry Gott, one of the longest serving members after bassist Jim Glennie and Tim and a third of the Booth/Gott/Glennie songwriting partnership, decided to quit. So did manager Martine, and for good measure, the band learned that they owed a huge sum in back tax.
Shell-shocked, they took a break that, as it stretched into its third year, looked like becoming terminal. Booth went off to make a solo album with Angelo Badalamenti and no one seriously ever expected to hear from James again.
Yet adversity has always brought the best out of the band. With the addition of new guitarist Adrian Oxaal they eventually re-emerged in 1997 with the boldly melodic ‘Whiplash’. Brimming with rejuvenated confidence it went gold and gave the band one of their biggest singles, ‘She’s a Star’.
The following year’s release of ‘Best Of James’ only served to confirm their resurgence and gave them their first number one album, keeping ‘Titanic’ off the top slot in Oscar week, going on to be the band’s first double platinum album, followed by a sell out tour. Although the collection contained 14 of their top forty hits, significantly it was the to new songs ‘Destiny Calling’ and ‘Run Aground’ which caught the attention and suggested a band running to peak form; both of course became hit singles in their own right and heightened the anticipation for the next album.
1999’s ‘Millionaires’ found Brian Eno back as co-producer and the band at a new creative peak. “We were aware that last year’s success had created an expectation of this record”, said guitarist Saul Davies at the time. “The songs were written just as that was all kicking off and it generated a lot of energy. I think we struck a really good balance between being commercial and being interesting and different. The optimism of the previous year had given the band a real lift. But there were a lot of conflicts and tensions at the same time, which hadn’t been resolved. Those tensions are all there in the songs as well.” “I think this is the best album we have ever made”, added Tim Booth.
Following the success of ‘Millionaires’, James returned to the studio to write the follow-up album “Pleased To Meet You”. The band embarked, at the end of 2000, on a series of college dates across the UK, testing the newly demoed tracks with a live audience, before returning to the studio, again with Brian Eno, to record the album which was released in 2001. Later that year saw the release of “B-Sides Ultra”, a collection of some of the bands, and fans favourite rare tracks, as voted for on their website.
In December 2001, after 10 studio albums, a million-selling Best Of and 20 Top Forty singles in the UK as well as considerable success in the USA, James announced that Tim Booth would be leaving the band. They embarked on a tour of the UK, which also served as a farewell party for Tim, and invited former members Andy Diagram and Larry Gott to appear with them on selected dates.
Statement from Tim Booth:
Dear Friends, enemies and anyone else who is listening. After 11 albums it’s time for me to leave James. The timing feels right – 20 years and still peaking. I am deeply proud of just about everything we’ve done. The gigs at Christmas will (I believe) be my last with James and will enable us to have a massive farewell celebration. I’d like to thank my co-conspirators in James for the great adventure. I am looking to act, teach trance dance, write and make some music next year.
Thank you. Thank you for seeing us. For seeing through us to our essence. I hope the feeling was mutual. “I know what I’m here for hanging on through late December”. So now you get the lyric. If I had left when I wrote it, it would have been a suicide note. The band imploding in traditional rock’n’roll antagonism. This way – leaving after a great album and a packed tour, when we are as united as we have ever been – couldn’t be sweeter. I’m proud of nearly everything we have done as James and believe the mothership to be in safe hands as I step out… into… space.
Statement from Jim Glennie:
Dear James People,
I’m sure you’ve all heard the news that Timothy is leaving, and I know this will have had all of us reaching for our Kleenex and wondering what is going to happen next. There’s no need for me to state the importance of Tim’s contribution to James over the past twenty years, and I don’t want to downplay the effect of his leaving, but in our true bloody-minded style, James will continue. The history of this band has been a battlefield of near disasters overcome by a passion and self-belief bordering on arrogance, and an unstoppable determination that’s pulled us through the very worst of times…and here we go again!
It’s difficult for me to give exact details as there is a lot we’ve not decided yet, but rest assured, you haven’t seen the last of James, and I think we’ve got one or two surprises in store for you.
This just leaves me to thank Tim, and wish him all the very best for the future.
Enjoy the rest of the tour and see you in the new year,
Jim
2002 sees Warner Music Vision is set to release the momentous JAMES Getting Away with It…Live to buy on VHS and DVD on 10th June 2002.
This is James’ homecoming gig recorded at the Manchester Arena on December 7th 2001 and marked James’ last ever homecoming gig with front man Tim Booth and the current line-up.
The track listing offers both stadium thrills and hushed introspection across their greatest hits including Say Something, Sometimes, Laid, God Only Knows and ending on the anthemic high of Sit Down. Ex band members, guitarist Larry Gott and trumpet player Andy Diagram also drew big cheers as they took to the stage for this poignant, emotional occasion.
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