Summing up a lifetime of work, Manchester indie veterans James release their behemoth four-hour album – Nothing But Love, bringing together many of their top songs over the last 40 years.
To mark this special release, I picked the brain of an expert (my cousin) to get some little-known James facts.
Firstly, I think it’s important to explain that growing up, I thought James was party music like Saturday Night or the Macarena because it was played in the same way at my family parties growing up. My cousins were obsessed, and they’ve seen James live probably more times than most people have been to concerts (especially since I just discovered the average person goes to only 100 concerts in a lifetime).
I also might be misremembering this but I’m pretty sure my cousin left her own birthday party early to go and watch James live. I think the fact this was normalised for me at such a young age explains a lot too.
Anyway, she delivered with five great lesser-know James facts for me. So here we go:
Before becoming James…
Before becoming James in 1982, the band went through several short-lived names:
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- Venereal and the Diseases
- Volume Distortion (Kept the initials VD)
- Model Team
- Tribal Outlook
- Before finally settling on James.
I actually think Venereal and the Diseases is absolutely a name an up and coming edgy indie band would choose now, so they were clearly very ahead of their time.
Their first gig
Their first gig was actually in my original hometown at the Eccles British Legion. If you’d been to either my hometown, or the Legion, you understand why this is truly the most random first gig venue.
The Daisy (Pt 1)
The daisy apparently came about after a fan had drawn the petals on a T-shirt – the band’s manager saw this, and they purchased the rights to use it. Many arguments have taken place between fans over the years about the correct number of petals!
The Daisy (Pt 2)
In 2025, the James Daisy was updated and now has nine petals to reflect the band members. I love this evolution and the fact that this was initially such a fan driven process.
‘Sit Down’ controversy
The original video for the band’s iconic song Sit Down was banned by the musicians’ union because bassist Jim Glennie pretended to play the drums. (The musicians union felt it displaced a session musician who had actually done the drumming on the record).
If this has piqued your interest or reminded you to reconnect with James, their recent release Nothing But Love – The Definitive Best Of is a 2LP set curated by the band themselves, highlighting their catalog through key singles, fan favorites and deeper cuts – as well as a couple of unreleased tracks.