Sit down, James’ Tim has a thing or two to say about Trump
Although optimism has been in short supply over much of the past year, we can at last look forward with hope that the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic will be behind us by the second part of 2021 at least as the roll-out of the various vaccines continues.
We keep our fingers crossed tightly for large-scale gigs to return from summer onwards. It would be appropriate, for example, if among those were The Script’s two free concerts, a fantastic gesture to play for healthcare workers. They are set to go ahead on June 14 and 15 at the 3 Arena. As well as outdoor shows by Dermot Kennedy, Green Day and Guns N’ Roses. Later in the year we can surely feel confident of full-capacity concerts by, respectively, Dua Lipa and David Gray in September and shows by Simply Red, Alanis Morrissette and Yungblud in October and November.
On the first day of December, two of Manchester’s greatest musical exports come to the 3 Arena. Step on in early to see Happy Mondays and then sit down, but surely not for long, with James.
Without tailoring their music to the big arenas, hits such as Sometimes, Sit Down, She’s A Star and Laid are best enjoyed in large gatherings of the like-minded.
Tim Booth has fronted James for most of the four decades they have been together. Apart from the six years in which the charismatic singer was absent, the Manchester band has been one of the most exciting live acts and consistently successful chart bands since their formation in 1982. They made music that never really followed the musical trends of a given time but which has aged very well.
Morrissey was an early champion of the septet, calling them ‘one of the best bands in the world’ after the release of just one EP, Jimone, in 1983. I was lucky enough to catch James supporting The Smiths in those very early days in Letterkenny, Co. Donegal in November 1984. Booth says the approach that night is very much the same as they have taken throughout their lengthy career and one of the reasons for their success.
‘You go back a long way with us,’ he laughs.
‘But I can tell you that when you saw us at that Smiths gig in 1984, we would probably have improvised and tried to make up songs there and then on stage. We still improvise new ways of doing songs almost every night. Taking risks keeps a band alive. The rigor mortis sets in when you just repeat the same thing every night.’
When they play that much-anticipated 3 Arena show in December, he says that yes, we will hear many favourites from their extensive back catalogue, but don’t expect a run through of their 19 top 40 hits. The Rolling Stones might still play Satisfaction every night, but there is no guarantee you will hear Sit Down.
‘It is interesting you mention the Rolling Stones,’ he says.
‘I remember reading a review of a Rolling Stones concert by (music journalist turned author) Martin Amis in 1982. I would say it really informed a lot of our thinking.
‘Amis wrote that you could see the Rolling Stones in Toronto, New York, Paris or London and it would be the exact same concert. There is so sense of communion and communication, it is a performance. I brought that article to the band and said we should be taking risks every night and keep our concerts fresh and change the set every night. We all agreed right then and said, “let’s do that”. We aren’t indulging ourselves, just ensuring that every night is different for us and the audience.’
Booth took time out from 2001 to 2007 to pursue solo work, moving to L.A. with his wife Kate. After 13 years there, they recently decided to move back to the UK.
Now 60, Booth was there for the entirety of the Obama presidency and departs just as the divisive Donald Trump incumbency ends, heralding the Joe Biden era. As an Englishman in L.A. horrified by what he saw unfold during the Trump presidency, he found that his views on events were not always welcome.
‘It’s always people that don’t agree with your opinion who will say you shouldn’t be giving your opinion,’ he says.
‘The usual thing I hear is “stick to singing”. Well, Trump should have stuck to reality TV. I don’t really give a s**t; if you’ll permit me to say that. I’m not that political, I am more about injustices such as racism. The inequalities in America are shocking.
‘Before I came here, I didn’t know how bad the racism was. I thought a lot of it went away in the sixties with Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights acts. I came here and to me it was like “holy cow, this is apartheid”. When people are regularly murdering black people on the streets, in their cars or in their beds, it’s just not okay. No one would put up with that in Ireland or in England. It maybe takes someone who comes from a different culture to be shocked enough to write songs about it.’
But though his observations did seep into songs on the six albums James have released since Booth returned after a six-year absence in 2007, Trump’s tirades and tantrums were not manna for the Manchester man.
‘I tried to keep Trump to about two or three songs because he is like a nar
‘The usual thing I hear is “stick to singing”. Well, Trump should have stuck to reality TV’
cissistic black hole that sucks all the life out of your creativity if you are not careful,’ Booth says.
‘Trump is a fascist. He would have loved to have taken control of this democracy by foul means. If he had have been a little bit more intelligent, he could have made it happen.
‘I certainly don’t clap my hands when I see that the world is in complete chaos and think, great I can write all these songs. I have enough in my life and my imagination to write about. But on the next album there will probably be three political songs because we are in
such a hot time and these things need commenting upon – but only if I can do it in a way that I am happy with them artistically.’
Booth comes back again and again to that desire to approach everything that James do with integrity. Indeed, he would not have returned and James would not have reconvened if there was any sense that they would take a different approach.
They’ve now released six albums since 2008, four of which have gone into the UK top ten with 2016’s Girl At The End Of The World reaching number two.
‘When we came back in 2007 having thought that we were completely finished, we had a meeting and decided that we were only going to do this if we could make music that was at least as good as what we made in the Nineties – if not better,’ he says.
‘That would be our judgment and no one else’s. The real test would be when we played the new songs live. Would they be able to stand alongside something like Ring The Bells or Sometimes? We did it. It’s as simple as that; we did it. We will soon be releasing new music. The album will be called All The Colours Of You and it is coming along very well. I don’t want to talk about it too much because we are still in the middle of the process but it is sounding amazing.’
Though most of the band are in their sixties, including Booth who will be 61 in February, they have retained that youthful verve. But they don’t party like they did when they wore flares and baggy shirts in the early nineties.
‘We were a hard partying rock and roll band in the Nineties but we kept it quiet. Not so much me, I couldn’t because I have always had liver issues,’ he says. ‘We were on the Lollapalooza tour with Tricky, Snoop Dogg, Tool, Korn and The Prodigy and the security would tell everyone watch out for James, they are the most dangerous, riotous band. I remember us stealing golf buggies and driving them down concrete stairs and crashing them. We were like a gang on the loose. Everybody was always plastered. We kept all that away from the press. By the time we came back everyone had cleaned up. Back then we looked after our own and circled the wagons.’
We can look forward to sitting down next to James or more likely standing up in the 3 Arena (with very special guests Happy Mondays) on December 1.
‘I remember us stealing golf buggies – we were like a gang on the loose’