JAMES FAVOURITE RECORDS 1991 TOUR PROGRAMME

As discussed with Dave Haslam in 1991 tour programme

LARRY

JOY DIVISION : LOVE WILL TEAR US APART

Mention that, and the first thing I think about are split trousers and PJ Proby, who was known for splitting his trousers on stage; he did a cover version of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart.’ When I was really young, he used to be on the kind of shows my parents would watch on TV, along with other people like The Shadows and Joe Brown. And then, as I got older I was into all these noisy bands that my parents hated. And one of them was Joy Division. And then PJ Proby did a cover version of one of their songs; it was totally confusing. He did a cover version in an attempt to make a comeback.

What did you like about the Joy Division original?

The sparsity of it, the simplicity of it.

Do you think Tim Booth dances like Ian Curtis?

I don’t know. I don’t remember

It was a bit of a freak-out, he’d stand still&ldots;&ldots;

That’s right; he stood still, and then he’d walk away from the microphone, and suddenly freak out. Yes, but I think Iggy Pop is more like what Tim does.

NEW ORDER : TECHNIQUE (LP)

Wonderful record. As near a perfect album as I’ve ever heard.

Very different to Joy Division though.

A lot different. But so many of the things that were special about Joy Division carried on; the way they used just three or four note lines and made those wonderful melodies out of them, and Hooky’s bass playing, and the guitar playing. I liked the way they mixed drum machines and sequencers with real guitars, and acoustic guitars. And Bernard sings in a very simple, expressive way, without being a ‘great singer’ in any generally accepted way; in that, he’s a bit like early Bob Dylan.

THE BEATLES : I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND

This is the first record I ever bought. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were great heroes at primary school; it was the emergence of young people’s pop music. The Beatles crossed all boundaries between ages, but through The Beatles, people got to know of this hell-raising, drug-taking band, The Rolling Stones.

Did people think of them like that; The Beatles were a bit safe, but The Stones were a bit wild

Well, as I became older the difference became obvious

Are James a Beatles type band, or Stones type band?

Jesus! I would have to think we have a bit of both. We’re a Beatles type band, I suppose; we’ve got The Beatles love of melody, rather than The Stones’ image. The Stones had the prototype rock’n’roll image; the wildness and the drugs. All the same sort of things happened to The Beatles, in fact, but somehow they remained untarnished by it all. In a way, the same is true of us; a lot of things that we do don’t get noticed because they don’t fit in with people’s ideas of what James are about.

JAMES : HYMN FROM A VILLAGE

One of Tim’s finest hours; the lyrics on that are brilliant. Each little bit of lyric stands up in it’s own right, but also builds this wonderful collage.

‘Hymn From A Village’ was the first James song I ever heard. Paul and Jim brought this tape round for me to listen to. I thought they were just another local band, local lads who’d got together to make a demo, but when ‘Hymn From A Village’ came out of the speakers, I knew they had something. It went on the second single, and by then I’d joined the group. At one point we had two guitarists; Paul and me. We only did one gig with both of us, though; at Devilles in Manchester; it was my first, and – as it turned out – Paul’s last. The gig was billed as James’s "comeback gig"!

There’s been a few of them!

We’ve done more comebacks than PJ Proby!

GRANDMASTER FLASH : THE MESSAGE

I thought the 12" of this was really strong. It came out about nine years ago. The lyric is comprehensive, and the flow of it is brilliant. He used the standard rap rhythm but he applied a literate, lyrical poem to it and you found the lyric coming back to you; "Sometimes it makes me wonder, How I keep from going under". The keyboard melody is a lovely haunting line. You don’t often get rap mixed with melody; that song transcended all that, even way back then.

JIM

THE SMITHS - HOW SOON IS NOW

Obviously anything to do with The Smiths brings back a lot of memories. Morrissey name checking us all the time was a help, I suppose. We did get a bit pissed off with the association being thrown at us all the time, and it still is even now. It shone a lot of light on us early on.

You had a lot of attention earlyon, in 1984 and 1985, and then you faded away, and now you've returned; is it almost like being in a different group second time around?

Looking back on it now, it now feels that it was all a long preparation for where we are now, a long apprenticeship. We've been able to learn how to deal with the business side of things, and with having success. On a personal level, it's been very difficult to deal with that.

Do you still wish you had been able to harness that early momentum?

When it happened the first time, we were still learning the game. We were just into playing the music and playing gigs. We were crap at marketing, and our image - whatever it was - was a bit nebulous, and we weren't easy to sell. We didn't fit into any box.

CHESNEY HAWKES - THE ONE AND ONLY

That will always have a special part in my life! The way it stayed at No.1 in the charts for so long, leaving us stuck at No.2! Anything to do with Chesney makes me smile. We met him at 'Top Of The Pops'; we'd been really pissed off with him for keeping us off the top, but we had a laugh about it in the end. He was a bit apologetic, I think. It was difficult to hate him!

HAPPY MONDAYS - WROTE FOR LUCK

I love it. It brings back memories of the tour when they supported us (at the end of 1988). It was the highlight of their set. I was a bit disappointed with their 'Bummed' album; I like it in retrospect, but at the time I didn't think it captured the energy they had when they were playing live. I think that's something we've suffered from as well.

THE DOORS - THE CRYSTAL SHIP

My favourite Doors track. I love the instrumental break. Typical bass player; you like the bit where there's no singing! Yes I do! There's this piano riff which is orgasmic! When I saw the Doors movie they start playing 'The Crystal Ship' and a whole load of dialogue come over the top, and just as the bit I like it coming up, the track faded away completely.

JAMES - RING THE BELLS

Out of all our new songs, this one I love playing live. I play chords all the way through it; it's a big moment for me. It's good fun, and it's a great song, very uplifting.

And if all James's recordings were accidentally erased, and you had to choose just one to survive, which would you choose?

'Hymn From A Village'.

TIM 

THE STOOGES - I WANNA BE YOUR DOG

I love that amazing little neolithic beat and bass line. I love the total abandon, the intensity. 

Iggy Pop sang with The Stooges, of course. And people have likened your onstage performance to his; is there a link?

I'm aware there might be. He's a very physical performer and so am I. And with him you never know what's going to happen next, which I like. But I've certainly never imitated anyone; I've danced like I do since the age of fourteen! And ultimately my stuff is less violent than his.

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND - WAITING FOR MY MAN

I don't really know which Velvets track is actually my favourite. 

You covered 'Sunday Morning', though.

Yes, because it suited the band. It meant we could use fiddle and trumpet; not all their songs could take that. I like the Velvet's song-songs, rather than their noise-songs. I like 'Beginning To See The Light' and 'Femme Fatale'.

Have you ever met Lou Reed? 

No, but he's meant to be quite a difficult person. I've got no illusions about people like that. Like when I met Nick Cave and nearly got into a fight with him. I don't expect to meet these people and get on with them.

And what do people expect of you when they meet you; do they think of you as a difficult person or a nice guy?

I think my reputation is probably a bit difficult, and then when I meet people they think I'm over-nice! Whenever I meet Black Francis from The Pixies I never know what to say to him. I get really tongue-tied.

And which Pixies track would you pick out? 

'Caribou' from their first album. And I love the 'Doolittle' album; you can't fault it. 

PATTI SMITH - HORSES (LP)

Patti Smith live was the same as Iggy; you never knew what to expect. 

In 'Psychotic Reactions', Lester Bangs' collection of interviews, he's disillusioned with Patti Smith because she's such a mess.

A lot of people are. Unfortunately all the best artists are a bit of a mess. And most people create from fuck-ups and neuroses.

Is Patti Smith one of the few female performers that you have any link with? 

No, there are others; I love Laurie Anderson, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Julie Cruise, and Debbie Harry. 

NICK CAVE - THE MERCY SEAT

I love the lyric. And the intensity of it too; that violin screeching away. 

JAMES - SOUND

On the LP some of the songs sound like James songs, but others sound further and further away from us. 'Sound' is possibly the furthest song. And I haven't a clue what I'm singing about!

In the lyrics you seem to be as pessimistic as ever ... 

Hang on; "Laugh at the wonder of the world ...Cry at the sadness of the world". It's balanced. As far as I understand it, the song is about change.

But on the LP, you seem quite pessimistic. 

I don't think "pessimism" is the right word. Some of the lyrics are quite hard and vicious and sad, but you can't take the lyrics out of context. The rhythms, the sounds that the band makes balances that sort of thing.

I don't think anyone seeing you play live would think o.f you as a miserable band. 

No, and the energy behind even the sad songs is quite positive. It's all about contradictions. I just don't like happy, happy, happy songs. Happy songs just don't mean anything to me. Real happiness has to come out of real experience, and I think we have depth because there is that acknowledgement of the pain and difficult. With James there's always that feeling that we're going to break through, and it's going to be good.