JAMES : WEMBLEY ARENA 10.12.01
Setlist : Laid, Waltzing Along, Tomorrow, She's A Star, I Know What I'm Here For, God Only Knows, Protect Me, Out To Get You, Hymn From A Village, Someone's Got It In For Me, Getting Away With It (All Messed Up), English Beefcake, Sometimes, Johnny Yen, Born of Frustration, Ring The Bells / Top Of The World, Sound / Come Home, Sit Down
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by the Webmaster
So it's over. An era has come to an end. And what a way to go. Sentimentality by the bucketload, but as stunning and unpredictable as James have been for a long time, surpassing even the Manchester show on Friday.
Laid and Waltzing Along were subdued openings to the set, the sheer emotion of the night weighing heavily on the band and crowd. However, a dedication of Tomorrow to Paul Gilbertson, without whom....., lifted the fog and the song sounded louder, more heartfelt, more powerful than ever before with Saul in particular on fire pounding like a demon possessed across the stage. Game on.
She's A Star brought an equally delirious response, with Tim perfecting his ragdoll dance before taking to the speaker stack stage left. What was clear was that he had saved possibly his best vocal performance I can remember for this final gig. This followed into a hyper version of I Know What I'm Here For with Tim changing the lyric to "don't know what I'm here for." Adrian and Michael were in fine form, both more active than at previous shows.
Andy Diagram appeared at the back of the stage and Tim announced that they were going to do a song prepared specially for tonight. "What For", "Seven", we all thought. Sadly, or not as it was to turn out, it was God Only Knows. And it was simply mindblowing with trumpet, three guitars, bass, drums and keyboard all fighting for space as Geoff Buckley provided the stunning lighting backdrop.
Another special guest appeared - Larry Gott sauntered on stage with his self-designed Conran chair and the rest of the band except Jim and Tim left. Protect Me was a simple and yet a heartbreakingly poignant moment. Out To Get You followed, slightly marred by the audience clapping drowning out Larry's slide guitar. A wonderful improvised ending recalled old James circa 1992-3.
And then possibly the musical highlight of the evening. "Our second single" as Tim described it, Hymn From A Village was powered off, Tim reeling off the lyrics as if competing with Larry's frenetic guitar to get to the end first. Absolutely magical.
The 2001 James returned for a runthrough of Someone's Got It In For Me, Tim losing himself in a trance as the band raised the tempo to a simply stunning climax. You have to wonder how what he does next can even bring him close to the highs he experiences at these moments.
Pleased To Meet You was thankfully not neglected. "Our new anthem" Getting Away With It was first and was a slight disappointment. English Beefcake more than made up for this with Saul outstanding on violin, his much neglected tool of the trade. Brian Eno joined the band on stage for the conclusion of this track.
Sometimes followed next and was another musical highlight of the evening. Eno stayed on stage to sing backing vocals and took them to a new plain. Even Jim and Adrian were moving around as the song built and built to the climax of Tim, Eno and Michael chanting the chorus line, before the band went into a improvised instrumental ending never previously heard before. The improvisation spirit of James had suddenly come back - a song that had always had a straighforward treatment was raised to a completely new level. Absolutely astonishing it was too.
Johnny Yen drew massive cheers from the crowd, Andy's trumpet call in the opening section setting the scene for a cacophony of noise as the song drove to its climax with Tim and Andy prowling the stage urging the others on.
Born of Frustration and Ring The Bells followed in the same vein. Andy's presence added a new edge to Frustration, giving it back its calling card trumpet. Ring The Bells was simply immense, building, getting faster all the time to a cacophony of noise interspersed with a rap from Andy whilst Tim danced himself into an altered state.
And that was it. The band left the stage to a huge ovation, clearly moved the reaction they were getting. The waterworks opened for some fans as the reality of the situation began to sink in.
Back came Jim, Adrian and Mark to play the opening bars of Top Of The World before the spotlight turned to the back of the arena where Tim appeared to sing. For his violin part Saul appeared on a balcony stage left. The audience focus on these two did unfortunately take some of the attention off a wonderful spine-tingling bass line from Jim.
Larry reappeared again and the band opened up Sound, over ten minutes of aural stimulation, each instrument fighting with each other for space, creating a whirlpool of noise that no other band on the planet could hope to match with Tim's faultless vocal holding the whole thing together. Again, the presence of Andy's trumpet took things higher.
Then they left again. To more frantic massively deserved applause and much emotion. We knew they'd be back though.
And so they were. The opening bars of Come Home rang out and the crowd went ballistic. Fitting to the evening, this was the strongest performance of this track for a long time, superbly paced to capture the raw emotion and power of the track.
And then there was one to go. And we all know what it was to be. A beautiful keyboard opening by Mark over which Tim and 10,000 of us sang the opening verse and chorus before the rest of the band came in to take the song to a celebratory but not-in-the-slightest-bit cliched ending with several fans helped on stage by security to fulfil a James tradition of stage invasions.
The band then bade their farewells, the crowd keeping them on stage for a full five minutes to show not just their appreciation for tonight's stunning show, but for providing so many of us with a soundtrack to our lives, a rock in times of need and the source of so much joy and inspiration.
Whether we were there at the beginnings or came in with the Best Of or later, there was something for everyone, the set was unpredictable but representative of James. A truly unique band in a world where formula and genre are all important. To put James in an appropriate box, you'd have to make a box especially for them. A fitting end to an era of the greatest band of our times. History will serve them well.