JAMES - NEWS UPDATES - DECEMBER 2002

Update 23.12.02

Kulas has announced a final gig of the year at Toronto's Rivoli Club on December 28th - check out the official Kulas site for more details.

Update 4.12.02

Gavan Whelan is set to make a rare public appearance, next Wednesday December 11, as he will be performing Sit Down live at the Band Of The Wall in Manchester with upcoming band Alive!. Gavan produced Alive's recently released album All Frequencies Covered, which the headline gig is aimed at promoting.  Tickets are £4 in advance or £5 on the door - they can be purchased from the Way Ahead Box Office (0161-237-5554), Polar Bear Records (123 Deansgate - 0161-834-1230) or Fat Cat Records (20 Oldham Street - 0161-237-1181) in Manchester.

Update 3.12.02

Antena 3, a Portuguese radio station, is holding a Nirvana tribute concert on December 9.  Saul is taking part in this concert along with many other famous Portuguese musicians at the Antena 3 Auditorium in Lisbon.   The radio station, as far as my Portuguese can make out, are giving away free tickets to the event.

More Fame Academy news articles here.  I highly recommend watching the video clip for this one. The kids will wonder why he's getting so excited and who the hell James are.

Saul and Mark wrote a song with Ainslie called Look But Don't Touch (Take My Time).  To listen to it, go to this link and select Watch.   There's also a second version of it - to listen to that, click here and select Watch.

Interestingly another article refers to Saul as the ex-guitarist of James, seemingly confirming what Saul told the Portuguese magazine Blitz earlier this year.  Click here to read a translation of that article.

Update 1.12.02

Saul and Mark appeared over the weekend on the BBC TV programme "Fame Academy".  Their role was to assist one of the contestants, Ainslie, a self-professed James fan who has already sang Laid once on the show, to write a song in the next day or so as part of one of the tasks the four remaining contestants have been set. 

For the article from the BBC News site, please click here.  You can listen and watch Saul, Mark and Ainslie playing Laid (you'd have thought he'd have learnt the words if he was that big a fan but never mind)

Oneofthethree found a promo 12 track James CD entitled Space at a London record fair at the weekend.  This would confirm that the original title for the album was indeed Space despite strenuous denials at the time.

The tracklisting is different from the final album.  It runs Space, Falling Down, Getting Away With It, Senorita, Fine, Beefcake, What Is It Good For, Junkie, Pleased To Meet You, Give It Away, The Shining and Alaskan Pipeline.

Apart from the English being dropped from the title of Beefcake, there are a couple of other changes.  Whilst still clocking in at 4.49, Space has the intro from the 4.31 version off the 9 Tracks promo issued earlier in 2002.  Give It Away clocks in at 3.37, half a minute longer than the album version and fifteen seconds longer than the 9 Tracks version.  Pleased To Meet You is also about 10 seconds longer.