I'm from James' & we're going create a moment that will live long within people's memories at Lytham Festival

James, currently consisting of nine band members including frontman Tim Booth, will be headlining the Sunday night at Lytham Festival in two weeks time (July 7).

Their highly anticipated headline set is a UK festival exclusive as the indie legends will be accompanied by the Orca22 Orchestra and the Manchester Inspirational Voices Gospel Choir for a fully orchestrated show.

Ahead of James’ arrival in Lytham, we were able to catch one of the band’s guitarists, 58-year-old Saul Davies ,for a chat about all things James, Lytham Festival and the Fylde Coast.

Born in Liverpool but raised in Manchester and Scotland, Saul joined James back in 1989 and was one of three guitarists in the band up until their split in 2001 but he rejoined again when James reunited in 2007.

Take a look at what the rock star had to say below:

How are you feeling about Lytham Festival?

“I think it’s going to be one of the definite highlights of our summer. It’s going to be amazing.”

Have you performed in Lancashire before?

“Oh, yeah! One of the reasons that James got to where it did in the early 90s was because of the support from people around Lancashire, and specifically two shows that we did in Blackpool in 1990 that propelled us from being very much ‘Manchester’ and started the process of us getting out to other places. People came from all over the country to see those two Blackpool shows and they were semi legendary. The history of this band would not be what it was without our support of the people in Lancashire.”

Can you remember what Lancashire audiences are like?

“Well our best shows are massive celebrations really so just like everywhere, people come along, whether it's a festival or our own gig, expecting a big celebration. We're not a band that just does the same thing every night so I think our audience recognizes that and they love the fact that things can even go a bit wrong sometimes - but they always go right in the end and I guess that's kind of like life, isn't it? So I would say Lancashire audiences are like everybody, everywhere, really, but just a bit mental - in a good way!”

How are festival performances different from your own shows?

“Well people come to festivals for all sorts of reasons. Sometimes they don't really care about even the music, they just want to go camping and make some sausages on a grill or drink some cider in a field. Maybe they come to see the other bands that are playing. So it's always a challenge when you play a festival. 

“Then there's other things like what's the weather going to do? That sounds really trite but are people going to be in high spirits because the weather is beautiful or are we going to have 15,000 drowned rats in front of us that need us to bring some sun into their lives? So it's very different playing outside in the UK. If you go to Southern Europe to play a festival, you know the weather's gonna be amazing but there's a different atmosphere in the UK, it's hardcore. 

“Also, they're very expensive. Festivals cost a lot and they take a lot of time and effort and energy to go to. So if you're headlining a festival, like we are in Lytham, our job is to go there and make people feel great about themselves and make sure that they get something kind of old fashioned in a way, which is value for money. We're entertainers and we have to entertain. I feel very strongly about that. 

“But yeah, it's different to when you're playing in an arena. We’re playing Co-op Live and there's going to be upwards of 20,000 people in that room who all want to be there. They're all James fans but at Lytham, people might be there for all sorts of other reasons. They might just be local and decide that they want to go, or they want to see Johnny Marr play or whoever it might be, and they might even go along and hate us but stay and fall in love with us!”

So how are you going to do that, what will your set at Lytham Festival be like?

“This show is one of only two we're doing this summer with the orchestra and choir so it's quite a different kind of show. It's probably even more passionate than our normal shows. We’re playing a big number of songs that everybody knows of us, ‘Sit Down’, ‘Laid’ etc, but we also do some catalogue songs, which are being scored for us by Joe Duddell. He's based in the northwest and he's one of Britain's finest composers so we're very lucky to work with him. And we've got a new album, our record ‘Yummy’ came out a few weeks ago, and so we want to play one or two songs from that record as well.

“The downside of festivals is often you get less time to play than you do in your own arena shows so that's always a  bit problematic for us, because we want to play more and more but we've got an hour and a half at Lytham and that's enough to be able to do everything that we think that we need to do. 

“But yeah there are some amazing versions of some of our biggest songs, for example, ‘She's a Star’ and ‘Sometimes’ are very beautiful in this setting which is great. These songs are built for people to sing along to regardless of whether we’re performing them with the orchestra, or just as a band, they're built for people to be able to engage with.”

Growing up in the North West, do you have any personal memories of the Fylde Coast?

“I only have one memory of my grandfather and I know that it was from when I was five years old. He was a coal miner in Oldham and then laterally a coal merchant, delivering coal to houses but he retired at the age of 65 and died that year. I only have one memory of him and it was being on the beach with him and my mother tells me that that was at Blackpool. That's actually one of my earliest memories.”

Will you be getting up to anything else on the Fylde Coast whilst you’re up?

“We're doing so much work this summer that there's an overnight drive from the show before in Bedford to get to Lytham Festival and then the next day, I have to get to Portugal so there's literally no time for me to do anything. My daughter's coming with me and I was hoping that I would be able to show her a bit of Blackpool actually but unfortunately I don't think it's going to happen.”

You’ll just have to come back another time Saul!

“Yeah, I’ve actually been given a position on the honorary board of Showtown in honour of the fact that my band has such a strong connection with the area from the early 90s. That's a real honour for me because they're doing some very great work in Blackpool and on the Fylde Coast. 

“The day of Showtwon’s opening ceremony, I had to send a message from the airport, saying ‘thank you very much for including me’ which got shown on the screen because I was flying to Mexico for some shows. That's as close as I got so in one way or another, I'm hoping that I'll be able to visit whilst we're up there.”

Are you excited to see anyone else perform at Lytham Festival?

“I love seeing Johnny Marr play because he's a wonderful man and an amazing musician, hugely significant - historically and ongoing - in music in the UK. My other band members know him better as they went on tour with the Smiths in 1986 and I only joined James in 1989 but nevertheless, when our paths do cross, I always find him to be an absolutely fabulous person. When you find good people in all walks of your life but especially in our industry, I always celebrate that. We are going on tour with Johnny across America in September/October, which is going to be a huge privilege for all.

“The Inspiral Carpets are playing too. We have a song called Gold Mother which is the title track of a record that really took James from being a very local North West institution to the world. We were recording it in a studio in Manchester and in the studio next door were the Carpets and we needed some guys to sing on the song so we went in and said ‘hey you lot, will you come and sing on our song’ and so they did! Maybe at Lytham, if we do the song, we could always ask them to come and join us again. 

“Actually the first tour I ever did in 1989, Inspiral Carpets were our support band and their guitar tech was Noel Gallagher at the time. I remember him as a scowling youth. I'm sure he thought we were utterly useless, but where is he now? Oh yeah, he's one of the biggest stars in the world!... But anyway, the Inspiral Carpets are a proper band so I look forward to seeing them all again.”

How would you persuade the people of Lancashire to come see you at Lytham Festival?

“I don't know if I could persuade anybody to do anything! The more people that come, the better. I think it’s an amazing festival, if you love music and you live anywhere near, you should go. I think it's really important to support the events that happen. I know that there are always reasons why people don't want to go but it's a great lineup, a fantastic festival and a great place.

“I'm always heartened by how much people support our creative industries and festivals are something that we do brilliantly in Britain. Our show that we're doing is, as I said, one of only two shows that we're doing this summer with the orchestra so it’s genuinely going to be a special event. I'm immensely gratified to be able to take what is almost 40 people onto the stage. So I think there's a lot of very, very good reasons to come and what else is going on that weekend? Nothing!”

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Well you’re the headline act of the final night, are you going to end the festival with a bang?

“As I said previously, our inclination as a band, given the songs that we've written, is to create these big moments of celebration and togetherness. Given the opportunity to present ourselves with the orchestra and choir, we can do it even better. There's something about walking into a space and seeing that number of people on a stage and then hearing the noise come at you - I've witnessed it myself - it's really special.

“I think there's the opportunity there to create a moment that will live long within people's memories. We won't do it very often and I don't think we should do it very often as we need to keep it special so when we do do it, I think it'd be great that people come see it.”