JAMES : GETTING AWAY WITH IT LIVE CD REVIEWS
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Q 4/5
How awkward it must have been for James playing last December's arena tour knowing frontman Tim booth - and with him - any hopes of any kind of resurgence - was finally fleeing the coup. Their last show - in their adopted hometown Manchester - was highly charged without being mawkish. Booth is in prattish form, whining about his monitors and demanding audience affirmation, but his vocals are magical. Behind him, the band - plus guest alumini Larry Gott and Andy Diagram - play knowing life is going to be very different when they wake up in the morning. They end with seven minutes of "a song from the darkest hour", Sit Down. The singalong, even at this distance, is spine-tingling. "I'd love to invite you all home for milk and cookies," says Booth. "Thank you. Goodbye." Shame.
NME 0/10 (not really a review as this prick probably didn't actually listen to the album and just pulled out the NME Book Of James Cliches)
Once a gawky art rock band, by the time they called it a day, James had metamorphosed into a kind of Body Shop version of U2, and this whopping live selection from their last gig fills in most of the points in between, too.
Baggy anthems. Tree-hugging anthems. Sex anthems. James' big thing was anthems, and here they do every single anthem they ever thought of. The crowd think it's brilliant, and they cheer when Tim Booth talks about God. The crowd are plainly mad.
'Sit Down' finally arrives. But by then, you don't want to sit down any more. You want to make a methodical series of unethical investments, and stop this sort of thing ever happening again.
Roy Sinclair
This follows from reading the juvenile trivia claiming to be a review of James final concert written in the NME where image comes before honesty
Like them or Loath them and on this offering 16,000 are in the former category, the DVD and CD of James final hometown concert from Dec 7th 2001 are stunning productions. You are thrown into the mele through 5.1 dolby sound that is almost flawless and captures perfectly the raw energy of a band that thrive on their fans support and collectively seem to rise to ever greater heights as the set continues. At times they play like a band possessed as on 'God only Knows'. Critics are remarkable for their fickleness and few bands survive the initial hype by these vultures of the press and some even fall by the wayside as the praise turns vitriolic as they strive to maintain their image rather than using what meagre talents they have to honestly review the music they are supposed to be concerned with and informing us about. James have survived such criticism and have consistently turned out unique and well crafted albums that are original and distinctive and challenging and clearly demonstrate their musical skill and empathy. perhaps it is this that so annoys those who singularly lack any real talent. Having been poorly served by their companies for several years, their final set is a scorching testimony of how good they are and how good they were and what we will now be missing. Both are more than a fitting finale to 20 years of honest and inspirational music. That their older numbers stand so well against their more recent songs is a testimony to their art and craft.
It is difficult not to get swept away by their sheer exuberance and the obvious pleasure they get from playing together and at the end you feel on top of the world and as happy and as exhausted as any one of the 16,000 fans that were actually there. This is a marvelous record and a tribute to James and one that will form a treasured part of many collections. The critics will soon be long gone and forgotten, James however will still be shaking Manchester Arena for many years to come.