Followers

Friday, April 6, 2012

Britpop band James returns to America

As first mentioned here in February, James, one of my all-time favorite bands, is back to tour the States, including stops in L.A. and Coachella. Read on...
 
Returning again with their original line-up, James continues to innovate both in the way they record music and how they perform it live.

Lead singer Tim Booth notes: "We [come] to the land of milk and honey. In our gnarly battered tour bus we follow the path of the wagon trains. The West coast calls. Sorry East coast fans—economics...next time.” He cheekily adds, “Don't miss us this time. You never know how much more of this we have in us.” 

The influential Manchester, UK band recently toured the UK with a full orchestra and choir. James received plenty of critical praise for their 2010 US tour for double disc studio set The Morning After The Night Before (I caught an amazing gig at House of Blues Anaheim) and are currently writing music for their follow-up release.

A few weeks ago, the group updated fans via wearejames.com about the progress of  forthcoming limited edition deluxe box set, The Gathering Sound:

"The original developer finally admitted defeat and Universal have called in the experts. The USB element is now in the hands of a very experienced company that specializes in the production of music USBs, and their development team is in the process of rebuilding it correctly. We feel confident that with them at the helm there should be no further insurmountable problems, in which case it should be safe for Universal to set a new [UK] release date of 16 July 2012. Thanks for bearing with us throughout this extremely frustrating debacle.  Let’s hope you agree it was worth the wait." 

Over the course of a 30-year career, James has put out 11 studio albums, sold more than 12 million albums worldwide, and notched nearly two dozen UK Top 40 singles. Starting in the early '90s, they found success on modern rock radio with "Sit Down" and "Born of Frustration." But 1993's Brian Eno-produced album Laid really put James on the map with top 20 modern rock singles “Laid” and “Say Something” and led to a gold-certified album.

James comprises Booth, Jim Glennie (bass), Larry Gott (guitars), Saul Davies (guitar, violin), Mark Hunter (keyboards), David Baynton-Power (drums) and Andy Diagram (trumpet).

Gott and Glennie - whom the band is named after - were founding members of the band and together with Booth, formed its nucleus. In 2006, Gott and Glennie contacted Booth again and asked if he was interested in a reunion. The result was the '08 release of Hey Ma, James' first studio album in seven years.

JAMES Tour Dates

Apr 07 Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom
Apr 08 Seattle, WA – Neumos
Apr 09 Portland, OR – Roseland Theatre
Apr 11 San Francisco, CA – The Independent
Apr 12 Los Angeles, CA – The El Rey
Apr 13 Indio, CA – Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
Apr 15 Las Vegas, NV – Hard Rock CafĂ© On The Strip
Apr 16 Tempe, AZ – The Marquee
Apr 18 Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre
Apr 19 San Diego, CA – The House Of Blues
Apr 20 Indio, CA – Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival

For the latest James updates and tour news, visit official site, wearejames.com

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