News

At the end of 2012, Radio 2 and The Official Charts Company nominated Sit Down in their poll to establish the nation’s favourite No. 2 single of all time.

As many of you will recall, back in 1991 Sit Down was held off the top spot on the UK Singles Chart by Chesney Hawkes’ The One And Only. (Apparently old Chezza was a James fan himself, and just as bemused as the rest of us by this.)

To mark the 60th anniversary of the Official Singles Chart, a nationwide poll was conducted to find the country’s great ‘lost Number 1’. From a list of nearly a thousand No. 2 singles, a shortlist of about 100 great near-misses was compiled by a panel from the industry including Steve Lamacq of 6 Music, Radio 2’s Janice Long, Tony Blackburn and Ken Bruce, presenter Annie Nightingale and Head of Music George Ergatoudis from Radio 1, and Martin Talbot and Omar Maskatiy from the Official Charts Company.

Listeners were asked to vote for their favourite, with the winner to be announced live on air by Tony Blackburn on New Year’s Day – and granted an honorary Number 1 by the Official Charts Company.

The competition was daunting, with Sit Down up against such classics as Suspicious Minds by Elvis Presley, The Who’s My Generation, Nat King Cole’s When I Fall In Love, Downtown by Petula Clark, What Have I Done To Deserve This by The Pet Shop Boys & Dusty Springfield, Rocket Man by Elton John, Pulp’s Common People, Oasis’s Wonderwall as well as tracks by Queen, Sinatra, The Kinks, The Beach Boys, Bowie, T. Rex, Madonna, The Stranglers, and The Beatles.

We were delighted to learn Sit Down came out ahead of nearly all of these, making it to No. 4 in the vote, and got a spin on the program welcoming in the New Year. If you missed the live broadcast you can Listen Again here for the next week.

The Top 10 were as follows:

1. Ultravox – Vienna (1981)
2. The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl – Fairytale Of New York (1987)
3. Don McLean – American Pie (1972)
4. James – Sit Down (1991)
5. The Stranglers – Golden Brown (1982)
6. The Kinks – Waterloo Sunset (1967)
7. The Beatles – Penny Lane / Strawberry Fields Forever (1967)
8. Queen – We Are The Champions (1977)
9. The Beach Boys – God Only Knows (1966)
10. A-ha – Take On Me (1985)

Thirty years in the making, a couple in the waiting… Finally the day has come. The Gathering Sound, our beloved box set, is in stores today. You’ll find all the details, including the complete tracklisting, contents, plus a peek at the artwork in our box set feature.

You may be able to pick one of these lovely objects up at your local record store, or if you’d rather put your feet up and let the postie do the work for you, you can order direct from the Universal Store (includes free shipping in the UK – and at time of writing seems to be the cheapest of the big vendors), Amazon UK, or Amazon US – but do check out our page on it here on wearejames.com first, as we’ve got the most comprehensive and accurate information you’ll find without delving into a copy yourself!

Now’s our chance to go back in time and right a terrible wrong…

Remember that painful business with Chesney Hawkes keeping James off the No. 1 spot back in 1991? Apparently the BBC do too, as Radio 2 have nominated Sit Down for their shortlist of ‘great tracks’ that didn’t quite make it to Number One back in the day. They want to know which of these No. 2 hits the nation thinks should have been a No. 1, so they can put it right on New Year’s Day.

The winner will be granted an honorary Number 1 award from the Official Chart Company, and announced live on air by Tony Blackburn as they count down the Top 40 Number Twos as voted by their listeners, from 2pm on 1 January 2013. You can cast your vote here, until noon on 10th December.

With the band holed up in a Highland hideaway writing songs for album number 13 (lucky for some?), we bring you exciting news.

It is with great pleasure that we announce our Gathering Sound April tour, with the legendary Echo and the Bunnymen as our very special guests. We will be re-working old songs and revealing some new steps – expect the unexpected and prepare yourself for more passion than fifty shades of grey. – Tim

Join us next April for The Gathering Sound Tour of the UK, with very special guests Echo & The Bunnymen.

13.04   Glasgow SECC (Hall 4)
15.04   Newcastle O2 Academy
16.04   Sheffield O2 Academy
17.04   Bristol Colston Hall
19.04   London O2 Brixton Academy
20.04   London O2 Brixton Academy
22.04   Bournemouth O2 Academy
23.04   Leeds O2 Academy
25.04   Birmingham O2 Academy
26.04   Manchester Arena

If you’re on the wearejames.com mailing list, you should have received an email about the exclusive fan pre-sale last night so check your inbox.

For the less fortunate, the general sale begins at 10am sharp on Friday 23 November via gigsandtours.com and a variety of other ticketing outlets we’ll post on the live page prior to the sale commencing.

Standard general admission tickets will be priced at £36 for all shows bar London, with Brixton Academy slightly more at £38. The price of seated tickets may vary – please check with the venue box office or ticketing outlets for specifics.

We’ll also be offering the perennially popular VIP Soundcheck tickets once again.  These too will be on sale to all this Friday and will be priced at £30 more than a standard ticket. For London this comes to £68, all other dates will be £66.

Our unique VIP experience includes access to the band’s soundcheck prior to the show (time to be announced nearer the day – but think late afternoon/early evening) which will include a minimum of three songs, followed by a short Q&A session with the band. For general admission shows you will be eligible for priority early entry to the venue, as well as access to the merch stall for an uncrowded shopping experience prior to the show. You’ll also receive a souvenir VIP laminate to take home, and a special piece of merchandise.

Hope to see you all there!

Just a quick heads up that there’s exciting news coming very soon.  Keep an eye on your inbox (if you’re not on our mailing list, now would be a good time to sign up!), or take a peek at Larry’s Twitter where he’s already let the cat out of the bag to give you as much notice as possible.

There have been some interesting developments off the back of the band’s recent performance at Rock In Rio – Lisbon.

Over the weekend, the 1998 greatest hits compilation ‘The Best of James’ shot to the top of the iTunes Portugal chart and is continuing to hold onto the #1 spot.

And following on from his heartfelt  onstage rant and expression of solidarity with the people of Portugal – which has seen him affectionately labelled as an ‘agitator’ by the local press – Saul Davies has been invited to appear on top late night talk show 5 Para a Meia-Noite tonight. The show airs live on RTP 1 at 12:40am.

The band’s full set in Lisbon on Sunday will be streamed LIVE on the Rock In Rio YouTube channel.  Additionally, those in Portugal can watch on cable television channel SIC Radical or tune in to local radio station RFM for an audio-only broadcast.

James will be on stage from 8:30-9:30pm local time. (Same time in the UK)

UPDATE: Three songs from the performance have now been added to the Rock In Rio YouTube archives for your viewing enjoyment: Johnny Yen, Out To Get You, and Sit Down.

Coachella will be streaming video of the band’s whole set live on their YouTube channel today. Tune in to Coachella Live from 3:50pm PST, which is 11:50pm UK time, to join us.

Update 14/4: Three tracks – Stutter, Out To Get You, and Laid – from the superb HD stream have now been archived on the Coachella YouTube channel. Well worth a watch.

Twitter folk, please extend a warm welcome to our own Larry Gott, who has joined your ranks today. He’s promised to dish the dirt in real time from the James tour bus over the coming weeks. Follow @larryontour and @realtimbooth for some insight into life on the road as they wind their way down the coast, across the desert, and make for the border!

To celebrate the start of the mini tour of the Americas which kicks off at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver tonight, we have a topical and fairly rare track to share with you. This is ‘America’, released in 1993 as a b-side to ‘Sometimes’. Enjoy.