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James started their career in the early 1980s, rapidly coalescing around three young Mancunians - Jim Glennie, Paul Gilbertson and Gavan Whelan. Gilbertson's lyrics (and singing) left something to be desired, and their regular Bez-style dancer Tim Booth (a Shrewsbury-educated ex-public school boy studying drama at Manchester University alongside Sophie Aldred and Ben Elton, whom the Manc boys met when they spilled his pint at a student disco) was elevated to singer and lyricist. His first work, a reworking of "Hymn From a Village", suggested promise and style.

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Gilbertson was the early driving force within the band (he even named them "James", not after bass-player Glennie, but after James Kirk, guitarist in one of Paul's favourite groups and biggest influences - Orange Juice) and James became a regular four-piece, he suggested that they forumulized their playing by visiting a guitar instructor. The slightly older Larry Gott, an ex-heavy metal fan, became their teacher, briefly, in an old Scout hut in Manchester.

The band signed to Tony Wilson's famous Factory label in late 1983, and released their first single, "Jimone", a three-tracker featuring "What's the World", the extraordinary duet of "Folklore" and "Fire So Close" (later re-recorded for "Stutter" and "One Man Clapping" as "Why So Close"). Nearly 18 months elapsed before the release of "Jimtwo", though - as Tim Booth was hospitalized for a lot of that time, and Paul Gilbertson's drug-use became more noticeable. In a very small way emulating the late, great Syd Barrett, Gilbertson eventually became too unreliable and erratic, and after a gig playing alongside his old guitar instructor Larry Gott in 1984, Gilbertson left the band, to be replaced by Gott on guitar. "Jimtwo", featuring this new line-up, appeared in 1985, including James' first enduring anthem "Hymn From a Village".

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James were read to record their first album. However, rather than the indie cred of Factory Records (who they felt did not fit their own ethos completely) the band signed a six-album contract to Sire. This large American corporation, lead by the famous impressario Seymour Stein, was home to many new-wave acts (including the Ramones and Patti Smith) as well as British signed to UK indie labels but leased out to Sire in America (Primal Scream, the Happy Mondays, and later Belle and Sebastian).

Album sessions started in summer 1985, under the working title "Lost Innocence", working with producer Lenny Kaye, ex-partner of one of Tim Booth's hero's Patti Smith. Before the album (eventually called "Stutter") a 3-track EP was released in autumn 1986. Confusingly for later collectors, this EP was called "Sit Down" (after the cover drawing of a man on a bench done by John Carroll, an illustrator who would create visual images for James releases related to both the "Stutter" and "Laid" albums). It's lead track, "Chainmail", became one of James' most obscure, but rewarding, singles.

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The album "Stutter" came out in the summer of 1986, lead by the single "So Many Ways". A dizzying punk-pop effort, touching (but not stealing) from the earlier works of Julian Cope and the Fire Engines, "Stutter" was almost a dry run for their sleek folk-punk work of 1993; Brian Eno (as well as Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy) had been in the running as album producer, but rejected. Nowadays, the album is probably best known for the inclusion of another James anthem - "Johnny Yen".

Very rapidly, the four-piece of Booth, Gott, Glennie and Whelan returned to the studio record their second album. They still had a large amount of songs originally written in their nebulous, first three or four years - and would augment it with new numbers such as "Bouncy Bouncy Bonjour" ("What For?") One thing that has never changed with James is their mode of writing - predominantly based on jamming together and improvisation, then jumping upon a tune-like construction which appears spontaneously within the noise and running with it - a sort of million-monkeys-writing-Shakespeare-approach.

1987 would turn out to be a bad year for James. They started, then aborted, album sessions for their sophomore effort "Strip Mine", they barely toured, and they only reminded the general public of their prescence with a couple of radio sessions. In late 1987, Sire released a promo CD in the US only called "Just Say Yes" (the first of several over the next few years) which included a new James track "Ya Ho", taken from (as the sleeve notes said) an upcoming album called "If Things Were Perfect". Excitingly, this suggests possibly that old Factory track had be reworked and re-recorded for their new album, but that recording has since been lost (only a studio version of "Stutter" has ever surfaced from these aborted studio sessions, along with the "Just Say Yes" version of "Ya Ho" - which would be re-recorded for "Strip Mine" and only appear in its original form on the single release in autumn 1988).

"Strip Mine", James' second album, was released alongside the "proto-Sit Down" single "What For" in summer 1988. Apparently, the recording does not differ that greatly from the sessions of 1987, with only an added commercial sheen - although the ramshackle "Ya Ho" would suggest an far different, and possibly more interesting album still hiding in the cans.

James were annoyed and angry at Sire's treatment of them. Their second album had languished for almost a year before release, and despite "What For's" obvious commercial thrust, Sire did not get behind them promotionally at all. The album's second single "Ya Ho" came out in the autumn on 1988, and was promoted by James themselves when they went on tour with the Happy Mondays. The band were actually in a very strange dichotomy - their records barely sold ("Strip Mine" did not reach the top 100 of the album chart) but their live gigs were always joyous, exciting affairs.

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With that in mind, in November 1988, James organised two small gigs in front of the faithful at the Moles Club in Bath, and recorded for potential future release as a live album. Despite the recording's buoyancy and tight tunefulness, the band themselves were experiencing ructions. Drummer Gavan Whelan, always a loose cannon, had had a massive on-stage argument with Booth, and eventually left the band after the two Bath Moles shows. By Christmas 1988, James were stripped down to a threesome, still tied to a thankless Sire contract.

Happily, in early 1989, their manager and Booth's partner Martine McDonagh (heavily pregnant with their son Ben) managed to orchestrate a break from the Sire contract - it had been stipulated that the label had to contact the band within six months of a record release, and once that deadline was up, McDonagh simply phoned the label and said "bye bye".

In the interim, the Bath Moles recordings were prepared for release. Now called "One Man Clapping", James set up their own independent label - One Man Recordings - and, after getting a bank loan for £10,000 from the Clydesdale Bank, released "One Man Clapping" (an amalgam of both night's shows) on a limited edition of CDs and LPs in March 1989 (the CD featuring the extra live track "Ya Ho").

"One Man Clapping" is, twenty years later, the great James rarity - never re-released (annoyingly) and seemingly (according to Larry Gott just a couple of months ago) always destined for deleted oblivion. It is, says Gott, a "piece of history" - and should not be revisited. For James fans, though, it is always worth a visit. A handy compilation of some of their finest moments on Sire, the album also includes several tracks unavailable elsewhere - including one of the finest songs they've ever done: "Burned", a slow ballad so anthemic it manages to make "Sit Down" sound anaemic in comparison.

Here is the full album, ripped at 320kps from the CD:

http://www.protectlinks.com/118129
http://www.protectlinks.com/118130

Full tracklisting:

1. "Chain Mail" – 3:26
2. "Sandman (Hup-Springs)" – 3:43
3. "Whoops" – 3:26
4. "Riders" – 3:35
5. "Leaking" – 4:09
6. "Why So Close" – 4:10
7. "Ya Ho" – 4:45
8. "Johnny Yen" – 3:43
9. "Scarecrow" – 2:49
10. "Are You Ready" – 2:59
11. "Really Hard" – 4:23
12. "Burned" – 4:29
13. "Stutter" – 5:33

The only downside to "One Man Clapping" would be its slightly unrealsitic nature - it's an edited together suite of songs taken from two separate concerts, and sewn together with sampled (and sometimes unrealistic-sounding) applause.

To compare, here is a recording of James at the London Astoria, in October 1988 (about a month prior to the shows in Bath). It also contains a very early live version of James' next single - "Sit Down":

http://www.protectlinks.com/118132

(1) - A demo version of "Hymn From a Village", recorded in 1983.
(2) - "Stutter" recorded live at the Hacienda in 1982
(3) - Live version of "Sandman" (b-side to "Chainmail") recorded at the Futurama festival in 1989
(4) - "What For" recorded on the TV "Other Side of Midnight" in 1988

(Martine McDonagh, now an author, has a myspace which can be found here: http://www.myspace.com/martinemcdonagh)