Brushing off the disappointment at the failure of Sit Down, the band were certain that the single to be released in November 1989 would provide the breakthrough.
A whole album of material had been recorded for Rough Trade and with ‘Madchester’ having gripped the nation, they were being tipped by many as the ‘next big thing’ some six years after forming. The biggest tour to date was planned and then came the news that Come Home had not only made the Radio 1 daytime playlist but was going to be record of the week on one of the shows. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, this is James we are talking about – a band for whom everything had seemingly gone wrong ever since their formation. Rough Trade messed up spectacularly, failing to get enough copies into the hands of radio pluggers to take advantage of the Radio 1 situation, and more crucially, not getting enough copies out into the shops. The single, on which so many hopes were pinned crawled in at #85. The problems were exacerbated by the fact that the chart compilers at Music Week made an error in not even listing the single in the rundown……
It really was a crying shame for a track which was so brave and bold and which sounded perfect for the baggy generation while still providing so much in the way of originality for long-time fans. The b-sides were also, yet again, marvellous:-
mp3 : James – Come Home (extended)
mp3 : James – Promised Land
mp3 : James – Slow Right Down (demo)
mp3 : James – Come Home (7″ version)
Understandably angry and upset the band demanded and got a meeting with Geoff Travis. While there was some gratitude for the help he had provided in the mess the band had been in after the shambles with Sire, there was little option but to ask to be released from the contract and to buy the recorded album from the label in the hope of it being better promoted. It really was the last throw of the dice…..
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 