James summer tour rolled into a boiling hot Barcelona on Friday night for a show set to the backdrop of the beautiful Palau de Pedralbes where they delivered a career spanning set of their biggest hits, more recent highlights and deeper cuts.
The night opens with Lose Control and Andy’s trumpet piercing the soaring heat as he, Tim, Saul and Chloe pass through the lower standing area on their way to the stage. It’s a perfect way to create a connection where the seats could make it a more formal affair. It’s followed by Zero, a band favourite from All The Colours Of You, that demonstrates the band’s exquisite control of the pace of the song, teasing those less familiar with it into thinking it’s finished twice. The strobe lighting set against the palatial backdrop gives it an additional intensity.
Johnny Yen has them on a roll, improvising through the middle section as Tim reels off a list of reasons for joining a band whilst prowling the stage urging his bandmates on. Forty plus years on since they first played it live, it, like James themselves, evolves over time to remain fresh, vibrant and thrilling.
James then fast forward to the here and now and tell the crowd “you can sit down for this one.” While choosing some of the slower-paced cuts from last year’s Yummy as the showcase for that record might not endear them to those looking solely for the big anthems that broke them, it’d take a hard heart not to be seduced by the majesty of Way Over Your Head and its soaring build to the end. Leviathan is a glorious expletive-laden celebration of love against the odds, a hit single from an other time and place where the charts meant something. We stay seated for PS, a song we haven’t heard in a long time that is preparing for their upcoming North American tour of the Laid album. It twists and winds, Tim’s vibrato combining with Saul’s violin as they improvise together, lost in the music to the extent they don’t quite coincide on ending it together.
Curse Curse has the crowd back on their feet and Tim out among us again. Its reference to the local footballing god Messi makes it particularly apt to be played here but its wild underpinning beat and hook make it perfect for a sweltering summer night. We get a few spots of rain around this point which would have been very welcome but it holds off. It’s followed by Seven, one of their peak era’s lesser played singles but one of its most elegant and simply uplifting.
It’s back to Yummy for two more songs. Stay, with its revised Chris Martin arrangement, is subtle against the late night heat, whilst Shadow Of A Giant’s extended intro with Tim and Chloe’s vocals intertwining (with Chloe fanning herself) is a thing of genuine beauty before the song takes us on a winding journey, slowly building into a fascinating piece of art. It's interesting that they've chosen the less full-on moments of the record to showcase Yummy this year rather than some more obvious choices - delightful for the harder-core fans, but easy points for those who just want "bangers" and think James don't make them any more (they do).
The heat has taken Saul’s acoustic out of tune so he tells Mark to start the next one after jokingly saying “fuck it, it’s only Barcelona” when trying to start it and it sounds very wrong. We’re then treated to a unique improvised Tomorrow with a keyboard intro that transforms the song - an accident that forces them to change and create something beautiful from the chaos. Heads is hard, fast and brutal, the palace being lit up against the strobes, several thousand brought to their feet to clap along with the song’s multi-drum onslaught on the senses.
Attention slows things down one last time, the keyboard section building the tension for what feels like an eternity but in truth about a minute before the song explodes back into life with James in immaculate control of the pace and impact.
There’s some discussion about setlist as curfew approaches with Tim telling Jim “it’s your set.” They choose the extended version of Beautiful Beaches with Debbie and Dave’s drums taking control as the others turn and face the two of them lit up against the palace.
Sit Down is started hard, fast and dirty with raw guitars and brings even the stragglers to their feet, proof that music is something that can break down language, cultural and most other barriers to communication in a way few, if any others, means can. Laid is a frantic frenetic joyful romp, devoid of thrills or theatre and all the best for it.
The gig should then finish on Sometimes according to the setlist. This song hit particularly hard on the Iberian peninsula where it’s arguably their most popular song. The crowd singalong but don’t come back in so with a few minutes left we get an extra song and a stage invasion that threatens to get out of control given the numbers who want to be up there. And with that they're gone and we stream out into the stifling Barcelona night air after one of the most polite, civilised and best-organised shows we've been to.
James played Lose Control, Zero, Johnny Yen, Waltzing Along, Way Over Your Head, Leviathan, PS, Curse Curse, Seven, Stay, Shadow Of A Giant, Tomorrow, Heads, Attention, Beautiful Beaches, Sit Down, Laid, Sometimes, Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)
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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