James' UK Love Is The Answer Tour rolled into Glasgow's cavernous Hydro on Wednesday night for a set that took the audience on a journey through many of the most celebratory moments of their career as well as reminding them that they're still an awkward bunch who want to challenge their audience and themselves with a series of deeper cuts.
Tomorrow makes its first appearance at the head of the set rather than its customary place amongst the big hitters as the encore approaches. It works in its new surroundings, immediately drawing people in even when they extend the breakdown and the lights focus on Saul and Jim taking the song down to an instrumental section that sets the tone for what's to come. James are here to give those adrenaline hits of euphoric highs, but also to remind you just what a varied and inspiring set of musicians they are too. It's followed by Waltzing Along, the simple abandon of the song setting the crowd moving and Tim makes one of many forays down to the barrier tonight to connect with the front rows. I Know What I'm Here For has made a welcome return to the set this tour, a nod to the often overlooked period between the first Best Of and the 2001 split, and set to a video backdrop of traditional style dances from around the globe, its bold hook line is one that keeps those of us with the desire to dancing in our less skilled ways.
Any hopes of a full on greatest hits set though are quickly extinguished. Heads is dropped in earlier to the set, maybe too early as the audience hasn't quite warmed up yet and its harsh metallic percussion, driven along by three sets of drums as Chloe takes to a partial kit, pierces the expectant atmosphere. Tim jokes at the end, after introducing the song as "let's talk America", that they're now going to play six songs about Trump, then three about Epstein and two about Iran. Way Over Your Head could fit in anywhere in any James set such is its timeless majesty, a hit from a different era that didn't even make the designation of focus track on Yummy's release, but which kicked the door down live and is likely to be the enduring song of that era. As Tim is down on the barrier again as it reaches the crescendo, the crowd around us is a sea of waving arms, whether they know it or not.
Attention and PS follow, both long songs that allow the band to stretch out and showcase just what they're made of. The former starts slow, builds, stops dead for what feels like eternity rather than a few seconds and then kicks back in with a vengeance as the spotlight shines on Mark at the back centre of the stage. Tim reminds us before it as he's down on the barrier and has to ask Jim what's next and informs the "thirty or so" people who haven't seen them before that they change the set around and aren't as slick as other bands but that's what makes them who they are. They then deliver a soaring magical PS, a song that has evolved from a centrepiece of the Laid album into a showstopper, as Adrian lets loose with a guitar solo, Saul's violin kicks in first, then Andy's trumpet takes over with Chloe's vocal harmonies lifting the song.
Those that don't know what's coming next probably haven't even noticed, as we didn't, that Tim has left the stage at this point. He reappears in the seats for a couple of songs, making his way through half the upper tier for Say Something and She's A Star. He's greeted either by open arms and an invitation to share a few seconds of intimate connection or a phone in the face - two moments stand out, one where he sings to a lady in the audience as if they were the only two people in the room and a second where he takes a camera and films the lady who was holding it for a few seconds rather than her filming him.
"Improvise something" Tim tells the rest of the band as he starts his journey back, a few jazz-style noodles are met with playing chiding along the lines of "call that improvisation, I thought you were good at it, that's terrible" before they open up into Five-O and the crowd's arms are back up in the air as the song's extended extendable provides the perfect instrumental interlude to allow Tim time to get back to the stage.
They're not quite done yet with challenging the audience though. Greenpeace is a rumbling majestic beast of song, plucked from the relative obscurity of Whiplash's middle section and a million miles away from what they're best known for outside of their own fanbase. Shadow Of A Giant forms a fascinating counterpoint, all about absolute control of the build and atmospherics as it builds before exploding in glorious life.
At this point they decide to drop new song Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah from the planned set and go straight to Moving On. It's the one disappointment of the evening for us, the exclusion of Sit Down probably rankled with a few more mind, that both new songs dropped out. Nantucket, an eight minute journey song planned at the start of the encore was not in the right place for timing with the curfew as well as the songs that surrounded it - when their last album, 2024's Yummy had three songs from it, but such is the nature of a James gig - you don't know exactly what you're going to get, but it won't be everything you expected.
Moving On, with its video set on the back screen meaning they perform the slightly curtailed radio version, is perhaps the one post-reformation song that has translated even past the most nostalgia-fixated James fan because of its subject matter - the acute loss of someone in your innermost circle of family or friends. A few people around us hug for that very reason and it reminds us that one of the reasons James have endured for so long is the fact that lyrically they write about human conditions that everyone can relate to in their own way from their own experiences, even if it's from a different perspective than their author intended, and they're wrapped up in music that feels like a comforting blanket with the sage advice to remember the good that went before the loss and use that as an inspiration to move on.
Tim heads down to the barrier before stopping and realising he's gone a song too early as he thought Come Home was next. He jokes that he's been telling the tour manager he needs a setlist in bigger font. Stay, from Yummy, is a band favourite from Yummy and their revised arrangement gives the song a sharper focus. Tim tells us at the end that his wife Kate thought the song's chorus was "grip her oyster" before laughing that it wasn't that type of song and it's "grit, pearl, oyster."
Come Home is then played next, to no one's surprise given the spoiler earlier. It has both Tim and Debbie on the barrier dancing with the front rows and as the song ends Tim remarks that Debbie has a beautiful three-month old baby boy backstage. The main set is concluded with Ring The Bells, a crowd favourite in these parts, and a storming Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) where Tim, involuntarily at first, lets the crowd take the chorus in a moment of unification before he heads out towards the back of the room hoisted aloft on a sea of arms.
They take their bows before returning to deliver an encore of Sometimes and Laid. There's some confusion as to how long they have left and what to play as Tim tells the crowd how grateful they are for the support they've historically had in Glasgow, one of their hotbeds. After Sometimes lifts everyone higher, he laughs that an eight-minute new song might be pushing it even for them and that they'll play a two minute twenty one that they'll know. Laid, of course, is never that short these days as the crowd and then Tim take turns in singing the first verse and they let loose over the outro before taking their bows and departing to the roars of more than ten thousand real and honorary for the night Glaswegians.
James played Tomorrow, Waltzing Along, I Know What I'm Here For, Heads, Way Over Your Head, Attention, PS, Say Something, She's A Star, Five-O, Greenpeace, Shadow Of A Giant, Moving On, Stay, Come Home, Ring The Bells, Getting Away With It (All Messed Up), Sometimes and Laid.
James' official website can be found here and they are on Facebook and Twitter.
The Love Is The Answer tour with Doves calls at Newcastle Utilita Arena (10), Liverpool M&S Bank Arena (11), Cardiff Utilita Arena (13), Nottingham Motorpoint Arena (14), London O2 Arena (17) and Manchester Coop Live (18) before a series of summer shows.
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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