2001 TOUR PROGRAMME - LARRY GOTT

In James from the early days, guitarist Larry left in 1996... to go back to school. After studying Art and Design, he graduated as a furniture designer.. and after winning a slew of awards now has his own company designing and making furniture for Terence Conran.

"When you leave an institution like James, it's a bit scary to go out there on your own," he says. "There's an incredible pressure to succeed - otherwise it would have been foolish to leave in the first place. Though it was a bit weird being a first year in college and also being Number 1 in the album charts."

Although he claims not to miss the day to day buzz of being in a band - "it was always more than that for me, I miss playing live sometimes, and I do miss having the faith in ourselves we had in the very early days" - there are moments he admits will probably never be topped.

"There were almost too many highs to talk about" he says. "There were some stunning moments. The first time people sat down at a gig - that was in Paris, at the Locomotive, and the place was full of Manchester lads who'd bussed in from the Hacienda. "Or coming in to New York when Laid was getting played everywhere, and we did Jay Leno and Letterman... that was probably the single most exciting right. Our gig that night was the talk of the town, the record was everywhere, Letterman was waiting for us, we were driving in to town in a big American tour bus.. just fantastic."