| How I found James |
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| Written by manicmarc | |
| Thursday, 26 July 2007 | |
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How I found James:
It may come as a surprise to some of you who know me well, but I have only been a James fan for coming up to one year.
It was back in October 2006 that I was struggling to get my coursework done, having just started my 3rd and final year and University. PL/SQL and Oracle if any of you are interested. Horrible stuff, especially when you've not much time and your PC is old and slow.
I'd been bought an iPod recently, the flashy video type. This meant I had my entire music library in my pocket. There was one song, by this bloke called James on there that I kept seeing as I scrolled down the list. “Sit Down” it was called. I remembered downloading it from Napster a few years back, after hearing it on Virgin Radio. Yes, that was when Napster was the only file sharing program, and Chris Evans was on the Virgin breakfast show. OK, so I knew James was not really a bloke, but a band - but I had always seen them alongside the likes of The New Radicals, Stereophonics and Travis. The odd decent single (Sit Down), but it was not worth buying any of their albums, middle of the road stuff if anything. How wrong I was. So I'd been listening to this song a lot. For the first time, partly thanks to the intimacy of headphones, I actually listened to the lyrics, which seemed to me to be about someone in trouble, someone who was depressed. I think at times we all feel like this, we all have our darkest hour, some more than others. So anyway, I’d been at my computer for about 3 hours trying to get an object relational database to work in Oracle, when I decided to call it quits and watch a DVD. It was about 1 in the morning by now, but I find if I go straight to bed I won’t get to sleep. I wacked in an X-Files disc, season 3m disc 1m the first episode, D.P.O.¯. Within minutes, I could hear the booming, yet welcoming voice of who I now know to be Tim Booth singing at me. "Ring, Ring The Bells, Wake The Town!"¯ it went, as pizza delivery bloke gets fried by lightening. After the episode finished, I went online to look at IMDB to find out if it was James who sang that song. It was getting on for 2am now, and I was surprised that it was indeed James. The next day, after my lectures I set about finishing this damn database assignment. On went the iPod, playing of course the James Best Of album. I found myself singing along straight away. I was getting a lot of work done too, this was actually getting good. PL/SQL fell into place, I managed to get my database working pretty well. I could now sit back and test it. I kept listening to this album, and so decided to do a bit of research into this band called James. I found a lot of popular opinion stating Laid and Seven to be their best albums, so I went onto Amazon and ordered them both, along with a copy of the Best Of. I also found out they’d split up. This made me feel quite depressed. After the initial high of hearing a band I felt I could relate to "Insecure, what you gonna do / Feel so small they could step on you" I was now on a low knowing I’d never seem them play live. I ordered the "Getting away with it, live" DVD, and watched extras. Seeing Jim inside Maine Road really brought it home to me that James was a thing of the past, like the stadium. I took comfort in knowing their music would last forever, and I still had albums to discover. It was now Christmas, and I had Pleased To Meet You bought for me. I plodded through the end of the semester, the database exam was horrible but thankfully behind me now. I'd become a member of One Of The Three’s web forum, and recently read an interview on Tim Booth's web site where he said he was unlikely to rejoin James. James had become the soundtrack to the past 3 months, and I was really enjoying Pleased To Meet You. On the 24th January 2007, this article appeared on BBC news. It was beyond belief. I was really excited. Even more so when Tim and Jim confirmed in interviews that this wasn't a one off tour to fill up the pension funds, but a new musical journey which would result in an album. So that's how I discovered James. Only registered users can write comments. Powered by AkoComment 2.0.3! |
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