Tim's a star

JAMES frontman, Tim Booth is riding on a crest of a wave. Not only is he set to make his acting debut at the Octagon in Bolton in the Spring, but the band's 'Best of....' album has gone gold.

And there's more. This week more than 8,000 ecstatic people braved the rain, and bunked work to see him and his band play live on a barge outside Key 103's studios in Castlefield, Manchester. And next month James hit the road again, with two sold out dates at Manchester Apollo.

All, in all, 1998 is looking pretty good for this cult Manchester band, who have been on the scene for nearly two decades.

So, what possessed the former drama student, who lives in Manchester, to put himself up for a part in Edward Bond's brutal and violent play, Saved, which is being staged at the Octagon from May 14 to June 6?

Speaking to the BEN, Booth said: "I was really attracted by the part and it didn't interfere with the band's schedule. And I've wanted to do some acting for some time."

He revealed that he had been offered the main role in the stage musical, Tommy, on Broadway. But had turned it down.

"The last play I did was a Ben Elton one," he said.

Which was all news to his bemused publicist!

Always a kind of messiah - and around 1990, when James hit their stride big time, it seemed despite himself that he might be - Booth is definitely a guru, and one of a particularly English nature. It's partly to do with James's enveloping sound, partly to do with Booth's genteel modesty, to-die-for intonation (consider those vowel sounds, and imagine them at the Octagon) and his articulate lyrics. Lyrics so personal, they're universal, and with the power to get a G-Mex sized crowd to stand up, genuflect and, if you ask them nicely, to sit down!

From the start, James have been personal. It was 1982 when guitarist Paul Gilbertson, bassist Jim Glennie and drummer Gavan Whelan invited a possessed dancer (Booth) whom they spotted at a Manchester disco to join their band. After headlining at the Hacienda, James were approached by that club's owner, Factory, and in 1983 released an EP, Jim One. By now James were having an effect on other local contenders; with 1985's EP James II, lovestruck fan Morrissey - "James are the best band in the world" - invited them to tour with The Smiths.

In 1986 the band signed to major label Sire, but it wasn't a happy experience. However, it wasn't all bad, either. Two albums, that year's Stutter and 88's Strip Mine, established the James sound of honeyed, abandoned guitar and Tim's ululating vocals.

In 1990, now removed to Phonogram/Fontana, James had a new line up - Gilbertson and Gavan Whelan exit stage left and enter, guitarist Larry Gott, multi-instrumentalist Saul Davies, drummer David Baynton-Power and Keyboard maestro Mark Hunter.

The sound of "Madchester" was in full swing and warmly embraced James, the Happy Mondays, the Stone Roses and its leaders. At the same time Fontana released the album, Gold, and re-released Come Home, and Sit Down. The latter single lodging itself in the number two spot for about three hundred years.

In 1992, with Andy Diagram aboard, Booth's was making a feature of his continuing personal turmoil, with songs for the lost, lonely and questing. They released Seven, which the music press slated as stadium rock, then decamped to the States.

The result was Laid, which did the business in the US in 1993, shifting 600,000 copies.

But by 1995 the band was on the verge of implosion. Larry Gott quit and the band found they owed £250,000 in back tax. In 1996 Booth released the solo album, Booth and the Bad Angel.

Eventually, the band got together again and the result was last year's, noisy, brash and unexpectedly poptastic, Whiplash. It swiftly went gold and the single, She's a Star, turned out to be one of James's biggest selling singles.

This year's, Best of, album is, I'm reliably informed, here to remind us of the past 15 years of diversity and accomplishment. It's a testament to what's gone before and an indication of the infinite possibilities for the future.

As Booth told the BEN, just before hitting the stage on the Castlefield canal this week: "In 1990 we played the roof of Key 103. Now we're playing on its barge. It feels like things have come full circle."

If you missed James's brilliant live performance outside the Key 103 studios in Castlefield this week, don't despair. It's being broadcast again on the Pete Mitchell and Geoff Lloyd IQ show this Sunday night, between 8-10pm. The set includes renditions of Sit Down, She's a Star, Tomorrow, Say Something, Sometimes, Come Home, Laid, and the new single, Destiny's Calling.

Tickets for, Saved, which Laurence Olivier described as "not for children but it is for grown-ups, and the grown-ups of this country should have the courage to look at it," available from the Octagon box office on Bolton 520661.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.