Tim Booth from James – “Sit Down? I’d rather keep dancing.”
transcript
show notes
Diving deep into all things ’90s… It was impossible to miss anthemic Manchester groundbreakers James’ monster hits in the ’90s, like Sit Down, Laid and She’s A Star. Huge communal singalongs with a melancholic beauty that struck a chord on both sides of the pond, they put James right into the mainstream (and on thousands of t-shirts too). Away from the charts it was even more of a rollercoaster story. After blagging his way into a Manchester acting school, Tim Booth went out one night, narrowly avoided a fight with some blokes who were trying to steal his drink, and found himself the lead singer of their band – the group he’s now been fronted for nearly 45 years.
From ending up in a cult to near death experiences, band addictions, breakups and makeups, collaborations with Brian Eno and Angelo Badalamenti, and an appearance in Batman Begins, Tim’s story is astonishing. He joins Miranda to discuss how Eastern philosophy saved his life… how an incident with a maraca nearly sank the band… and why despite never quite cracking America, he has no regrets.
• Live photo by Martyn Goodacre/Getty Images
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• Advertisers! Want your brand to reach the 3.5 MILLION people who listen to Podmasters podcasts every month? Contact ads@podmasters.co.uk to find out moreWritten and presented by Miranda Sawyer. Produced by Liam Tait and Amelia Phillips. Audio and video production by Tom Taylor. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Soniq Branding from Artlist. Talk ’90s To Me is a Podmasters production.
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