James

I’ve been to a number of the excellent Newmarket Night gigs, and I don’t think I’ve been to a single one where the band haven’t mentioned that it’s a strange venue. Strange it may be, but wonderful too. And it seems once you’ve played one race course you catch the bug; many acts come back time and time again. It’s not hard to see why.

On Friday night it was James’s turn, and they opened strongly with the massive Getting away with it (All Messed Up). Unlike last week, there was no rain, and the sun set beautifully over the course. With an excellent setlist of all the favs, as well as some newer songs, there was something for everyone. The crowd was, in true Newmarket style, incredibly diverse. And other than in sympathy, we weren’t sitting down.

Tim Booth joined the band as a dancer, and soon became the lead singer. The man can MOVE. He continued to groove throughout the set, including, impressively, during new track Trouble which is still a work in progress, and for which Tim had a handy lyric sheet to sing from.When the band move, the crowd will too, and it was amazing to see the crowd pulsating, dancing and singing along with everything they had. James are exceptional live, and I’d encourage everyone to go and see them if they’ve a chance.

Newmarket was put into stark contrast by James’ shambolic Saturday night, when they were due to perform at Liverpool’s Hope & Glory Festival. We got a ‘Probably our best gig of the summer - at the races - who'd have guessed that. Crazy life.’ from Tim Booth himself, whilst Hope and Glory… didn’t.

Biggest single Sit Down went down an absolute storm, but so did many of the less well-known, and more recent tracks. Some of my favourites were Just Like Fred Astaire, and the heartbreaking Dear John, but every song was performed perfectly, and I think we could have danced with Tim all night, if they’d let us.