Setlist
Chain Mail / If Things Were Perfect / Black Hole / Medieval / Not There / Skullduggery / Leaking / Uprising / Summer Song / Scarecrow / FolkloreSupport
n/aMore Information & Reviews
See attached press clipping.
James are changing so fast these days it’s hard to keep touch. Their set is, by the very nature of who they are, the excitement of chance rather than a sterile pursuit of perfection, but their repertoire of feelings and melodies have expanded since I saw them last.
So has their audience who seem to have laid claim to a natural right to change places with vocalist Tim at the end of the set. As with the early Smiths, there’s a genuine sense of celebration about James that breaks the structure of the standard concert as they break the structure of the standard song.
Up until now, James records have been relatively calm in comparison with their live set, where melody will cascade in chaotic noise, fragility flip into violence and hysteria. There’s never anything easy to cling to, which has flummoxed conservatively-minded critics.
Their language certainly is personal as it was with the peak periods of The Fire Engines or Wire. James use words as sense and nonsense, language as fun and games, but beneath their layers of melodies there’s sometimes a stark and striking honesty.
James are a mile ahead of any other band in Britain, unreservedly.
Compilation of first two EPs that reached #1 in the UK Indie Charts.
What’s The World / Folklore / Fire So Close / If Things Were Perfect / Hymn From A Village
Release Name: | Village Fire - Five Offerings From James EP |
Artist Name: | |
Release Date: | 1st June 1985 |
Format: | Compilation EP |
Catalogue: | FAC-138 |
With James negotiating with major labels and demand for the two singles JIMONE and James II far outstripping initial production runs, Factory decided to combine the two into the Village Fire EP. The EP went straight to number one in the indie charts, serving only to fuel the bidding war that was going on to secure James services and giving the band even more favourable press.
Artwork for the EP came from John Carroll.
Laboured five track EP of more concept than content.
Not found on Spotify.
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The encore of this gig was recorded for the Old Grey Whistle Test.
The last Big Noise to burst forth from an ICA Rock Week was The Jesus And Mary Chain and this they did literally when scowls from the stage gave way to scuffles in the foyer. This might explained the “police presence” outside the prim bunker-like venue on the first night of “I Want Independents” week. But really, they needn’t have bothered.
See, James are nice boys, raised on Mama Morrissey’s milk of tragicomic humanism (I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when singer Tim wailed “An earwig crawled into my ear / Made a meal of the wax and hair) and gloriously devoid of trappings.
So the amps stayed miraculously upright, drummer Gavan stayed (for the most part) behind his Ringo-style kit – leaving the music to dwell amongst us with good deal of swank and even more swell.
To explain : James have completely redefined the traditional rock dynamic by replacing the ingenious devices of tension and release with … well, one long crescendo. So a song like “Prison” goes from bulky bass chords and hamstrung high-life guitar propped up by Tim’s nursery rhyme vocal melodies to a polyrhythmic explosion charged by octopus-armed Gavan and animated by Tim’s preacher man paroxysms.
The tease and dare is reinstated by James unique, not to say camp, delivery. And here lay my reservations for the evening. Music suffers from being bathed in contentment: what’s needed now is a more restless approach from this over-rehearsed quartet. But such nagging pales beside the simple fact that these grinning Mancunians have revamped the tones of guitar rock without replacing them with a worthless rattle of meaningless murk.
The next Big Noise.
James II is the second release by the band and their last on Factory Records.
7″ FAC 119 – If Things Were Perfect / Hymn From A Village
Release Name: | James II EP |
Artist Name: | |
Release Date: | 1st March 1985 |
Format: | Studio EP |
Catalogue: | 7" FAC 119 |
James II was delayed almost twelve months due to Tim’s serious liver illness which almost cost him his life and the band’s own stifling high standards.
Intended as a double A-side single, it was Hymn From A Village that caught the attention of the music press and major record labels. James II hit number one in the indie charts boosted by support slots on The Smiths Meat Is Murder tour. This was despite the band’s reluctance to do any form of visual promotion outside of live concerts, even a NME cover shot was turned down.
The artwork for the single came from John Carroll, who was to form a long association with the band lasting through to the singles off the Seven album.
The single did start the band to doubt Factory’s ability to support them at the level that they wanted. Whilst on tour with The Smiths, the band would go into local indie stores and try and buy their own singles, but were often told that they were out of stock and would take weeks to order as Factory couldn’t meet demand. With hopes of greater success, James decided that they had to leave Factory in order to progress.
All the bands coming through at the moment see to be of a certain mould. BEAUTY is the thing to be possessed of and if you haven’t got it, fake it and bugger the sound you’re making – that can be faked too. That’s why James are so refreshing. So non-visual it hurts and makes it excessively difficult to find one of those easy nouns we journalists like attaching to the front of groups’ names. You know ‘funksters’, ‘popsters’, ‘long macsters’. The comparisons with Joy Division are glaringly obvious but they have a less doomy, more open-hearted feel and (ouch) energy.
Offbeat folk rock debut with nicely wonky sensibilities, this is James in the shadow of that ‘Morrissey’s favourite band tag’ but holding their own anyway.
Morrissey allegedly loves this group. I find that hard to believe, mainly because the credulity beyond endurance to imagine Morrissey taking his eyes away from the mirror long enough to love anything or anybody else. An energetically cranked-up performance with guitar, bassist, drums and vocalist all seriously overacting, the song repeatedly advises the listener “why don’t you read a book, it’s so much more worthwhile?” I wish I was reading one right now.
Not found on Spotify.
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