Razorlight Archives - charleshutchpress

*Kaiser Chiefs: Feeling the benefit of 20 years of Employment at Temple Newsam, Leeds, next May*

KAISER Chiefs will mark the 20^th anniversary of debut album Employment with a home-city concert at Temple Newsam Park, Leeds, on May 31 2025.

Joining the Yorkshire indie band that day will be mid-Noughties peers Razorlight, The Cribs, The Coral and We Are Scientists, plus Hastings trio HotWax and West Yorkshire’s Ellur, “two of the most exciting new indie artists in the UK”. Tickets go on sale today at https://tix.to/KCTempleNewsam.

Released in March 2005, the seven-times platinum and multi-award winning Employment remains the biggest-selling record from a Leeds artist, propelling I Predict A Riot and Oh My God to becoming anthems for the city, forever intertwined with Leeds life, culture, football and more.

To honour that special connection, as well as the 20^th anniversary, Kaiser Chiefs will take to one of Leeds’s biggest stages for a celebration of Employment and the city that inspired it.

*Kaiser Chiefs, minus Ricky Wilson that day, launching their When All Is Quiet: Kaiser Chiefs in Conversation with York Art Gallery exhibition in December 2018*

London quintet Razorlight will perform a special set to mark the 20^th anniversary of their debut album, Up All Night; Wakefield band The Cribs celebrate the same anniversary for sophomore album The New Fellas; The Coral, from the Wirral, will dive into their back catalogue, and cult American indie rockers We Are Scientists will highlight the 20th anniversary of their major label debut, With Love And Squalor.

Kaiser Chiefs are “very excited to announce our biggest Leeds gig ever”. “Twenty years since Employment, and 23 years since we last played at Temple Newsam, we are delighted to be back,” say Ricky Wilson (vocals), Simon Rix (bass), Nick “Peanut” Baines (keyboards), Andrew “Whitey” White (guitar) and Vijay Mistry (drums).

“Last time we played there [in their days as Parva], we joked we were on after Guns N’ Roses, who had played the previous night, so it’s been a long wait to finally actually headline the Park.

“We are a band that historically always looked forwards, but after 20 years of people telling us how important Employment is to them and how it soundtracked people’s lives, we felt we had to organise a celebration.

“We’ve managed to get a few of our old touring friends to come and celebrate with us and of course everyone is invited. Come celebrate the 2000s, Employment, When Leeds took over the World. See you all in May.”

*James: Playing Leeds First Direct Arena in June. Picture: Paul Dixon*

JAMES will release their 18^th studio album, Yummy, on April 12 on Virgin Music ahead of playing Leeds First Direct Arena on June 8.

Produced by Leo Abrahams, the album will be available in CD, 2CD deluxe, vinyl, colour vinyl (marbled red) retail exclusive, colour vinyl (marbled orange) and D2C Exclusive formats.

Yummy’s track list will be: Is This Love; Life Is A F***ing Miracle; Better With You; Stay; Shadow Of A Giant; Way Over Your Head; Mobile God; Our World; Rogue; Hey; Butterfly and Folks.

The 2CD deluxe edition of Yummmy adds Pudding, a second disc of demos produced by the Manchester band’s four songwriters: Anyone But You; Close Enough; Mine To Lose; Activist Song; Won’t Be The Same; Tell Me Something; Poolewe Day 1 Jam 4; Arpen Charp; Deliver The Dawn; Something Of A Pleasure; Walk Tall and 50s Out Takes.

Boston Spa-born frontman Tim Booth says of Pudding’s 12 tracks: “Most of them contain the original music and vocals created in the initial jams – which is why many of them don’t have lyrics.

*Studio Fury’s cover design for James’s album Yummy*

“These are the tracks that didn’t make it to the next stage, where we would take them to all the band members to contribute and I would work on the lyrics before recording the final versions with a producer.

“We always make more demos than we use before recording an album, and we usually jam over 100 songs before choosing which to develop. It’s our way of keeping our quality high. These may be sketches of songs, but we could hear their potential, how they would develop with further work. James have always loved making B-sides as a way to hone creativity. Maybe view these as the B-sides for the album Yummy.”

Lead single Is This Love is out now. Featuring artwork by Studio Fury, who art-directed the campaign for the latest Rolling Stones album, Hackney Diamonds, the song is described as a “complex dissection of love in all its forms” as singer Booth pores over the pain, heat, battle, distance, fear, release and endurance of this emotion, in pursuit of its point and purpose.

Or as he puts it: “Love as a bomb, a Tsunami that rolls over our life as we cling to the wreckage of our peace of mind”.

James will be joined by special guests Razorlight on a tour that will climax with their debut show at the 20,000-capacity London O2 Arena on June 15. Tour tickets are available at tix.to/James24, gigsandtours.com and ticketmaster.co.uk.

*Studio Fury’s artwork for James’s new single Is This Love*

Booth, Jim Glennie and Saul Davies, from James, will perform with Joe Duddell and an orchestra at Music Feeds Live: A Concert To Fight Food Poverty in aid of the Trussell Trust at Manchester O2 Apollo on February 27. Box office: ticketmaster.co.uk.

In celebration of their 40^th anniversary, James were honoured at the 2023 Ivor Novello Awards, receiving the PRS Music Icon Award in a year when they were joined by an orchestra and gospel choir on the James Lasted tour that visited York Barbican on April 28.

Last June’s orchestral double album Be Opened By The Wonderful reached number three in the UK official chart. Throughout the summer, James headlined multiple UK and European festivals, culminating in two shows backed by full orchestra and choir at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens, Greece, and a special guest headline slot at Latitude Festival, Henham Park, Suffolk.

After 2016’s Girl At The End Of The World, 2018’s Living In Extraordinary Times and 2021’s All The Colours Of You, Yummy continues a run of albums addressing American politics, AI technology and conspiracy theorists, all the while facing down mortality with an unbeaten smile and striving for love in a world spinning catastrophically out of control.

In the band’s 2024 line-up are: Tim Booth, Jim Glennie, Saul Davies, Adrian Oxaal, David Baynton-Power, Mark Hunter, Andy Diagram, Chloe Alper and Deborah Knox-Hewson.

Tag: Razorlight

Kaiser Chiefs mark 20 years of gainful Employment with Temple Newsam Park gig with mid-Noughties cronies next May

James announce 18th studio album Yummy for April release before June gig in Leeds