James discuss plans for new live album to celebrate 40th anniversary
Speaking on the red carpet of the Ivor Novello Awards, James frontman Tim Booth discussed the band’s plans to record a new live album to celebrate their 40th anniversary and why they requested a 12pm slot at this summer’s Latitude Festival.
The Manchester band were present at the ceremony to accept the ‘PRS for Music Icon Award’, which coincides with their special birthday. On June 9th, they release Be Opened By The Wonderful, a 20-track collection consisting of the group’s greatest hits which they have re-recorded with a 22-piece orchestra and 8-piece choir.
Speaking to Far Out, Booth explained why they chose to celebrate the anniversary with the assistance of an orchestra: “We forgot to record it in 2011 and it was amazing. This time we’re playing at the Acropolis, in one of them amazing amphitheatres there, that’s one of the oldest in the world, and we’re gonna film that, and put that out as well because that’s going to be really magical and special. It’s nearly as old as we are.”
Their run of anniversary dates have already taken them to London’s Royal Albert Hall, and as well as their summer appearance in Athens, they will also play a special guest slot at Suffolk’s Latitude Festival in July.
On their planned set, Booth explained: “We’ll look and see how hungover the audience are if they’re really hungover, we’ll play very still quiet, gentle music, and then maybe lift them a little bit, but they’ll get that all day so we’ll look to be something doing something different to what everyone else is doing.”
Booth also revealed why they decided to open the festival’s main stage rather than take a slot higher up the bill: “The reason we’re playing at 12pm is because they promised us nobody else will be playing at that time, and we need silence for the music we’re playing. We were offered a high slot, but it meant there’ll be some music playing in the background, and we’re playing such delicate music with the orchestra and choir that it was like ‘No, we’d like to do it at 12pm’. People can chill out and wake up and crawl out their tents, and hear something very beautiful.”
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