This day started as all good tour days should start  - at 12 noon. We had arranged to meet Chugg and Jez at Pizza Hut in Manchester and fill up on the all you can eat for £5 lunch buffet.

The short drive to Blackpool began at half past one, and, as usual, resulted in us having to go back and get Chugg’s camera 10 minutes up the road in heavy traffic. The drive gave us all a chance to get some sleep, although as I was driving, my snooze was interrupted by occasional moments of consciousness that were required to maintain the car’s position on the road.

We found our B&B which was, as expected, miles from the venue,  and as it was lashing down with rain, a decision was made that I should drop everyone off at the venue, drive the car back to the B&B and walk back into town, lucky me.  The pre-arranged meeting place was the “Stanley Beer Engine”, but it was only 4pm, Graham and a couple of friends were already there but they went off to their digs to get some kip so we made an executive decision to move elsewhere for cheaper beer, and return at around 6pm. When we returned to the Stanley, several James fans were assembled, all having found the pub featured on the OFC site.  A few fanzines were sold, and a couple more pints drunk, and we were off to the gig.

It was noticeable that even more touts had also made the short journey from Manchester and theirs was a brisk trade in tickets. Justhipper got a photo pass, so I hit the bar and waited for Exit 52. This band are a familiar sight at James gigs, having supported last time James were in Blackpool and are doing a couple of dates on this tour. Their infectious brand of power-pop makes them a must see, and with a great stage presence, they deserve their chance on a bigger stage.  I cannot say the same for the inoffensive and formulaic blandness that is Shea Seger. I have nothing positive to say, so I will say nothing.

The venue was probably the largest on this tour so far, and Ms. Seger on stage gave me the opportunity to investigate the expanse of bar areas at the rear of the hall. The facilities were excellent ( apart from the embarrassing toilet –episode) although £3 for a bottle is expensive.  The hall filled rapidly, and was crammed by the time the lights went down.  The set comprised, much like the previous gigs, of a mixture of classic James tunes, and a healthy wedge of new tunes.  “Come Home” made a return to the set list, and “Runaground” also featured; but stand out tracks tonight were “How Was It For You” and new-ie “Saving Grace”. During “Born of Frustration”, Tim ascended the gantry along one side of the auditorium, serenading the gallery, and astounding the masses, attentive to his every gyration.

“Top of the world” still gets an encore spot but it sits uneasily between “BoF” and “Laid”, but none the less tonight’s version is still a great rendition.

As the final frenetic notes of “Ring the Bells” funneled down the corridors, I made my way to the exit, and was confronted by 10 t-shirt sellers, some even selling last years tour shirts, and people were actually buying them!

Martin from Warrington helped sell the zines, as Justhipper had to find our hotel key (chicks huh), but was unsuccessful, so, after selling the zines, we retired to Brannigan’s for a late drink with Fiji Bob, Rizzo and the Warrington lads.

We got back to the B&B  and took the keys to another room from the key box so we could at least get some sleep ( “Initiative“, that’s what the man said).

I would rate the whole Blackpool experience as the best on this tour, and one of the top James occasions in the last few years: Great tunes, great friends and ..um…….beer .  (John)

I figured when we set out to meet Chugg and Jez at noon that perhaps at least one day would run smoothly.  We made use of our own top tour tip – if you fill up at the £5 all you can eat Pizza Hut Buffet at lunchtime, you generally don’t need supper at all, which leaves more money for beer and other necessities.  In any case, we had our lunch, went back to Jez’s house to collect his and Chugg’s overnight bags and set off for Blackpool by about 1:30pm.  15 minutes later, sat in heavy traffic on the A57, Chugg realized she’d forgotten her camera and we had to turn around and head back.  Thankfully, once we’d collected the camera, it only took an hour to get to Blackpool, despite the torrential rain, and John nearly falling asleep at the wheel.  We found the B&B without problem only to discover it was at the opposite end of town from the venue, of course.  John offered to drive the rest of us over to the venue and drop us in a pub, saying he could then bring the car back to the B&B and get the tram back into town.  We’d have been fools to refuse the offer of a lift. 

We decided to head on over to the pub listed in the fan meeting page,  the Stanley Beer Engine, and were dismayed to discover it was possibly the most expensive place in Blackpool.  But, there were already a few familiar faces in the pub, Graham, who I’d met in Newcastle the previous year, and a guy from Boston that Su and I had spoken to at V2000.  We had a couple before John turned up and then the 4 of us decided to move on somewhere cheaper for a while since everyone else had left to go get supper or a nap or something vaguely like that. 

We found a cheaper boozer, had another couple of drinks and then made it back to the Stanley Beer Engine for about 6:30pm.  Not a bad move as John sold a couple of fanzines inside.  Then we headed over to the Empress Ballroom.  When we got into the venue, Exit 52 were already on stage so we made our way down front to watch them, where John threw a fanzine at Peter Glennie.  Personally, I don’t see why James didn’t just have Exit 52 along on all the dates as they are a much more exciting live band than Shea Seger.  I’m not 100% convinced by their American-indie influenced sound, BUT they have great stage presence and were exciting to watch.

 After Exit 52 finished, John kept wandering off to the bar, and bored with Shea Seger I went looking for him.  He was standing a bit dazed near one of the bars.  Apparently, he’d been to the toilets and the door on his stall jammed.  He tried to climb out of the stall and got stuck so had to ask some lads in the queue to kick in the door of the stall to let him out.  When we were standing around waiting on James to come on stage a bit later, a lad came walking up and said he’d gotten stuck right after John and then insisted that he and his friend had met the both of us at Fleadh, 2 years earlier.  Personally, life the day before yesterday is fuzzy so there’s no chance I’d remember as far back as 1998, but they were a friendly lot.

When James came on I headed into the press pit with Chugg for a few photos.   By the time we came out 3 songs later the venue was completely packed.  John was dancing like a madman.  I decided to head further back for a better view, and to avoid being jostled.  The setlist was fairly similar to other nights.  They opened with the same new song they’ve opened with evey night, (anyone out there have a title?) before launching into “Stand Stand Stand” and “Seniorita.”  Then they broke into “Say Something” which got the crowd moving, following it with “Sometimes”, which caused a mad amount of dancing near me, and “How Was It For You.”  Then came 2 new songs, one of them, debuted at Poole, repeated the line “Pleased to meet you, what’s your name?” and was lovely.  It had swirling guitars reminiscent of “Skindiving” and a bassline that reminded me of “Dream Thrum”.  It was really atmospheric and chilling. Then they moved on into another slow one, “The Shining,” yet another James song with a lyrical reference to water and the sea.  “Fred Astaire” followed, although I must admit I was not paying much attention at this point as a girl and her boyfriend were having a full-on fight behind me.  He ran off when security arrived, she ended up with a rather nasty black eye and seemed a bit shaken, but was well taken care of.  They once again played “Runagaround”, which, although it is far from my favourite James song, was nice to hear if only because its good to see that the band feel they can play what they want, rather than what they think we want to hear.  They followed up with “Someone’s Got It In For Me” and “Johnny Yen”, the latter of which inspired much hand waving and dancing, before launching into a rockier, not so pretty version of “Coffee and Toast.”  Mark’s great keyboard hook was barely audible despite being the best part of the song.  “Saving Grace” seemed to go down well, despite the usual flow towards the bar during the new tracks and I caught yet another water reference (“Shit he’s in deep water, hope he’s a good swimmer.”)  The crowd sung the intro for “Destiny Calling”, “She’s A Star” got a massive cheer, and then Tim climbed up on the the balcony for “Born of Frustration”, regaling the crowd from on high.  They went off for the encore following the surprise inclusion of “Come Home” which actually seemed fresh, probably as I hadn’t heard it live in nearly 8 shows.  Wow.  They finished the set as they had the rest of the tour, with “Top of the World”, which I love but is getting a bit old.  It would be nice, seeing how they insist on playing a slow one at the start of the encore, if they could have more than one song, as they have a long repertoire of slow, beautiful songs.  In any case, there was a massive finish with “Laid” and “Ring the Bells.”   

The crowd were absolutely bursting through the last 2 songs, going so mad the floor was bouncing, but personally for me, the highlight of the show, in fact of the whole tour, was John appearing out of nowhere during “Laid”, looking like he’d been rolled in a gutter, sweaty hair standing straight up like he was Don King, telling me he’d been foisted over the crowd without his asking by 2 excited blokes, and as he was tossed over the barrier to the waiting arms of the bouncers, he had somehow managed to lose the keys to the B&B.  He wanted me to make my way down front and try to find them while he went outside to sell fanzines.  Nice eh?  In any case, I spent half an hour after the gig wandering around looking for the keys with the help of security and found nothing.  They wanted to know why I’d been stuck with the job of looking when I hadn’t done the losing as well…. 

When I finally made my way outside, John had enlisted the help of the lads from Fleadh to sell fanzines and they seemed to be doing better business than John himself.  I ended up heading over to a bar with Chugg, the lads from the Fleadh and Fiji Bob and Rizzo, while John and Jez went back to the B&B to try and acquire a new key, to no avail.  We ended up having to grab a key to a different room off the wall and hope we didn’t get in trouble as it was all recorded on CCTV.  Luckily the owner was rather understanding.  But I’m almost happy Grimsby was cancelled as it’s allowed me a chance to shower and change clothes. Sleeping in one's clothes 3 times in a week is a fairly unpleasant thing. 

Overall, my assessment of Blackpool: John is a moron and James were brilliant. (Justhipper)