Saul Davies, multi instrumentalist with Manchester band, James chats with Kevin Cooper about the effect that Brexit has had on the music industry, plenty of ginger, carrot and broccoli abuse on their live touring rider, their latest album release Nothing But Love…The Definitive Best Of James, and their 2026 Love Is The Answer headline tour.

Saul Davies (seen here third from the right) is a British musician, best known as a member of the rock band James. He is a multi instrumentalist whose primary instruments are the violin, guitar and percussion.

He joined James in 1989 after the bands guitarist, Larry Gott, saw him playing the violin. He was invited to join them in the rehearsal room when he immediately impressed the other band members. The rest they say is history.

Davies ended up remaining with the band throughout the 1990’s and his creative input became more prominent towards the end of the decade.

Following the departure in 2001 of the bands lead singer Tim Booth, the band became inactive. They reformed in 2007, and Davies was confirmed as part of the reformed line-up and was a band member for their reunion tour in April 2007. Since being reunited the band have released a further seven albums making a total of eighteen.

James has earned themselves a reputation as a live act and have built a solid fan base. In 2025 they released Nothing But Love, a three disc career spanning box set.

Whilst busy rehearsing for their headline tour, Saul took some time out to have a chat with Kevin Cooper and this is what he had to say.

Hi Saul, how are you?

I’m very well, thanks for asking Kevin, but more to the point how are you doing?

Well, I could moan but no one would listen (laughter).

(Laughter) I know that feeling very well believe me (laughter).

Swiftly moving on (laughter) let me thank you for taking the time to speak to me today.

That’s not a problem, it’s cool. Thank you for having me.

I last saw James four years ago now at the Royal Concert Hall here in Nottingham. You and I had a chat before the start of the tour.

That’s right, I remember. It’s always nice whenever we get to play up there in Nottingham; the Royal Concert Hall really is a beautiful and amazing venue. Obviously, this one is going to be a bit different, going into the Arena (laughter).

I will warn you that it can be bloody cold in the Arena (laughter).

Is it really? That’s ridiculous (laughter). How can it be cold in there, don’t they turn the fucking heating on (laughter).

What makes it so cold is that you are actually sitting on top of the ice rink.

Is that what it is?

Half of the audience are virtually sitting on top of the ice.

Perhaps we should do a winter woolly to sell in the merch stand just for a laugh (laughter).

I remember the time that Tim (Booth) took ill just before the show here in Nottingham, and you had to cancel.

That’s right; I actually think that Nottingham is the venue that we have cancelled the most because of illness. Thanks for that, I now have to tell you that I have developed a sense of trepidation, and you are telling me that it is fucking freezing in there as well.

Just to make matters worse, the dressing rooms are actually colder than the Arena (laughter).

Are they? We are old men; we demand fucking heat (laughter).

I told Suggs before Madness came to town and he said, ‘fuck that I’m not coming’ (laughter).

(Laughter) we will definitely turn up, although we will most probably cancel (laughter).

Anyway, down to business and just how is life treating you at this moment in time?

It’s good, yes, and I think that we are all, all the members of the band, are all in a good headspace. We are very much looking forward to what is coming up. We have all taken a bit of a break after a very big year last year. I think by and large last year was viewed by all as a great success. It has been cool to have a bit of a break, but it’s always nice whenever we are all back together.

Now a little bird tells me that you are about to start writing for a new studio album. Is that right?

Just who the fuck have you been speaking to (laughter). Yes, you are quite correct; four of us are getting ready to start writing what will be the final writing session which I suspect will be our new studio album.

And you have had some good news this week, haven’t you?

Yes, we have, we really have. This week, our latest single has been given the lofty status of being Radio 2’s record of the week and was put onto their A-List. We really do have some good stuff coming up. We are playing Radio 2’s Piano Room together with a few acoustic things to do so we are busy; we are starting up once again. It was a hugely gratifying year last year, which I feel has given the band the momentum as we head into 2026. It won’t just be this year; there will also be things happening next year in 2027.

So, everything is good, I feel that we are all in good form with each other, and I don’t sense that there is any disaster waiting just around the corner. It has often been the case that when our band has had good moments, publicly good moments, when we go out into the half-light of the world, in order to see if anyone likes us, when things have been going well in that way, we tend to mess it up in one way or another (laughter). However, this time I am not feeling like we are as vulnerable as we have been in the past. Having said that, something awful will most probably happen this afternoon (laughter).

Just remember to try and avoid hyperthermia when you get to the Motorpoint Arena here in Nottingham (laughter).

(Laughter) fuck that, I’m bringing some fingerless gloves with me.

We are going to talk about the forthcoming tour but first, can I take you back to the 12thof April 2024 and the release of your eighteenth studio album Yummy?

Yes, of course you can, let’s go for it.

Were you pleased with the fan’s reaction to the album?

Yes, I was, very much so. We all know don’t we, those of us who work within the music industry, one way or another, you don’t have to sell the number of records that you did back in the day in order to get to number one. Nevertheless, we got a number one album which I personally feel is remarkable. It is a testament to the record; it is a good record, and it’s testament I think to the relationship that we have with our fans as well, I think. Also, I have to say as well, we have now got good people around us who help us. It’s not very sexy, it’s not very interesting to talk about that stuff but it is actually true.

With regard to that, I understand that you have had a change of management recently.

(Laughter) just who is that ‘little bird’ that you have been speaking to (laughter). Yes, that’s perfectly correct. Our label On Going really is super supportive of what we do. They allow us a totally free range and allow us to do whatever we want in the studio which is amazing. That is exactly how it should be. These people are proper music people; in fact, we are surrounded by really good music people and that is really important. It is slightly old school in some ways but that is what we need, as we are an old school band in many ways.

We are in some ways but Yummy doesn’t sound like it simply because whenever we are in the studio we are not but whenever we play live, we really are a throwback. We get up there, we make a fucking racket, half of it is improvised, we put smiles on people’s faces, they buy a t-shirt or they don’t, and they go home (laughter). It’s really dead simple. But the record, the record could be anything in a sense; I mean where do you end up? You have got a bag of tunes that you have written, and where they might end up is anybody’s guess. Having said all of that I feel that Yummy is a good one, I like it.

You have mentioned that you are writing for a new studio album. Do you have a release date as yet?

Oh, I don’t know yet, we have got to make it (laughter). What I will say is that we will get some recording time this year, but I expect that the album will be released sometime next year. We have a documentary coming out on Netflix later on in the year so as I said earlier, there really is a lot going on which generally sheds a really good light on the band. I think that we as a band have changed quite a lot, over the last four or five years. The girls came and joined us a little before that, both Debbie (Knox-Hewson) and Chloë (Alper) in their own brilliant ways found a way to really add to what it is that we are doing. We really have changed a lot.

We, as a collective, have never suffered from a lack of confidence; it is almost like there is a joy that we share with each other whenever we go on stage. We actually and genuinely look forward to it now. People often ask me, “do you ever get nervous” and a little bit shamefully I say, “no” because I really do like it (laughter). As I alluded to a little earlier anything can come along at any point and deflect people away from what it is that they want to do. We lost a hell of a lot of stuff that we were doing, and we had to pick it up and do it all over again, and fortunately we have been in a position to reschedule everything again.

Just going into December, the whole band got sick, and that’s no joke as you get older. Just when you think that everything is swimmingly beautiful, is often the time that things will go array (laughter). I think that the tendency we have got for courting disaster, is certainly offset a little bit I think nowadays by the fact that we are very tight with each other. Also, we all share a very heathy vision and collective vision of just what we think that James is at the moment. In a sense we always have but at the moment I think I sense a very strong adherence to what we think James is because we are a band of principles in some ways as well.

Without wanting to speak high and mighty about that, music does come along with a message sometimes, and we are all very committed to that. We are also very committed to some core principles upon which we base our music; don’t over rehearse, keep things fresh, enjoy the mistakes, don’t get freaked out when things go wrong, the best part of a night will happen surely just after everything is a disaster (laughter). What you have to remember is that James really is an authentic band.

Coming up to date, Nothing But Love…The Definitive Best Of James, I have got the three CD version which equals fifty-eight tracks. Just how long did it take you to whittle them down until you reached those fifty-eight tracks?

Oh God there were a lot of arguments I can tell you (laughter). It is a really nice collection of stuff, and I think that for anyone who comes to James new, fresh through Yummy and thinks, ‘oh I’m going to look further into James’ then Nothing But Love really is a great introduction. I think that the way it is presented is beautiful, especially the vinyl, that really is a great thing for people to have. I have to tell you that it was a really expensive thing for us to put together, so it is not without cost, which is an absolute shame but that’s the way it is.

It’s definitive in the sense that we have done it, but it can’t be definitive simply because we are still making new music and I think that there are some significant catalogue songs that didn’t make it on there (laughter). I feel that this collection is a really good addition to our catalogue of albums that we have released, and I have to say that I think that the artwork is especially appealing. It looks really fresh to me and the music really does sound good. You have got a span there of almost forty-five years of music, and it sounds bloody good even the earlier stuff.

I think that there is a lot of value in the fact that this collection exists. Of course, it ends up taking the form of a greatest hits collection. There are a lot of songs on there that everybody knows; singles and stuff, but I don’t think that there is any shame in that either. I feel that it appeals to the kind of people who buy these kind of records thinking, ‘oh yes, that will be cool as I will get everything in the one place’ but you have to remember the people who have been with us for a generation or two (laughter), those big songs have in a lot of cases marked big moments in those people’s lives and because of that, those songs become hugely important to people and I personally think that is a very important and remarkable thing to be involved in.

Taking on board the ever-increasing back catalogue of work that you have at your disposal, just how difficult is it for you to put a setlist together for the forthcoming tour?

I have to be totally honest with you and say that it is honestly really difficult. You have a lot of competing ideas on that very subject but, at the end of the day the shows that we will be playing in April, Doves will be on stage for an hour and then we will be playing for two hours which for us is a really good amount of time. So, we, the band members who are involved with making the setlist should be able to find a really nice balance between what we think that people want to hear and what we think we should play and I think that is okay. Every night we change things around a little bit, night by night, so throughout a tour we will get to play pretty much everything that we have rehearsed and a few other things (laughter).

We also like to try out new things at the soundcheck as we move along throughout the tour. I think that one of the things that we, as a band were all reminded of was at the back end of last year in September and October, we did a tour of America and we were the only band on stage, and as such we played two sets; we played our 1993 album Laid interspersed with a few other tracks so we were actually onstage a very long time (laughter). And I have to say that I felt that it showed us at our very best. The longer that we got to play, the more we were able to gel as a band, which was great. The problem with playing festivals, which we often do, is that we find it limiting because we never get to play a full set. So, this tour in April, for me is a good one. We have given ourselves two hours to play and I personally feel that we should be able to play a pretty good set in that time.

You have mentioned the forthcoming tour, Love Is The Answer; are you looking forward to being back out on the road?

Yes, I am, massively. I am genuinely happy with the choice of venues that we have chosen to play, what is especially gratifying to me personally is the fact that we haven’t played Nottingham for a while, so we are going to be putting on a big show up there in Nottingham. So that will be great that we are going to be doing that. It is very seldom on a UK tour that we get to play Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds together. However, on this tour we are going to play all of those three cities which is hugely gratifying to me. I really do love playing in Liverpool and it often loses out a little bit as we are going to be playing Manchester, and if we are playing Manchester then we have to play Leeds (laughter) so I think that for us to play all three cities really is great. So, in answer to your question, I truly am buzzing to get back out there.

I understand that due to demand, you have increased the size of your VIP meet and greet?

I would love to know where you are getting your information from (laughter). Yes, that’s right, we are. As you know we do the VIP soundcheck things, and this time we’ve decided that seeing as there is a lot more demand for that which far outweighs the amount of tickets that we had put up for sale, usually somewhere between 80 and 100 tickets depending on the size of the venue. However this time we thought ‘fuck it, a lot of people actually want to go’ so we have increased that side of things. For a lot of us that really is our favourite part of the day where we get to play in front of, it might be 100 people, it might be 200 people, whatever it is we actually play three songs, songs which might be in the set, songs that might not be in the set (laughter).

Also, it’s great to speak to people as well, because people bring along with them some most unbelievable stories. We will do a Q&A and get to chat to people. It is quite remarkable some of the things that people tell you, and they are happy to tell you in front of their fellow fans. It was at one of these events that I became aware of a very powerful James community. They support one another in their love of James which I find really cool. The most significant part of that part of the day is that it gets us ready for the gig having properly played three songs, in an Arena, with a light show.

Okay, there is nobody there but there are enough people there to ensure that the energy level within the Arena goes up significantly and there is an adrenalin buzz and it is one of the things that guarantees that when we actually hit the stage at 9 o’clock or whatever it is, it guarantees that we are all up for it. It means that we are all involved in a long day but what a privilege it is for us to be able to do it. That genuinely is how I feel about it.

Do you still get a buzz out of touring or has it now become a necessary evil?

No, not at all, I love it, I really love it. Personally, I don’t like travelling on the tour bus; I really don’t sleep very well on a tour bus. I like to have some time away from everybody. I think that we are all better served like that; 24 hours being with each other is insane (laughter). For me that really is too abnormal. I like getting off stage, having a salad and jumping into my car and driving halfway to the next gig. I usually find myself in a small hotel in the middle of nowhereand go for a run in the morning, that’s what I tend to do (laughter).

I will go for a run first thing in the morning, get into my car and drive the remaining hour or two to the venue for the next gig. That’s my day and I love it. I genuinely feel like some weird travelling salesman, but I love it (laughter). What a job to do. When you are a kid and someone says to you, “what do you want to be when you grow up” and you reply, “a racing car driver” No one ever says that they want to work on the bins do they (laughter).

On the subject of bins, didn’t you recently have what we will call an encounter with one of your bins?

(Laughter) just where the hell are you getting your information from (laughter). I recently leant over my bin a little too far and I actually found myself falling into my bin outside my house up here in the North of Scotland. (laughter). I actually managed to crack a couple of ribs. I am sharing that snippet to the world through you as an admission of old fartism (laughter). However, all was not in vain as I did actually manage to get the last bag out of the bin.

Going back to the original point I was trying to make, whenever someone asked you, “what do you want to be when you grow up” whenever you replied, “I want to be a pop star” or “I want to be a musician” then what you found was that people would beat that idiocy out of you by telling you that you should “get yourself a proper job, you can’t do that” but we all made it (laughter).

Do you ever get the opportunity to have a walk around the cities that you are playing in or is it a case of arrive, soundcheck, gig, onto the next venue and repeat, arrive, soundcheck, gig, onto the next venue?

As you can imagine, that literally depends upon our schedule. There are times when we have been somewhere for a couple of days, in fact on the forthcoming tour I believe that we are staying in a couple of places for three days, so that then gives you the opportunity to get to see the city. When my Achilles is not hurting, I do love to run, and there are times when I will run through a city and I get to know somewhere a little better.

It’s quite funny when I go for a run before a gig and I have to run back to the venue and there is hundreds of James fans parked outside (laughter). Someone will always see me and shout out, “hey up, how are you doing” and I think, ‘oh Christ’ (laughter). I usually shout out, “come on everybody let’s all go for a run together” and that seems to calm everybody down (laughter).

If music hadn’t have worked out for you, did you have a Plan B?

(Laughter) yes, I did and I was going to be a very bad comedian.

And just how far did you look into that?

Not too far as I also had that beaten out of me (laughter). I soon got fed up hearing, ‘you’re just not funny’ and seeing the same message written on all of my birthday cards (laughter). That was quite funny actually. Here’s the thing, you are not supposed to laugh at your own jokes. I often say to people, “at least it’s better than nothing”. I really don’t know; I went to university, I did all that, stupidly, like most people did forty odd years ago, but it didn’t get me anywhere did it (laughter). I went to uni and studied law when I thought that I was going to be a lawyer and change the world but once again, that was beaten out of me (laughter).

I should have said that was beaten out of me via boredom (laughter). Actually, I did do a degree in Archaeology and Ancient History at Manchester University where I did manage to achieve a joint honours degree. Maybe that’s the long-lost skill that I bought to the table when we wrote some of the songs in the early days of James (laughter). I really don’t know as when you are young you just fall into stuff don’t you unless you have an unbelievable talent or passion for something. I have always had a talent for music. I have always loved music; it is the one thing that I always did alongside everything else that I did in life.

Having said that, I never thought for a second it was something that I would do that would actually pay the bills and take me around the world; I had no idea. I never thought, like the boys in Oasis, that I was going to be the best thing since sliced bread. They became the biggest band in the world whilst sounding like somebody else (laughter). They are amazing aren’t they? I never suffered from that kind of arrogance; I am using the word arrogance in a good way here, it is a powerful motivator. To return to your original question I would most probably have ended up doing God knows, something really boring no doubt like a teacher (laughter).

I have to tell you that I first became aware of James way back in 1985 when they opened for The Smiths on their Meat Is Murder Tour.

Really, wow, I suppose that a lot of people would have done. That really was a very significant tour. I joined the band as you know in 1989 so unfortunately; I missed that tour as I wasn’t around. For me, it was nice in 2024 when James toured with Johnny Marr across America and it was interesting to hear him talk about ‘what that lot were like’ (laughter). Sadly Gavan (Whelan) the drummer is no longer with us, and James (Lawrence “Larry” Gott) left some while ago now.

Obviously Jim (Glennie) and Tim (Booth) are still with us, very much so, and it was interesting thinking about the fact that back in 1985 ‘that lot’ had been together for a while even then. It’s quite remarkable really. I personally feel that opening for The Smiths back then did our band a huge service. Morrissey and Johnny had simply come across James and thought that it was marvellous. I honestly believe that both Johnny and Morrissey were on personal missions to take James out to the world. Can you remember which venue you saw them at?

It was at the Royal Concert Hall here in Nottingham.

Wow, that’s amazing. Do you remember what it was like; do you have a lasting memory of the gig?

It was extremely loud and Johnny’s guitar playing was on point (laughter). Speaking to people after the gig everyone said the same thing, James should have been headlining.

Wow, no! What you have to remember is that at that time The Smiths were at the absolute height of their powers then. If people were saying that after the gig, then that really is amazing.

I have been told that you came across James in rather strange circumstances, is that correct?

(Laughter) I will have to find out who it is that you have been speaking to (laughter). Yes, that is perfectly correct and a rather funny story. The first time that I saw James was at Trafford Park in Manchester. Back in 1986 I could hear music in the distance and I thought, ‘what’s going on’ so I clambered over the fence, walked across the park, and I saw these eight loons playing and it turned out that it was James. I managed to catch about half of the set and I thought to myself, ‘well that was interesting’ and three years later I was in the fucking band (laughter).

At that time I really was literally a poverty stricken student and I remember very clearly and I do quite often joke with the rest of the band about this. I realised that if I picked up all of the bottles that were on the grass, whilst Simply Red were headlining, opening their set with Money’s Too Tight (To Mention) and also finishing the set with Money’s Too Tight (To Mention) which strengthens your earlier point about bands not having enough material of their own and they have to do a few covers. As you know that isn’t a Simply Red song it’s a cover of The Valentine Brothers (hysterical laughter). I went back to my flat and got a handful of black plastic bags. I filled these with empty bottles, took them to the corner shop, and got all of the money back (laughter).

And just how did your very first meeting with James work out?

I finally got to meet them in late February 1989 but at the point I didn’t realise that it was them whom I had seen back in 1986 (laughter). It eventually dawned on me and I said, “hang on a minute, I have seen you nutters before back in 1986 at Trafford Park” (laughter). Meeting them was so idiosyncratic and so very different from anything else, it really was very weird (laughter). They had just come out of a cult, they had all been involved in a cult, the whole thing really was mad. What attracted me to them was their total abandonment and desire to be creative and just do stuff really was remarkable. That’s why they wanted me to join them, because I was a fellow traveller down that particular road doing that.

Whenever we talk about the music business we automatically think about Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll so I have to ask, what is currently on your live rider?

Not a lot (laughter). We have finally managed to get rid of the chocolate cake, which was put there by my ex-wife about 25 years ago so let’s get rid of that (laughter). We also managed to get rid of Bombay Mix. I have absolutely no idea who demanded that, but it has finally gone; it’s like eating landfill (laughter). You could use Bombay Mix to fill the holes in the road, what else is it used for? Surely nobody eats that stuff do they, if they do, they must be mad (laughter).

We no longer have any booze on our rider; we have a dry backstage really. There is no alcohol back there. There is a hell of a lot of ginger, carrot and broccoli abuse (laughter). We really are a healthy bunch, and to be honest with you there isn’t really any Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll anymore. You have to remember that we are all far too old now (laughter). Well, there are certainly no Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll as far as I am concerned (laughter).

As a touring band, just how has Brexit affected you?

It really is not good at all, no, no. Brexit makes things much more difficult, it makes things much more expensive, and also it flies in the face of what the artistic community has always done, to communicate as a global entity, a live music industry. You will have noticed, no doubt, that the number of American artists coming over to the UK is now ever diminishing and that is purely down to the increase in costs since Brexit. It is all down to the cost rather than the practicality of making it happen. To be totally blunt with you, Brexit is a balls up.

On that note Saul let me once again thank you for taking the time to speak to me, it’s been enlightening. I will see you at the Motorpoint Arena here in Nottingham on Tuesday 14th April as I will be photographing and review the show.

Shit, I’d better have a shave then (laughter). It’s been really nice speaking to you again Kevin. Let’s see if we can grab a moment before the gig in Nottingham.

That would be fantastic and don’t forget to bring a woolly cardigan with you (laughter).

Fuck that I am going to buy a pair of fingerless gloves or better still a heater (laughter). See you in Nottingham and thanks for all of your help.

James Glennie, (seen here second from the right), bassist and founder member of English rock band James, chats with Kevin Cooper about playing with Peter Hook and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, what is on James’ rider, their latest album Be Opened By The Wonderful and their 2023 tour of the UK.

Jim Glennie is best known for being the bassist in English rock band James. He is the bands longest serving member, having been there from the first line-up through to the present day and is now the only remaining original member.

The band was formed in 1982 in Manchester when guitarist Paul Gilbertson persuaded Glennie to buy a bass guitar and form a band with him. They played a string of gigs under the names Venereal And The Diseases and Volume Distortion before settling on Model Team International, shortened to Model Team.

Vocalists and other musicians drifted rapidly in and out of their line up until Tim Booth joined as lead singer. In 1982 the band renamed themselves James, after Glennie. Following the departure of Booth in 2001, the band became inactive, although in 2007 they reunited.

In 1991 the band won the Silver Clef Award for Best Newcomer and in 2014 Best Animation at the UK Music Video Awards.

Since 1986 James have released seventeen albums, including their latest, Be Opened By The Wonderful.

Whilst preparing for their tour of the UK, Jim Glennie took some time out to have a chat with Kevin Cooper and this is what he had to say.

Good morning Jim, how are you today?

I’m really good thanks Kevin. How are you doing?

I’m very well thanks for asking, and before we move on let me firstly thank you for taking the time to speak to me today.

No problem, thanks for having me.

And just how is life treating you at this moment in time?

Life is good. I’m at home at the moment, but not for much longer (laughter). So, I’m currently at home, which is always nice; busy but good.

I have to tell you that you and I last spoke on 24^th January 2016, just prior to the release of The Girl At The End Of The World.

Wow, that really does seem like a heck of a long time ago now, doesn’t it (laughter).

Before we move on to the latest album, I have to ask you were you happy with how that album was received?

Yes, I was, absolutely. I have to be totally honest with you and say that we were very lucky with that album. It was at that time that the pandemic hit us really hard and so we were all forced to go into lockdown which for most bands and most artists it was a case of shutting up shop and waiting but fortunately we had finished writing the songs before everything went into lockdown mode. So, all that we had to do then was basically producing the album. So we were very lucky compared to most people because we, purely by luck, had the songs written and we were ready to go pretty much. For us to be able to release something, to be able to keep busy, keep working, we couldn’t play live obviously, which was a big blow, but yes, we were really pleased with the album, and we were very happy with how it was received.

Coming right up to date, we have your latest album Be Opened By The Wonderful and I have to say that I have been playing it to death; I love it.

(Laughter) that’s good, that is really great to hear. I really am so glad to hear that.

Are you and the band happy with it?

Very much so, it felt like finished business to us really. We had previously done an orchestra tour back in 2011 but for some stupid reason we didn’t record it (laughter). So, this time round instead of recording the tour, we thought that we would record songs before hand and release an album at the end of the tour. At the time, it seemed like a really good idea. It meant that there was a lot of work in a short space of time, but it really did seem like a good idea. The biggest problem really that we were faced with was trying to condense so many songs. I think that the double CD has twenty-one songs, but when we play them live there are thirty-six (laughter)

That was the hardest part because we have so many sodding songs, and they are all great (laughter). That was the initial problem, choosing what songs we didn’t put onto the album or set list. But we left a lot of that to Joe Duddell. If he had a vision for something we tended to go along with him, and we ended up with a weird mixture of hits, album tracks and rarities which spanned the full gambit really, from the early stuff right up to the latest record.

At this point I would be saying to you I have got this many go to tracks, but I was writing as I was listening to the album and I have written, The Lake, She’s A Star, Sometimes, Were Gonna Miss You, Sit Down, Look Away, Moving On, and at that point I thought, ‘I’m giving this up as a bad job’ (laughter).

(Hysterical laughter) I think that one of the joys about doing this whole experience; you are obviously listening to your own songs being re-interpreted, which really is an amazing experience. There is also that slight sense of separation. Ordinarily, when we go on stage, we are the only people on stage, that’s it; it is up to us what happens. However, this time around it is not quite like that (laughter). There are some songs that I don’t even play on; She’s A Star and Sit Down, I don’t play on those; I get to just sit there and watch. I find myself sitting on the side of the stage just watching it and I have to say that I find something magical about that. I don’t need to play it, I don’t need to perform it, I just listen.

There are a lot of other songs that I do play on, but maybe not for half of the song. There are quite a few songs where my contribution is minimal. And again, for me, it is just about sitting back and enjoying the experience, which I have to say, is an experience that we, as band members, don’t ordinarily get. This time around the whole experience is about the orchestra, the choir, and the songs. Yes, we might have roles to play at times; we might have to contribute, but inherently the show is all about the orchestra, the choir and the songs and I think that is such a different experience for us, it really is. It really is very special.

Now please do correct me if I am wrong but does the title of the album come from track three on your 1997 album, Whiplash, which is Waltzing Along?

(Hysterical laughter) just where do you get all of this information from (laughter). Yes, you are totally correct, the title was taken from a line in Waltzing Along, which, in a typical James style, isn’t on the album (laughter). But it will most definitely be on the next one (laughter). We had lots of discussions over lots of titles for the album; there were lots of suggestions and ideas being bandied about, which would hang around for a few days and then they would simply slip off the sheet. But then when this came along, we all sort of liked it. It is a lyric that we like anyway because we have always felt that it was positive, and it reflects that sense of positivity.

What I feel that this album gives you in a way, and we hope that the tour also gives you, is a joyous feeling. There is a hell of a lot of emotions both on the record and also when we play the songs live. I personally feel that there is something about hearing the sound of an orchestra which is terribly emotive. But when you bring the singers in as well then things just take off. And I have to say that is exactly what we want, especially at this moment in time because it really is a miserable old time out there if you are not really careful, so we are trying to somehow counter that in people’s lives to give them a positive experience and something that can raise their spirits because we have been through a lot of problems recently.

So just who’s idea was it; who is the man that you all want to shoot?

(Laughter) well to be totally honest with you, I think that because it was coming up to our fortieth anniversary, that was the main reason behind all of this. We all really did want to at some point film it and also make a proper recording of it because we didn’t do that back in 2011. We all knew that at some point we would want to do it again. Since 2011, the years have ticked by so much so that I really can’t believe that it was in fact 2011 when we did this the last time. Then, as the fortieth anniversary was upon us we all thought that this time around we really did need to do something special, and some bright spark said, “okay why don’t we record an album with the orchestra and take it out on the road” (laughter).

Our Management, God bless them, then had the idea of recording the live album and issuing it after the tour, which meant that instead of us being ready for April and May, we had to be ready the previous October. So, as you can imagine, we had three whole weeks of panic, getting the songs ready for us to go into the Blueprint Studios in Manchester for three days to record it (laughter). We recorded it all live; the band playing along with the orchestra, and we only allowed ourselves three run-throughs per song.

The first run-through was the rehearsal, the other two run-throughs were takes, and that was it, you then moved onto the next song (laughter). There were quite a few songs that we dropped simply because we didn’t have the space to put them onto the vinyl or the CD. We actually recorded twenty-six songs in total, and I have to say that somehow it all came together, and it really did work. We did go into a third day of recording where we all split up into different parts of the building, where we were recording lead vocals over here, we were recording bits over there, which really was exciting.

It was like a production line, and we really did take over the building (laughter). The amazing thing is that we somehow managed to do it, although goodness knows just how we managed to keep it all together. It really was amazing just how Joe Duddell managed to keep it all together. Everything was flowing relatively smoothly, we were uninterrupted, and we managed to get everything done on schedule. Joe really did do an amazing job.

I have to ask, was anyone against the idea?

I can’t say that anyone was against it, but what I will say is that the recording of the album was a curve ball because that suddenly condensed a huge amount of work into such a short space of time. I feel that if someone had mentioned that to us before we had already committed ourselves to the tour, I think that it would have been a very different reaction, but we had already booked the tour so it was a case of you either record the album now and it comes out or you don’t record the album now, it’s your choice (laughter).

I personally feel that it was a great idea, but we should have been given more time (laughter). It was really good fun, but it really was stressful. Having said that, I would take that every day of the week, it really was an amazing experience but there was no wiggle room if you made a mistake. With only having time for one run-through, if you did make a mistake, God, the balloon really did go up (laughter).

Who did the orchestration?

That, I’m pleased to say, was also down to Joe. He has worked with us before; he has also worked with Elbow, he has done New Order, and it was a case of, ‘if you want someone in the world of Rock and Roll who does orchestration, then you go to Joe’. His background, although he is classically trained, he still plays drums in an Indie band; so, he bridges two worlds very nicely because that is the challenge because there are two very different ways of working. The biggest problem for Joe is getting rid of the orchestra’s rigidity, to some degree, and also from our perspective, injecting a bit more discipline into the way that we work. I have to honestly say that Joe has found a happy medium that gets the best from both parties.

Do you have a favourite track on the album?

I have to say that, for me, Sometimes takes some beating I must admit. I have to admit that I find that track really moving. Plus, there are some surprises on there, songs like Say Something which I feel is an amazing tune, which came out ridiculously well. She’s A Star which has been all over the bloody radio now as we released it as a teaser from the album, and it is being played everywhere which is lovely; I will take that (laughter). I feel that track reflects the album well, its low-key but moving, as is a lot of the record. There are lots of good fun things on there as well plus there are a few curve balls (laughter).

The best way for me to put this is that there are a few exciting bits on the album, a few scary bits, which cover such a broad mixture of the history of the band and our style of songs really. It really is bonkers.

You have mentioned that there were a few songs that you had to leave off the album due to time restraints. Were there any songs that you wanted to put on the album, but you left them off simply because they didn’t work alongside the orchestra?

No, not really. There is a song called Many Faces which we will play live. We did try to record but we couldn’t quite get the song to work. It had this ridiculously huge ending which sounded amazing, but we couldn’t quite get the song to work at the front of it, so we had to basically postpone it, which is a bit of a shame. Don’t get me wrong, we will definitely be playing it on the tour, and hopefully, that will get released.

The songs that didn’t quite make it onto this album, we would like to release at a later date. The songs that we put to one side were more things like songs that were basically the band playing them like they would normally play them but with the orchestra. So, there were things like Frustration, which fell into that category, together with Fred Astaire, which pretty much sounded like the normal band version, but with the orchestra. There is nothing wrong with that, and I would have been very happy for them to have gone onto the album, but we simply didn’t have the space available to us.

The main problem that we were faced with was the vinyl. We very quickly maxed out four sides of vinyl, then we put one extra track onto the CD, but that was the main issue really, physically getting the tracks out there to people and not having the time in which to do it; that was another issue. We just had to drop a couple of tunes in order for us to get the album finished on schedule.

So, we can look forward to a second album with the orchestra?

(Laughter) yes, you certainly can. They will come out at some point. Let me say that the songs that didn’t make it this time around are certainly not forgotten by any stretch of the imagination. We recorded an absolutely banging version of All Because Of You, an amazing version of it but it was kind of like the record but with a massive orchestra and choir. I love it to bits, and it’s finished but we simply didn’t have the space to put it onto the record this time around.

Is this a project that you would like to revisit at a later date?

Yes, most definitely. It’s like we have unfinished business with this project. We have unfinished business because we have a lot of songs recorded that are almost finished. They haven’t been mixed yet, but they have been recorded plus, there are other songs that we would like to do. There are songs that we will be playing on the forthcoming tour that we want to record and release a new album, which I know we will absolutely love by the end of the tour. At this moment in time, I am not quite sure how, and I am not exactly sure when, but I am sure that it in the not-too-distant future there will be another incarnation of this album most definitely.

I personally feel that Chloe’s vocals on Hello really are sublime. Would you agree?

I totally agree with you regarding that, she has done a remarkable job once again. I have to tell you that Chloe (Alper) has been with us for a little while now. Our previous percussionist Ron Yeadon also sang backing vocals with us, but he left the band when his partner had a baby and he felt that it was time that he concentrated on doing other things. So, we were looking for someone to step in and help us out with the backing vocals primarily, someone to shore up what it was that we were already doing and also to help out with the percussion, around the time that Living In Extraordinary Times was released, which was back in 2018.

And, as I am sure that you will know, there are loads of drums and a hell of a lot of percussion on that album, so we really did need another pair of hands. We originally found ourselves working with Chloe’s partner, Debbie (Knox-Hewson) who plays in bands as a drummer, but she also sings as well. So that was like, ‘brilliant, we have now got a drummer and a singer and that is really cool’. Having said that, it’s funny just how life works out here but just at that point, Debbie got offered the chance to go out to Los Angeles playing the drummer in a band as seen in the Netflix Original show, ‘I’m With The Band: Nasty Cherry’ (laughter).

So, Debbie said, “I’m really sorry guys, but I am going to have to go and do this for a period of time, but Chloe would step in” (laughter). We all thought that was a great idea, so we gave her a bit of a test, a bit of a try-out and I have to say that she really was great. She really did just slip into the band, and everything worked out great. Debbie then finished the series over in Los Angeles and came back to the UK, but we carried on with Chloe.

We then found that both of them were basically coming to rehearsals and recording time in the studios, and they said, “we have both got other things on, so what we will do is, whenever one of us is available we will step in and do what you want if that works with you guys”. We all agreed that working like that would be the sensible thing for us to do, it suited everybody involved, and when they were at rehearsals together, they both started playing things and singing on the same songs, so they were both contributing rather than one at a time (laughter).

After a while we just said to them, “are you sure that both of you don’t want to do it” (laughter). So, as you can see, we ended up with both of them in the band, and it really was by accident (laughter). But yes, that is Chloe singing on Hello and I have to say that she has really come on. She no longer just sings backing vocals; she is a dual singer with Tim (Booth).She really is amazing, and she brings a different sound to the songs, she sounds absolutely gorgeous when singing Hello with Tim. Her voice really does fit perfectly with Tim’s. Whenever we strip a song right down, the fragility of her voice, I think, is lovely.

So, we are a bloody nine piece now, we are soon going to need a bigger tour bus (laughter). It really is such a buzz. Debbie really is such an amazing drummer; she is really energetic and really does throw herself at it. It really does give us an extra flexibility, Chloe plays a bit of guitar, which means that we can basically hit people with a thousand different instrument combinations if we want to. It really is brilliant, absolutely wonderful.

I have seen a few band and orchestra tours over the years so I have to ask, will the orchestra be onstage all night or will you split the time between the band and the orchestra so that we get to hear the full band electrically?

Good question. On this forthcoming tour the orchestra will be on stage for the whole show. There will be an interval in the middle of the show, just so that you can pop along and get yourself a nice glass of wine, go and have a wee or something (laughter). But yes, it will be all orchestra. I think that the two halves of the show will be different. We haven’t really talked this through, but I think that the first half will be a little more low-key than the second half.

Overall, we are intending to just go out there and have some fun with it. There are some songs which are really big, so everyone is going to be sat down and even by James’ standards; they are most probably going to be a relatively sensible experience. But there are still some big songs where we will kick off and pile straight in (laughter). I think that there is still going to be that element to all of this but there is not going to be any split times of orchestra and then band split as such.

It is going to be a case of trying to squeeze all of us onto the stage all of the time (laughter) which means that there is going to be forty of us up there on stage together. That really will prove to be interesting with some of the venues (laughter).

You are now officially the longest serving original member in the band having been there from day one some forty years ago now. Have you enjoyed the ride so far?

Yes, I have, as surprising as that may seem, yes, I really have although having said that I haven’t received a carriage clock as yet which thinking about it that really must be a good thing (laughter). It always means that you are on your way out whenever you receive a carriage clock (laughter).

Does your seniority carry any weight with the rest of the band, or do you get voted out of band decisions just like the rest of them?

I have to be totally honest with you and say that mostly yes, it does seem to carry a little weight. I mean, Tim and I now have a close relationship simply because we have now been together for a few thousand years (laughter). This will no doubt make you laugh because the so-called new boys in the band have now been with us for well over twenty-five years (laughter). Having said all of that, unfortunately I can’t pull the ‘I’ve been here the longest card’ because it really doesn’t hold that much water (laughter).

Me and Tim get on really well, and there is a lot of stuff that goes on within the band that simply passes the two of us by. Everybody in the group seems to get along really well and we are all coming at it from the same angle. Having been in the band for so long you tend to know what is going on and everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet. We all seem to have similar views on a lot of things, and in a James anarchic way, I am always happy to contribute and chip in and that is how we get the most from people.

There are a bunch of individuals within this band, and they are all very talented people, songwriters, and musicians within their own right. They are so good at what they do that Tim and I leave a lot of the work up to them. We have four songwriters within the band, who will hand over their songs to the rest of the band, but it’s not like we tell them what to play, it’s more like, ‘see if you can find something for this, see if you can play along to this’ so we give them a free reign to enjoy themselves. It’s amazing how they turn our spindly little songs into lush and wonderful productions (laughter).

Showing my age now I have to tell you that I first saw James supporting The Smiths on their Meat Is Murder Tour here in Nottingham at the Royal Concert Hall back in 1985.

Bloody hell, that’s a long, long time ago now. I have to say that really was an amazing tour.

Don’t quote me on this but Tim actually had hair (laughter).

(Hysterical laughter) yes, he did, he would have done, as it was that long ago. It was an incredible tour, they were so nice to us, they were so generous, and they really did help us hugely. At that time, we were travelling around in a caravanette which had the band in it together with all of our gear, plus two pressure cookers and a two-gas ring burner that we cooked all of our food on (laughter). At least we can say that we were self-sufficient, and we travelled all over the country in this very small caravanette (laughter).

Forty years in the band, what would you say has been the highlight so far?

The highlight of forty years, oh my God, there really have been so many. Thinking about it, I would have to say that it would have to be James getting back together after the break that we had. Also, I would have to say playing our very first Manchester gig after we reformed really was amazing. It really did feel as though we were giving Manchester back their band. It was the same as being a football team, the football team doesn’t belong to the management, or the players, it belongs to the fans.

It really did feel like you were part of something bigger than just being a band member. I remember we opened the gig at Manchester Arena, and we had the Pointon Marching Band at the gig, and we came in from the back of the auditorium, walked along the side towards the stage. Just as the marching band got to the stage, they started playing Come Home. We were hiding behind a curtain on the stage, in the dark, and the roar that went up literally made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. It really did feel like you had scored at Wembley (laughter). Then, the curtain fell to the floor, and there we were, all of us in position ready to kick into Come Home, playing along with the marching band.

In a situation like that it is hard to keep it all together and I have to be honest with you, I stood on stage like an old man, crying my eyes out. It really was extremely moving. I have had so many highlights, so many wonderful things such as sitting outside the Royal Albert Hall knowing that in a few hours you are going to be playing it there, it’s totally mad, it really is ridiculous. It is one of those, ‘what am I doing here, pinch me’ kind of moments. It is always the silly things that are important to me.

Another highlight for me was playing with Peter Hook and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra for Manchester v Cancer when we played Joy Division’s Transmission and Atmosphere, playing with Peter Hook who is one of my heroes; from back in the day when I first got into Joy Division, it really was mad. Playing the bass line with Peter and his son Jack on Love Will Tear Us Apart live I just thought to myself, ‘this really is mental’ and is something that is really special and important to me. It really was absolutely wonderful. There really are so many highlights, getting my very first gold record and giving it to my mum. It really does just get you (laughter).

On the flipside of the coin, you must have had some disappointments along the way.

Yes, there have been a few disappointments, especially in those periods when we have not been able to get along as people. There have been a few problems with the industry, but we have managed to overcome them due to our bloody mindedness and self-confidence which I feel that you have to have really, which helps you to keep going and plough on. We have been dropped by record labels and at times we really have struggled to keep going forward, but the music has always been great to our ears.

That has never been an issue, and I have to say that we have never struggled with song writing. The problem has always been that we needed to find our way within the industry. But, being totally honest with you, the major problem within the band has always come down to personal relationships. It is the one thing that we have managed to get right over the last ten or fifteen years. It is all about personal relationships; they can be totally amazing, or you can simply mess them up. I have got the best job on the planet, but it can sometimes end as a car crash because you are stupidly not getting on with people and just how ridiculous is that.

We appreciate that now, we know that, and we now understand the fragility that comes with being in a band; you can mess things up. We now treat each other with respect; we listen to each other, we communicate a lot, we are very open and honest with each other, and I always try to be supporting and caring, the basics of humanity in what can be a difficult job sometimes (laughter). You find yourself away from home, away from your family, and it really isn’t easy.

You are with people twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and sometimes there is friction, there is no denying it. So, I put it down to failing to care for one another plus part of it is growing up, and you need to make that transition from child to adult, and it is worth it because it really is the best job on the planet (laughter).

What was the first record that you bought?

Oh god, where did that come from (laughter). I think that it was something by The Jam. It would most probably have been the In The City album by The Jam.

Who did you first see performing live?

That was The Teardrop Explodes at The Russell Club in Manchester. I was fifteen years old, and I was totally blown away by it all. I had no idea as to what was going on, but I totally loved it.

What was the last song or piece of music that made you cry?

That would most probably have to be James’ song, Sometimes, I have to say that it absolutely gets me every time. For me to be listening to that song, knowing exactly what is coming up and what is going to happen, it gets me every time. It never fails to move me. I think that I must be getting old and teary (laughter).

What is currently on Jim Glennie’s live rider?

That’s a good question (laughter). Actually, I’m not that pernickety and I have to say that I don’t drink whenever I am out on the road with the band. Don’t get me wrong, I do drink alcohol, but I never drink when I am with the band. Historically, it would have been alcohol, but those days are long gone. Oh God, there isn’t anything that I particularly ask for (laughter). I must sound really dumb and boring (laughter).

The bands rider is quite simple, it consists of mainly healthy snacks, fruit and things, whilst avoiding the crisps and chocolate (laughter). We also ask for a source of water so that the band can fill up their water bottles both on and off the stage, and its booze for the people who drink booze. And then we have caterers who always provide a lovely meal for us. So, as you can see, we are both spoilt and looked after, which is something that we really do take a great deal of detail in making sure that we all stay healthy whilst we are gigging.

If you don’t you find yourself eating all kinds of crap food at weird times of the day and night which, after a while, will take its toll (laughter). So, personally, I don’t really have anything which is a really crap answer isn’t it, sorry. We do have typically weird James things like a centrifugal juicer together with loads of ginger and apples and things to put into the juicer together with various vegetables to make healthy vegetable drinks. However, normally what usually happens is that the venue can’t find a juicer so we end up with a blender and lots of root vegetables which let me tell you, you cannot put root vegetables in to a blender and make any sort of drink that is remotely palatable (laughter).

The venues insist on giving us all of these vegetables that you can’t do anything with, bless them. We try our best to be healthy and we do try to look after ourselves when we have to, after decades of relative self-abuse really especially when we are away for quite a lot of time. You really do have to look after yourselves. Most of it is common sense really, which we do mostly now. There are two particular culprits who don’t stick to that occasionally but generally speaking, we are all relatively healthy now (laughter).

On that note Jim let me once again thank you for taking the time to speak to me today, it’s been fantastic. Let’s try not to leave it eight years before we speak again (laughter).

You are welcome, Kevin, very welcome. You and I will speak again sometime in 2031 no doubt (laughter).

I will be coming to the Royal Concert Hall here in Nottingham on Saturday 13^th May to photograph and review the show and I can’t wait.

I hope that you have a great time and that you enjoy what it is that we are trying to do. Stay safe and speak soon.

Saul Davies, (seen here on the left) a member of rock band James, chats with Kevin Cooper about his musical influences, the achievements of his charity organisation Everybody Belongs Here, his favourite James albums and the release of their latest album All The Colours Of You.

Saul Davies is a British musician best known for being a member of rock band James. He is a multi-instrumentalist whose primary instruments are the violin, guitar and percussion.

Davies was hired as a member of James in 1989, after the band’s guitarist Larry Gott saw him playing violin at the Band On The Wall in Manchester. Impressed by his abilities, Gott invited Davies to join the band at their rehearsal room the following day for an audition.

He immediately impressed the band members, who offered him a role in the band as violinist. Davies accepted, initially as a stop-gap measure, and went on to assist with guitar and percussion on the band’s 1990 album Gold Mother, which was also to become the band’s commercial breakthrough.

He remained with the band throughout the 1990s, and his creative input became more prominent towards the end of the decade, particularly on the 1999 album Millionaires. His contribution was recognised in the sleeve notes for the album with bassist Jim Glennie’s comment, ‘Jim Glennie would like to personally thank Saul for his work on this album over and above the call of duty.’

Davies also participated in the dance-based side-project Money, together with fellow band members David Baynton-Power and Mark Hunter.

Following the departure in 2001 of the band’s lead singer Tim Booth, the band became inactive. When the band reformed in 2007, Davies was confirmed as part of the reformed line-up and joined the band on their reunion tour in April of that year. He is known among James fans for his raucous stage persona and his skill at provoking audience members into exuberant sing-along’s.

Whilst promoting their latest album, Davies took some time out to have a chat with Kevin Cooper and this is what he had to say.

Saul good morning, how are you today?

I’m good thanks Kevin, but more to the point, how are you?

All is good thank you and before we move on, let me thank you for taking the time to speak to me today.

Not at all, it’s a pleasure.

And just how is life treating you in the current climate?

To be totally honest with you, I think it’s alright (laughter). Of course, it’s all a bit strange as it is for everyone obviously, so it’s a case of getting on, getting done as much is possible, keeping your head down and most importantly, keeping safe. Obviously, lots of things are changing around us now. Where I live, we are seeing lots of visitors returning to the Highlands of Scotland, and to be honest, it is very nice to see people once again. It’s quite cool to be able to get out and about once again. Generally speaking, there is a feeling that we are heading towards some type of resolution to this whole situation.

Perhaps that’s right, perhaps that’s not; we will just have to wait and see what happens. Generally speaking, the people have had enough and want to get on with their lives once again. Which, I have to say, is only natural and that includes me too (laughter). Let’s just wait and see what happens.

Do you think that the music industry will ever recover from the effects of the pandemic?

Yes, I personally think that it will. Obviously, we have got to be very realistic about what we do and just what our expectations are. They are going to have to change, so we are going to have to cut our cloth accordingly. What I can say with a certain amount of certainty is that we are going to lose a hell of a lot of people; no doubt we have already lost a lot of people within our industry and those people will not be coming back. Whether they are musicians or technical, that is going to prove to be problematic. If you get the all clear to go out on tour and all of the bus companies have gone out of business, then there will be no tour buses and therefore, you cannot go out on tour then.

We are going to have to be very clever and come up with strategies which make sense somehow. People are going to have to be quite brave, but also very sensible in the way that they approach whatever they are doing. Whether the music industry will ever fully recover remains to be seen; which elements of the music industry remain and which don’t.

We must speak about All The Colours Of You, James’ sixteenth studio album.

(Laughter) yes, we must really.

I have been playing it now for the last few days and I have to say that I think that it is a great piece of work.

Really, that’s great.

Are you and the rest of the band happy with it?

Yes, or at least I think they are (laughter). I find it remarkable that, in the end, we have been able to make a record during this period. Having said that, to be totally honest with you, I am most probably not best placed to analyse it in any other terms other than, ‘wow, what a miracle that we have managed to get a record out there’ (laughter). So, I am very positive about the fact that we have managed to record an album at all. I personally feel that it is a very good record. We have had a few rehearsal sessions and I feel that we have now got our heads around what we need to get around in order to present the thing live, when we can.

I think that we are in really good shape, and I have to say that it feels like a really good record to play. I feel that it has got the best opening of any James record, when Tim (Booth) sings ‘we’re all gonna die’ I love it. I think that its ballsy, it’s funny and very true (laughter).

Tim recorded the track Recover in which he talks about the death of his wife’s father last April from Covid-19. Was it difficult for him as watching the video it is dark, stark and directly in your face?

Yes, it was difficult for Tim, very much so. Recover is a very personal moment on the album for Tim, which he has chosen to share with the world. Good on him for doing it, but I think that you can see in that video it really does mean so much to him; it’s not affectation, it is the real deal. I find it very interesting to be honest.

At this moment in time, I have four go to tracks; the title track All The Colours Of You which I think is fantastic, Recover, Beautiful Beaches and Wherever It Takes Us. I personally feel that those four tracks are absolutely fantastic.

Well, what can I say, if you get a record out there and somebody says that there are four outstanding tracks on an album, then I feel that is enough. Also, if that person is not offended by the remaining tracks, then that is even better (laughter).

Putting you firmly on the spot, do you have a favourite track?

For me, it must be the opening track, ZERO and I think that will be the case for most of the band, together with the fans once they get to hear it.

Most of the album was recorded prior to lockdown. How much was there left to finish during lockdown?

Well, Jacknife (Lee) got hold of it and did a lot of stuff. He did some extra recording asking the band to send in remotely some of our parts, from where we were, in order to finish stuff off. All of Tim’s vocals had to be done; there was some writing to finish off on the vocal front of course, but thankfully we had made quite a few demos for this album. Having said that, there was still quite a bit to do, plus there was quite a lot of detail to be done which Jacknife did which, without that, you don’t make that kind of record. So, his role really was very important. He worked a lot on the rhythm tracks and he generated a lot of parts, so yes, there really was a lot still to be done.

He took our demos and totally altered the aesthetic of the album whilst we did what we could do. Frankly, if we had been told “you guys are on your own, you have got to make a record”’ then we would have gone back to those demos ourselves and continued with the work in the way that we had been doing. Whenever you put together a demo, it is similar to putting a sketch together. You are not too critical of what it is; you are just doing it to see if there is something that can be useful to you. But it was at that point that Jacknife took over, and the results are, in my mind, fantastic. We were very lucky to get the chance to work with him, although it was only ever Tim who was physically in his company as it turns out that he and Tim are neighbours (laughter).

What does Jacknife bring to the table?

I think that he is very bold with his choices of sound and the way that he puts things together. He is also very good at identifying the melodic structure within a song. He really is very good at finding the path for a song to follow in many ways.

Did lockdown cause you any major problems by not being able to be together in the same room at the same time?

No, not really because we had done all of the writing for this record, as you know, prior to lockdown, which was when we all managed to get together and make a noise (laughter). We had done all of that. Don’t get me wrong, we really would have been in trouble if we hadn’t had already done all of that work prior to lockdown; very big trouble in fact. We would have had to either not do a record or find a different way of doing it, and I think that would have been very difficult. So, in reality, we lucked out on this one, in that sense.

Who has influenced you musically?

That’s easy; I would have to say Neil Young, Pink Floyd, Talk Talk, those kinds of people really.

Who is currently on your playlist; who do you listen to when you manage to get some downtime?

Neil Young, Pink Floyd, Talk Talk (laughter). Joking aside, I recently made a nice playlist for myself, which includes people like War On Drugs. I recently did a bit of work actually with a band from Manchester called Rosellas, who are an up-and-coming little band who I believe have a lot of class; they are really good. I am actually discovering quite a few new things, for example, towards the backend of January, my charity organisation that we have, called Everybody Belongs Here, held a big online event and we managed to raise a million pounds for food poverty here in the UK in association with the Co-Op.

That event was called Music Feeds which we held over two nights, and we managed to get some super artists such as Sam Smith involved, but we also had some emerging artists like the Rosellas for example, who came along and joined us, and I have to say that was really cool. To me, that was a great event to do as it gave me access to discover new things which I did not already previously. The world is full of great music; it’s all down to how you find it and how you discover it that is the problem, there is too much (laughter).

On the subject of how you discover and obtain music, what are you views on streaming sites?

I personally don’t think that it matters what your view is, in the sense that streaming is here to stay; it’s not going away. In fact, it will never go away. It is what it is; it is the way that the industry has found to be able to ‘do its thing’ but having said that, I really do hope that we finally get to a point where the people who provide the content for streaming sites, for example the musicians, are remunerated correctly in the way that I believe that they should be. Personally, I cannot see that happening anytime soon. I don’t think that is particularly right or sensible. We, the musicians, are generally fairly upset about the fact that we are not remunerated or even valued in the way that we should be.

Most musicians are not anxious to become superstars and become rich; we simply want to be in a position where we can pay our way. Most musicians are used to living quite modestly, although obviously the superstars don’t, and unfortunately, we only ever see the superstars. But musicians are really quite modest, quite sensible but we provide a great service. We give good music to the world and I cannot understand why we should not be paid for that, but anyway never mind (laughter). It is just a part of the strangeness of modern times really.

You mention that you have managed to get some rehearsal time together. How many tracks from the new album will find their way onto the set list for the forthcoming tour?

We have got about nine of these songs together I would say in a way that we could now go out onto the stage and play them. At this moment in time, I have no idea whether we will play the whole nine songs; it all depends upon where we are and what we get to do. We have this show on Thursday 24^th June at Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath in London but even I do not know if that will, in fact, happen. I simply cannot guarantee that. If that goes ahead it will be like a mini-festival kind of thing, with us headlining so we will get a ninety-minute slot. However, there is no way that we would ever play nine new songs in a ninety-minute slot. For us to do that in front of a live audience in London just wouldn’t make sense.

So, it very much depends on what we are doing and where we are playing. Having said all of that, I’m looking forward to the big arenas that we will be playing in November and December. By the time that we get there I am sure that we will be playing six or seven of the songs off the new album, and I’m sure that the fans will by then expecting us to do that. I think that one of the strengths of the band is that we do that kind of stuff, but our fans expect us to.

On the subject of the forthcoming UK tour, I see that you have The Happy Mondays opening for you.

Yes, we have, that’s right.

Which one of you has been designated to look after them and keep them under control?

(Laughter) I do not know if anyone will, but it certainly won’t be me (laughter). I’m just going to stay well away from them; ‘our dressing room is here and yours is in another building’ (laughter).

A lot of James fans are saying that All The Colours Of You is your best work to date. Would you agree with that?

No, actually I wouldn’t agree with that. I say no because I have no idea as to how you would analyse that really. I think that it’s great if somebody says anything positive about the new music and stuff that you do. It’s never a given that they are going to like it, so I think that it’s great that people like it, that really is fantastic. There might be a tendency from some people, James fans, to say very nice things about it simply because it is a shock to them that we have actually got a new record out. A lot of them are saying “how have this lot managed to get a record out whilst all of this nonsense has been going on” kind of thing. They may be really positive about it simply because they are shocked that we have actually managed to do it (laughter).

I’m overjoyed with their comments and particularly, if the fans get into it then that is totally amazing. That justifies why we do it. That is the reason why we as a band continue to make music, so that our fan base can grow, and we can pull in new fans too. That is the whole idea behind the reason why we all continue to make new music.

You have personally been involved with and played on the last fourteen James albums. If you had a top five James album chart, would the latest album fit in?

My two favourite James records are La Petite Mort which we released in 2014 and Pleased To Meet You which was released in 2001. They really are my two favourite James albums. After that I would have to say Laid from way back in 1993 and Wah Wah from the year later. All four of those records I personally feel are brilliant. So, I think that this new album would come after those. As I said earlier, I do honestly feel that it is a very good record; that is how I see it. That’s not bad is it, we have made a lot of records that you have just made mention of, and if you like any of them then you will automatically have your own personal favourites.

What you also must remember is that people’s choices will change over time; one week you like one thing and the following week you will like something else. That is all part of it as well. So, as you can imagine, James fans would be totally shocked to hear that a member of the band does not mention 1990s Gold Mother. I personally think that Gold Mother is a great record, but for different reasons people will pick different albums which I think is great (laughter). You have opened a can of worms here as I also think that Seven is a great record and I may very well have to revise my list. Yes, I’m going to revise my list (laughter).

What was the first record that you bought?

That was Teenage Kicks by The Undertones.

Who did you first see performing live?

That was The Isle Of Wight Festival back in 1970, with Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell and The Doors.

And let’s not forget Free.

That’s right, they were absolutely brilliant.

What was the last song or piece of music that made you cry?

Oh wow, where did that come from? Thinking about it that would have to be Handsworth Revolution by Steel Pulse. Jesus Christ that is such an amazing record, they really were amazing, fucking hell (laughter).

On that note Saul, let me once again thank you for taking the time to speak to me today, it’s been brilliant.

Thanks very much Kevin, it has been nice speaking to you. Let us hope that we can get together in Birmingham.

James Glennie, (seen here on the front row, second from the left) bassist with James, chats with Kevin Cooper about their hard core fans, working with Brian Eno, their new album The Girl At The End Of The World, and their forthcoming tour of the UK.

James Glennie is the bassist for and namesake of English rock band, James. He is the band’s longest serving member, having been there from the first line-up through to the present.

Forming the band with best friend, Paul Gilbertson in 1982 and with Tim Booth joining shortly after, James quickly got a reputation for being a very good live band.

In 1985 Gilbertson was asked to leave the band, and Glennie was quite badly affected by this decision, having lost a very close friend and musical companion. Glennie stuck it out, however, and remained true to the James cause. He and the band’s singer Tim Booth often had many conflicts, with Booth leaving in 2001 to pursue a solo career.

But with Booth re-joining in 2007, James have gone on to release albums and to continue to be best known for their live performances.

Whilst busy preparing for their forthcoming tour, James took time out to have a chat with Kevin Cooper and this is what he had to say.

Hi Jim how are you?

I’m very well Kevin thanks for asking. How are you?

I’m great thank you apart from this bloody weather. It’s awful (laughter).

I have to tell you this, I live on the North-West coast of Scotland and the weather has been remarkably nice recently.

Go away.

(Laughter) it’s not always as nice as this Kevin I can assure you of that.

Let me firstly thank you for taking the time to speak to me.

You’re welcome.

Before we go on let me just say that I first saw James here in Nottingham at the Royal Concert Hall over thirty years ago now. You were supporting The Smiths on their Meat Is Murder tour.

Wow Kevin that’s amazing. I have to tell you that the Meat Is Murder tour was really mad (laughter). The Smiths were really good to us back in those days. They kindly took us under their wing and let us support them on that tour. At the time James as a band didn’t have any money and The Smiths paid for us to go on that tour with them, despite them being offered an absolute fortunate by record companies to take other bands on that tour. They very kindly took us and that was one of the big stepping stones for us starting our career within the music business. The tour lasted for six weeks here in the UK and every show was completely sold out. It was an amazing experience.

I have to ask you Jim, just how is life treating you at this moment in time?

Things are going really well at the moment. We are just getting into the flow of things with the new record. 2015 was a really busy year for us and things are going really well.

After you released your last album La Petite Mort did you feel that there was a swing in the bands popularity?

That’s right Kevin things were suddenly moving forward and to be honest it felt great. After getting back together in 2006 we have been working on a regular basis but have mainly been under the radar. However when we released La Petite Mort in 2014 there was a sudden burst of interest and enthusiasm once again from the big wide world out there.

And did that bring rewards for the band?

Yes it did Kevin. After releasing and touring with La Petite Mort we subsequently signed a new three album deal with BMG and The Girl At The End Of The World will be the first of those albums. So what you now have is a group of slightly more mature musicians (laughter) enjoying a slightly bizarre Indian summer (laughter). It is wonderful, absolutely wonderful.

On 18^th March this year you will be releasing your new album The Girl At The End Of The World. Are you happy with the album?

We are all over the moon with it Kevin. We are really, really pleased with it. The only difficult part of making this record was that unlike our normal scheduling, these two records are coming out fairly close together by our standards. So we had no sooner to come to the end of promoting La Petite Mort then we were back into the studios recording The Girl At the End Of The World and that is just how BMG wanted it. They said that whilst we had got a head of steam up, and whilst we had got the momentum, they thought that we should push on and record the next album. The only downside was that everything had to be condensed into such a short space of time and that has caused us all too recently suffer from a mild sense of panic (laughter).

It has just been a massive pile of deadlines and being musicians rather than business people we are not very good at dealing with deadlines really (laughter). We are used to working with a vague date being pencilled into our diaries which is fairly relaxed and moveable but this time people were telling us that if we didn’t get everything done by a certain date, then we couldn’t release it in the first quarter of this year. It would have put us back to an autumn release so it has been a little panicky from our side just getting everything done that we needed to get done within the timeframe. But that’s ok Kevin, it’s a nice problem to have.

How are things working out for you with BMG, is it a nice fit?

Things are really nice because they are not like a traditional record company, they see themselves as being a publishing company. They never really work with you as a company unless they are handling your publishing. They allow you to compile your own team who are going to be working on your record, and they also encourage you to employ people who are excited about working with the band together with their new project. That way you don’t end up working with a bunch of nineteen year olds who don’t have a bloody clue about what they are doing (laughter). Instead you can go out and hire people who understand the position that James have within the industry and who have got a plan as to how to make that work.

The whole set-up within BMG works really well for us. The people who are there at BMG we seem to get along really well with. They are all really cool and relaxed. Plus it is a really good deal unlike it was back in the dark ages when it felt as though you were signing away your first born. BMG seem to have got this work model that is based around recording and publishing but they also join the two bits together. They are either happy enough or daft enough to want to do three albums with us Kevin (laughter).

Don’t forget that you are now under extra pressure from Bono to give your work away for free now.

(Laughter) perhaps we would consider doing that if we had as much money as he has (laughter).   Everybody is coming up with ways to try to get their music out there to the people but I feel that we are a little sheltered from that aspect of the business because James have a slightly older demographic. But having said that, every time that you release a record, we seem to get a bunch of young kids who are getting into us for the first time. That’s one of the great things about the internet, it allows kids to circumvent the music industry and it allows people to hear the music without having to go through the machinery of having to convince people via the TV and radio that they should be listening to your music. The internet allows them to do it for themselves.

I do feel sorry for the bands that are now coming into the industry and who are trying to make it work. So as I said earlier I feel that we are a little more protected from that as a large chunk of our hard-core fans still want to own a record or a CD that they can listen to and put back on the shelve. It’s a funny world out there which is constantly shifting.

On the subject of records, will you be releasing The Girl At The End Of The World on vinyl?

Yes Kevin it will a double album on high quality vinyl especially after the success that we had after releasing La Petite Mort on vinyl. World-wide sales of vinyl are up by 2% which I know doesn’t sound like a lot but the real story is that last year vinyl sales went up by 22% which is amazing. I love the thought that instead of people listening to the new album on a poor quality download that they have squeezed onto their mobile phones and are hearing it through their little ear buds as they sit on the train heading home after work, people will be sitting down to listen to the album with a big picture of the art work in front of them, they go to the trouble of taking the album out, cleaning it and then sitting down and actually listening to it on a pretty good system you would hope.

I love that old school feeling of people not just listening to music whilst they do whatever, but that listening to the album on vinyl would be more of an occasion for them. The great thing is that it is not just oldies getting back into it by any stretch of the imagination, the kids are really getting into it in a big way. I guess that it’s funny, it’s strange just how these things come back around again (laughter).

At the end of the day it’s great that people are finally realising that vinyl gives a better quality sound and more to the point it is far warmer that a CD.

Yes absolutely Kevin you are 100% right. It has always pained musicians certainly from the days of iTunes and more recently streaming, seeing the quality of your music just getting squeezed and squeezed and squeezed into a worse and worse format. You go to all of that trouble to record a record; months of pain, grief, and hassle and then somebody just compresses the hell out of it just so they can get ten thousand songs on their phone. It is really painful, was it really worth all of our trouble? It is a really great feeling when someone puts your work onto a turntable and says wow, this is amazing and they are really appreciating your work.

Is the album now all ready to go?

Yes it is Kevin. Although it won’t be released until March we have already had to sign off on the masters. The next step now is that in the not too distant future we will be receiving test presses of the album. To be honest we were under a heavily pressed time schedule during the past couple of weeks to get everything signed off on primarily for the vinyl. We had to spend time working on the time-splits on the sides and everything. The problem with vinyl is that at this moment the demand is outstripping the supply. The vinyl recording and pressing plants were a part of the industry which simply folded. Now the demand is once again there its difficult finding someone who knows how to do it (laughter).

Now that the album is finished and all ready to go, do you as a band have to forget about it until its release date because if you listen to it is there not a danger that you will want to re-record parts of it as you may thank that you could have done things differently?

Yes you are totally correct Kevin. Fortunately for us it has now been taken out of our hands as it had to be finished, but the worst part is that you can find yourselves keep fiddling with the bloody thing (laughter). If you continually listen to a song then you will want to do things slightly differently because you will without doubt start overthinking things, you just do. I know from experience that that would be a potential problem for us, we would be wanting to mess around with everything. They do say that you never finish an album, you abandon it and I think that is so true. At some point it is taken off you by the grown-ups (laughter).

Our collective worry was that if the album had been left with us for an extra six months we would quite possibly mess the thing up. It would be virtually impossible for us to leave it alone (laughter). So I am really glad now that we can’t do that. With regards to listening to it, yes you do need a break and what we tend to try to do is to put the record to one side. However before we know it we will be starting rehearsals for the tour; we will also be promoting the record, and we will have to know the songs and know what we are doing. So we will have to start listening to the album once again but I personally feel that a little break, to clear your mind, leaving all of that behind is very important.

Is it, in your opinion, the best album that you have made?

It is difficult for me to be objective Kevin. What I can say is that we are all really impressed with the album. We were all pretty impressed with what we did with La Petite Mort and that seemed to move us on somewhere with regard to recordings. I don’t think that we have always necessarily manged to really embrace the recording process and I think that sometimes it has been rather difficult for us. I think that on La Petite Mort something shifted when we managed to find Max Dingle who is prepared to put up with us and somehow get the power that we get in our live performances down on the record. Max deconstructed us and musically built us back up again. I was so impressed with him for doing that.

With this record we have gone back into the studio and have tried to move on, tried to push it that little bit further, and I also think that the song writing process is stronger on this record. I think that the song writing is reflected better on this record than on the last record. La Petite Mort was the first record that had the five of us writing on it. We were very pleased with how it went but it was the beginning of a new relationship really. Instead of there just being the three of us writing, there were five of us. On this record it was bang straight in again; there was no big gap between the recordings, it has kind of moved on from there. I think the new album reflects that.

Is it the best record that I have ever written, I don’t know. Having said that, I know that it is definitely up there.

What was it like working with Brian Eno again?

Brian’s input was kind of sporadic problem solving. We had some songs which we had some issues with which we couldn’t fathom basically, we found ourselves banging our heads against a brick wall. Sometimes some songs fall really easily into your lap; they really do whilst most songs don’t (laughter). Some songs seem fairly obvious what you are going to do and where you are going to go but you can’t seem to realise them, you can’t seem to make them work. And that is where Brian Eno comes into his own because he is such an abstract thinker that he throws you curve balls and presents you with something that is a very different kind of song to the one that you were originally trying to write. They all seem to come from a Brian Eno dimension (laughter).

Eno is wonderful, he has an irreverence to music which we all find really refreshing. He is happy to abandon everything that you have worked so hard on and come up with something completely and utterly different. He is a great man to have behind you, he really is and he helps us out in our hour of need.

Do you still get a buzz out of touring or is it a necessary evil?

I absolutely love touring Kevin, I absolutely love it. This year will probably be different for us as the album will probably do very well and we will find ourselves on a stupid world tour (laughter). We always tend to keep the balance right because most of the members of the band have got families and so we don’t tend to disappear around the world for months on end like we used to, and let me tell you Kevin it used to be very hard. It’s a very different way of touring now as band members bring their families along with them and so we just love touring. Touring is the essence of where we do what we do, we just get out there and wallop people with our music (laughter).

We love the live relationship that we have with our fans; we love the fear and we are the kind of band who does not want to over rehearse the fear out of our performances. We have nurtured that and we like that excitement. However when you have that attitude things can and do go wrong (laughter). But still things happen as well, and the crowd appreciate and understand that from us.

And you are coming back to The Royal Concert Hall in May, are you looking forward to it?

As you have said Kevin, we have played there before. Coming back as the headliners though is absolutely great and I am certain that it will be just as good if not better than the first time. We always have a fantastic time whenever we visit Nottingham. It’s a lovely city.

You seem to have a special kind of relationship with some hard-core fans. Would you agree with that?

Entirely Kevin, without a shadow of a doubt. We can never thank them enough for being so open and how they have allowed the band to develop. Perhaps that is why we are still here after thirty-four years. The fans don’t get bored of it and the band don’t get bored of it simply because we keep on changing everything all of the time. Whenever they come to see us they won’t necessarily get all of the big hits that they want, but that is just the way that it is with a James gig (laughter). If we did that all of the time we would get bored with it and pack it in. So we shift and change things all of the time. We put songs in where we have to work really hard to make it work and sometimes it works brilliantly while other times it’s a bit crumbly (laughter). But the fans love it and they appreciate us for trying.

If you are shooting for something and you cock-up, the fans appreciate that. The worst thing that you can do is not to aim that high just so that you don’t make a mistake. That is so against the ethos of this band. As we have got older we have got much better at accepting that things will go wrong sometimes (laughter). We now find it funny rather than disappearing down a big black hole like we used to do back in the day (laughter).

Between 2001 and 2007 when James split, what did you get up to?

Despite the rumours I did actually stay in music and I still worked on productions with songwriters. I did things that I wanted to do which were fairly under the radar. I played with a lot of people who I enjoyed playing with which simply didn’t fit within the James remit. I just tended to keep everything fairly low-key. I just tried to enjoy myself Kevin.

On that note let me thank you for taking the time to speak to me and I am looking forward to seeing you here in Nottingham at The Royal Concert Hall on 21^st May.

Thanks a lot Kevin, it’s been great. Cheers for now.