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Click here to see a mundane blow-by-blow blog, as is all the rage online today. Read below for the irregular newsletter.
13th May 2007
Today, I finished recording my album. Although the band went home
over seven weeks ago, Beardy flew back to witness the final backing-vocal
being sung as the sun went down here in Los Angeles. We still have
a way to go yet. I'm taking a week off while Tom gets ready for the
next stage - mixing. Then I'll come back and we'll finish it off.
It has no name yet, and no cover design, but all the instruments
and vocals are in the can. I know what it will sound like.
The little
tit-bits here and there in the press about me out in this club and
that have not really captured my Los Angeles experience. They are,
as ever, just a tiny glimpse. The majority of it has been locked
away in a studio - actually in a cupboard which pretends to be a
vocal booth, where I record guitar and vocals. Okay, and I went out
some nights too... It has been a great experience of living life
on the road, hanging with old friends and meeting new, sharing a
moment, and then writing about these moments at home, and finally,
showing the band the songs, and hearing them play them as they will
eventually sound on the album. I work with a producer who came and
spent time with me around the world so that he could understand what
it was I was going through. As such, he feels the songs too, and
we sit and talk rubbish for hours about what they mean and how they
connect us. We set out to have fun, and to document the journey in
music. And in between, we ate curry. Every day.
28th Feb 2007
Paul, Karl, Ben, Malcolm and myself have been joined by two new
band members: Tom Rothrock and Mike Tarantino. These guys will
be producing and engineering the album respectively. We have been
tucked away for a few days in a dark and dirty little room going
over new songs that I have written since the World Tour finished
in November. Of course, the boys are all paid to say how much they
like the songs. They do it very well, and if things take a downward
turn, these guys could definitely go into acting. And we are in
Hollywood.
We had a fun lead up to this moment. Paul and I were at the Grammy’s,
and although we didn’t walk away with anything, we had the
amazing job of playing at this famous event. We were very lucky
to be part of the whole thing. I saw some familiar British faces,
and we called each other “loser” and consoled each
other in fine form at the afterparties. The evening also marked
the end of the Back to Bedlam journey. It’s you who understood
the songs and connected with how I felt, and hopefully felt the
same way too, so thank you for being part of it.
This week, the rest of the band flew out to join us for the Elton
John Aids Foundation party. We played two songs with Sir Elton
himself, who needed no rehearsal before taking to the stage. It
was a great honour to play with him, particularly at an event which
raised over $4million for his charity. I suggested replacing Beardy
for Elton on the new album, but I don’t think I could afford
him, and it wouldn’t be the same without the Beardy-Weirdy.
It’s great fun to be back in Los Angeles. I was here in early
2004 recording Back to Bedlam, and it’s good to be back in
my old room, and concentrating on some new songs that pick up where
I left off three years ago. There’s been plenty to write
about. We’re keeping the recording process small and simple
as I did the first time round. Hopefully we’ll only be recording
in the bathroom out of choice this time rather than running out
of money, as we did the last time! I’ll try to keep you updated
with how it’s going, although it’s hard enough telling
the boys in the band what’s going on…
28th Dec 2006
Well 2006 is almost over. I’ve been touring for almost all
of it and had the time of my life, Thank you to all of you who
have been along for the ride, whether that be listening from home,
being part of this site, stopping into a show, or coming on the
road with us. Through all the interviews, photoshoots and meaningless
moments of the job, it has been meeting you that has made it fun
and worthwhile. As a band, we have got up on stage and had fun
only because you have been there having fun too. By the end of
the World Tour, we’d all got it pretty much sorted, from
the way you helped each other buy tickets, reviewed each show and
flew miles to join the gang in Vegas, to the way we as a band enjoyed
an aftershow party every single night, a hangover every single
day, and still got up and had a ball on stage. I’ve met more
people in the last couple of years than I have in the rest of my
life, of both sexes, all ages and a whole host of colours, nationalities
and religions. Thank you for being part of it.
I am writing the second album now…
Happy New Year!
16th Oct 2006
Hello from St. Louisville, Kentucky, USA! We are back on the road.
This is the last leg of the Back to Bedlam World tour 2006. Since
I have written last we finished up in Europe; the band and I went
to the World cup Final (which was actually the first ever football
match I'd ever been to. You might as well start with the best); and
I've been away writing a few songs. I flew to New York for a night
in August to go to the MTV VMA's. Can I thank all of you from the
bottom of my heart for the voting that you put in. I had asked Billy
to vote for me, but he said no, so I'm very glad you did. Thank you.
I had never expected to ever be at such an award ceremony, let alone
win a Moon Man. It was a great surprise.
I've been happily writing away and now that we are back on the
road, I've slipped in a couple of new songs for you to hear. I
really like them, and they're fun for us to play as a band. The
welcome back we had here in North America has been amazing. The
audiences in Canada really got behind us. The larger venues there
still seemed like intimate rooms. As some of you will have seen,
we've got a whole new production going on which I feel ties in
with the songs. It's a big old show now. As a band, our favorite
bit is during "Wise Men" when a small pencil camera projects
an image of Ben, our guitarist, onto the screen behind. It's supposed
to be of his guitar during the solo, but if he stands just a little
too close, you just get a huge shot of his crotch on the screen.
For those of you who are wondering, it's a cucumber wrapped in
tinfoil that's down his trousers.
We've had a great reception in new and old cities and it's been
great to catch up with some names from the board. Of course a highlight
has to be the 2 nights at Radio City. Having been there at the
VMA's a month before, I knew the layout of the venue and was glad
to have the steps from the stage to the first mezzanine so I could
run around around and threaten the audience with the gong-bonger.
It was a great Axl Rose moment.
The Charity Auction is going really well and I am amazed at how generous
some people are. In about 10 shows so far, we have already raised
over $30,000 for Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).
There are still another 30-odd shows to go! The money raised is going
to be used by MSF to help in the Central African Republic (Darfur),
where it will be invaluable, so once again, thank you so much for
being part of this. Today, we are also announcing an extra date in
Los Angeles. It will be at the House of Blues, and all the profits
will go to MSF.
While we're talking about world issues... please check out the movie
An Inconvenient Truth if you haven't already. It's even more important
than a celebrities' choice of clothing to an award ceremony. Only
joking... Nothing's THAT important!!! Anyway, it's a really good
film that is more relevant than ever right now.
For those of you who are coming to the remaining gigs this tour,
I look forward to seeing you there, and please be gentle with Billy
in Vegas!
1st July 2006
It's been 2 months since I've last posted, and the World Tour is
still up and running - just. We've been to Japan who are the most
polite nation on the planet. They are also very patient. One fan
saw me leaving my hotel, and so waited until I returned later to
get an autograph - 16 hours later! We flew back to the States for
the Coachella Festival and then on to Mexico. The Mexican audiences
were the loudest we've ever heard, and for a moment it was like being
in the Beatles... I aquired an enormous sombrero, which sadly has
since been lost in transit, (Ben ate it), but it was great to wear
for one song. This was our first taste of a Latin American audience,
and I can only hope we get down to South America in the not-too-distant
future. From there we returned to the States. We started doing the
Backstage Pass Charity Auction each night in aid of Medicins Sans
Frontieres, and remarkably raised $33,400 in ten days. I was blown
away by people's generosity. Thank you to all who took part. I have
to meet a lot of people after every show, but for me, meeting people
who have been part of the auction is always the most rewarding. It
seems people were genuinely enthusiastic to be able to donate to
a worthy cause rather than just come backstage. It was a great run
of shows and good to see so many recognisable faces over there now.
I took my first holiday in a while, but then everyone knows about
that because a photographer hiding on the beach sold pictures to
the newspapers. I wonder who he photographs when there are no recognisable
faces on the beach? My money is all the topless girls. We used to
call these people Peeping Toms. Now we pay them.
And now we are back in Britain. The Wireless Festival was great fun.
London is home, and I've been away so long, but it was great to be
back. There were a whole crowd of boardies to welcome us home. It
was great to see all your faces up around the front and I'm glad
to hear you had a good time. Thanks for making the effort to come
and make us feel at home again! If the weather holds, then we should
have some really fun shows in the next few open air shows. At Blenheim
Palace, where I am now, we're trying to do something special - as
it's the World Cup, and England are through to the quarter-finals,
we're replacing our usual projector and screen system that we use
to show video behind us during the show, and hiring a huge LED screen
so that we can show the football match to all of you who turn up
early at the Blenheim Palace show. With a bit of dodgy wiring, we've
got the broadcast running through it now, and we've soundchecked
early, so are able to open doors to let you in to catch the second
half... Of course, Brian, my guitar tech, is Scottish, and has signed
the production office "The Portugese Consulate".
26th April 2006
I forgot to tell you this story from Australia - I went out with
friends in Sydney, and very late that night, we decided to go to
a Chinese-run Karaoke club. It was one of those places where you
get a small room to yourselves and happily sing away in the privacy
of your own group. What fun. We did this for about an hour, and
anything by Gloria Gayner seemed to work well, until from the next
door room, not knowing we were there, we heard three English girls
singing Goodbye My Lover. After a brief discussion about what to
do, I burst into their room, grabbed a microphone, sang them the
last chorus, said "thank you and goodnight!" and left.
They were already on the floor thinking their drinks must have
been spiked, and all we heard from the room was screaming for the
next twenty minutes. I'm going to start hanging round Karaoke bars
more often...
20th April 2006
Hello from Australia! We have one more show here, in Brisbane,
and then are off to Japan. None of the band have ever been there,
so we're really looking forward to it. The first leg of the North
American Tour has been and gone. It was a very smelly experience
with 15 men on one bus. It was great to see some new places and
get drunk in them. Although the single and album had gone high
in the charts, the tour had been booked much earlier, so the venues
were quite small. For us, that was ideal, as we could see most
of the audience and feel like we were really getting to meet the
people who had come along. We're coming back soon! It was amusing
to meet Rhino, and see a man really experiencing exhaustion having
driven round half the country to follow the tour. We should have
just attached your car to the back of the bus. Australia has been
a blur. The Ozzie MTV Awards afterparty hasn't finished yet and
we'll probably need to leave just to give our livers a break. It's
been a pleasure to meet the Ozzie Stalkers along the way. I will
treasure the boomerang and try it out on members of the press shortly...
Speaking of which, I've been asked a lot why I haven't responded
to stories in the press and I have to say that my private life is
private and not for comment. If you pick and choose what to comment
on, then you're already playing the game, and they're just trying
to sell papers, not the truth. Please read my newsletter dated 29th
August 2005. Rest assured that those in my private life are well
supported and unaffected by the gossip. However, it seems to have
killed the "is James gay?" thread, which is desperately sad. After much consideration my only statement will be: "first
it was sex; next it'll be drugs; and finally, they might even go
as far as accusing me of being in the music industry..."
On the other hand, I've had some great experiences of Australian
journalism, from the wierd Japanese MTV man in speedos and flip-up
shades, and culminating in meeting Andrew Denton, a bright and funny
man, who led me very gently through my first experience of the 45
minute televised interview, and only got competitive once about the
parrot smugglers. Thanks for having us to visit in OZ. Hope to see
you too again soon! Finally, it's very good to see Cool as a Cucumber
back on the board...
27th February 2006
Well it's a bit late for me to say Happy New Year, but this is
the first time I've really had a chance to sit down to say hello.
The first thing I'd like to say is thank you so much for voting
for the Brits! It's been an incredible journey with you all and
that was really the icing on the cake, so thank you. I had a great
after-party that took a couple of days to recover from, and a couple
of very touching phone calls from some of the other nominees to
say congratulations. I often read about artists being rude about
each other, but I'm convinced it's just papers selling papers,
because my whole experience of other musicians has been meeting
people who are entirely supportive of each other. I guess it's
similar to when I joked about myself singing like a girl, and then
get asked in interviews if I'm offended by the person who accused
me of singing like a girl. Have I said, "Why let the truth ruin a good story?" I
must have done - lots of times.
We have started on the Back to Bedlam World Tour. How amazing to
be able to say World Tour! With 20 gigs and one burglary in the first
month alone, it's going to be a busy year. February has not slowed
down either. We shot the Wise Men video overnight (it's another do-not-try-this-at-home
affair), and also the video for the Brits where I was tied 8 metres
underwater and had to make out with a mermaid whose boyfriend was
the one feeding me air. Fortunately, he liked to watch. In between
the London and Manchester shows (24 hours) we flew to Chicago to
play on Oprah Winfrey's show, so the gig the next day was a little
confused as we were not sure which planet we were on. Off to the
States next month, which will be fun, although I won't have the luxury
of having Holly (HP) in the front row mouthing the words to Same
Mistake to make sure I don't forget them. Maybe we should take her
on tour?
Finally, I've just seen a video of Beardy dancing during the cover
of "Coz I Love You", and I'm going to rectify this immediately. He has been enrolled in "I Dance Like My Dad Anonymous".
We're enjoying being on the road and meeting you out there. See
you soon!
27th December 2005
To all of you, including me, that were concerned about Goodbye My
Lover being over-played at radio, I think we're okay! it came in
at Number 11, which is perfect. It did it's job and drew attention
to the album once more, and BTB went up again to Number 2 for Christmas.
I'm sure that was helped by many of you getting it for you family
for Christmas.
It's been a mad year. This time a year ago, 6,000 copies of the album
were out there. Now round the world, there are over 5.5 million!
It's unbelievable. I once hoped to just sell enough that I could
make a second album. I think that's secure now...
I'm on holiday now. I hope you are too. Thank you for your continued
support. Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
11th November 2005
I’m writing to you from the US, where Beardy, Mike “the sound guy”, and myself are on tour supporting an American singer/songwriter called Jason Mraz. We’re doing a foreign exchange, so he’ll come and support us on the Feb 2006 UK Tour. It’s actually been really fun to play to new audiences who haven’t heard the music before. It reminds me of this time a year ago in London playing in some tiny venues before anyone had heard of us. We’ve covered a fair bit of the West coast and done our own shows in the East, where the rest of the band flew out to join us. Whilst on our way to Vegas, we stopped in the desert and buried Beardy’s infamous boots. They had covered many miles and trodden many great stages, but after their owner bought himself a newer, younger pair, they committed shoeicide. We marked their final resting place with an engraved glass plaque I’d received some days earlier. If you find yourself on the road from LA to Vegas, it was the second last turn-off before the State Line. Turn right at the T-junction. Where the road stops, follow the riverbed on your right uphill for no more than thirty yards. Please don’t
disturb them though…
Before this, we had the October Tour. It had many highlights, but
through the haze, I can’t remember much of it. We had great fun, and it was great to meet everyone around the country. A few people turned up to almost every show (You know who you are!). It was rumoured that two of our techs had an onstage punch-up before we came on at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. I’d
like to deny this (but has anyone got any pictures?) Amazingly, I
got the Q Award and the MTV Europe Music Award both for Best New
Act. I know many of you were on the message board here galvanising
each other into voting, so from the bottom of my heart, thank you
very much. I think we can agree that as a team, we all got these
awards. Then out here in the States, we filmed the video for Goodbye
My Lover with a very pretty girl from a program called The OC. Annoyingly,
some other guy got to make out with her all day. It was my video,
so I effectively paid to watch. What a loser.
We're back home in December, so hope to see some of you then!
29th August 2005
Not to state the obvious, but the album has been at Number 1 in
the UK now for weeks. Isn't it mad? Sure, "You're Beautiful" was
there too for a while, but this has never really been about individual
songs. Consequently, I've read some fantastic things in the press,
although I'm not quite sure who some of them are writing about.
As a result, I'm not so sure we really did reach the moon.
Since my last letter, I have been to Amsterdam, Viareggio, Arezzo,
Locarno, London, New York, Venice, Tarvisio, Windsor, Oslo, Brussels,
Stockholm, Newquay, Seattle, San Francisco, Denver, Boulder, San
Diego, New York again, Los Angeles, Auckland, Melbourne and Sydney.
Some of this has been with the band. Most of it has been with Beardy
in tow - it's been great to have someone along for the ride, and
who better? Tomorrow, we're off to Paris and then Berlin... It
goes on. A lot of this has been promotion, which could be quite
draining, except for the fact that many of you have found ways
of gate-crashing the industry showcases, and made the event much
more fun. The good news for us is that we should soon be able to
announce more tour dates in the US, Europe and elswhere in the
next few months. Along with the two UK tours already booked, we'll
soon be out there playing, rather than sitting in a hotel room
saying, "I learnt the piano aged 5...". I'm going to
start making things up in interviews now just to keep you and me
amused. Feel free to suggest things. Talking of which, Billy says
the Message Board has gone a bit ballistic, and rather than it
slowing down, everyone has just had to learn how to speed read.
It's good to keep him busy though, and as ever, your messages are
greatly appreciated. We're really looking forward to seeing you
in October.
5th July 2005
There are just too many things to write about that have happened this
month. If I start at the top, the most incredible gig has to be
Glastonbury, Pyramid Stage. I didn't know if we'd play to a very big
audience, but the sun came out on Sunday morning, and many more people
than I expected showed up. We hauled ourselves out of our tent, found
the last remaining clean clothes, got on stage and had the time of our
lives. For Paul, that meant spending
a large portion of the gig taking pictures of the crowd. Billy was
there jumping around with no top on at the side of the stage. Some of
you may have seen him... Then as a duo, Paul and I did a song live on TV
and afterwards. Seeing Paul sitting on a bail of hay with his wellies
and pink frilly shirt, I introduced him as, "my gay farmer friend".
Consequently, his father has been calling him asking him if they
need to "have a conversation". I should reassure all you female fans
of Paul's, there is nothing to worry about - I was joking, and as you can
probably tell, Paul is standing beside me now with my arm twisted
behind my back...
"You're Beautiful" and the album seem to be doing really well now.
Thank you to all of you who have taken it upon yourselves to drag your
friends into the shops. I've met many of you who have bought more than
one copy as well. Your support is incredible. I have received all your
emails and letters, and am bowled over by what many of you have said.
Before all this happened though, we did a small European Tour
finishing in Paris where many of you visited, a trip round America
building up to the album release there in late September (almost a
year after the UK release!), and both Top of The Pops and CD:UK, which
was a new and interesting experience for me. The pinnacle of it all
has to be "Goodbye My Lover" playing on Emmerdale Farm, and meeting
Richard and Judy. I can now retire a happy man.
6th May 2005
It's been 2 months since I've managed to write a paragraph or 2,
and my only excuse is it's been busy... Really busy! March was full of
trips to Europe. I spend almost every day in a different country, but
never got to see the country I was in. Shame when
you're in such an amazing place as Vienna, Paris or Rome, but maybe a
good reason to go back. April was great fun because of the tours. Thank
you to everyone who came along, particularly those who traveled great
distances, bid huge amounts on eBay (120 quid for SBE!), or came to
more than 1, 2 or even 3 gigs. It's been great to meet so many of you,
particularly those whose names I recognise from the message boards. The Irish Tour consisted of me and Paul
Beard driving round in a friend's mini which had been adorned with
beads, dried flowers and stickers of fairies. Together, we looked very
suspect. The UK Tour was overwhelming. To those of you who sang
along to your favourite songs, thank you. To those who focused on the
quieter ones, thank you too. A couple got engaged during "You're
Beautiful" in Leeds, and Hazey got me a monkey with a mini Monkey
King t-shirt in Oxford. It was difficult to know how many new songs to
do for those of you who have been with the album for a while versus
those who have only just got it and want to hear the songs they know
and not much more. I hope we found the right balance for you. I also
got masses of requests to dedicate songs to people and often forgot.
Mind like a sieve... And we have a new guitarist. He's called Ben
Castle. He's short and hairy, and plays these songs like I hear them
in my head, so I hope he sticks around. We're booking another tour in
October so I look forward to seeing you then, but before all that,
come and visit us in Europe! The video for "You're Beautiful" is
great. We're gonna stick it on the single when it comes out at the end
of the month. Other things that happened - Malcolm Moore on bass got
pregnant. Karl Brazil on drums started dressing like me and so got
asked to do an interview in Italy before we played 'High' to our
largest audience to date - 600,000 people. I think Brighton still made
more noise than all of them though!
3rd March 2005
We have just come back from a great 5 day UK Tour.
It started in Dublin where the Irish crowd kicked off the tour for us
in style. Paul Beard later found himself alone dancing topless in a
gay club. Glasgow was a huge night - my manager was so hungover in the
morning that he bailed out to come back to London immediately. We
recorded the Des & Mel Show after the Birmingham gig and traveled
straight back up to a raucous but very friendly audience in
Manchester. The final show was in The Scala in London. It was my
birthday and one I will always remember. The audience sung happy
birthday, the band were out of control, and Billy threw some Marks &
Spencer's underwear on stage that carried the immortal words "You're
Pants". He was removed by security shortly afterwards. Aside from
that, it's been frantic. I've been in NYC, Hamburg, Vienna, Milan and
Newcastle. 'High' is at Number 11 in the airplay chart in Italy, so I
went over there to do Top of The Pops and CD:Live. Paul Beard and I
went up to Glasgow to do the Billy Sloan radio show and we heard
rumours that Mel C stalked us for the next few days around various
radio stations. 'Wise Men' is out on Monday...
11th January 2005
 |
For me, New Year started with
an extremely hungover interview on New Year's Day with
Dermot O'Leary who was very bright and breezy, all things considered.
I'd like to reassure 'NickinLondon' that most of the answers I
give in interviews are tongue in cheek. Maggie Thatcher isn't
really the inspiration behind the music ... |
The band and I have
started the 93 Feet East gigs and discovered that the down side to
people singing all the words is that they know when I've forgotten
them. Things used to be so simple. It's good to see so many people
enjoying the shows. You make it great fun for us too. If you haven't managed to get a
ticket, we've just announced another date at Scala in Feb. 'Wise
Men' will be released on 7th Mar and I hope to get a live version
of the song recorded for the B-side. As Big Liz might say, "I wish
you all a very happy New Year." |
24th November 2004
So after a few distribution problems, the album is now out there.
Thank you to all of you who have been rearranging record store
shelving! It's been amazing seeing so many of you at the album launch
shows and most of you are now hired as backing singers full-time. It's
nearly time to say goodbye to the digipak, as the album is now being
produced in the normal packaging. For those of you who have got the
limited edition version, you'll know you're the winner. After your
suggestions on the message board, we've decided Wise Men will be the
next single. We shoot the video in December. There will be a small UK
tour in Jan (and I will try to get to N.I. eventually Sharon!). Until
then, roll on the Elton shows.
18th October 2004
I've just watched the countdown timer on the releases page work
its way down to zero, and the sign beside the first single says 'OUT
NOW'. To all of you have been posting messages of support, I know your
names and thank you. I'm not expecting to break chart records today.
There will be no poster campaign or TV adverts yet, just word of
mouth, so those of you who have heard the music and told your friends,
called radio stations and posted messages in other forums, your voices
are as important to me as my own. I look forward to seeing you at the
shows - make sure you come and say 'hello' afterwards!
24th September 2004
After all our delays, the
changes of plan, the diplomatic and political wrangling, 'Back to
Bedlam' has reverted to Plan A: we release a limited edition digipak
on October 11th and the single a week later. We will re-release the
album in standard format in the New Year. The video for 'High' will be
streaming from this site within the next fortnight, as will a genius
clip of Billy dancing on a bar on his birthday, drunk. I am told that
'High' will be aired for the first time on Johnnie Walker's drive-time
show on Radio 2 this Tuesday. However, not everything they tell me is right. Sometimes they say stuff
just to get me out of bed.
James.
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