After the arenas of the weekend, James crammed a couple of thousand Geordies into the Newcastle Academy for a long sold-out show and pulled off their best gig of the tour so far.
Walk Like You is the ideal opener for this
tour, even ignoring its position at the start of La Petite Mort, because it puts down a marker for what’s to come.
It makes a statement that the show is going to be about the new record,
but how accessible and powerful that record is live. Like Bubbles off Hey Ma, it shows so many
sides of James all wrapped up in one song.
It ends in a fury of improvisation, different every night and tonight
Andy and Saul take control with trumpet and violin. The roar at the end sets the scene for the
evening.
Say Something is an inspired choice early
on in the set, it works so much better at the start than it does towards the end
where it can feel like an obvious choice.
From front to back of the rammed Academy floor arms are raised aloft,
singing in union as Tim perches perilously on the barrier.
Frozen Britain makes a welcome appearance
in the set. The first released calling card for
La Petite Mort, it’s fun and playful on the record, but live, with a looser
arrangement and an extended outro, it’s a massive-hit-in-another-time romp.
Newcastle loves it and you think the punchline “La petite mort pour toujours”
is a statement of the longevity of this record. The response is no less powerful than Seven
which follows it, testament to the fact that this record has made a serious
connection with the wider fan base in a way they haven’t for a long time.
Curse Curse rams this point home. Again tied together with Laid, the comparison
is inevitable and it’s a favourable one.
The joyous abandon, mischievous wink and slightly out of character “pour
me more tequila” matching that of “you’re driving me crazy when are you coming
home” and the breakneck speed of the song make them feel like twins. You can feel the energy transferring
from crowd to band and back to the crowd.
Laid sees Larry going walkabout around the stage, Tim continually
prowling around all evening looking for connections, interesting bits of
improvisation to hook on to. Newcastle
belts everything out at full volume and you suspect that there might be a few
Geordies with sore throats and no voice this morning.
They then move seamlessly into the
beautiful mournful spiteful PS and the crowd shut up and get it as the room is
bathed in bright red light as the song moves to its conclusion with Larry’s
signature slide guitar and a jaw-dropping violin solo from Saul to which you
could hear a pin drop in the crowd.
Similarly All Good Boys gets the respect it deserves as well. Having resurrected it on this tour you have
to wonder how the hell some of the songs on Millionaires (and Ultra) got the
nod over this. Saul’s verse vocals work
perfectly in contrast to Tim’s in the context of the song and the end section
where five voices come together feels like a genuine epiphany. They joke about it being a b-side and what
constitutes a b-side, Saul commenting that it’s something you throw away.
There’s a bit more discussion when Tim
suggests doing Interrogation instead of All I’m Saying which is on the setlist,
but is quickly reminded by Saul and Larry that it’s the new single. You suspect Tim’s worried about the audience
being quiet such is the response they’ve generated tonight, but if that’s the
case then there was no need for concern as his request for silence whilst he
sings is met with just that. Still an
odd choice for a single, it’s a beautiful eulogy to a lost friend wrapped up in
one of those classic James songs that start quiet and build into something more
expansive.
Greenpeace is more suited to this size of
venue than the arenas of the weekend as the light show fills the hall
completely. It’s marred by Tim’s second
microphone not working properly for parts of the song – it’s not the first time
it’s happened on the tour and needs to be sorted out if it’s going to stay in
the set, particularly when Stutter gets left out in its place.
Hymn From A Village is a blast from the
past. It betrays its age, having matured
like a fine wine, beefed itself up and expanded its girth in the thirty years
since its conception. In the VIP
soundcheck, a gentleman enquired as to whether James had considered going back
and re-recording songs from their past with the current line-up and revisiting
them. Hymn would be a prime candidate
for that treatment.
And then there’s Born Of Frustration. Tim gets to the barrier, looks down at the
crowd, has a think to himself and then projects himself forward onto a sea of
arms. Rather than grab at him, they lift
him and carry him back to the mixing desk, perform a turn manoeuvre on him and
send him back on his way down the other side of the crowd, all without him
missing a note, them dropping their pints and, unlike Glasgow, copping a feel
and performing a colonoscopy.
The James anthem to their own ability to
rescue victory from the jaws of defeat and disaster, Getting Away With It (All
Messed Up) descends into on-stage chaos at the start and the crowd simply take
over and sing the first verse and chorus much to the amazement of the
band. They kick back in, but Tim’s
pretty much drowned out by singing all the way through.
Tomorrow and Come Home turn things up
another notch, there’s few people now not dancing, not singing along to every
single word. These are songs that mean
the world to people in these parts, as every bit important as that song that is
not being played on this tour. The
stunning light show simply adds to the impact as both songs career to their
peaks.
They finish the main set with Gone Baby
Gone. Tim invites some dancers on to
stage and it’s thrilling to witness how a song that they had concerns about playing
live has suddenly turned into an unexpected show-stopper and one that they’re
happy to end the set with ahead of rather more obvious choices. The rigid structure of the recorded version
has its chains cast aside and there’s space to improvise, for Andy to throw
trumpet shapes across it wherever he pleases, Larry to add jagged guitar and
for Jim’s threatening menacing bass to dictate the pace. Newcastle agrees with me wholeheartedly.
In a setlist full of right moves and
perfect choices for the day, venue and crowd, Out To Get You opens up the
encore and the sight and sound of grown men singing “what I need is you” arms
outstretched to the stage en masse is something truly special and testament to
the power and devotion that James can still generate. Larry’s guitar solo, followed by Saul’s
violin solo, are so so beautiful, it’s impossible that they don’t melt your
heart.
Moving On has spoken to so many people this
year, its theme something that everyone can relate to, James fan or not, and
like everything before it, it’d be impossible for someone who’s never heard
James before to stand in this room and identify the new songs, such is the
reaction they generate tonight. There’s
people with their arms round each other singing every word like some sort of
exorcism of the demons of loss – and it’s all wrapped up in probably their most
radio-friendly song since the reunion.
Sometimes finishes off the set, mainly
because you can’t really follow it tonight, and again it goes off in a
different direction once you get past the middle eight. The crowd stop singing, the place becomes a
cacophony of cheering and Tim simply tells the crowd that the band want to hear
their version and steps back with the touchpaper firmly lit. 2,000 Geordies make as much noise as 8,000
Scousers and Glaswegians made at the weekend.
The band come back in, improvising their way to a conclusion that’s different
every night. They really should try to
put something else at the end of the set, but have reached the same conclusion
as the rest of us which is how could you create something this raw and powerful
with any other song. James’ epitaph will
be “sometimes when I look in your eyes, I swear I can see your soul” because
that’s exactly what you get when you look James in the eye.
This was the best gig of the tour so far,
the crowd the wildest when James played the hits, the most respectful of the
quiet songs and of Tim when he went out into the crowd and they got the new
songs and treated them like old favourites.
Tim said they were the loudest on the last tour and they probably
repeated the trick this time round.
James played Walk Like You, Say Something,
Frozen Britain, Seven, Curse Curse, Laid, PS, All Good Boys, All I’m Saying,
Greenpeace, Hymn From A Village, Born Of Frustration, Getting Away With It (All
Messed Up), Tomorrow, Come Home, Gone Baby Gone, Out To Get You, Moving On and
Sometimes
James' official website can be found here, where you can find details of their November arena tour. They are on Facebook and Twitter. Some of the band - Tim, Larry, Andy and Dave - are also on Twitter.
Even The Stars also runs the James fan site One Of The Three which is also on Facebook.
Lead photo by Christine Shanks, other photos by Stewart Howie
Lead photo by Christine Shanks, other photos by Stewart Howie
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Perfect. The perfect gig, the perfect crowd, just gobsmackingly incredible from start to finish, and the review nailed it too!
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