James?

[crocodiles]

10 hours ago, PaulieV said:

Well then..,what did you all think? 

Despite everything - the delay, the mud, the weather, bloody Brexit, they pulled a blinder. 

It being Glasto my group knew how much it meant to me yet despite our nightmare getting in (turned away on Wednesday night and  having to kip in a hotel then the Thursday being a mission) they still got up early and stood by the fence with me on the Other Stage waiting for the late start. 

My missus can't stand James, particularly Tim Booth's intense style, but even she thought his efforts worthy of praise. Friends who knew only Laid and Sit Down loved the new stuff - 'Attention" was a big favourite and "Moving On" hit home with someone who'd had a recent loss. 

For me, the idiot in a vest (while everyone else had waterproofs) and dancing with a big smiley emoji someone had handed me (on the iplayer for all to see and sorry if I pissed off anyone nearby) it was a dream come true. "Sometimes" was great, they played "Tomorrow" not "Ring The Bells"  but given the bog I was dancing in that may have been better for me and they just about had enough classics without making me feel the new album was being pushed too much. 

Of all the classics, "Come Home" got people going and "Gettng Away With It" (after the albeit successful mis-start with Curse, Curse) was a Smiths style singalong a-love in, but it was "Out To Get You" (with a bit of a Saul's indie-fiddle solo - would have loved another minute of that) that hit home for me.

Ultimately it was the crowd-loving band that made it work. Recently Tim Booth has said he only does his walkabouts and crowd surfing when their's trust between him and the audience. It's testimant to Glastonbury that despite all that happened in the run-up to their opening set, the trust, love, respect and enthusiasm was there, in spades, on both sides of the stage. 

Nothing but love. 

 

Wouid love to hear your thoughts 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm with you James are a fantastic live band and Tim is one of my favourite ever front men the dancing the interaction with the crowd the crowd surfing the man is a star. I didn't mind the wait I've waited 50 plus years for my first glastonbury and was always going to see James again. Moving on and curse curse although fairly recent are already classics to me . And nothing but love is getting there . Great start to a fantastic festival for me . Can't wait to go again...If I hadn't seen such riches I could live with being poor 

[stuartbert two hats]

I quite enjoyed them. I woke late, so they came on stage just as I sauntered up. They did play too many of their new songs, but I quite liked some of them, even though my favourite wasn't the one they called out.

Tim Booth was an enjoyable front man, looking as ever as if he was experiencing life a little bit more than everyone else. And who doesn't like a singer that sings a couple of songs before noticing he has a massive clot of mud on his face from crowd surfing?

But they did overplay new stuff and it is a shit slot, all true.

[DeanoL]

As a huge fan, I think they screwed it up. I mean I enjoyed it but with that slot and that crowd they needed to bring their a-game festival set and brought a new album set instead. I don't think they really won the crowd over.

[danbailey80]

29 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

As a huge fan, I think they screwed it up. I mean I enjoyed it but with that slot and that crowd they needed to bring their a-game festival set and brought a new album set instead. I don't think they really won the crowd over.

This...It was way too many new songs and the new songs just aren't strong enough. I am also a big fan but I left disappointed. 

[Spindles]

It reminded me of the New Order set the following night in many ways.  About 50/50 new material and crowd pleasing favourites, the new material sounding very much like both bands understood what it was about their sound that the fans liked and rolling out an album full of such songs.  

Moving on was...moving.  There are a fair handful of late career James songs that have caught my ear, but live that one carried an emotional weight that I don't think I was alone in getting caught up in.  I sang along and shed a tear for a lost love.

Every time I've bought James tickets I've ended up hospitalised, so it was good to finally see them in the flesh.  I'd have loved them to have brought that hit filled festival setlist we all wanted, but I wasn't disappointed with the grab bag of hits and new stuff we got.

[stuartbert two hats]

1 minute ago, Spindles said:

It reminded me of the New Order set the following night in many ways.  About 50/50 new material and crowd pleasing favourites, the new material sounding very much like both bands understood what it was about their sound that the fans liked and rolling out an album full of such songs.  

Moving on was...moving.  There are a fair handful of late career James songs that have caught my ear, but live that one carried an emotional weight that I don't think I was alone in getting caught up in.  I sang along and shed a tear for a lost love.

Every time I've bought James tickets I've ended up hospitalised, so it was good to finally see them in the flesh.  I'd have loved them to have brought that hit filled festival setlist we all wanted, but I wasn't disappointed with the grab bag of hits and new stuff we got.

You can't just drop that bombshell casually into conversation. What are you doing with these tickets that you end up in hospital??

[Spindles]

Ah, I've got something going on I don't like to harp on about, for a while I spent more time in hospital than out, always when I'd booked gigs or that one year that Reading had a tempting lineup and ended up missing out.  

[russycarps]

About half the set was 'classics' wasn't it? Considering they are a band still making new music, what did people expect?

[Quark]

31 minutes ago, russycarps said:

About half the set was 'classics' wasn't it? Considering they are a band still making new music, what did people expect?

Stop being the voice of reason!

I bloody loved it personally. Wasn't up to full dancing speed by that point, but thoroughly enjoyed it. Tim looked like he was having a blast, especially with the crowd. They sounded tight as a gnat's chuff, and for a slightly shortened slot they still broke out enough bangers to keep me happy.

Christ, if Come Home, Laid, Getting Away With It, Out To Get You, Sometimes, Moving On, Nothing But Love and Tomorrow aren't enough to make you grin like a bloody watermelon I don't know what is.

On another note, anyone else find the sound mix on the BBC coverage sounded terrible compared to live?

[Quark]

18 hours ago, PaulieV said:

"Sometimes" was great, they played "Tomorrow" not "Ring The Bells"

If I was going to wishlist one song they didn't play, RTB was it. Although I think my dancing may have rivalled Tim's if they had.

OTGY was a wonderful surprise for me. Loved it.

[stuartbert two hats]

55 minutes ago, Quark said:

 

On another note, anyone else find the sound mix on the BBC coverage sounded terrible compared to live?

Utterly awful. Anyone who was at Jagwar Ma and has seen the BBC coverage knows what I mean.

[Quark]

9 hours ago, stuartbert two hats said:

Utterly awful. Anyone who was at Jagwar Ma and has seen the BBC coverage knows what I mean.

Good, was worried I was already so battered by the time they started I'd imagined them sounding good!

Had the same issue with the St Etienne coverage.

[stuartbert two hats]

54 minutes ago, Quark said:

Good, was worried I was already so battered by the time they started I'd imagined them sounding good!

Had the same issue with the St Etienne coverage.

If you watch the coverage, it's hard to work out why the crowd have started reacting to some parts. On my telly, which lacks a sub woofer, I literally couldn't hear when the bass drum kicks in. Only when I played it on my big stereo with the bass turned up to full could I actually tell hear the drum. It looks like people are bouncing up and down with their hands in the air for no reason!

That was a really fun gig wasn't it?

Edited August 1, 2016 by stuartbert two hats

[Quark]

13 minutes ago, stuartbert two hats said:

If you watch the coverage, it's hard to work out why the crowd have started reacting to some parts. On my telly, which lacks a sub woofer, I literally couldn't hear when the bass drum kicks in. Only when I played it on my big stereo with the bass turned up to full could I actually tell hear the drum. It looks like people are bouncing up and down with their hands in the air for now reason!

That was a really fun gig wasn't it?

OK good, I'm glad it wasn't just me.  Maybe it'll put people off for next year if we're lucky...

And yes,yes it was.  Considering the state I was in on Thursday night and the delayed start they did a bloody good job of getting me back on the horse!

[Spindles]

2 hours ago, stuartbert two hats said:

Only when I played it on my big stereo with the bass turned up to full could I actually tell hear the drum.

This.  Same applies to the Chvrches coverage among others.  To be fair I only play the sets through a stereo, but occasionally have watched them on a tablet and it sounds gash.

[stuartbert two hats]

5 minutes ago, Spindles said:

This.  Same applies to the Chvrches coverage among others.  To be fair I only play the sets through a stereo, but occasionally have watched them on a tablet and it sounds gash.

It's not as if the bass drum was bassy on my (pretty big and bassy) stereo, but I could just about tell it was there.  Live, I could barely hear anything else!

[Homer]

I enjoyed James and thought they got things off to a good start. I did, however, listen to the new album a bit in the run up, so I was at least familiar with the new ones.

[DeanoL]

18 hours ago, russycarps said:

About half the set was 'classics' wasn't it? Considering they are a band still making new music, what did people expect?

A James festival set.

This is the first time I've seen them lean so heavily on a new album for festival sets since they reformed. Maybe it's the first one they actually like, but normal 40-60min festival sets have been 2-3 new album tracks, 1 obscure old track, and the rest singles.

Having seen them live 40+ times I've heard all that stuff before so was happy to hear the new stuff but it wasn't what I expected (or, I think, the right call).

[tevaburger]

a few rambling thoughts...

first off, ever since they came up with this opening Other slot, it's been nice to have that bit of a "who's playing?" intrigue to it, even if we eventually suss it out in the week before. I'm sure Glastonbury wanted to keep it that way this year too, but then Tim Booth goes on the radio saying it's them way prior...I don't think he was supposed to have done that?? a shame...

With the curious crowds making this Other opener slot quite popular, i think we're also lucky now in that we're likely to get a strong'ish Pyramid opener from here on out, to balance things out, as any act w/ someone link Damon Albarn linked to it shows... I was torn this year but went with James. With the delay, and assuming the Syrian Orchestra lot started on time you conceivable could have caught all of both if the Syrians indeed finished up on the Pyramid at 1145...i wonder if watching on the Pyramid discovered that and saw both

re; setlist, I completely understand that it's their own set and they can play whatever they want and shouldn't feel they need to pander to a generic festival audience, but given that this wasn't really one of those 'just-for-James' fans set say in the acoustic tent or John Peel mid-afternoon or something for its more loyal fans on the farm at the time, but was one of the newer 'high visibility' slots opening up the festival, i think they just completely missed out on an opportunity for their set being talked about as the best-by-far of 4 we've had since Beady Eye in '13. Admittedly I know little of their newer stuff, but there was an assumption by Booth at times as if we all did know the record - lots of songs about america it seemed -  like he was playing to a James audience, not one that had just hopped out of bed and was excited to see things kicking off on the big stages (didn't he say something about one of the newer ones being, not being the one that we liked best or something??!!). Great opportunity lost I felt for them.

 

[eastynh]

Whats this thing they are doing with The Charlatans in December??

[dentalplan]

2 hours ago, tevaburger said:

With the curious crowds making this Other opener slot quite popular, i think we're also lucky now in that we're likely to get a strong'ish Pyramid opener from here on out, to balance things out, as any act w/ someone link Damon Albarn linked to it shows.

Nah I don't think so. Pyramid openers are generally something a bit different like a world music collective or a town band or a ballet or something. It just so happened that this one had Damon Albarn attached; they'd have done the same slot without him as well.