Newcastle City Hall – 17th March 2019

VIP Soundcheck

Newcastle City Hall is a venue that James have played before, to mixed reactions from fans who dislike the all seater setup. The VIP soundcheck reflected this, with fans unsure whether they should stand or sit during it, and Jim tries to put them at their ease by telling a story about front row audience members being picked on and embarrassed by comedian Frankie Boyle.

Tim explains his current predicament, sustained in a freak window opening accident prior to the Stoke gig – he’s torn ligaments in his ankle and will be performing from an office chair and a set of crutches, which has also affected the setlist choices too.

The first song is Monsters And Heroes And Men, a song not performed during the main set so far this tour, and Tim has to find the words online just to jog his memory.

A question asks about the story behind Out To Get You and Tim tells us about all the people who have said how much the words to that and other songs from Laid have meant to them.

Next they play All Good Boys – a song that was revived a couple of years ago on tour, with some stunning backing vocal harmonies from Andy, Saul and Jim.

Tim says how they have songs that never made their records at the time but looking back, they could and should have made more of them and that was one. Saul jokes that they should have been as successful as Coldplay, not that he’s at all jealous of their success, oh no…..

The final soundcheck track is Moving Car – sadly back to its drum machine beat rather than the fabulous drums DBP added to it the other day. It feels like a track that could be more powerful but still has that demo feel to it. With drums and trumpet, they could do so much more with it. Let’s hope they’re reading!

A question asks if they’d ever recreate the Laid cover and appear in dresses. They like the idea but Saul thinks it may be viewed as a bit inappropriate these days and may come across as disrespectful and making fun of people.

Tim fears they’re too old and would look like Monty Python although of course, they all have fabulous legs and could easily carry it off. Tim says he dances in dresses often, whilst Jim has a kilt and that image would make a great calendar pic, with Jim hoovering in his kilt.

Strangely, no one mentions Andy’s famous dresses, as he’s nipped off round the back – Andy would appear regularly in dresses back in the late 80s and early 90s, due to operations he was having on his leg, and wore them up to relatively recently, although he’s not worn one on stage for a while now.

Matt the pantomime villain appears again to inform us that time is up too quickly as usual and everyone leaves til later on.