James continued their Love Is The Answer tour at Newcastle Utilita Arena on
Friday night. Keeping the set fresh with some tour debuts, delving back into
their 1980s catalogue and bringing us right up to date with a brand new song,
they demonstrated exactly why they’re selling more tickets now than ever
before.
As the pre-show intro stops dead in its track there’s an almighty roar then a
couple of moments of silence before the unmistakeable siren call of Come Home
kicks in and thousands of arms are raised skyward, many around us who weren’t
born when it was released such is the generational spanning love that has
fueled some of James recent resurgence and why they’re consistently filling
arenas when many of their 90s contemporaries are in the venue rung below.
Their design for life of not just shaking their bits to the hits gets
demonstrated over the next two hours.
The first four songs do hit hard though. I Know What I’m Here For has made a
welcome return this time round, its squiggly hook line feeling like an
invitation to the dance whilst What For, which Tim describes as their first
attempt at a pop single, reminds us that it was probably, with the benefit of
hindsight, the first evidence that James could step out of their awkward folky
skin and create something that could soar and uplift, the bigger older brother
to Sit Down that follows it.
Sit Down ends in a communal singalong repeating the song’s chorus, something
that happens infrequently these days as it rarely sits at a place in the set
for it to happen but the crowd takes over and it feels magical. “Geordies” Tim
says as the song ends “it’s a wonder your team ever loses a game”. Ever the
diplomat with a sensitivity to regional rivalries through his wife who comes
from the North East, Jim adds “smoggies, mackems and monkeyhangers” to pockets
of cheers.
“We’re going to rein it in” Tim informs us as a warning to those who might at this point be expecting a set solely of greatest hits. Shadow Of A Giant is bold and atmospheric, Tim and Chloe’s vocals intertwining as it soars at the end with the two of them down at the barrier creating connection with the front rows. Greenpeace is dedicated to the organisation who Tim tells us hasn’t the high profile it did back in the 1990s but who put their necks on the line to protect the planet. It’s a rumbling beast of a song that they’ve resurrected, reinvented with Chloe taking the lead vocals in the chorus, as the bass reverberates with menace.
Continuing the delving into the catalogue Junkie from 2001’s Pleased To Meet You follows. Like many of the older songs the members who didn’t play on them take centre stage like Adrian’s guitar solo on What For. This time it’s Andy trumpet as the extended outro moves further and further away from the original.
It allows Tim to slip away from the stage and appear in the banked seats as the opening bars of Say Something are met with roars of appreciation. He’s greeted by a mix of joy, quick moments of connection by handshake or hug and an inevitable camera shoved in his face. It’s followed by Just Like Fred Astaire, making its first arena appearance of the tour as Tim moves further back and the standing area turn and tilt their necks to see him. It’s wise set choice here, big favourites but fairly straight songs by their standards so the front man’s antics don’t detract from some of the glorious moments his band mates deliver.
One such moment greets him on his return to the stage as they’re mid the extended intro to Five-O. The camera zooms into the wonder on his face at Saul’s violin playing as the band lift the song into the stratosphere. It’s at times like this where James transcend the big singles that made their name in the 1990s and elevate themselves from their contemporaries. Johnny Yen makes a welcome return, still as fresh as vibrant as ever, tweaked around the edges to give it life an album track of forty years standing has no right to possess, Jim’s bass lines in particular.
Heads is dedicated a prayer of harmony for the United or Disunited States. Chloe, Debbie and Dave create a wall of metallic drums that clash violently and thrillingly with Saul’s violin and Adrian’s cello as Tim unleashes a quickfire vitrolic assessment of the land of the free. Saul introduces Moving On by telling us that Ainslie Henderson, creator of its heart-wrenching video, is in the building before his work of art is shown on the big screen as the band play.
Tim describes as what they’re about to do next as suicidal and for any other band it might well be. However Nantucket is such a majestic piece that the fact it extends to eight minutes and it’s so new and work in progress that Tim still needs lyric sheets just add to its brilliance. Just as it feels like it’s about to end, off it veers in yet another direction. He’d joked that those who went to the bar would be the ones who missed out and the joke very much was on them.
He’s out in the audience again for She’s A Star, the first of a series of three big hitters to conclude the main set as a reward to those who went on the setlist journey with them. “I better get back to the stage” he responds to Jim telling him that Ring The Bells is next before Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) feels like a fitting way to lead into the encore, the crowd singing it back to them before they reach the first line.
The encore starts with Way Over Your Head, a song that shows no signs of being overawed by the company it keeps at the tail end of the night. A quick look around sees many singing along, especially when it gets to the repeated section at the end - it’s a shame that familarity in such cavernous spaces prevents it having its own Sometimes moment.
That said that doesn’t really transpire tonight on Sometimes itself, marked by a particularly inspired Adrian guitar solo, and the band correctly don’t push it either - Saul just kicking straight into Laid. The audience sing the first verse before Tim comes in and repeats it and the arena floor bounces as one. They take their final bows and head off into the night for the longer lie-down Tim laughs they needed before returning for the encore.
The Love Is The Answer tour with Doves calls at 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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