Forty and counting...

An orchestral recording and tour, summer festival shows and a new studio album in the pipeline. Manchester indie rock band James enter their 40th year busier than ever. Singer Tim Booth talks to What’s On about their ongoing success...

To paraphrase one of their recent album titles, these are extraordinary times for James. As they prepare to celebrate their 40th anniversary, the seven-piece Manchester band have scarcely been in better shapetheir last three albums have all made the top 10 and an arena tour in 2021 was their biggest-selling and most successful to date. This year is set to be one of their busiest ever. The upcoming - and brilliantly titled - James Lasted tour will see them performing with a 22-piece orchestra and eight-strong gospel choir. There’s an album (Be Opened By The Wonderful) to go with it - featuring reimagined versions of some of their bestloved and rare tracks - festival shows in the summer, and an album of new material in the works.

Genial singer Tim Booth, interrupting work on his first novel (“about a f**ked-up singer”) to chat with me, is clearly revelling in the band’s golden era, especially since they’re very much a creative entity and not some nostalgia act trading on former glories.

“I’m in one of the best bands in the world, I’ve never doubted that,” he says. “They’ve always turned me on. It’s amazing after 40 years that when we get together in a room they always turn me on, and I hope I do the same to them. It’s just thrilling - we never know what’s going to happen.

“There are a number of great bands who have been around for 40 years. But to get here and to be having the best time of our lives; to be part of a supportive, loving family that still has something to say and new ways to say it; to be turned on by every gig and every song; to fall in love over and over again, Groundhog Day-style, with our bandmates and our audience. That’s time well spent.” Those 40 years have seen the band sell more than 25 million albums, and while their profile might have dipped since Sit Down was kept off number one by Chesney Hawkes, ticket sales suggest they’re more popular than ever.

“To the general public we’ve probably disappeared, but we actually sell more tickets now than we did at the height of our fame. Young people and families are coming, generations are coming, and it’s really beautiful to witness.”

The current 15-date orchestral tour is long sold out, and while the venture might not be totally alien to the band - they did similar shows with the Orchestra of the Swan in 2011 - recording an album has upped the ante.

Conductor Joe Duddell, who has also worked with the likes of New Order and Elbow, helped with the arrangements, but in typical James fashion, the track list focuses more on rarities and fan favourites than chart hits.

“That’s so in keeping with our philosophy, which is basically that singles are a crapshoot and albums are what count to us and always have. We’ve got great songs hidden away on different records that didn’t get the attention they probably deserved, so it was a case of ‘this’d be great, let’s do this one’.

“It’s that James arrogance and obsession to not just be known by our hits from the ’90s but to show people we’ve got a massive catalogue of songs that we spent a lot of time working on. Our fans know us for that depth and for setlist changes and not playing the hits all the time.”

by Steve Adams

I can vouch for that. The last time I saw the band, Tim gently reminded an audience member that coming to see James and hoping to hear a favourite song - from a backcatalogue of 300 - was a bit like buying a lottery ticket.

“We feel that one of the things that makes us unique and different and interesting, and has helped our longevity, is the fact that it’s a live event and you roll the dice.

“Occasionally someone will lambast me on Twitter because we didn’t play Sit Down, and they’ll get 20 responses from fans saying ‘We don’t want to hear Sit Down, we want to hear B-sides.’”

Varying the setlist won’t be as easy for the orchestral shows, but even though he admits there are a few set-pieces, Tim’s adamant that every night will be different. Not only can he claim “Joe knows how to dance with us,” but the band have a few surprises in store too. The orchestral album - which isn’t released until after the tour anyway - features 20 tracks, but a dozen more have been worked up and are waiting in the wings.

“That way we can rotate things a little. People will come to the gigs and go ‘that was my favourite song’ and then get the album and it won’t be on there!”

Does that mean there’s an orchestral version of my personal favourite, Just Like Fred Astaire?

“Might be.”

Looks like I’ll be rolling the dice with everyone else at the upcoming Symphony Hall show then!

Audiences at the band’s festival dates in the summer can be a little more confident of hearing songs they know.

“You can’t take as many risks at festivals because you’re often playing to an audience that aren’t yours. You want to make it easy for people - gigs are communication, and you’ve got to learn to adapt your communication so that you can be understood. But I’m sure some of the orchestral songs will linger into the set.”

One gig likely to be a perfect hybrid of the two scenarios is the band’s show at the newly reopened The Civic at The Halls Wolverhampton on 20 June. The gig is one of only a couple of theatre dates during the run of festival shows, but is one the singer says he’s looking forward to.

“I think the first time we played there was with The Smiths - I remember it being a wonderful venue and Morrissey flagging it up to me at the time. It’s a great venue with a great history. There are certain gigs that have a resonance, where there’s a power to it and you’re building on the backs of other bands that have been there before. That’s definitely one of them - it’ll be great to go back.”

Live music from across the region...

Masca

Drummonds Bar, Worcester, Tues 16 May

Christina Maynard is following up her time with cult favourites Soeur by straddling the worlds of pop and rock in the company of her long-time partner and drummer, Jack Hamilton. Presenting a winning combination of dual vocals, guitar riffs and catchy melodies, Masca sold out their first headline show in their home town of Bristol back in 2020. They have since steadily built on their grassroots following via support slots for the likes of Delta Sleep, Kier, Beach Rio and Goan Dogs.

Hothouse Flowers

Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry, Fri 5 May

It’s the better part of 40 years since Hothouse Flowers burst onto the scene with first single Love Don’t Work This Way. They followed up with debut album People, a record that hit the top spot in their native

Harry Styles

Coventry Building Society Arena, Mon 22 & Tues 23 May

Tickets for Harry Styles’ concerts sell like proverbial hotcakes. And why wouldn’t they?

He is, after all, a bona fide 24-carat global superstar - a fact to which his collection of Brit, Grammy and Ivor Novello awards bears glittering testament.

Harry’s path to fame and fortune started with an X-Factor appearance in 2010. After being eliminated as a solo artist, he was teamed with four other fellas who’d suffered the same fate. At Harry’s suggestion, the quintet took the name One Direction... and the rest, as they say, is history.

Here visiting his home patch of the West Midlands with his Love On Tour 2023 show, the Redditch-born singer is joined by Brit and Grammy Award-winning indie rock duo Wet Leg.

Ian Brown

hmv Empire, Coventry, Wed 24 May While plenty from his era have crashed and burned, Ian Brown’s star continues to shine bright. Having released seven studio albums, 19 singles, a remix album, a greatest-hits compilation and an 11-disc box set, it’s fair to say the 60-year-old musician is enjoying a solo career that’s well worth writing home about. Even so, it’s as the lead singer of legendary indie band The Stone Roses that he remains best known. His Coventry appearance is one of two intimate gigs he’s arranged this month - the other being in Cardiff - and comes just days before he headlines festivals in Newcastle and his home town of Warrington.

The Last Inklings

Temperance, Leamington Spa, Wed 24 May With cello, mandolin and vocal harmony lying at the heart of what they do, inspiration comes from many sources for Leonardo MacKenzie and David Hoyland, aka The Last Inklings. The traditional songs and tunes of the British Isles, the cinematic soundscapes of composers including the Oscar-winning Max Richter, and the writings of authors as diverse as Carl Jung and JRR Tolkien, have all played a part in the development of the duo’s innovative and genre-crossing sound.

Ireland and kickstarted a decade of glorious chart success. Boasting a back-catalogue now bursting at the seams with much-loved numbers like I’m Sorry, Give It Up and I Can See Clearly Now, the band are at their formidable best when playing live, a fact which makes their Coventry stop-off this month an experience not to be missed.

Leonardo and David previously performed together in Kadia, a trio whose style saw them presenting shows that interspersed traditional and original folk-inspired songs with history and storytelling.

Roddy Woomble

The Tin At The Coal Vaults, Coventry, Tues 9 May

“Lockdown gave me the sense of a collective melancholy,” says Idlewild frontman Roddy Woomble, in talking about his most recent album, Lo! Soul - tracks from which he’ll be performing during his Coventry gig. “That shared remoteness and isolation has been a guiding influence throughout all the songs. Lo! Soul is the most unusual record I’ve made, made in the most unusual way.”