As their UK arena tour with The Charlatans finishes, James have announced a further tour for March next year visiting some of the UK’s most iconic and revered venues when, in typically unconventional style, the band will be supporting themselves by playing an acoustic set before performing their full electrified show. Full dates as below …
The announcement follows the release of two videos for their current single Many Faces, taken from their #6 album Living In Extraordinary Times, released by Infectious Music in August this year. The first is a live version recorded in Halifax; the second a fan-made and band-approved video.
The band’s latest single, MANY FACES, makes a stand against xenophobia and racism, citing a message of peaceful unity that, “There’s only one human race / Many faces / Everybody belongs here,” written in response to Trump’s racist tweets concerning Mexicans and building a wall. The song instantly began to take on a life of its own with people singing it back to the band from the first times it was performed, as witnessed in Halifax earlier in the year, to recent performances as far flung as Dubai and Australia.
The band will be performing some of their well-loved classic hits alongside new material from their most recent Top 10 album LIVING IN EXTRAORDINARY TIMES.
In typically non-conventional JAMES style, the band will be “supporting themselves” in a special thirty-minute acoustic set before their famed and storming electric main show. Singer Tim Booth explains: “For this smaller venue March tour we intend to split the gig up into a 30-ish minute ‘pin drop’, bars closed, acoustic set, followed by an electric set after the interval.”
A fan made video for MANY FACES features snapshots of recognisable faces from political and popular culture, from Theresa May to Kim Kardashian, Malala Yousafzai to Beyonce, Colin Kaepernick to Barack Obama. Alongside these familiar faces sits footage from various news reports and documentaries; the rich and the poor appearing in uncomfortable proximity as makeshift refugee camps are swiftly followed by shots of the Trump Hotel’s plush interior, pointedly followed by a snippet of freshly printed dollars.
LIVING IN EXTRAORDINARY TIMES TOUR
MARCH
Wed 06 MARGATE Winter Gardens
Thu 07 BATH Forum
Sat 09 LONDON Royal Albert Hall
Mon 11 CAMBRIDGE Corn Exchange
Tue 12 NOTTINGHAM Royal Concert Hall
Thu 14 SOUTHAMPTON O2 Guildhall
Fri 15 STOKE Victoria Hall
Sun 17 NEWCASTLE City Hall
Mon 18 EDINBURGH Usher Hall
Wed 20 CARLISLE Sands Centre
Thu 21 BIRMINGHAM O2 Academy
Fri 22 HULL Bonus Arena
Released in August to huge critical acclaim, LIVING IN EXTRAORDINARY TIMES peaked at #6 on the UK album chart. Produced by Mercury and Brit Award winner Charlie Andrew (whose previous work includes alt-J and Wolf Alice) and rising star Beni Giles, the album followed the hugely successful GIRL AT THE END OF THE WORLD, which debuted at #2 in the UK album chart, second only to Adele – their highest chart entry in almost twenty years.
