News

The Bereavement Team at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals has developed a short film that aims to encourage people to add their names to the National Organ Donor Register, and to let their loved ones know their wishes. The 2-minute film has been produced by staff at the Trust and tells the story of a local boy, Jordan Grant, who died unexpectedly aged just 17. Jordan was able to transform the lives of other people through the donation of his tissue and organs. Jordan’s mum and dad (Lisa and John) play themselves, and one of Jordan’s best friends, Sam Garstang, plays Jordan.

James were both touched and proud to be asked to contribute their song Oh My Heart to soundtrack the film; an opportunity to help a cause that saves lives in this way doesn’t come along every day – nor does a chance to support our National Health Service.

For more information, please visit the Lancashire Teaching Hospital’s page on organ donation here, or you can add your name to the donor register here. Transplants are one of the most miraculous achievements of modern medicine, but they depend entirely on the generosity of donors and their families to make this life-saving gift to others. Adding your name to the register will only take a few minutes of your time but it could save someone else’s life.

You can watch (or share! nudge nudge…) the 2 minute film here on the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals’ YouTube channel. The film premiered on Monday at a red carpet affair at the Preston Riverway Odeon – keep an eye out for it on the screens at Preston North End, and during the trailers in Odeon cinemas across the county.

“It’s with great disappointment and enormous frustration, that we must apologise for not playing in Riga last night. This was due to legally required production issues associated with the safety of the stage, which could not be resolved in time for us to perform and were beyond our control. The absolute safety of our crew and fans attending the show is paramount and we tried our utmost all day and night to get this resolved with the promoter by our contractual stage time. We sympathise with everyone who waited hours from the advertised door time and just wish there had been both better communication at the venue and time to accommodate our performance as well as the headline act. We head home today with a heavy heart and promise to come back and perform for our Latvian fans.”

Please keep hold of your ticket stub and booking confirmation email in case we have an opportunity to give you a little something special at some point.

We have just been advised stage times for Wembley have shifted again – James will now play from 6.15-6.55pm. If you’d do whatever you can to alert others going to the gig, it would be appreciated.

James will now be taking the stage 20 minutes earlier than advertised, playing from 6:30-7:10pm. Set length and curfew for The Killers (11pm) remain the same, and gates open at 5pm. See you there!

Tim, Jim and Larry called in on old pal Pete Mitchell at One Golden Square recently and played a few tunes. Tune in to the Saturday Social on Absolute Radio tonight from 10pm to catch the performance – according to Pete it’s a great session.

We’re delighted to confirm that Frazer King – “certainly the best underground band in the UK” according to Louder Than War – will be supporting James in Thetford Forest, having received a personal invitation from the band.

Jim happened upon Frazer King at one of Clint Boon’s infamous tea parties, and was highly impressed. “They’re brilliant,” he said, “I absolutely love them. I love their weird, odd mixture of influences; they’re good fun.” He immediately set about trying to secure them the support slot for The Mirrorball Tour in early 2010, but in the end it didn’t come together, and it wasn’t until two of the final gigs on The Night Before The Morning After Tour later that year that they first shared a stage.

Larry has since taken them under his wing, recording material for their (yet to be released) first full length album in his home studio and taking on the role of producer.

The band have two releases to date, the excellent 5-track EP entitled Working Towards The Fuhrer which you can preview or download here, and the Idle Class Debris ‘mix tape’ available on good old fashioned cassette or in digital formats here. They’re currently saving up to get the tracks recorded with Gotty mixed and released, so every download purchased will get them a little nearer!

Jack from Frazer King had this to say last night: “Having been working with Larry on our debut record for the past year, it’s a privilege to once again be sharing a stage with James. This is our first show back from recording – and what a way to start the summer. See you in the forest – who’s for some drunken tree climbing?”

Tickets for this show are still available from the Forestry Commission box office, check our live page for link and telephone number.

River Party, now in it’s 35th year, is the longest running festival in Greece outside of Athens. It’s set in an area of rugged countryside on the banks of the river Haliacmon near Nestório, Kastoria, and runs for five days.

Approximately 50,000 young people from Greece and its neighboring countries visit this unique festival every year to enjoy the beautiful scenery and good music, camp alongside the river, swim, and soak up the Grecian sunshine.

James are headlining on Thursday 1 August and tickets are on sale now, available from livetickets.gr.

It’s a very laid back and friendly festival – in their own words, “River Party is not just a festival, it’s an opportunity for self expression.”

Finally we have some good news to share with our patient fans and friends across the Irish Sea. James are returning to your shores this summer, after an absence of many – far too many! – years.

On Friday 23 August the band take to the stage of Dublin’s beautiful Olympia Theatre, situated in the heart of the city opposite the castle. They last played the Olympia in 2007 and as recollected in Jim’s tour diary: “The crowd love it and go bananas… Adam Clayton [U2] got rat-arsed on our champagne and had to be helped into a taxi and taken home.”

Then on Saturday the 24th it’s off to Belfast for Belsonic (with Suede), an open air festival held in Custom House Square.

Tickets for Belsonic are on sale now and available from Ticketmaster Ireland – visit the Live page for links.

We have a special fan pre-sale arranged for the Olympia, which includes standard and VIP Soundcheck tickets. The sale begins via our private link on Wednesday morning and will run for two days, until the general sale opens up on Friday. If you’re on the wearejames.com mailing list, be sure to check your inbox at 9am tomorrow for the link.

Tune in to the Saturday Social on Absolute Radio tomorrow – Saturday 11th – from 10pm to catch Jim and Larry chatting with old pal Pete Mitchell.

James are joining the nation in having ‘A Really Good Night In’ (in our case, at Manchester Arena) for Macmillan Cancer Support tonight. Macmillan strive to ensure nobody faces cancer alone, and improve the lives of people affected locally by providing practical, medical, emotional and financial support, as well as pushing for better cancer care.

If you’d like to support the wonderful work they do, keep an eye out for the collection points throughout the arena where you’ll be able to make a donation. Those at home can text NIGHT to 70550 to donate £5 – it’s about the cost of a drink at the bar, and each £25 raised will fund a Macmillan nurse for an hour to help somebody living with cancer and their family. For more information on this supremely worthy cause, please visit their website.