Category Archives: History

James complete their summer season with gigs in Kastoria (Greece), Belladrum Festival, Feldkirch Poolbar (Austria), Haldern Festival (Germany), the Chelmsford and Stafford legs of the V Festival before heading to Ireland for shows in Dublin and their first Belfast show in over 20 years.

James headline Wakestock Festival in Abersoch before heading to Liberec in the Czech Republic for their first ever live performance in the country.

Oh My Heart is used by the Bereavement Team at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals as part of a campaign to encourage young people to register to donate organs.

In between shows, the band retreat to their London studio to record what will become La Petite Mort.

James headline a Forestry Commission show at Thetford Forest High Lodge supported by the magnificent Frazer King. The show saw them debut Curse Curse and Let Us Die.

They support The Killers at Wembley Stadium but their performance in Riga, Latvia is cancelled as there were significant concerns about the venue’s safety that delayed The Killers’ set for hours and meant James were unable to play.

James hit the road with Echo And The Bunnymen on The Gathering Sound tour which takes in Glasgow, Newcastle, Sheffield, Bristol, Brixton, Bournemouth, Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester. They precede it with a secret 200-capacity warm-up show at Stirling’s Tolbooth where they had been rehearsing for the tour.

Five songs that would make up half of La Petite Mort – Moving On, Interrogation, Quicken The Dead, All In The Mind and All I’m Saying – are revealed on the tour.

James announce they’ve been invited to support The Killers at two shows in June – at Wembley Stadium and in Riga, Latvia.

Andy Diagram’s band Spaceheads release their Sun Radar EP.

James return to a London studio to record Moving On and Gone Baby Gone for a planned Record Store Day release in April 2013. Schedules mean that the single is not completed in time to meet the production deadline.

A video of Sit Down featuring Peter Kay and the band on the streets of Bolton was aired as part of the Comic Relief charity event on BBC1.

Sit Down is voted as the fourth best number 2 single of all time by Radio 2 listeners and the Official Chart Company. Numbers 1 to 3 were Ultravox’s Vienna, The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl’s Fairytale Of New York and Don Henley’s American Pie.

James announce The Gathering Sound tour of the UK for April 2013.

The release date for the boxset of the same name is set for December 10th. No one believes it until they actually have it in their hand.

James completed their summer festival season with a headline slot at the Stockton Weekender.

James play a double-header weekend at the end of the month, headlining Margate Quex Park’s Sound Island Festival on the Saturday and Kendal Calling on the Sunday.

Multiple updates on the ongoing The Gathering Sound boxset saga have September, October and then November dates in the schedule.

James play Rock In Rio in Lisbon with Bruce Springsteen. Their televised performance included Tim walking on the shoulders of the audience and catapulted The Best Of back to number one in the iTunes album chart in Portugal and Sit Down into the Top Ten singles.

Back in the UK, they headlined Wychwood Festival at Cheltenham Racecourse before heading to Greece to headline Ejekt Festival in Athens.

James conclude their tour of the Americas with a first-ever performance in Argentina before returning home to play the rain-sodden Big Stooshie festival in Fife to raise funds for Help For Heroes.

James open the main stage at Coachella Festival in Indio, California on two consecutive Saturdays as part of a North American tour that takes in Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Tempe, Tucson and San Diego before shows in Monterrey, Mexico City, Santiago and Sao Paolo, their first visit to Brazil.

James sign a publishing deal with BMG Chrysalis.