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~ Issue b @) CS @) @ (i@ Thanks for now JohnPude The opinions expressed in this pul>li~atiq/t of the editor, anyone connected with apologise for any inaccuracies and losses caused by infonnation was where they began writing their new Soon after came what the band refer Eno during the making of "laid" , has album . 'We improvised a few songs in a to as Black Thursday; the day Lanry energised the band. 'We weird barn near Woodstock " Tim Booth Gott , a founding member of James experimented with sound" says recalls. ''Those were the first seeds ... " alongside 'Booth and Glennie Davies 'We tried to interact with each announced that he couldn't go o~ other differently. 1t wasn't that it was Apart from that ," smiles Jim Glennie, being a part of the touring James , the drawn out- all this was just a logical 'Woodstock wasn't massively day the band found they owed five extension of the earlier collapse.We On the east coast of America , it is August pleasurable .... " years in back taxes; the day emotional needed to rebuild James. And that's 1994 . After practically three years of crises gripped everyone in the band ; gonna take a little bit of time. And we non-stop touring in the states , James are Sweetness through strength , and the day James very nearly split. did that through music." about to come off the road. The slog has strength through advers~. James have paid off: the bands most recent sixth always been about finding leg-ups in the 'That day could have gone two ways," Booth , for his part , was doing his album 'Laid' , has sold 600,000 copies in breakdowns , the diamond in the muck , says Saul Davies ," We could have own rebuilding . He had hooked up America while the title track , 2 minutes the brilliance in the humdrum. Tim Booths' collapsed , or we could have got our with renowned composer Ange!o and 20 seconds of pointed perfection , searching lyrics , the bands' insistent shit together . recorded a new album , Baddalamenti , and the lwo spent has become the most played track on melodies , Booths' yearning vocals , and just go\ better at being James. lt much of 1995 wor1<ina on their "Booth some American radio stations [and not James' epic intimacy - these are the was a b1g moment. A heavy day." and the Bad Angel; album in New just because ifs brevity meant ~ could be things that make James unique , and the "Still," sniffs Glennie, 'We've had a lot slipped into those awkward time-slots just things that shine ever clearer on their new of these days, we have been together before the latest ad from the McBurger album , 'Whiplash'. Through the deft for a long time , it had been me, Tim Megacorp). simplicity of 'Lost a friend' or the sparse and Lanry for hundreds of years. And electricity of 'Blue Pastures' , through the when Larry left it really altered the For the 11-year old James it had been a clattering industrial disco of 'Go to the balance. Suddenly everything was long march to freedom-freedom from a Bank' to the urgent energy of the jungliat completely broken . All we ha d was roller-coaster past that YJent from cult ijunglist? oh yes) 'Greenpeace' , to the totally shattered . Which meant that acclaim on Manchester's Factory label , to bold pop of 'She's a Sta~ and Tomorrow , the rest of the band came closer into an ill-starred sojourn at New Yori('s Sire 'Whiplash' is a band prodaiming full things. And what we've rebuilt from Records , to their self-saving live album steam ahead ,fire done below , and that is much stronger, much more 'One Man Clapping'(financed by the band unsteady as she goes . All at once. open . and much more of an honest members' participation in medical reflection of what James are about." experiments], to hrtting the mass All of which is especially remar1<able given "But it was painful. Seriously painful." motherlode with 'Gold Mother '[1990) , the backdrop to the writing and recording 'Seven'[1992) and 'laid'[1993). of 'Whiplash'. After escaping the Throughout 1995 James worked . \'Voodsto::k mire with a few recent song Dave Baynton-Power set up a studio So now james are setting the seal on ideas , the band decamped to Wales and at his house in north Wales . There all their success: by playing at Woodstock 11 . London for iurther writing sessions. Booth the band , bar Booth, began tinkering Between [gulp) live and [ double gulp] recalls that "At ll'at point we had a very and overhauling and underdubbing The Cranberries.ln front of 300,000 loose framework for the next album. We and reworking and reflecting . They people [most of whom seem to be cai'Tiera were gonna make 11 songs under three had plans , big plans . They had a glut Yor1<. crews]. In the rain . In the mud . !n the minutes, very well composed, almost of song ideas , sound ideas , new middle the biggest corporate advertising Beetles-like things. But we never got ideas , to wor1< through. 'Wah wah" , free-for-all in the history of rock [triple round to doing that - and anYNay , other The sessions at Baynton-Powers' later 94's double album of house let James regroup and gulp). bands have taken that idea in the improvisations and remodellings meantime ... " rebuild.Jamming things together , thrown up under the aegis of Brian unjamming things apart , constructing songs round snatches of Booths' vocals , "Yeah I know!" Booth laughs. "But we deconstructing everything except Booths' somehow have a good centre of gravity vocals , five-sixths of James fiddled and .This new album has the same restless noodled and doodled and drew together a spirit as other James albums, ifs looking new conception of the making of James' for some new language , something new . music . One- sixth of James , meanwhile, Ifs got a lot more energy to it. ·Laid' was a finally let go a little ."Things would have hard record to tour because it was so gone on festering otherwise," Booth shrugs delicate . But we want to tour this album . now . " And we needed a new way of So ifs a definite, thumping record , and ifs worKing ./ do a lot of things - I act and I looking to combine the esoteric side of dance and I teach dance and I wanted to ·wah wah· with the pop ideas and the rock work with Angelo. On past James records angles that we obviously have as I'd be there for every note. And I didn't want well.We 're always looking forward to take a to do that anymore. And the band wanted snapshot of where we are" more creative input So we decided we had to find a completely new way of working for And that's James '97 .United, invigorated, James to continue. And we found it ... " invigorating, more stand-up than ·sit Down·, always -not ·Sometimes·- hungry , In February 1996 James finally began creating hymns from the global village . recording proper in RAK studios in London And that's 'Whiplash·: bom of frustration and Real World near Bath. As with "laid" but shaped in visionary contentment.And they set up two recording workstations in Tim Booth still dances funny. the studios , one for the final tap&-clown , and one for experimentation. As with "Laid" "Look at it!" says the singer of the new~ , Brian Eno was on board, although less as school James ."You can hear it on record, a producer , more as provider of tangential you can see it between us:we're breathing input , technological hints , backing vocals , again. Ifs lovely getting back together . and vibes .Or , as the band have it , We're still bold and bloody minded and "Additional interference and occasional eo arrogant and making the music we love . production". Twin this with the proven pop And this is it." suss and gloss of "Actual" producer Stephen Hague , ana 'Whiplash" was always going to sound special. Oh , and there was a third studio as we!l . fer Booth to explore new lyrical and vocal avenues. So Three recording stud1os , two producers, nearly two years of writing and taping , one double album of improvisations , one solo album, one near band split , a welter of personal emotional and financial crisis - any other band would have been ripped apart by such confticting forces. people see us. There is enough that OF SONGS, IS IT GOING TO BE we've got to, take on with these gigs ALL OLD STUFF, ALL NEW OR without making things so hard for JUST A MIXTURE OF BOTH? BEFORE? ourselves by playing to that number of It's going to be a mixture, working on His name is Adrian Oxaal. On Saturday 251h January ,four of us people. We haven~ played anything lhe hard stuff is getting lhe new stuff from Change of Scenery went to The affectionately known as Mr Pastry by for two and a half years, four years sorted out. A lot of the album was the rest of the band. He was previously Leadmill in Sheffield to have an over in this country, plus a new pieced together in the studio. ~ way in Shark Boy, who supported Suede. interview with JAMES. We got there g.Jitmist, a new album with songs that we've done it in tbc past is to "jam" He is someone thal Saul knew from just as they were starting the we'v~ never played live to anybody them in rehca."'SaJs and ther. suaight soundcbeck. We were told to sit down school.

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