Number Yum
We sit down with James singer Tim Booth to talk about band’s first No1 album
JAMES singer Tim Booth has spoken of his joy when the band’s 18th studio album became their first to reach the No1 spot after 42 years in the music business.
Tim, 64, said that he hoped the achievement with their latest record Yummy this week would “put a crack in the glass ceiling of ageism”.
The Mancunian nine-piece first hit the big time with singles including Sit Down and Come Home, both in 1989, and Laid in 1993.
While their 1998 compilation The Best Of got to No1, Yummy is their first album proper to hit the top spot.
But Tim said that sales were never as important to the band as making music their fans loved.
He said: “I remember in 2006 we were in the green room on The Jonathan Ross Show with Jay-Z, Will Smith and Charlotte Church.
“Jonathan pointed out we had only sold 25 million records compared to Will Smith’s and Jay Z’s quadrillions.
“I remember a few minutes too late coming up with the response, ‘Jonathan, you of all people should know it’s not about size, it’s what you do with it’.”
“Numbers and sales figures never really registered with us in James and most of our musical inspirations were not huge.
“The Velvet Underground never sold more than 20,000 copies in their lifetime. Our aim was to make great music – focus on the music, not the numbers and eventually the people will come. “Then we broke big and we watched Sit Down hover at No2 for weeks.
“We realised to other people it was upsetting that we didn’t make No1. “Years later, in compilation shows, only the No1s were chosen as the great songs of the era and it p ***** us off. We’ve had many twos and threes but only a No1 compilation album, which is cheating.”
The band also won the Music Icon Award at The Ivors last year.
But Tim said they are overjoyed to finally make it to the top spot. He added: “After 42 years, having a No1 is quite wonderful.
“We are having the best time of our lives, selling more tickets than we ever sold when we were ‘famous’ in the 90s. We are not a 90s band, a heritage band – we are a restless band of artists who keep on challenging ourselves.
“Our new albums are as good as our old, as we hope this will testify. Because we are older, our new music tends to get less attention than we would’ve done when we were young.”
Yummy, right, also topped the Official Vinyl Albums Chart. Also, in the charts, Dire Straits guitar hero Mark Knopfler, 74, secured a new entry at No3 with his latest record One Deep River. It is his ninth Top 10 album to date as a solo artist.
Linkin Park earned their first Top 5 album in seven years, and their first since frontman Chester Bennington died.