Tim Booth, 66, Leads James Through 21-Song Leeds Arena Set
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- James played a two-hour, 21-song set at Leeds arena, with 66-year-old frontman Tim Booth joking he wouldn't dive into the crowd because "our audience has got to an age" — before contradicting himself and being carried aloft during "Sit Down"
- The set came 42 years into the band's career and celebrated 2024's "Yummy," their first UK No 1 album, according to the review
- James, now a nine-piece, premiered new material including the eight-minute "Nantucket," which features a wordless chorus, violin-driven groove, and verses about being "here to inspire"
- The review highlights drummer David Baynton-Power as the set's powerhouse, with recent additions Chloe Alper and Debbie Knox-Hewson bringing new textures to the lineup
- Booth surprised fans by emerging on the balcony for "Born of Frustration" and "Say Something," creating what the reviewer calls a "magical, communal moment"
- Unlike most legacy arena acts, the band declined to stack the set with greatest hits, instead airing deep cuts and tracks influenced by Brian Eno and Italian house, alongside lyrical swipes at billionaires and religion
- The band, formed in Manchester and originally signed to Factory Records, remains an "idiosyncratic" act that improvises and rotates its setlist nightly, Booth told the crowd
Why it matters: James reaching No 1 after 42 years and 14 albums is a rare late-career commercial peak, showing that an improvising, setlist-shuffling act with no obvious hit machine can still break through in an arena-rock landscape dominated by nostalgia-circuit greatest-hits packages. For fans and peers, it validates a stubborn, non-conformist path through five decades of British music.
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