James provided fans with an exclusive preview of their Live At The Acropolis film recorded in Athens with the Manchester Inspirational Voices Gospel Choir and Orca 22 arranged and conducted by Joe Duddell on Tuesday night in the magnificent surroundings of Aviva Studios' Hall. A showing of the full concert film was followed by an insightful Q&A session led by director Chris Atkins with Tim Booth, Jim Glennie and Chloe Alper of the band and Joe Duddell.
Bands with orchestras has become a thing in the past few years. James first did it back in 2011 and returned to the format in 2023 to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of their debut release. Rather than simply add an orchestra and choir to the band playing their biggest hits, James and Joe Duddell deconstructed songs from across their catalogue, familiar and less so, and rebuilt them to incorporate the orchestra and choir into a forty-or-so piece band. A sold-out UK tour was followed by their most ambitious undertaking, a show at the Herodes Atticus Odeon at the Acropolis in Athens in July 2023. Two days after the show the venue was closed because of the excessive heat of the Greek summer.
This is the first public screening of the show that is being released on Bluray, CD and vinyl on January 31st 2025. Director Chris Atkins has perfectly captured the event, making you feel like you were at the show with clever use of camera angles to replicate the experience of being there. There's also stunning aerial footage that brings home the impressive nature of the location. Crowd shots, whether it be when front man Tim Booth and the choir head out into the audience or the looks of wonder as the magic unfolds in front of them at the bottom of the stone bowl.
The set covers most of James' career, from eighties songs Riders and Medieval, where the looser sound of the four-piece James gives the orchestra the space to transform them into thrilling rollercoaster rides. Many of the big hits are present - Sit Down and She's A Star stripped down to their barest bones, Laid starting slow and becoming a free for all, Say Something and Born Of Frustration have Tim out wandering in the audience searching for connections, Tomorrow with the intensity ratcheted up by the strings. More modern classics are also part of the mix, Moving On slowed down and made even more poignant whilst All The Colours Of You segues into Many Faces as the backdrop of the theatre are lit up in multi-colours as the orchestra let loose.
The stars of the show are the lesser known songs though. All The Colours Of You's Magic Bus opens the show with Tim appearing from the crowd. Hello, from 1999's Millionaires, has an achingly beautiful duet between Tim and Chloe. The Lake, a b-side from the Laid album, is epic and showstopping. Pleased To Meet You's The Shining, one of Tim's favourites he tells us later, lifts and soars and carries you with it. The finale of Top Of The World feels like just that, tear-jerking, holding the tenderness of the moment and the solitude of the song in front of a few thousand people. The choir throughout elevate the songs and there's wonderful moments where Josh takes the chorus vocals for Someone's Got It In For Me and Brenda the outro for Alaskan Pipeline, where the boundaries on stage are fully broken down.
The Q&A is a fascinating insight into the whole project. The band explain the process of song selection, from Joe bringing a long list to them that was voted on, the reluctance to play so many hits on the 2011 tour and relenting slightly for the fortieth anniversary. There's discussion of the Acropolis show, the chaos of putting on and documenting such an event in such an imposing space and the need for it to be right given there's no overdubbing on the film, setlist confusion that meant not everyone had the same one as it changed right up to just before stage time and the luck that often eludes them for once being on their side with the closure of the site a couple of days later. There's a revelation that they plan to take the orchestra and choir format to bigger venues in the near future and the challenge to Joe from Jim to work on even more songs from their back catalogue as well as there being a documentary in the pipeline. There's an amusing interaction between Joe and an audience member who asked why there was no oboe in the woodwind section and a question put to the band as to where else they'd like to perform with the orchestra and choir - Tim's unequivocal answer being the pyramids.
During the questions Chloe tells us that this was the best experience of her music career to date. It's no wonder that it is. The Acropolis was a perfect location for this musical project, a labour of love that financially made little sense given the cost of the venue and the restrictions in place around one of the world's most important historical sites. When released it'll serve as a document of an incredible coming together of musical minds, a collaboration where the lines between band, choir and orchestra were broken down and filmed in a way that made you feel like you were there rather than watching it on a screen.
Live At The Acropolis is released on vinyl / CD / bluray combinations on 31st January and can be preordered here.
James' official website can be found here. They are on Facebook and Twitter. Some of the band - Tim, Andy and Dave - are also on Twitter.
We also run the One Of The Three James archive, the most detailed resource for information about the band, and the site also has a Facebook and Twitter page.
TimBoothLyricADay, whose posts often lead to Tim explaining his thought processes behind the lyrics, can be found on Twitter and Facebook
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