News

We thought it would be nice to give you a chance to do something special this Christmastime, so due to popular demand in response to a similar package introduced for the US tour, the band have decided to offer a limited number of VIP upgrades for The Night Before The Morning After Tour of the UK next month.

The VIP package will be available as a separate upgrade for ticket holders; the offer is open to anyone with a valid ticket, regardless of which agency they were (or are) purchased from. It will cost £20 per person/ticket, and entitles you to the following:

• A unique opportunity to attend the band’s pre-show soundcheck (minimum three songs)
• 15 minute Q & A session with all of the band (questions taken from audience after soundcheck)
• Priority early entry for General Admission shows
• The merch stand will be open early for the VIPs to allow peaceful, uncrowded shopping
• Limited edition VIP souvenir laminate you may take home with you

Please note, to attend the soundcheck you will need to be at the venue from approximately 4:15pm in Manchester, 4:30pm for all other venues.

These upgrades are limited in number and will be available exclusively through our partner, and the general sale begins at 9am this morning on gigsandtours.com.

Bear in mind you must already have tickets, or purchase them separately – Leeds and Brixton are sold out, as is Standing/GA for the Manchester Evening News Arena, but there are still a limited number of tickets for the remainder of the dates, and for seats at Manchester Arena.

If you’ve missed out on tickets for Brixton, the opening night of the tour at the Hammersmith Apollo still has some availability, and will mark the first time James have played this art deco all-seated theatre.

Visit the live page for the full itinerary and a range of ticketing links.  The upgrades are available for all UK shows in December.  If you have your heart set on one of the sold out dates, do keep checking the ticketing sites, as a small number of returns may be released back onto the market shortly.

Hope to see you there.

Availability update: Manchester, Brixton, and Birmingham VIP packages are now sold out – all other dates are still available at time of writing.

We’ve just confirmed a great band from Manchester called Frazer King as support at Leeds Academy on 14th December, and as additional support for Manchester Arena on the 18th, where they’ll be on at 6:50 pm, followed by the Pigeon Detectives. 

They’ve just released a 5-track E.P., Working Towards the Fuhrer, and their sound has been likened to “Tom Waits if he was from Wythenshaw” and “The Beach Boys beating up Take That”, with a touch of Captain Beefheart thrown in for good measure…  They’re not your typical Manchester band and they may surprise you; come down early and check them out.

James played a free afternoon show at the World Cafe in Philadelphia last month which was broadcast live on WXPN and streamed online as part of the ‘Free at Noon’ series.

Tracks from this performance, along with an all new interview, will be featured today on National Public Radio’s World Cafe show which will be broadcast live on stations across America, and streamed online for those of you outside the listening area.

If you’re in the US, you can find your local broadcaster and the time the program will air in your region on the Broadcast Schedule on the NPR site.  Please note, times (and in a few cases the date) do vary from station to station and not simply across time zones,  so if you want to listen on the radio,  you’ll need to select your state on the schedule and check the time for your particular station.

For those of you in the Philadelphia area or listening online, the show will air on WXPN between 2 – 4pm local (Eastern Standard) time, which is 7 – 9pm in the UK.  If you miss the live broadcast they’ll be adding the program to the archives on the site later in the day.

We are so sorry to report that the show scheduled for tonight at Auditorio Banamex in Monterrey, Mexico, has been cancelled.  Sincere apologies to all James fans who were planning to attend, the band were very much looking forward to their first show in Monterrey.  They will be back.

The following press release was issued today by the local promoter Ocesa:

CONCERTIO DE JAMES CACELADO DEBíO A ENFERMEDAD – EL EVENTO ESTABA PROGRAMADO PARA EL 19 DE OCTUBRE EN EL AUDITORIO BANAMEX DE MONTERREY

La banda James ha anunciado triestsmente hoy que su concierto progrmado para el 19 octubre en Monterrey, Nuevo León, deberá ser cancelado debio a enfermedad de dos miembros de la banda.

Tras una exitosa lista 19 conciertos por Estados Unidos en las últimas tres semanas, la salud de dos miembros de la banda empeoró tras su energética presentación en la Ciudad de México en el Festival Corona Capital (mismo que ya consideran como una de sus mejores apariciones en festival en muchos anos) y se agravó anoche en Guadalajara donde algunos problemas técnicos retrasaron la hora de presentación.

La banda está tremendamente desilusionada de no poder tocar en Monterrey, que serí­a la última parada de esta gira.  Sobre todo al tomar la excepcional bienvenida que han recibido del público mexicano hasta ahora.  Sin embargo han prometido regresar y snsí­an tocar Monterrey una vez que regresen a México, en un futuro no muy lejano.

El reembolso de los boletos se hará en los puntos de venta donde fueron adquiridos a partir del viernes 22 de octubre a las 11:00am. Los que compraron con tarjeta de crédito recibirán el reembolso de manera automática.

Mayores informes en www.ticketmaster.com.mx, o OCESA 55-236296900.

The band will be performing live on air in the KEXP studio in Seattle today, at 12:30pm Pacific time / 8:30pm in the UK.

If you’re in the area, tune in to 90.3 FM, or you can listen online anywhere in the world through the KEXP website.

It will be archived on the site, so you can listen later on if you miss the live broadcast.

Update:  The full session is now available to listen to in the KEXP archive.

As you may know, Saul manages the Glasgow based band Unkle Bob, who supported James on the last US tour as well as the Mirrorball tour in April of this year.  They’ve been hard at work on the follow up to their 2006 debut Sugar & Spite and are finally set to release their second studio album, Shockwaves, which will be in stores this Monday.

The album was produced by Saul and Ken Nelson (Gomez, Coldplay, Kings of Convenience), and the lead single, In My Head, features Mr. Davies himself on drums.  You can check out the video on YouTube, and download the single for free from their website unklebob.com.

The Morning After The Night Before Tour of North America kicked off in a typically celebratory manner in Florida this week, to coincide with the release of the new double album in the US. The next four weeks will see the band travel the length and breadth of the country, popping their head round Canada’s door along the way, and winding up in Mexico with the Corona Capital Festival and a couple of headline shows.

The wearejames.com forum is abuzz with reports, reviews, and setlists – please feel free to add your own. And you can keep up with all the goings on from the band’s perspective on the blog, where Larry’s delightful photographs from the tour are coming in as and when technology allows, complimented by our roving diarist Juliet’s daily reports from the field. Tim has also begun to tweet on the tour; you can follow him as he twitters his way across the land of plenty.

There are still tickets available for many of the US dates, see the live page for the full itinerary and ticketing links.  N.B. A few of the shows are not available through Ticketmaster (namely D.C., Detroit, and Salt Lake City), however you’ll find up to date links for all venues here on the site.

Facebook users, don’t forget to become a fan of the band’s page if you want to be sure to get all the late-breaking news, and if you sign up via the link in the previous news post (see below) you’ll be able to claim your free MP3 of a cracking live version of ‘Born of Frustration’ from the very limited edition Live in 2008 album.

Remember the Live in 2008 album that was so hard to get hold of?  Well if you weren’t one of the lucky 5000, now’s your chance to download one of the songs – Born of Frustration – in return for becoming a fan on Facebook (and hopefully helping us spread the word too, though that is optional).  Thanking you in advance…

The 2CD set ‘The Morning After The Night Before’ hits the shelves in the USA today.  You can order your copy online from Amazon.com, download it from iTunes (with exclusive bonus track All My Letters), or do it the old fashioned way with a trip to your local record shop.

The North American begins in just under a week –  there are still tickets available for many of the shows, check the Live page for the full itinerary and ticketing links.  Ed Harcourt is supporting for all dates so it’s worth getting there early for the full evening’s entertainment.

Tune in to 6 Music to catch tracks from the new album played throughout the day, as they have chosen it as their Album of the Day.  Shaun Keaveny kicked this off with a play of Lookawayearlier this morning on his breakfast show, and various tracks will be featured as the day goes on.

For those who missed the band’s live session on Absolute Radio last night, which included a stunning rendition of Dust Motes, the show is now available to listen to or download from Geoff Lloyd’s Hometime Podcast page.   There will also be video footage up on their site later in the day.