FOLKLORE REVIEW

by Dave Brown

Band biographies tend to fall into three categories - the slavishly sycophantic, the deep emotional evaluation and the simple no-thrills story. Folklore fits like a glove into the latter. Evaluation of the music is critical rather than emotive and instinctive. This is no bad thing - we have 260 pages here for a 20 year story - and what a story it is - and you and I all have our own reasons for being James fans.

The characters are introduced as and when they come into James - there is no assuming you know anything about them just because you have bought their records. For me, this is the most fascinating aspect of the book. There is no skimming over the shady early days and the story is often told in the words of the actors themselves.

More than half the book concentrates on the pre-1989 James, an amazing feat given the paucity of the documentary material on this perios. It is a must-read for the older fan as that story has never really been told and an eye opener for the younger fans who are maybe not aware of that history.

The book then becomes a series of ups and downs. There are some fascinating insights into the Gold Mother, Laid and Wah Wah sessions, but relatively little on the more fracturous times in between.

The period between Gold Mother and Seven, the three-year hiatus and Black Thursday and the near breakup at the time of the Best Of are glossed over. It is perhaps a little unfair to blame the author for this as the real story of these times lie with the band themselves and some serious grievances and personal animosity have had to be laid to rest. Draggng them back up at a time of relative harmony would be self-defeating, but the book does suffer from this as a result.

So in the final analysis, is the book worth the extortionate £14.99 Virgin are asking for? The James story, all the way back to the very beginning, is critical to understanding the music the band was producing at any juncture in their career. Despite an odd chronological error and the comments earlier, the book is by far the most comprehensive telling of that story to date.

Read, inwardly digest and go back and listen to your collection.