Category: James

That it has been almost a full month since the previous entry in this series will perhaps give you an idea of how difficult it has been to do this post.

James had finally captured the hearts and minds of music fans in the UK and indeed across much of Europe. All those years of blood, sweat and toil and what had been Manchester’s greatest secret was out there in the open. All that was needed now was a poptastic sing-a-long single at the end of 1991 to provide a perfect preview for the new hugely anticipated LP that was due out in the early months of 92.

But if you’ve been following this series, you’ll know that with James, it’s usually always a tale of the totally unexpected with a twist nobody anticipated. The release of Sound in November 1991 was certainly that.

Listening to it now still fills me with horror. Yup, releasing a six-minute single with no discernible chorus can be seen as brave….but it only works if the music can hold the listener’s attention which sadly in this case it did not. There are some who thought it was evidence of an inevitable drift into stadium rock thanks to the size of arenas that the band could now sell out in a matter of minutes but quite frankly it is just not bombastic enough to fall into that category. It sounds to me like a band who were confused about what to do next and the results were a messy mix of a record having big contributions from everyone with no overall sense of control.

Released on 7″, 12″, cassette single and CD single. Sound did reach the Top 10 in the UK but only for one week before dropping like a stone. This was one bought by fans only and not, as with the re-released Sit Down, by casual listeners attracted by the vibrant pop blaring from their radios.

Thankfully, everyone concerned didn’t release all sorts of different b-sides on the different versions – buying either the 12″ or CD would get you everything:-

mp3 : James – Sound (7″ version)
mp3 : James – All My Sons
mp3 : James – Come Home (Youth Pressure Dub)
mp3 : James – Sound (full length)

All My Sons appears to have been included as the antidote to the single, clocking in at under two minutes. Dating back to the early 90s, it was really an outake from the Goldmother era….but worryingly boring. Oh and it was also disappointing to get yet another remix of Come Home……..

Enjoy

I mentioned last time round that a short pre-Xmas tour had been put together to support the release of Lose Control and how the band, despite very little chart success, had sold out two successive nights at the 10,000 capacity G-Mex in Manchester.

One of the gigs, on Saturday 8 December 1990, was being filmed for future release on VHS. The band were on top form, but so was the audience who turned the event into a giant celebratory party – one that recognised James for what they were but one that also symbolised the fact that Manchester had become, at that moment in time, THE happening place for rock music not just in the UK but right across the planet, although things would shift many thousands of miles west to Seattle in the coming months….

The footage of the performance of Sit Down remains a thing of wonder. The old-fashioned indie anthem was hijacked by the audience for a massive sing-a-long, way beyond the wildest dreams of the band. As one review at the time said, it was a gig which inspired the sort of messianic, almost religious devotion not seen since the days of The Smiths. The song went on and on and on and on for well in excess of ten minutes. It was no surprise afterwards that all concerned thought a re-release might just be the thing that finally cracked the charts.

Personally, I prefer the old Rough Trade version of the song, but there’s no denying that Gil Norton delivered a dynamic production that was tailor-made for daytime radio, especially the way the chorus now dominated the whole thing:-

mp3 : James – Sit Down (re-release)

The record label made sure they could shift 10,000 copies on the first day by putting this on the b-side:-

mp3 : James – Sit Down (live at G-Mex)

I have no doubt that the entire audience rushed out to but the single to relive that special night a few months earlier.

The 12″ and CD single had a previously unreleased (but largely unremarkable) song that had been recorded at the same time as Lose Control:-

mp3 : James – Tonight

At the end of March, the single charged into the charts at #7 and the band finally made a long-overdue appearance on Top of The Pops. It was on heavy rotation on radio as well as MTV, and the band were also able to promote it through prime time telly in the UK. It was surely destined for #1……

…..but nobody had reckoned without the poptastic hit that was The One and Only by Chesney Hawkes which kept Sit Down at #2 for three weeks!

1990 had been a very good year for James.

The LP Goldmother had received very favourable reviews as had a performance at that summer’s Glastonbury festival.  The band was gaining a very formidable reputation as a live act, and it was no surprise that they were being asked to play as special guests at outdoor gigs as they did with both David Bowie and The Cure (the former being at Maine Road, the then home of Manchester City FC where James stole the show from the headliner).

It was decided that a new single should be released just prior to Christmas and with a mini-tour taking in Glasgow, Newcastle and Manchester to help with its promotion.  The popularity of the band in their home town could be seen from the fact that they sold out two consecutive nights at the 10,000 capacity G-Mex and could probably have done the same again if the time had been available.  Sadly, I wasn’t able to get a ticket for the Glasgow Barrowlands gig, but I am reliably informed by someone who was there that it was amongst the best ever at the famous old venue.

The new single was a belter as well.  Maybe it was the time of the year when the band thought fans might be a bit skint, but the multi-formatting approach was abandoned.  It still came out on 7″, 12″, cassette and CD but you didn’t have to buy all versions to get all the songs:-

mp3 : James – Lose Control (7″ version)
mp3 : James – Lose Control (extended version)
mp3 : James – Sunday Morning
mp3 : James – Out To Get You

The extended version is two and a bit minutes longer than the 7″ .  The b-side common to all formats is a tremendous cover in which the lyrics are amended with the addition of all sorts of song titles and lines from other Velvet Underground songs, The bonus b-side is such a great bit of music that it was later resurrected and re-recorded some two years later. If you’re only familiar with the version that appears on Laid, then I hope you appreciate this gentler sounding effort – I think it represents one of Tim’s loveliest and most tear-jerking vocal performances.

Enjoy

Fontana Records wanted to maintain the momentum of finally getting James into the singles charts.  No sooner had How Was It For You? dropped out of the Top 75 then the next single was lined up for release.

But to long-term fans it all appeared a bit of a con as it was a re-release of Come Home which just seven months earlier had been issued by Rough Trade.

Doubly galling was the news that it would again be subject to all sorts of formatting with a 7″ having a pink sleeve with silver writing, a 12″ having a purple sleeve with silver writing, a 12″ live version having a green sleeve with gold writing, a CD that had a sleeve of orange with silver writing and a cassette which was purple/silver.

The difference in this version of Come Home was that is was mixed with the dance floor in mind with uber-producer Flood brought into oversee things.  And for the real hardcore clubbers, the song was also given to Andrew Weatherall to have a go at……….

The results were a completely different sounding James than before and as far away from the Folklore-era Factory days as could be imagined.  But it worked….thanks in part to the quality of Come Home as a song but also the fact that the re-mixes were right out of the top drawer.

This is a single I have in all the vinyl formats, so here goes with the songs:-

mp3 : James – Come Home (Flood Mix)
mp3 : James – Dreaming Up Tomorrow
mp3 : James – Come Home (extended Flood Mix)
mp3 : James – Fire Away (extended mix)
mp3 : James – Stutter (live)
mp3 : James – Come Home (live)
mp3 : James – Gold Mother (remixed by Warp)*
mp3 : James – Come Home (remix by Weatherall)

The live version of Stutter is taken from the same show as provided the tracks for the b-sides of How Was It For You? The live version of Come Home is from a radio session recorded in April 1990. The two new b-sides are among my favourite James songs – indeed Fire Away has the distinction of being the very first song I ever posted over on the old blog back in September 2006.

The remixes? Everyone of them stunning….with a special mention to the Warp remix of the LP’s title track. Totally unexpected and a real joy.

Despite all this, the single only reached #32….but it was one of those ones that sold for weeks and months afterwards in reasonable numbers as those who frequented the clubs looked to pick up the mixes that DJs were playing up and down the country.

Enjoy

* the previous jumpy version of Goldmother has now been replaced with a fresh recording…..

In late 1989, James moved to Fontana Records which became their fourth home in just six years.

They took with them loads of newly recorded material that would fill an album and provide plenty of b-sides if the demand was there.  The timing was perfect as Madchester really was all the rage and all of the papers and magazines  covering the explosive growth of the movement were convinced James were worthy of attention.

Fontana sniffed money from the association with James but left the band in no doubt that things had to be done differently from the debacle at Sire a few years earlier.  How Was It For You? was identified as having the potential to be a huge hit but the label insisted on the caveat of a more commercial mix than had been brought over from the sessions originally recorded for Rough Trade and that it be released in as many formats as possible to help propel it up the charts.

All of this was done, probably through gritted teeth for most of the band, who over the years had done their best to provide great value for money to their loyal fan base.   Five formats were issued in April 1990 – a 7″ in a blue sleeve with gold writing, a 12″ in a red sleeve with green writing, a 12″ remix in a silver sleeve with blue writing, a CD  in a sandy colour with purple writing and a cassette version.  There was even a promotional box of condoms issued….

It all worked to an extent as the single did reach the Top 40, peaking at #32.  It could have been better if the label hadn’t committed the basic error of filming a promo that was deemed unsuitable for daytime audiences  – the incriminating footage was Tim singing underwater!

I’ve got the 7″ and both 12″ versions in the collection which means I can offer up all the tracks that came with this particular release:-

mp3 : James – How Was It For You? (7″ version)
mp3 : James – Whoops (live)
mp3 : James – How Was It For You? (12″ version)
mp3 : James – Hymn From A Village (live)
mp3 : James – Lazy
mp3 : James – How Was It For You? (band mix)
mp3 : James – Undertaker

The two live tracks are taken from a gig at the Manchester Apollo in December 1989 and were two of the most popular of the back catalogue at the time (still are IMHO). Lazy and Undertaker were part of the previous summer’s recordings, and the fact that neither were deemed good enough to make the cut for the forthcoming LP really raised expectations among fans.

Enjoy.

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…..

In the wake of the fiasco surrounding Strip-Mine, the band finally escaped from what had been a disastrous relationship with Sire Records in late 1988.  But they were completely skint although confident of making a success of things thanks to what they believed was really strong material that had been written in the 18 months they had been waiting for Strip-Mine to be released.

To get themselves back on their feet, they borrowed a substantial sum of money from a friendly bank manager which was used to fund the recording and release of a live album.  One Man Clapping was a huge success as far as the indie charts went and re-established James both commercially and critically and ultimately led to Geoff Travis signing them to Rough Trade in early 1989.

The first new single was called Sit Down, released in June 1989.

It was lauded by all, but the label didn’t promote it hard enough to get the critical crossover to mainstream and daytime radio.  That such a tremendous and catchy record had stalled at #77 was nothing short of a disgrace….but of course the situation would be rectified in the not too distant future (although nobody knew that at the time).

I’ve got the 12″ version of the single….and it extends all the way out to eight minutes ending with a bit of a strange reprise in which one of the sound engineers chants the name Lester Piggott over the outro…

mp3 : James – Sit Down (Rough Trade 12″ version)

Three tracks were on the b-side –  Sky Is Falling, a demo that the band had contributed to a compilation LP featuring bands from the Manchester area, live favourite  Goin Away, a two-minute track that was the usual opener to most concerts in 1989 and Sound Investment, a song that could well be taken as an attack on their old record label.  As ever with James, they were prepared to give fans value for money with the quality of songs seemingly tossed away on b-sides:-

mp3 : James – Goin Away
mp3 : James – Sound Investment
mp3 : James – Sky Is Falling

Enjoy!

Some of you might be confused by the fact that Ya Ho has a catalogue # of NEG 26 and yet is being featured as a later single than What For with its catalogue # of NEG 31.

The simple fact is that Ya Ho was intended for release in September 1987 as a precursor to the release of the Strip-Mine LP.  But as I mentioned in the last posting there were serious issues between band and label that led to the delay of the album and as part of the compromise solution the single What For was written, recorded and released in March 1988.

Strip-Mine was eventually released in September 1988 and as part of the promotional push (although that’s not an entirely accurate phrase given the label were not the least interested in the band) Ya Ho was dusted down from the shelf and shoved out on 7″ and 12″.

It’s a really decent song with a hugely catchy chorus that is an indication of what wasn’t too far away….

It’s also a different version than appears on the LP (the 7″ is about a minute shorter in length as well) but it’s the b-sides that many long-standing fans were taken by – there’s a touch  of country/americana that was very unfashionable at the time and something that James hadn’t really given a hint of previously (or since)

I’ve only got the 7″ in the collection:-

mp3 : James – Ya Ho
mp3 : James – Mosquito

This was released in a sleeve that had Ya HO +1 on the cover.  The sleeve illustrating this piece is from the 12″ which says Ya Ho +3 and here’s the b-sides from that bit of vinyl (courtesy of The Robster):-

mp3 : James – Left Out Of Her Will
mp3 : James – New Nature

Enjoy!!

One of my favourite early James singles and the least favourite of the sleeves.

The latter half of 86, all of 87 and early 88 was a strange time to be a  James fan.  It was also a frustrating time to be in the band and I’m assuming even more frustrating to be part of the label to which the band had signed.

James were uncompromising in how they wanted to sound while Sire Records had made it clear that if they didn’t release material that was more commercial or radio-friendly then nothing would ever see the light of day.  In early 1987, a new album was recorded but the label demanded a ‘better’ mix which just wasn’t forthcoming.  It really did look for a while as if we had seen the last of the band.

The boys eventually relented and in return the label agreed that they would back a new single which was released in March 1988, a full 18 months after the previous release. It turned out to be a stunning record. Joyous, anthemic and completely radio-friendly. It was surely destined for the Top 10. It even had whistling on it!!

Except……….the record label felt it was still too indie-sounding to be deserving of a promotional push and so again it was left to the late night DJs to try and champion it….but the problem being that the band had been away for too long and nobody was really all that interested.

A crime for which lots of folk should be put in the dock and found guilty.

A 12″ copy of this single sits in the cupboard so here we go:-

mp3 : James – What For (Climax Mix)
mp3 : James – Island Swing
mp3 : James – Not There

Once again, the b-sides are well worth your attention.   Island Swing perhaps suffers from having a wee bit too much in the way of harmonica and the second half of the song doesn’t match the opening minute or so which is quite tremendous but there can’t be many bands that have done something this jaunty as a dig at the British Empire and other forms of colonialism – while Not There is an alternative and better version of a song that would later appear on the LP Strip-Mine.

This is actually one of the James singles that I don’t have a copy of..and huge thanks to those of you who got in touch to offer mp3s of various b-sides to help me complete the mission.  I might take you up on the offers in due course but it turns out I’m ok for So Many Ways from July 1986 as the two tracks on the 7″ were taken straight from the LP Stutter:-

mp3 : James – So Many Ways
mp3 : James – Withdrawn

The additional track on the 12″ was an extended and different version of a song also available on Stutter and I’ve been able to hunt down a copy of it:-

mp3 : James – Just Hipper

I say extended…but even then it is only 1:57 long as compared to the LP version which clocks in at 1:46.

This single was an even bigger flop than any of their previous releases was deleted by the record label not long after release. As a consequence, it is one of the more difficult bits of plastic to get a hold of nowadays but then again the lack of any new material, certainly on the 7″ means it really is one for completists.

Enjoy!

A short while ago, someone asked, via the comments section, whether I could start a series that featured the various singles released by James over the years.  I’m going to do my very best to comply with the request but there’s a few gaps in the collection that I might be unable to fill as the weeks and months go by.

Those of you wanting to go back to the very beginning will need to search the archives of T(n)VV and in particular the posting from 21 November 2013 featuring the songs that made up Village Fire, a 12″ EP from 1985 that brought together all the tracks recorded for Jimone and James II.

The band’s next release still causes a degree of confusion.  Here’s wiki:-

“Chain Mail” is a single by Mancunian band James, released in March 1986 by Sire Records, the first after the band defected from Factory Records.

The record was released in two different versions, as 7″ single and 12″ EP, with different artworks by John Carroll and, confusingly, under different names. The 12″ version was released as “Sit Down, three songs by… James”, even though it did not contain the later James hit, “Sit Down”, which in 1986 had not been written yet.

The only difference between the two versions musically was the inclusion of the song “Uprising” on the 12″ version. Neither song made it onto James’s debut album, Stutter, although live versions of “Chain Mail” and “Hup-Springs” were later included in the live album One Man Clapping.

It received rotten reviews from the UK music press  – “cold, turgid and morose” was the verdict delivered by Sounds, and it was completely ignored by mainstream radio.  Not surprisingly it came nowhere near troubling the charts.

mp3 : James – Chain Mail
mp3 : James – Hup Springs
mp3 : James – Uprising

It can’t be denied that this was a very bizarre choice of single.  It is whimsical and almost folk-like as indeed are the b-sides…..and yet, almost 28 years later it remains a hugely enjoyable listen……but even the most diehard of fans has to admit it would have been a miracle if it had made TOTP.

This was another bunch of tunes that always seemed to go down well whenever they were posted on the old blog.

Village Fire was released by Factory Records as a 12″ EP in 1985.  It has the prefix of FAC 138.   It brought together all the five tracks that James had recorded for Jimone (FAC 78, released in 1983) and James II (FAC 119, released in 1985).

mp3 : James – What’s The World

mp3 : James – Folklore

mp3 : James – Fire So Close

mp3 : James – If Things Were Perfect

mp3 : James – Hymn From A Village

Completely unrecognisable from the material that would turn the band into chart regulars a few years later, all these songs still sound marvellous the best part of 30 years later.

The Smiths did a live version of one of the songs, recorded live at the Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow.  I was in the audience roaring my approval:-

mp3 : The Smiths – What’s The World (live)

Enjoy!!