Singular Artists, by arrangement with Solo, Promm & Tileyard Music, today announce that Manchester indie legends James will play The National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, Dublin on Monday 26th August 2024, with very special guests The Zutons.
With more than 25 million albums sold over their 42-year career, James are amongst the most successful alternative rock bands of their era with hits like ‘Laid’, ‘Sit Down’ and ‘Getting Away With It’ earning them cult status and an incredibly loyal fan following.
Having gathered a cult following around compulsive art rock gallops like ‘Johnny Yen’ during the 1980s, James broke through to mainstream chart success with their 1990 major label debut Gold Mother and went on to unite the early nineties with euphoric anthems of solace, love, sex, loss and frustration at the ills of the world: ‘Come Home’, ‘Sit Down’, ‘Sound’, ‘Sometimes (Lester Piggott)’ and ‘Laid’.
Their fifth album Laid – the first of a string of James albums produced by Brian Eno – saw them break the US charts, while subsequent hit albums including Whiplash (1997), Millionaires (1999) and Pleased to Meet You (2001) cemented their standing as a classic 1990s singles act, adding ‘Tomorrow’, ‘She’s a Star’, ‘Just Like Fred Astaire’ and ‘Getting Away with It (All Messed Up)’ to their formidable canon.
The band entered a six-year hiatus in December 2001, but such was the connection and fervency of their fanbase that their 2007 reunion was met with such renewed success that it was as though they’d never been away. James’s celebrated second era, launched with 2008’s Hey Ma, would earn them more Top 20 album placings and faster ticket sales than their whirlwind initial run, completing an unbroken run of 15 Top Twenty albums since 1990.
2014’s La Petite Mort – inspired by the deaths of singer Tim Booth’s mother and his close friend Gabrielle Roth – was critically acclaimed, while 2016’s Girl at the End of the World returned them to the upper echelons of the album chart, where they’ve remained ever since.
Living in Extraordinary Times (2018), All the Colours of You (2021) and the new, 18th studio album Yummy are amongst their finest and most prescient releases, dealing with US politics, AI technology and conspiracy theories, all the while facing down mortality with an unbeaten smile and striving for love in a world spinning catastrophically out of control.
Their fortieth anniversary in 2023 was celebrated with a tour of inspired orchestral reworkings of hits, b-asides and obscure favourites – and a studio recording Be Opened by the Wonderful – but this was far from a full stop. As Booth sings on the anti-ageism anthem ‘Rogue’ on Yummy: “some of us still have work to do”.
The Zutons were formed in Liverpool, England, in 2002 by singer/guitarist David McCabe, lead guitarist Boyan Chowdhury, bassist Russell Pritchard, and drummer Sean Payne, with saxophonist Abi Harding joining later. The band’s debut album, Who Killed… The Zutons (produced by Ian Broudie) was released in May 2004 and spent nearly 12 months on the UK album chart. Nominated for the 2004 Mercury Music Prize, the album went on to sell over 600,000 copies (2 x Platinum) in the UK. The band was also nominated for Best Breakthrough Act at the 2005 Brit Awards.
Second album Tired of Hanging Around was released in April 2006. Produced by Stephen Street, the album reached number 2 in the UK album chart, selling over half a million copies and spawning Top 10 singles, ‘Why Won’t You Give Me Your Love’ and ‘Valerie’. The latter was subsequently covered by Mark Ronson feat. Amy Winehouse, and went on to become a global hit.
The band’s third album You Can Do Anything was released in 2008, entering the UK album chart at number 6 before the group disbanded shortly after release.
2024 saw The Zutons release their first new music in over 16 years in the form of new single ‘Creeping on The Dancefloor’, taken from the Nile Rodgers / Ian Broudie produced Top 10 album, ‘The Big Decider’.
MONDAY 26TH AUGUST 2024
TICKETS FROM €55
ON SALE FRIDAY 24th MAY, 10AM
FROM TICKETMASTER.IE & SINGULARARTISTS.IE
James + special guests The Zutons join James Blunt + special guest Gareth Dunlop; THE THE + special guests A Lazarus Soul; Gossip + special guests Nation of Language and Sprints; Deacon Blue + special guests Altered Hours; and Cat Burns + special guest Sam Tompkins as the fifth and final headliners for Wider Than Pictures 2024 – Singular Artists’ exceptional series of shows that are fast becoming a staple of summer in Dublin.