James (+Happy Mondays +Lightning Seeds)

Colchester Castle Park - Friday 22 June 2025

I was trying to recall the last time I went to an outdoor gig - and if you exclude my local carnival and watching our friends brass band on several occasions - it was probably in 1993, when I went to the Feile festival in Tipperary and then U2 at Wembley Stadium.

But here I was, thirty years later contemplating my next outdoor experience. I have to confess that when I woke up that morning, the prospect of driving 2.5 hours or more each way to get to it, was feeling like a bad choice (it was actually nearly four hours there, and two and a half back). But drive it we did - to see a 90's mini-festival of sorts. So, was it worth the effort? Stay tuned to find out....

Lightning Seeds:

First confession - we missed the first band on (Waeve), but were here just in time for the Lightning Seeds. While I will never claim to be a massive fan of theirs, Ian Broudie is something of an icon from the Liverpool music scene of the late 70's / early 80's that I adore. He was in seminal Liverpool post-punk band Big In Japan with Holly Johnson (FGTH) and Bill Drummond (KLF), and had also produced the first and third albums by the Bunnymen, and Icicle Works fantastic third LP (If You Want To Defeat Your Enemy Sing His Song), before he brought his undoubted songwriting ability to the masses.

You may think - the Lightning Seeds, I remember them and I may know one or two of their songs. As it happens, the forty five minute set rattles through so many hits, it's astonishing. Standing with his beautiful big red Gretsch, son Riley (perhaps an in-joke) to his side and almost original member Martyn Campbell to the other side on bass, we hear the joy of Marvellous, Change, Sense, Sugar Coated Iceberg and Lucky You. Sadly, perhaps because it is still before 6pm, and many of the 6,000+ crowd are more obsessed in where the beer tent is, and maybe because his form of well crafted pop tunes gets lost in the late afternoon, the reaction from the crowd is largely lethargic. Even a rousing cover of Wreckless Eric's punk gem Whole Wide World, doesn't get them up, and this is such a shame.

While his voice is not a power packed one, the songs sound great, and when Pure is rolled out, it (for me at least) is a moment of unbridled joy - "Nighttime slows, raindrops splash rainbows. Perhaps someone you know could sparkle and shine, as daydreams slide to colour from shadow. Picture the moonglow, that dazzles my eyes, and I love you." It still soars, regardless of the apathetic crowd - but fortunately, Life Of Riley does finally bring some life to them, before the crowd pleasing Coming Home rounds things off (a popular football chant, and not my favourite, but then I am a Ireland fan...).

Happy Mondays:

I was never into the whole Madchester thing at the time (I was a teenager in the late 80's / early 90's when it was a big thing) and if I had to pick anything from then, the Stone Roses always seemed the most consistent and competent of the bands (although from what I could ever see, Ian Brown couldn't sing for anything live). But somehow, the Happy Mondays have endured, and some of their tunes remain classics and have even wormed their way into my subconscious.

Shaun Ryder is as rambling and incoherent as you would imagine - every other word is an f-bomb, as he stands almost motionless centre stage, appearing to read the lyrics off of an autocue. The band however, pivoting around founder members Gaz Whelan on drums and Mark Day on guitar, are seriously tight and lay down a mean groove (sadly Paul Ryder passed away in 2022). Then, of course, there's Bez! The famous King of the maracas more than makes up for Ryder's lack of movement, as he does his signature weird dance moves across the stage and back, like some sort of wigged out muppet and to the obvious delight of the crowd, now thankfully waking up. Ryder chips in, "you're not 21 anymore mate, you're in your f-ing 60's now!"

We open with Kinky Afro, there's also Loose Fit and a great rendition of Hallelujah (their one, not the Cohen tune) which brought their new backing singer, Firouzeh Khamesee (who also happens to be Mrs Bez these days) to the fore, for a bit of extra fizz. 24 Hour Party People is still a good tune, but it is when those distinctive opening piano chords of Step On bang out, then the iconic guitar riff kicks in, and Ryder starts to build it up with his repeated, "You're twisting my melons man", that the crowd fully erupts. They finish with a good version of Wrote For Luck, a perhaps underrated earlier cut - Ryder spits it out, "You used to speak the truth but now you're liar, you used to speak the truth but now you're clever."

James:

Within five minutes of their headlining set, I have my answer to the question I posed at the start - was it worth the six hour round trip? Yes. Yes it bloomin' well was.

As Five-O wafted across the darkening auditorium, it was clear, while not all bands are built for outdoor gigs, James most definitely are. What is abundantly clear is that they make this whole performing thing look totally effortless. And I don't mean that in a dialling it in, lazy kind of way, I mean in a way that probably reflects that Tim Booth and Jim Glennie were both there from the very 1982 beginning, while David Baynton-Power, Saul Davies, Mark Hunter and Andy Diagram were in from 1989, as the success started to bubble under - so they are extremely comfortable with themselves.

The reason they work so well in a setting like this, is perhaps partly due to the fact that they are a nine-piece, with so many multi-talented players who happily hop from instrument to instrument to get the best sound combinations, but probably it has more to do with the atmosphere that those instruments and the songs themselves are able to create. The sound effortlessly fills every pore in the arena, wafting over us in waves - having both Baynton-Power and Deborah Knox-Hewson on drums and percussion sets up a tumultuous backdrop, while Davies flexing between violin and guitar, adds atmosphere.

We get Seven, then Sometimes and an early cut, Johnny Yen, before Come Home lifts us up. Those two drummers really come to the fore as they pound out Way Over Your Head, with its fitting "Raise the dead" refrain. A multitude of colourful butterflies pour out of the backing screen during Leviathan, a song about all-consuming love - "Before they drop the bomb, make sure we get enough f***ing love."

Booth admits that he doesn't know what is next, as he is down amongst the crowd in his seeming happy place. He admits that the band only pulls the setlist together just before they hit the stage, which keeps them on their toes, or "sh*tting themselves" as he puts it. Say Something is a classic, before a truly mesmeric version of one of my favourites, Getting Away With It (All Messed Up) really does the business. Even when they delve into tunes that I am less familiar with, relatively recent fare like Heads (with its throbbing bass line and eviscerating lyrics, written coincidentally during Trumps first time around), Attention and Shadow Of A Giant (from last year's Yummy LP), the songwriting is so strong, I barely notice that I don't know them, they sound so familiar and reassuring. That last one is actually a duet, powerful vocals shared between Booth and backing vocalist Chloe Alper.

My other all time favourite, Tomorrow, is given some epic treatment - a clear highlight of the night, starting slowly but soon roaring into life. Then the drums signal that the defining song of my college years is about to begin, but Booth cuts them off citing technical issues, and encourages a fresh start with piano instead. Was that real or contrived - who knows - and either way, the final result, as they build it from a slowed down piano beginning, is great. Sit Down is just so instantly recognisable and comforting. It was never a particular favourite of mine, but it's a bit like watching Simple Minds play Don't You Forget About Me (never a top10 tune for many of their fans) - when suddenly there are thousands fervently singing along, it doesn't really seem to matter that it's nowhere near their finest song - it is a communal anthem, bringing joy to the masses. How do you follow that? With Laid of course - another wonderful singalong moment to draw the main set to a close.

Except there is no encore, they forego that ("four minutes of wasted time") and crack straight on, much to the crowds delight. Beautiful Beaches, an ode to climate change from 2021's All The Colours Of You, opens up the 'encore' - we then get the wonderful Sometimes, before Sound winds us down to the end, as the music fades out, Booth stands there looking emotional as the crowd keeps on going - "Ma-bah-oo"

What a night. A band (Lightning Seeds) with great songs maybe not fitted for the outdoor venue or the early crowd, one (Mondays) with some decent songs and bags of charisma and earthy charm (and probably a mindblowing amount of drugs) - before the perfect band for a summer's evening. James were sublime, effortlessly filling the space around us with they way they use all of that instrumentation so well, to build atmosphere and ambience, while the numbers never overwhelm. And in Tim Booth they have the perfect frontman for the gig - loves building rapport with the crowd and his voice, even after 45 years is faultless.

Yes - it was well worth the trip...