News

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Update 14/4: Three tracks – Stutter, Out To Get You, and Laid – from the superb HD stream have now been archived on the Coachella YouTube channel.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

The Sound Island Festival is a mid-size ’boutique’ festival held within the lush grounds of the 250 acre Quex Park, on the Isle of Thanet in Kent. James will be headlining on Saturday 28th of July, supported by Echo & The Bunnymen, Cast, Inspiral Carpets and more.

The festival bills itself as a regional and easily accessible option for “the more discerning concert goer who prefers their music with a little more space, a little less crowd and a lot less hassle”. The event aims to provide an intimate festival experience in attractive and comfortable surroundings. There is no camping on site and admission is by day ticket only – they suggest you may wish to make a long weekend of it by staying in one of the surrounding resorts of Broadstairs, Margate or Ramsgate.

Day tickets are priced at a very reasonable £35 and on sale now at gigantic.com.

At last we have some newsworthy news to relay on the much anticipated and chronically delayed box set, The Gathering Sound.

The original developer finally admitted defeat and Universal have called in the experts. The USB interface is now in the hands of a very experienced company that specialises in the production of music USBs, and their development team is in the process of rebuilding it correctly.

We feel confident that with them at the helm there should be no further insurmountable problems, in which case it should be safe for Universal to set a new release date of 16 July 2012.

Thanks for bearing with us throughout this extremely frustrating debacle. Let’s hope you agree it was worth the wait.

Jim and Larry will be catching up with a couple of old band pals on the Radcliffe and Maconie show on BBC Radio 6 Music tomorrow afternoon, from about 2:30pm.

You can text in to the show (during showtimes) on 64046, email radcliffe.maconie@bbc.co.uk, or tweet them at @bbcradmac.

Update: If you missed the broadcast, you can ‘Listen Again’ on the iPlayer for the next seven days. It’s quite a lengthy interview, and begins about an hour and a half into the show.

Formerly known as the Stockton Riverside Fringe Festival, the rechristened Stockton Weekender music and comedy festival kicks off on the banks of the River Tees on Friday 3 August, with James closing the show on Sunday the 5th.

Early Bird tickets offer phenomenally good value, priced at just £15 for the day, £25 for the weekend (Saturday/Sunday), and £45 for weekend plus camping – and parents take note, under-14s are free (2 per paying adult). On 1 May the prices increase by a fiver, but it remains an exceptionally affordable way to get your James festie fix this summer.

Tickets are available online, over the phone (tel. 01642 606 525 – no transaction fee) or if you’re local you can pick them up from the box office at Green Dragon Studios.

For more information on the event and line up as it takes shape, please visit the festival website.

The band are very excited about their first trip to Argentina and Brazil, and we can now reveal the venues for these two dates – Cine Joia in São Paulo on Monday 30 April, and the lovely art deco Teatro Gran Rex in Buenos Aires on Wednesday 2 May.

The fan pre-sale for these includes VIP Soundcheck tickets, and commences at 10am (local time) this Thursday 8 March, through our American ticketing partner Concertmaps. Please note that prices are in US Dollars, and all ‘Will Call’ tickets must be collected from the venue box office with valid photo I.D. such as driving licence or passport.

Update 9/3: Unfortunately there has been a delay in the allocation of tickets for the Buenos Aires pre-sale, and the start time will have to be pushed back accordingly.  The sale will now begin at 9pm local time this evening.