JAMES : PRESTON GUILDHALL 9.4.10

Setlist : Sit Down, Ring The Bells, Hymn From A Village, It's Hot, Dr Hellier, Ten Below, Johnny Yen, Dream Thrum, Top Of The World, Porcupine, Born Of Frustration, I Know What I'm Here For, Crazy, Tomorrow and Sound followed by an encore of Stutter, Getting Away With It (All Messed Up), Sometimes and Laid.

review by Sir Michael Nuttall

The Guild Hall in Preston is probably most famous for hosting the world’s top snooker talent.  When Tim Booth and Larry Gott enter the arena through a door above the seating section, both dressed resplendently in black, you could be forgiven for thinking that they are here for a session on the green baize.  Not for long though.  Gott’s hand strums the chords to monster-hit Sit Down with the ease of the chalking of a cue and when Booth’s distinctive vocal intones the immortal line “I sing myself to sleep”, the roar is akin to the reaction to a Jimmy White 147.

James are back on the road promoting their new mini-album, The Night Before and the packed auditorium are clearly up for a Friday night party.  So, Sit Down, even played in its stripped down acoustic form is the perfect way to start the night, Booth and Gott weaving their way through the exultant crowd, finally reaching the stage as the intro to Ring The Bells resonates around the famous old hall.  Hymn From A Village was released as a single twenty-five years ago but the sentiment is as true today as it ever was.  Dave Baynton-Power’s tribal drumming is both rousing and magnificent.  James then do what they have always done, challenging the concentration of their audience with three songs from the new record.  Whilst It’s Hot thrills and Dr Hellier rocks, it’s Ten Below that holds the most intrigue.  A lyric written by fifty-year old Booth about his experience of being sent to boarding school in the 1970s should not really work but does.  The line “when’s the holiday?” must have been a constant, agonising question for the young Booth but is treated as a celebration here, the kind of trick that James have pulled off many times before.

As if knowing that the party needs re-igniting, they launch into old live favourite, Johnny Yen, a song that seems to have gained a new lease of life.  The atmosphere in the venue is electric and what happens next is simply breathtaking.  Dream Thrum was only ever an album track from 1993’s Laid album but somehow feels warm and familiar, having been aired extensively on the December 2008 tour.  Gott’s guitar line remains as hauntingly beautiful as the day it was first performed and the crowd listen with a reverential hush.  James then launch straight into Top Of The World, Booth climbing to stand and sway on a specially built platform above a giant mirror ball.  The lighting is stunning but the tune is better and you would have to be the world’s most hard-hearted individual not to be moved as violin and vocal compete for supremacy.

Porcupine is a song about suicide and is another of the new songs but is not unknown, having been played almost nightly in December 2008.  Even so, there is clearly a feeling that the monster hits are now needed and only new song Crazy splits up a run of big-guns.  Born Of Frustration is slowed down and sexy, jazzy trumpet perfectly complementing moody guitar.   The venue’s sprung floor is then fully tested during the electronic I Know What I’m Here For and the frantic Tomorrow, as the crowd becomes a heaving mass.  An eight-minute Sound brings the main set to a close in ebullient style, Booth’s shamanic dancing lifted by the majesty of his band, who in turn lift their singer to ever more whiplash-inducing moves.

The band leave to an ovation befitting returning heroes and there is no doubting the song that the Lancashire crowd want to hear next, as the chorus from Sometimes is  sung repeatedly while the band towel down backstage.  They don’t get their wish immediately upon the band’s return.  First, James go leftfield again, resurrecting Stutter, a song first played in 1983.  It throbs and pulsates, Jim Glennie’s rumbling bassline driving the song on.  Next comes Getting Away With It (All Messed Up), which was only ever a minor hit but is greeted like an old friend tonight.  The crowd finally get there wish and the singalong ending to Sometimes refuses to subside as the band wait to launch into now traditional set-closer, Laid.  It really is party time in Preston now and nobody wants the band to depart.  Sadly, inevitably, they must. 

Tonight has been a total triumph, all balls potted without rattling the jaws of the pocket and the UK Masters are James.  Once again.