James - Blackpool Empress Ballroom 23/04/08

James played at Blackpool a week last Tuesday, returning to the scene of their previous legendary performances at the Empress Ballroom in 1990 and 2000, but promoting their first full album since the reformation of the classic "Seven-era" line up, 'Hey Ma".

Naturally Celia & I weren't going to miss out on them appearing on our doorstep. We last saw James back in 2001 at their (at the time) farewell performance in Manchester (captured on the "Getting Away With It Live" DVD). Nothing really was going to top that, not even seeing Tim Booth up close and personal at the Royal College of Music gig in 2004. Now I'd seen James a few times in the past before I met Celia, two of these gigs also being in Blackpool so for me there was going to be a lot to live up to.

Was it a big mistake for them to try and recapture past glories? Would the original line up be able to still pull it off? And more so, was the new material any good? Two minutes into the gig and any such worries were allayed. James were back. Opening with the popular track "Upside"from the new album, followed by the wonderful old fave "Born Of Frustration", the band showed why they were missed so much. They ploughed through a setlist comprising of plenty of tracks from the new album interspersed with old faves.

Now having played the album a couple of times before attending to the gig, it sounded okay but nothing special. On stage though the songs came alive and sounded like old friends. The slightly reworked old stuff came alive and sounded really fresh, 'Sound" and "Sometimes" becoming almost like football terrace singalongs, and "Come Home", "Waltzing Along" and "Tomorrow" provoking a frenzied response from the crowd.

So there you have it - they're back, rejuvinated with some great new material, sounding as good as ever. Whether they can reassert themselves in the music business is another story, but with sell out tours and an adoring audience, for now they're flying.

The set list:

Upside,

Born Of Frustration,

Waltzing Along,

Oh My Heart,

Boom Boom,

Ring The Bells,

Hey Ma,

Bubbles,

Come Home,

Of Monsters And Heroes And Men,

I Wanna Go Home,

Out To Get You,

Waterfall,

She's A Star,

Sound,

Tomorrow

followed by an encore:

Say Something,

Whiteboy

and Sometimes