REVIEW: James, Live In 2024, Leeds First Direct Arena, June 8 *****

James: “Still refulgent with fresh ideas, still adventurous both musically and artistically after 41 years”. Picture: Paul Dixon

JAMES once gave a live album – recorded in lonesome pre-Sit Down success days at Bath’s Moles Club – the acerbic moniker of One Man Clapping.

Amid much lamenting, touring circuit institution Moles closed last December, declared insolvent, but Johnny Yen from that November 1988 set list lives on. Now jauntily opening James’s Live In 2024 show, the band on the crest of the crest of a second wave after re-forming in 2007 and topping the charts with a studio album for the first time with Yummy, their 18th, in April. Rather more than one man clapping now.

They may be a Manchester band – first championed by fellow Mancunian Morrissey, sporting a James T-shirt in their early, mutually vegetarian days – but Tim Booth is a son of Clifford, Boston Spa, and Leeds is always a homecoming gig for the Yorkshire frontman now resident in Costa Rica, Central America.

He even commented on Leeds needing “cheering up”, without directly mentioning yet more Wembley woe that had befallen his ever-damned Leeds United a fortnight earlier.

Yet if you could choose one band to blow away those blues, while addressing themes of AI technology, the fragile climate and tinderbox American politics on their latest album, all the while cherishing the abiding wonder of love, flowers and butterflies, then James would be that band. Still refulgent with fresh ideas, still adventurous both musically and artistically after 41 years.

Under normal band parlance, you might call them “veterans” or a “heritage act”, but James keep reinventing themselves, reinvigorating their ever-expanding catalogue. Last year, for example, their James Lasted Orchestral Tour rolled into York Barbican with a 22-piece orchestra, Orca 22, and the eight-strong Manchester Inspirational Voices gospel choir.

A year on in Leeds, four of those choir members complemented the nine-piece line-up of James, wherein vocalist Chloe Alper, once part of Riot grrrl punk band Period Pains, and second drummer Debbie Knox-Hewson have settled in so thrillingly.

Studio Fury’s cover design for James’s 18th studio album, the chart-topping Yummy

In the only concession to ageing, Booth apologised that he and trumpet player Andy Diagram, as dandy as ever in black skirt, would not be clambering up the rafters to perform from the gods, as had long been their custom.

Nevertheless, now he’s 64, Booth still revelled in dancing as if in a loose-limbed trance, and still went crowd surfing too, burly lads at the front quick to give him a helping hand to set him on his way. His megaphone made its customary rallying appearance too, in the polemical Mobile God.

Like the band line-up, a James gig is built around a free-flowing fusion of old and new. On the one hand, Booth, Diagram, drummer David Baynton-Power, bassist Jim Glennie, multi-instrumentalist Saul Davies and seasoned keyboardist Mark Hunter and guitarist Adrian Oxaal, together with the surfing and dancing, the anthems and the crowd singalongs.

On the other, Alper’s sublime singing and Knox-Hewson’s percussive exuberance, eight out of the 12 new songs on Yummy being road-tested, and crucially, the ever-changing, ever-prescient images on the three screens that matched each song’s theme, whether with butterfly beauty, futuristic foreboding, warped psychedelics or AI manipulation.

Every last detail had significance: not least the pile of junked TV sets that accompanied Booth’s lambasting of our destructive age “f***ing up the world for the generations still to come” in his intro to Our World.

In advance, the audience had been asked to “kindly refrain from using your phones during the show”, and Booth later warned that if he faced a bank of cameras, it would hinder his performance.

These days, such a request is akin to King Canute seeking to turn back the tide, but for those who desisted, the reward came with his advice, “This is the one to film”, before the extraordinary X-ray/robot/AI graphics for Mobile God, a sandwich-board warning of a future-rock song about the perils of mobile technology.

The poster for James’s Live In 2024 tour

Over a two-hour set of 20 songs, a James gig carries the promise of the familiar – Booth’s innate sense of theatre from student drama days, a steady stream of hits, such as Just Like Fred Astaire, Tomorrow and Come Home, and the audience taking over the singing as all the band gathers in line on the stage apron for the set-closing Sometimes (Lester Piggott) – peppered with the unexpected.

This came in the form of the debut live performance of Butterfly and tour debut of Out To Get You, and in the band’s chemistry that lets them ride on “the moment”. In this case, a free-wheeling coda from Saul Davies, James’s marrow to the Bad Seeds’ Warren Ellis, violin in excelsis in Tomorrow. His dad, equally dapper in cap and buttoned coat in the band guest seats, remarked afterwards that he had never seen Saul extend that solo for so long, as much flare as flair.

Unpredictable too was the encore, by now up against the clock to meet the regulation 10.30pm cut-off point of no return. Born Of Frustration had to be jettisoned, but mystical Yummy fan favourite Way Over Our Head swayed yummily, Beautiful Beaches was irresistibly melodious yet melancholic, an eco-warning fashioned in the devastating heat of climate change, and just when Sit Down was hitting its stride, a medical emergency brought everything to a stand.

Emergency over, Sit Down stood up to its usual singalong finale, orchestrated as ever by a wonder-struck Booth, but would extra time be permitted? Oh yes, it would, and it felt like a last-minute winning goal as Laid rushed into saucy commotion.

The best laid schemes for summer satisfaction should include heading to the East Coast on July 26 for James’s fourth outdoor outing at Scarborough Open Air Theatre, following similar seaside jaunts in 2025, 2018 and 2021, with room to sit  down or stand up (box office: ticketmaster.co.uk/event/35006049E46E32D3). No doubt the set list will be different again.

Set list, Leeds First Direct Arena, June 8

Johnny Yen; Waltzing Along; Our World; Rogue; Life’s A F***ing Miracle; Just Like Fred Astaire; Ring The Bells; Better With You; Butterfly (live debut); Getting Away With It (All Messed Up); Shadow Of A Giant; Out To Get You (tour debut); Mobile God; Tomorrow; Come Home; Sometimes (Lester Piggott).

Encore: Way Over Our Head; Beautiful Beaches; Sit Down; Laid.

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

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

JAMES will release their 18th 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 40th 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.

The poster for James’s Live In 2024 tour dates

James celebrate 40 years with orchestral tour & double album. York Barbican sold out

James on stage: Next spring their ranks will swell by 30 when joined by an orchestra and gospel choir

ENDURING Manchester band James will play York Barbican on April 28 on next spring’s James Lasted Orchestral Tour.

Led as ever by Boston Spa-born singer Tim Booth, this 40th anniversary celebration will come loaded with a 22-piece orchestra and eight-strong gospel choir conducted by Joe Dundell.

The tour title is presumably a nod to both James’s longevity and to the orchestral music once synonymous with James Last, the German composer, jazz double bassist big band leader of the James Last Orchestra.

All 15 dates on the 2023 orchestral tour have sold out already, including Sheffield City Hall on May 4 as well as Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall and a Royal Albert Hall finale in London.

That itinerary will be accompanied by a double album of new versions of James’s greatest hits, fan favourites and deep cuts, plus one new composition, as yet untitled. Full details including release date, tracklisting and formats are to be announced soon.

The poster for the James Lasted Orchestral tour in 2023

Recorded at Blueprint Studios, Manchester, the album was arranged and conducted by Duddell – whose credits include Elbow and New Order – working in tandem with Orca, the orchestra assigned to the tour too, and a gospel choir.

Since playing as James for the first time when supporting Big Country at Manchester’s Hacienda on November 17 1982, they have released 16 studio albums, sold 25 million records, and enjoyed an Indian summer renaissance with a run of Top Five albums with Girl At The End Of The World, narrowly missing out on the top spot in 2016 to Adele’s 25, 2018’s Living In Extraordinary Times and 2021’s The Colours Of You.

Last December’s arena tour, taking in Leeds First Direct Arena with fellow Mancunians Happy Mondays in support, was their biggest selling and most successful to date.

Looking ahead to the 2023 tour and double album release, Booth, 62, says: “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 song. To fall in love over and over again, Groundhog Day, with our bandmates and audience. Damn. That’s time well spent.

James, at Broughton Hall, near Skipton, in May 2021, when gathered for rehearsals and promotional duties for 16th studio All The Colours Of You. Picture: Lewis Knaggs

“We should have recorded the orchestra tour first time round, as many of you have reminded us. Well, we’ve done it now. And here comes the tour. The orchestra and gospel singers expand our palette, heighten the tenderness, heighten the celebration and, despite their numbers, somehow leave us feeling more naked and raw. It will be different, probably each night, because we are James and Joe [Duddell] knows how to dance with us. And because you are different, each night.”

Bassist Jim Glennie, 59, adds: “Has it really been 40 years? In some ways it feels like yesterday and in others, many lifetimes. A family of brothers and sisters, willing to support each other musically and emotionally. Uniquely challenging, always pushing ourselves into the new and taking risks collectively and individually, looking for transcendence.”

Joining Booth and Glennie in the tour line-up will be Saul Davies, Adrian Oxaal, David Baynton-Power, Mark Hunter, Andy Diagram, Chloe Alper and Deborah Knox-Hewson.  

Marking diaries for next summer’s outdoor concert season, James are booked in to play Live At The Piece Hall 2023 in Halifax, West Yorkshire, on July 7 and a hastily added second show on July 8, due to “phenomenal demand”.  

Already confirmed for The Piece Hall in 2023 are Madness on June 16 and 17; The War On Drugs, June 21; Rag’n’Bone Man, June 23; Embrace, July 1; Sting, July 3, and The Lumineers, July 9, with plenty more acts yet to be announced.  Box office: thepiecehall.co.uk.

‘The last thing you want at this time is something that’s depressing and heavy,’ says James bass player Jim Glennie

James took up temporary residence at Broughton Hall, near Skipton, in May. Picture: Lewis Knaggs

JAMES’S “sweet 16th” studio album has arrived, topical and timely, poignant and punchy, arty and anthemic, as their 40th year looms.

Climate change (Beautiful Beaches), Trump’s tinderbox America (Miss America) and last April’s Covid death of frontman Tim Booth’s father-in-law (Recover) all colour All The Colours Of You, the Manchester band’s first release for their new label, Virgin Music.

That “Manchester” tag is now more historic than present day, Clifford-born Booth, 61, having long moved to the United States, and onwards to Costa Rica, Central America, on December 26 last year with his family, in response to the “weekly fires” ravaging their Topanga Canyon neighbourhood.

“California’s becoming ecologicaly unsustainable,” he posted on Twitter shortly afterwards, adding a second reason: “I anticipate a wave of white racist terrorism”.

Fellow founder Jim Glennie, 57, is settled in the Scottish Highlands. He and Booth and the band came together for the recording sessions on three separate occasions, but the production was done remotely, under pandemic restrictions.

“Basically, because of Covid, there was nothing we could do about that situation, though fortunately we’d written the songs, four of us starting the first big session in July 2018,” said Jim, speaking in early May, when James gathered once more, this time at the resplendent Broughton Hall, near Skipton, to rehearse and promote the new album.

“We did some more song-writing at Sheffield Yellow Arch Studios in April 2019 and a third session at Gairloch in the Highlands in August, and those sessions gave us everything we needed in terms of demos.”

“Amazingly, we’ve come out with an album that we’re incredibly happy with, when we could have had disastrous results,” says bassist Jim Glennie of James’s All The Colours Of You

When the band could not gather for formal recording sessions, serendipity played its hands when Booth gave an impromptu lift and his two neighbourly passengers turned out to be the wife and daughter of Jacknife Lee, Grammy Award-winning producer for U2, REM and Taylor Swift no less. A new partnership of the virtual variety was born, prompting Booth to call the album’s arrival a “miraculous conception”, given “all the s**t that went down in 2020”.

“Jacknife worked remotely from his studio, liaising with me and Tim, Tim working more closely with him as they were in the same valley,” said Jim, recalling how they deconstructed, reimagined and reassembled the demos. “Amazingly, we’ve come out with an album that we’re incredibly happy with, when we could have had disastrous results.

“It’s very dancy, very uplifting, very poetic, though there are dark lyrics about Covid and American politics, but we were aware of the need for lightness, and Jacknife has added some fun and humour within the songs. The last thing you want at this time is something that’s depressing and heavy.”

All The Colours Of You stretches the ever-experimental James soundscape to take in psychedelia, post-rock and rave in “another big jump forward for us on the back of the last three albums,” as Booth put it.

“Jacknife has pushed us and the songs somewhere new and it’s very exciting,” said Jim. “After all these years, we are still challenging ourselves and our fans, with each record re-setting our perimeters, but with pride in what we’ve done before.

“I think there are a few reasons for that. We’ve always been a band with a broad spectrum of what we can be, from folk music to hardcore dance and anything in between, so we don’t have a sound that we’re boxed in by.

“We’re always conscious of that, but also we don’t feel we have to prove anything, other than reacting to what we did before, pushing it further or pushing it away from that, driving towards an unknown destination. It is those strides, that push, that still makes you feel relevant and that you still have the right to be here.”

The artwork for James’s 16th studio album, All The Colours Of You, released on June 4

Since re-uniting in 2007 after a six-year hiatus, James have, if anything, become an even more popular live act. So much so, tickets have sold faster than ever for their seven-date autumn travels, when notorious Manchester reprobates Happy Mondays will join them on the road for the first time since 1988, kicking off at Leeds First Direct Arena on November 25.  

“Hopefully, this time they won’t steal our rider or try and spike my drink,” said Booth, when announcing the double bill, for which remaining tickets are on sale at wearejames.com/live.

Before then, James will head to the East Coast to complete a hattrick of Scarborough Open Air Theatre appearances on September 9, after shows there on May 22 2015 and August 18 2018.

“We always have a great night there – even back in the days when you had to cross the old moat to get to the audience!” said Jim. “We’re looking forward to another very special night on the Yorkshire coast.”

James last played a gig in September 2019 in Porto. “It’s painful to think it was that long ago,” said Jim, whose band’s headline show at Deer Shed 11 at Baldersby Park, Topcliffe, was called off in both 2020 and now for this summer.

The reception will be louder than ever when they return at last. “I’m amazed that we’re still able to put on tours where there seems to be an exponential growth each time, with new people coming,” said Jim.

“That’s because we get a lot of play on BBC 6 Music, drawing 18-year-olds to the shows who don’t know the litany of hits.

“We don’t feel we have to prove anything, other than reacting to what we did before, pushing it further or pushing it away from that,” says James bass player Jim Glennie

“It’s a really exciting prospect to have the chance to play again. We’ve had a few false starts and cancellations, so it’s been difficult to get fully invested in it, because it could always change again, but it’s the essence of what we do, playing live, to show off the new album, trying out the new songs, and we need to get to that point again as musicians.”

The James anthems, from Sit Down to Born Of Frustration, Sometimes to She’s A Star, remain the driving force. “People like a sing-along, and those songs are the connection, the glue, that turn the night into being like a football crowd, but we take them on quite a weird ride to get to the big last blast, always leaving them sweaty, with a big smile, at the finish,” said Jim.

All The Colours Of You will be interwoven into the set list, and already James have been taking the songs to air while in residence at Broughton Hall. “We’ve come here not just to rehearse, but it was more that we needed to do other things, like doing radio sessions from here, and a couple of TV appearances that we have to film here,” said Jim, as this early May phone interview drew to a close.

“We’ve locked ourselves in a bubble, being Covid-tested before we arrived, so that we could do all the usual things we do to promote an album, but from one place. It’s a busy two weeks and you have to make the most of it.”

The band had done a session for Jo Whiley’s BBC Radio 2 a few weeks earlier.  “That was done separately, remotely, before Tim came over and went into quarantine, so he did the interview for that one from America,” said Jim.

Such have been the changes rendered on the music industry, but not everything changes. Another year, another James album, that delivers affecting songs for now, especially Beautiful Beaches and Recover.

James play Scarborough Open Air Theatre on September 9. Tickets are available at scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

James singer Tim Booth is sure to go surfing in Scarborough in September. Crowd-surfing, that is. Picture: Laura Toomer

James to complete hattrick of Scarborough Open Air Theatre gigs on September 9

The poster for James’s return to Scarborough Open Air Theatre in September

WHERE better for James to announce a summer show on the day they release new single Beautiful Beaches than at Scarborough Open Air Theatre?

The Manchester legends will play on the East Coast on Thursday, September 9 in the wake of launching their new album, All The Colours Of You, on June 4. Tickets will go on sale on Friday (23/4/2021) at 9am at scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

This will be the third that James, led by Clifford-born Tim Booth, have played Scarborough OAT after shows on May 22 2015 in the venue’s hindersome moat days and post-moat redesign on August 18 2018.

Bassist Jim Glennie says: “We always have a great night there – even back in the days when you had to cross the old moat to get to the audience! We’re looking forward to another very special night on the Yorkshire coast.”

“After all these years, we are still challenging ourselves and our fans,” says bassist Jim Glennie of James’s new album. “Enjoy.”

Peter Taylor, venue programmer for Scarborough OAT promoters Cuffe and Taylor, says: “We are absolutely delighted James are returning here this summer. They continue to be one of the UK’s most relevant and influential bands – pioneers of the Manchester music scene since the 1980s – and a must-see live act. Roll on September 9. It’s going to be an amazing night.”            

New single Beautiful Beaches was written by Tim Booth in response to climate change migrations and the subsequent increasingly regular Californian fires bringing devastation to the community where he lived before moving to Costa Rica.

All The Colours Of You, James’ “sweet 16th” studio album, follows last December’s release of Live In Extraordinary Times, a double-CD and DVD concert recording built around their last studio album, 2018’s Living In Extraordinary Times.

Recorded in part before the Covid pandemic struck, All The Colours Of You was produced by Booth’s neighbour in Topanga Canyon, the Grammy award-winning Jacknife Lee, who has worked previously with U2, REM, Taylor Swift, Snow Patrol and The Killers.

Surfing in Scarborough? How can Tim Booth resist on September 9?

On production duties with James for the first time, Lee has bought a fresh approach to their sound, working remotely from his studio as he liaised with Booth and Glennie, reimagining, deconstructing and reassembling their demos and capturing a band in all their virtual glory.

Reflecting on the album’s creation, Booth says: “With all the s**t that went down in 2020, this was a miraculous conception and another big jump forward for us on the back of the last three albums. I hope it reflects the colours of these crazy times. Sweet sixteen is a proper album, no fillers and is up there with our best. With love, Tim.”

Glennie is pleased, proud and surprised by the record in equal measure. “Jacknife has pushed us and the songs somewhere new and it’s very exciting,” he says. “After all these years, we are still challenging ourselves and our fans. Enjoy.”

The track listing on James’s first album on Virgin Music will be: ZERO; All The Colours Of You; Recover; Beautiful Beaches; Wherever It Takes Us; Hush; Miss America; Getting Myself Into; Magic Bus; Isabella and XYST.

The artwork for James’s “sweet 16th” studio album, All The Colours Of You, out on June 4

Looking ahead, James will open their seven-date 2021 tour at Leeds First Direct Arena on November 25, supported by fellow Manchester maverick institution Happy Mondays. “Soo looking forward to seeing you,” said Booth, when announcing the gigs last November on Twitter and at wearejames.com

“We’re playing with the brilliant Happy Mondays. Last played with them in 1988, hopefully this time they won’t steal our rider or try and spike my drink…”

The tour has sold faster than any previous James tour, chalking up 60,000 ticket sales for shows in Leeds, Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Dublin, Manchester and London. Remaining tickets are available at: https://wearejames.com/live/

In the summer, James will play a second North Yorkshire outdoor gig, headlining the Saturday bill at Deer Shed Festival 11, confirmed to run from July 30 to August 1 at Baldersby Park, Topcliffe, near Thirsk.

James release “sweet 16th” album All The Colours Of You in June ahead of Leeds gig

Time to go surfing again: James frontman Tim Booth looks forward to riding the wave of crowd adulation once more at Leeds First Direct Arena in November

JAMES are to release their “sweet 16th” studio album, All The Colours Of You, on June 4.

Billed as a “miraculous conception” by Clifford-born frontman Tim Booth, it was recorded in part before the Covid pandemic struck, with the Grammy award-winning Jacknife Lee on production duties with the Manchester band for the first time.

Lee has been at the desk previously for U2, REM, Taylor Swift, Snow Patrol and The Killers, and has brought a fresh approach to James’s sound. Working remotely from his studio, he liaised with vocalist Booth, his neighbour in Topanga Canyon, California, and bassist Jim Glennie in the Scottish Highlands, reimagining their demos and capturing the band in all their virtual glory.

“The result is a record with the most arena-ready and fresh tracks of their 38-year career; the sound of one of Britain’s best bands deconstructed and reassembled by one of the world’s most renowned producers,” proclaims the press release.

The artwork for James’s 16th studio album, All The Colours Of You, blooming in June

Booth says: “With all the s**t that went down in 2020, this was a miraculous conception and another big jump forward for us on the back of the last three albums. I hope it reflects the colours of these crazy times. Sweet sixteen is a proper album, no fillers and is up there with our best. With love, Tim.”

Glennie is pleased, proud and surprised by the record in equal measure. “Jacknife has pushed us and the songs somewhere new and it’s very exciting,” he says. “After all these years, we are still challenging ourselves and our fans. Enjoy.”

All The Colours Of You follows last December’s release of Live In Extraordinary Times, a live double album and DVD with a title twist on their 2018 studio set, Living In Extraordinary Times.

“As requested by many lovers of the band – a live DVD and album to capture the spirit of the gigs of the last few years,” said Booth at the time. “Hopefully, this will help us through the long nights of lockdown – reliving these gatherings of intimacy and passion. Thank you for coming along for the ride in the crazy world of James.”

“Hopefully, this will help us through the long nights of lockdown,” said Tim Booth, when James released their live double album, Live In Extraordinary Times, last December

All The Colours Of You will be James’s first album since being signed by joint managing directors Jim Chancellor and Mike Roe to  Virgin Music Label & Artists Services, formerly Caroline International.

They have a new publishing home too in Kobalt Music, these changes “reinforcing the endless and restless ambition they have” as they approach their fourth decade as a band. 

The track listing will be: ZERO; All The Colours Of You; Recover; Beautiful Beaches; Wherever It Takes Us; Hush; Miss America; Getting Myself Into; Magic Bus; Isabella and XYST.

From the first line on ZERO – “We’re all gonna die” – Booth addresses difficult subjects throughout the 11 tracks, with themes ranging from politics and climate change to dealing with the loss of a loved one during the pandemic.

James: Touring in the autumn in a maverick Manchester double bill with Happy Mondays

Miss America examines that disunited country’s tarnished image through the eyes of a beauty pageant (“Miss America’s wearing thin, she’s all tiaras and glamour”), while Beautiful Beaches focuses on the fires that ravaged California and follows a vision Booth had of an earthquake that caused his family to flee for refuge (“That life we left behind, we’re racing down to those beautiful beaches”). 

The title-track first single tackles the Trump years head on. Based in the USA for many years, Booth, 61, has witnessed at first hand the divisiveness and hatred stoked by the former President. Highlighting the sharp rise of white supremacy during Trump’s four years in office, the song nevertheless ultimately offers hope of a new and brighter future with the refrain “Love all the colours, all the colours of you”.

Recover, the album’s most poignant and delicate song, deals with the death of Tim’s father-in-law from Covid-19 in the UK. Uplifting and joyful in honouring a loved one’s legacy and spirit, it offers a celebration of life, not the sadness of death, affirming that “We will remember how to pass your spirit on”.

All The Colours Of You will be available in myriad formats: standard CD; D2C deluxe CD with bonus artwork, photos and pictures in a DVD hardback book package; standard LP; D2C deluxe LP on swirl coloured vinyl; D2C deluxe LP on picture-disc vinyl; indies and HMV deluxe LP on multi-coloured vinyl and even on cassette. Pre-orders can be made at: https://james.lnk.to/AllTheColoursOfYouSo.

The tour poster to accompany last November’s announcement of James and Happy Mondays’ 2021 itinerary

James will open their seven-date 2021 tour at Leeds First Direct Arena on November 25, supported by fellow Manchester maverick institution Happy Mondays. “Soo looking forward to seeing you,” said Booth, when announcing the gigs last November on Twitter and at wearejames.com. “We’re playing with the brilliant Happy Mondays. Last played with them in 1988, hopefully this time they won’t steal our rider or try and spike my drink…”

The tour has sold faster than any previous James tour, chalking up 60,000 ticket sales for shows in Leeds, Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Dublin, Manchester and London. Remaining tickets are available at: https://wearejames.com/live/

In the summer, James will headline the Saturday bill at Deer Shed Festival 11, confirmed to run from July 30 to August 1 at Baldersby Park, Topcliffe, near Thirsk. “In light of the recent Government unlocking roadmap, we are now working flat out to bring you an amazing festival,” say the festival team, led by director Oliver Jones.

“We will bring you the maximum possible fun in July and that currently looks like a full fat Deer Shed 11. The safety of everyone in attendance will always come first, and should circumstances change, none of our audience will lose out.” Tickets are available at https://www.deershedfestival.com/tickets/.

James to play Leeds First Direct Arena on Nov 25…in 2021. New albums upcoming too

James: 2020 live album and DVD, 2021 studio album and winter tour

JAMES will open their 2021 winter tour at Leeds First Direct Arena on November 25, supported by fellow Manchester institution Happy Mondays.

“Feels like a new dawn to trumpet a celebratory tour, a week after the first news of hope,” said Clifford-raised frontman Tim Booth on Twitter. ”Soo looking forward to seeing you. 

“We’re playing with the brilliant Happy Mondays. Last played with them in 1988, hopefully this time they won’t steal our rider or try and spike my drink…”

James announced their seven-date itinerary on official website wearejames.com. “Lockdown greetings to one and all. In these extraordinary times, obviously our traditional winter tour won’t be possible, but let’s set a date for this time next year so we in Jamesland collectively have something to look forward to!” it stated.

“With that in mind, you’re cordially invited to our 2021 winter tour of the UK and Ireland, joined by very special guests and fellow Mancunian mavericks, Happy Mondays.”

The 2021 tour poster for James’s Mancunian double bill with Happy Mondays

Welcoming Shaun Ryder’s Madchester icons aboard, bassist Jim Glennie said: “True Manchester legends and old band buddies, it will be an honour to have them as our very special guests. Make sure you get your tickets for an exceptional double bill of fun and fantastic music.”

Pre-sale tickets go on sale at 9.30am tomorrow (18/11/2020); remaining tickets will be on general sale from 9.30am on Friday with more details on the Live page at wearejames.com.

The website also trailered “thrilling whispers on the new music front”: “Springtime 2021 there’s a brand new James studio album due – our sweet sixteenth! – currently entitled All The Colours Of You. Much more of that to come, shouted from the rooftops, in due time!”

The message concluded: “Hopefully this newsflash has brightened a dreary day with thoughts of winter singalongs to come and a year full of new music. Of course, you can still order our forthcoming live album and DVD if you can’t wait for your James fix! Stay warm and well X.”

The aforementioned live album and DVD, Live In Extraordinary Times – a title twist on their 2018 studio set Living In Extraordinary Times – will be released on December 11.

Extraordinary: The artwork for James’s upcoming live double album and DVD

“You asked (okay – pleaded, pestered, perhaps even profaned) and finally we’ve delivered,” the website proclaimed. “A new live double album and DVD! Including a beautiful photo-book set, as well as coloured vinyl, double deluxe CD, signed prints (get in early!), T-shirts, the full works.”

Booth, 60, commented: “As requested by many lovers of the band – a live DVD and album to capture the spirit of the gigs of the last few years. Hopefully, this will help us through the long nights of lockdown – reliving these gatherings of intimacy and passion. Thank you for coming along for the ride in the crazy world of James.”

The website bulletin went on: “In a year feeling anything but ordinary, this special collection reminds us of the power and connection of live music.

“Released just in time for St Nick to get his hands on it for you…11th December 2020. Sorry we can’t put on one of our traditional winter tours to warm your quarantined cockles but hopefully this is the next best thing.”

In the meantime, bask in the memory of James shows of recent Yorkshire times – Leeds First Direct Arena, Scarborough Open Air Theatre and the night in March 2019 when fighting broke out at Hull Bonus Arena – as you dance just like Fred Astaire until next winter’s tour.