James Biography
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
A long-lasting and
consistently eclectic U.K. rock group, James first emerged from their
native Manchester in the mid-'80s playing a brand of urgent, ringing
pop. With their textured guitar parts and distinguished vocals courtesy
of frontman Tim Booth, they earned early comparisons to the Smiths,
who responded by endorsing the younger band. By the dawn of the '90s,
James shook off these comparisons by embracing acid house, the first of
many adventurous left turns the band took over the decades. The baggy
pop single "Sit Down" proved to be their breakthrough, reaching number
two in the U.K. in 1991 and becoming an alternative rock hit in the U.S.
The follow-up album Seven consolidated that success in 1992, but it was 1993's Laid and its bawdy, soaring title cut that established James' mature sound. Working with Brian Eno,
the group took aural risks that paid off artistically and commercially.
Throughout the remainder of the decade, they remained perennial chart
staples culminating in the creative highlight Pleased to Meet You before entering a hiatus in 2001. The band regrouped in 2007, releasing Hey Ma
the following year and settling into a groove where they alternated
tours with ambitious album projects such as 2010's two-part The Night Before and The Morning After, 2021's pandemic journal All the Colours of You, and Be Opened by the Wonderful,
a 2023 double-album where they reinterpreted songs from their catalog
with the support of an orchestra and choir. James' 18th studio album, Yummy, was released a year later.
James formed in Manchester in 1982, when Paul Gilbertson (guitar), Jim Glennie (bass), and Gavan Whelan (drums) met Tim Booth
(vocals) at Manchester University and asked him to join their fledgling
band. During the next year, James became regulars on the local club
circuit, and by 1983 they had signed to Factory, releasing their debut
EP, Jimone, later that year. Two years later, their second EP, James 2, was released, and Morrissey, the lead singer of the Smiths, publicly endorsed the group, asking them to open for his band. By the summer of 1985, Larry Gott had replaced Gilbertson, and the group signed to Sire Records. Working with producer Lenny Kaye, the group recorded its debut, Stutter, that year, releasing it in early 1986 to generally positive reviews.
Over the next two years,
James toured constantly, building up a solid fan base. They released
their second album, the folky Strip-Mine,
in 1988. The record failed to capitalize on their live following, and
the band departed Sire the following year, signing with the independent
Rough Trade. On their new label, James released the moderately
successful "Sit Down" and the live album One Man Clapping, which climbed to number one on the indie charts. In 1990, Whelan was replaced by David Baynton-Power, and James expanded to a septet with the addition of keyboardist Mark Hunter, violinist Saul Davies, and trumpeter Andy Diagram. The new lineup signed to Fontana Records and released Gold Mother in the fall. Following a handful of minor hit singles, Gold Mother
finally became a breakthrough success in the spring of 1991, when a
re-recorded version of "Sit Down" -- boasting a then-contemporary baggy
beat -- climbed to number two on the U.K. charts and became a staple on
U.S. modern rock radio. Although the success of "Sit Down" was a
blessing, it also was a curse, as the single became all James were known
for. The band began to rebel in concert, playing almost nothing but new
material, and its next album, 1992's Seven, was perceived as a misguided stab at big arena rock.
For the follow-up to Seven, James stripped away Diagram and worked with producer Brian Eno. The resulting record, Laid,
was a quieter, more ambitious album, and it received some of the band's
best reviews. While the album was ignored in the U.K., it was an
alternative rock hit in the U.S. on the strength of the title track,
which became a crossover hit. During the Laid sessions, James recorded another album's worth of experimental music with Eno that was released in the fall of 1994 as Wah Wah. The album received mixed reviews and the group took an extended break throughout 1995, partly due to guitarist Gott's departure. In 1996, Tim Booth recorded a collaboration with composer Angelo Badalamenti (Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet) entitled Booth and the Bad Angel.
With guitarist Adrian Oxaal in tow, James returned in early 1997 with the more straightforward Whiplash, followed two years later by Millionaires, which featured yet another new guitarist Michael Kulas. Their spectacular follow-up, 2001's Pleased to Meet You, was a critical success, though it didn't perform quite as well on the charts as their two previous sets. A few months later, Booth
announced his departure from the band he founded nearly 20 years
before, and James called it quits following a winter tour of the U.K. in
December 2001. Their break-up ultimately lasted six years and in 2007,
James re-formed and embarked on a sold-out tour in support of the
double-disc compilation Fresh as a Daisy: The Singles. The reunion yielded new studio work in the form of 2008's Hey Ma, the band's tenth album.
James band returned in 2010 with a pair of "mini-albums" called The Night Before and The Morning After, respectively, before late 2011 brought a short, but novel, U.K. tour (the Orchestra of the Swan and the Manchester Consort Choir were their backup bands). In 2012, the lavish and long-awaited box set The Gathering Sound was issued, and included previously unreleased audio material alongside long-unavailable video concert footage. The Max Dingel-produced La Petite Mort was released in June 2014 and marked a move from Mercury to Cooking Vinyl. Dingel then returned to produce their 2016 record, Girl at the End of the World.
Written in Scotland and recorded in London, the album was bore a
personal, but ultimately uplifting tone. Two years later, James teamed
with producers Charlie Andrew and Beni Giles for Living in Extraordinary Times.
During the 2020 pandemic, Tim Booth worked with his Topanga Canyon neighbor Jacknife Lee to construct the basic tracks the rest of James completed while in quarantine. The resulting All the Colours of You
was released in June 2021. The group chose to celebrate their 40th
anniversary by revisiting their songbook with the assistance of the
22-piece ORCA22 Orchestra and Manchester Inspirational Voices, an
eight-piece choir. The double album Be Opened by the Wonderful appeared in June of 2023. By this point the lineup had again expanded with the addition of singers and multi-instrumentalists Deborah Knox-Hewson and Chloe Alper. Both were present on James' 18th studio album, Yummy, which was released in April 2024.
