Janaury 2001
When the NME Carling tour for 2001 was announced (JJ72, Amen, Alfie and Starsailor) many people were quite rightly curious about the last act. With no record out, yet occupying the same billing as Coldplay did last year, they attracted a great deal of attention. Cue Jo Whiley who made the damn fine �Fever� her single of the week and gave it plenty of advanced airplay, proving they were worth it. On hearing such a gorgeous acoustic ballad, and contemplating how well such fragile music will go down with fans of the hard-rocking Amen, we caught up with frontman and songwriter James just before the Manchester date on the NME Carling tour. He comes across as thoroughly amiable and likeable yet softly-spoken and a bit shy. A bit like his music, possibly.
�I�ve been playing with the bass-player and the drummer for going on three years. We�ve only been Star Sailor and playing with the keyboard player for about ten months. We did the toilet circuit when we started out. Over the last couple of years, it�s improved a bit. We did a tour with the Doves and a couple of dates with Toploader in Germany. It�s all starting to come together now.�
Is this the biggest tour you�ve been involved in?
�Possibly, because of the amount of dates. The biggest gig we did was at Sheffield Arena with The Beautiful South. When we played in Germany, those were 2,000 capacity venues but we only did three dates over there.�
How has it been going so far?
�We�ve done about six dates now. It�s all rolling along nicely. All the bands are getting on and everything. It�s a good bill because, particularly Amen, are all really friendly blokes. They go on stage and go mad, spitting at each other then, as soon as they�re off stage, it�s like �Do you want a cup of tea?� and all that sort of friendly banter. It�s good fun.�
How have the crowds been reacting to you?
�The crowds have been varied. A couple of dates, the metal / rock contingency have been out in force but we�ve not had anything too severe yet. Just a couple of little heckles and things. Us and Alfie are in the same boat, so we come together and get over it and play for the people who�ve come down to see us.�
You�re about to release your debut single.
�They�re three demos that we did when we were originally trying to get signed up. It was a publishing organisation that put us in the studio to do it. EMI just decided to go with the original versions rather than try to polish them up.�
So where are you all from?
�We all grew up in different areas of the Northwest. At the moment, three of the band live in Wigan and the drummer still lives in Warrington. I grew up in Chorley, the rhythm section in Warrington and the keyboard player is a Wiganer.�
Have you played many venues in Manchester?
�We did our own gig at The Roadhouse as a warm-up, that was really good fun. Not really played anywhere else apart from A & R showcase gigs we did when we were first trying to get signed. We did a couple at the Night & Day.�
Do you go to a lot of gigs?
�I prefer to go see bands if I�m having a night out. I�ve been to see the Doves a few times. We did a tour with them in Ireland and a couple of dates in England, so whenever they�re in town, we go down and see them and speak to them afterwards. Their New Years Eve gig in Manchester was good. Doves and Badly Drawn Boy.�
Where do you like going to in Manchester?
�The Night & Day�s quite a good place. The Dry Bar, next door to that. I�ve not really been on a proper bender in Manchester. Normally, after a gig, we�ll hang around there.�
What are your favourite recent records?
�My favourite album of recent is Lambchop �Nixon�. I also bought the Catherine Williams album recently. It�s really close to the spirit of Nick Drake. There�s some nice instrumentation on their with the cello and all the strings. Quite a good album to drift off to sleep to, in a good way!�
What about your all-time favourites?
�Jeff Bukely�s �Greatest� is my favourite album ever. I think Neil Young�s �Tonight�s The Night� is also a benchmark album. Big Star �Sister Lovers�, things like that. The early Charlatans albums as well, because they were like the first band that I could identify with at a younger age. Whereas, Jeff Bukely and Neil Young I got into whilst I was at college.�
So, when did you start making music?
�I started singing from about eight years old in choirs and musicals and things. I think I had a couple of early attempts at writing songs at 13, 14 but I came into my own a bit more about 16. I started writing prolificly and that�s where it all started really.�
What next then?
�We�ve recorded the second single and the B-side to that. The singles going to be a song called �Good Souls� which we normally end the set with. Probably our loudest and most electric tune. We wanted to come out with a really mellow sound and acoustic then hit people with something a bit more energetic second thing. We�re looking forward to seeing how that does.�
