News

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.

The band have been invited to join The Killers as special guests at their largest show to date – capacity 90,000 – at Wembley Stadium this summer.

Tickets are available now from gigsandtours.com, ticketline.co.uk, and a variety of other vendors – see the Live page for a range of links.

We’re pleased to announce that James will be returning to the magnificent Belladrum Estate in the Highlands this summer, to headline the 10th Anniversary of the Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival.

Their previous performance at the festival in 2007 has been acclaimed as one of the most celebrated moments in Bella history; naturally the band were delighted to accept the invitation to help make their 10th birthday bash a night to remember.

This independent, multi-award-winning festival is known for eclectic line-ups featuring plenty of Scottish talent, offbeat non-musical entertainments, and a family-friendly, all-ages atmosphere. Belladrum is set in a spectacular wooded Highland location, with the stage overlooking the ruined Italianate gardens of the country house.

James will close the festival, taking the stage on Saturday 3 August.

Full weekend, child (12 & unders are free but do require booking), campervan/caravan and electrical hook-up e-tickets can be purchased via the festival’s website, and you’ll find details of a variety of outlets from which you can buy in person or over the phone, as well as a breakdown of booking fees for each vendor (shop around, you may save a few pounds) on their ticketing page.

In an effort to offer great value for money in these rather austere times, prices have been held at 2012 levels, booking fees have been reduced on e-tickets, and a new ticket deposit scheme has been introduced for customers wishing to buy full weekend tickets in installments. Bella has sold out each of the last four years (often months in advance), so fans are urged to buy early to avoid disappointment.

The 2013 theme is ‘Carnival’, in keeping with the birthday party atmosphere the milestone event is bound to create. Hope you’ll be joining us.

Andy Diagram – trumpeter extraordinaire – and his band Spaceheads have a brand new EP out today.

Sun Radar is available on heavyweight vinyl LP (£6.99), CD (£2.99) or download, directly from their official site. Both physical formats include a free instant download of all 4 tracks in your choice of FLAC or MP3.

They’ve also made two new music videos to accompany the release.  You can watch the title track Sun Radar, and Atomic Clock on the SpaceheadsTV channel on YouTube.

For regular news and updates on Andy’s various side projects, you may wish to become a fan of the Andy Diagram Trumpet page on Facebook.  He’s got his hands full with The Gathering Sound Tour until the end of April, but there will be an EP launch party in London (Stoke Newington) on 10 May – for more info check out the Spaceheads Facebook page.

For those who’ve been longing for an opportunity to see the band in a more intimate setting, here’s your chance.

James will be playing a special low key warm up gig in a cracking but teeny venue, the Tolbooth in Stirling, the night before the tour proper kicks off down the road at the SECC.

The Tolbooth holds just 200, so you’ll have to be fleet of finger and have luck on your side to secure a ticket. They’re on sale tomorrow morning – Thursday 21 March – at 10am, and will be available online via Ticketweb, in person or over the phone from the Tolbooth box office (01786 27 4000), the Albert Halls on Dumbarton Road (01786 47 3544), and macrobert at the University (01786 46 6666).

Update:  This gig is now sold out – in a speedy 6 minutes – congratulations to those who managed to snag a ticket, and commiserations to those who weren’t so lucky.  If you missed out, try asking nicely on our forum, someone may have a spare now or nearer the time they’re willing to pass on at face value.

As viewers the length and breadth of the country discovered tonight, comedian and longtime James fan Peter Kay has just undertaken “one of the most gruelling Comic Relief challenges to date” – travelling by sofa from Belfast to London, to raise funds for the charity as part of the Comic Relief – Funny for Money campaign.

Peter made a triumphant arrival live at BBC Television Centre just before 9pm, with highlights of the highs and lows of his extraordinary journey shown on the programme. To accompany the sketch, he also recorded a brand new music video for the classic James track Sit Down, featuring six of our lot out and about on the streets of Stockport.

We encourage all of you to download this entertaining and moving rendition of an old favourite, as the proceeds will go to a very worthy cause. Comic Relief was launched on Christmas Day 1985, and has been raising funds – over £800 million to date – to help change the lives of poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged people across both the UK and Africa.

Let’s all do our bit to support this great cause – the Peter Kay ‘Sit Down’ video featuring the band (along with the full sketch) is available to download in standard or HD right now, exclusively from iTunes, with proceeds going to Comic Relief.

The band had a blast filming with Peter and the local flora and fauna, we hope you have as much fun watching it.

You can also donate directly to Comic Relief here.

Thanks for your support.

P.S. To all you newcomers who’ve been dropping by tonight, welcome! It may be of interest that Mercury Records have reduced the price of the band’s ‘Best Of’ collection on iTunes (to £4.99), to mark the band’s Comic Relief appearance and give you an easy way in. For the more adventurous, you’ll find plenty of choice in the wearejames.com discography, and CD bargains to be had on Amazon and elsewhere too – head here for info on all the albums and where to find them online. If you’re after a compilation, Fresh As A Daisy – The Singles (the 2 disc version) is a belter.