It's been almost 30 years since I last saw James perform live at Glastonbury in 1994, and that was a show to remember. Even from a long time ago, that performance stayed with me. Surprisingly, a band with such longevity has only now achieved a number one album with Delicious.
Razorlight as support is an interesting choice as they top the charts themselves and join James at every show on the tour. They opened the night in great style, performing classic songs that most people know, a special mention must go to “América”, which was performed in a magnificent and emotional way by singer Johnny Borrell. It was a great way to warm up the crowd, and they soon made way for James to take the stage to thunderous applause.
From the opening chords of the legacy song “Johnny Yen” from their 1986 album. Stutter and the audience's reaction, it was clear that this would not be a standard performance in his hometown. Given this, Tim Booth asked the audience to refrain from using mobile phones, which the majority respected. The atmosphere and excellent sound quality in this new, packed-to-capacity venue made it seem like they had taken the gloves off to give us everything they had. Which they surely did.
This setlist was a wonderfully curated work, dispersing new tracks with legacy themes like “Ring the Bells” and “Waltzing Along,” further galvanizing the audience. The songs on the new album, like “Life's a Fucking Miracle,” are brilliant; The fact that the audience wasn't familiar with them didn't affect the atmosphere at all, and Tim participated in the crowd surfing under a spotlight.
Naturally, once the band broke into “She's a Star,” it felt like everyone opened up to sing, with Tim now in full flow and holding hands with audience members on the barriers. Stage presence is no problem for this band, with two drummers, four backing vocalists and stalwart Jim Glennie on bass (aside from Tim, the only remaining original member) holding it all together.
As a surprise during “Sound,” trumpeter Andy Diagram magically appeared in the stands (which at this venue is a considerable distance away, having to be pointed out by Tim), which was a great piece of spectacle. The audience danced enthusiastically to the expanded version of this classic.
Two more songs from the new album followed, “Butterfly” and “Better with You.” Some fantastic visuals accompanied the first, and the second has become my favorite song on the new album. The wonderful romantic vibes were echoed on stage with a duet with singer Chloe Alper. This song reaches an immense crescendo, with the audience completely captivated and the band in full swing. Following this with the classic “Out to get you” was great set design and perfect location.
Naturally, the classic “Sit Down” ironically got everyone in the stands on their feet singing along and the band paused to let us all sing it. Tim is moved by this and says emphatically: “Wow, it was back in 1990!” The new song “Mobile God” was accompanied by stunning augmented reality visuals, which were incredible. Tim allowed us to use our phones. “If they were burning a hole in our pockets.” Suffice to say, people wanted to capture the moment. This was followed by the classics “Tomorrow” and a personal favorite, “Sometimes”, which again had the whole place singing; In fact, for “Tomorrow,” Tim allowed the audience to start the song, which was a great moment.
What shines in this show is the effortless ease with which instruments are changed for various songs, guitarist Saul Davies manages to easily switch between guitars, violin and percussion, but a special mention must go to Debbie Knox-Hewson who is a highly qualified artist. she was a percussionist and singer, and towards the end of the night she performed a syncopated drum solo with drummer David Baynton-Power, which was technically impressive and exciting to watch.
After a brief interlude before the inevitable encore, the band lines up once more and, without much hesitation, performs “Come Home” with Tim straight back into the crowd to surf once more. He continued with the new song “Beautiful Beaches”, after which guitarist Saul Davies addressed us, thanking Jim for founding the band in the early 80s, mentioning the changes in the line-up but also saying that they never dreamed of playing for an audience of this size. in his hometown. We magnificently present “Getting Away With It (All Messed Up)” as “our damn anthem“, the band once again put everything into their performance, and to say that this was powerful was an understatement; I've been to metal concerts that had less energy than this one. To finish with “Laid”, the perfect complement to the night, the band leaves us again, this time without a second cheesy encore.
As a night to remember, this will stay in my mind for a long time. It was one of the best live shows I've ever been to. Tim himself took to Twitter (from his usual ice bath after his concert) to say: 'Shit Manchester, what the fuck was that? That was one of the wildest and most amazing reactions we've ever had. To the highest at all levels. Thank you. That was incredible!'
Truer words were never spoken, Tim.
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