James on headlining Neighbourhood Weekender and pandemic life

But indie stalwarts James think our separation through lockdowns and restrictions will make it all the more powerful when we can finally come together again to enjoy the ‘ceremony’ of live music.

The Manchester band will be headlining the second day of Warrington’s Neighbourhood Weekender on September 4.

It will be one of their first gigs in almost two years.

Covid rules are expected to have lifted altogether by then but social distancing could still be a factor with organisers SJM Concerts keeping an eye on the situation and government guidance.

Frontman Tim Booth said: “I don’t know what a socially distanced gig will be like. Obviously, there is some nervousness around that.

“But I think our audiences are always passionate and loving and there to lose themselves in the music. So I don’t see that changing – and after all this lockdown it may be even more wild and crazy because many of us have been craving this kind of connection.

“This kind of almost ceremony of meeting in this way and sharing of ourselves in this way.

“We’re really looking forward to getting out and connecting with people, especially with this new album coming. We’ve got an amazing record coming and we’re dying to play these songs live.”

That album is All The Colours of You which will be released in June.

It is James’s 16th studio album and 22nd record in total which offers a reminder of the band’s huge output and influence on UK music in almost 40 years.

Musically, All The Colours of You is buoyant and ‘festival ready’ but lyrically it took Tim to some dark places including dealing with the death of his father-in-law to coronavirus last year.

Tim, who now lives in California, added: “I don’t think you can write lyrics during lockdown and not somehow reflect that shared state of mind that everybody was going through and is still going through in most places.

“Lockdown has been a pressure cooker on people. If they are alone then their loneliness is amplified. If they’re with family or with other people sharing a house then relationships get put under the microscope

“So it’s been very intense I think. My wife teaches a dance class on Zoom every week and there is a big community around the world who drop in on that

“At the end, people share their experiences so I’ve been privileged to hear the in-depth vulnerable experiences of what’s been happening to people during Covid in a very intimate way.

Tim Booth

“So that has been a source of inspiration for a lot of the lyrics in this record.

“When George Floyd was murdered a lot of our members would step forward and share what they have been going through for years at the hands of the police in America.

“So that has had a big impact on this record too.

“I don’t consider that to be political. I don’t think racism should be political. It should be human rights. It should be an issue of humanity. I live in America as an Englishman. I’m a dual citizen and it was devastating witnessing what went on.

“The album is topical but it’s uplifting because ultimately we’re quite positive as people.

“I do see a positive to all these things. I have seen the real benefit of the Black Lives Matter movement and without Covid, Trump might have got in which I think would have been disastrous.

“There have been some blessings amid all the awful things that have happened.”

Another blessing for James, who have sold 25 million albums, was working with Tim’s Topanga Canyon neighbour Jacknife Lee, the Grammy award-winning producer, which allowed the band to make much of their new record remotely.

Tim said: “All our songs are created through improvisation and we need to be in a room for that.

“Luckily, the four of us had been in a room together and had done all the jams before we had a year off so that was really fortuitous because then we could make the demos and get the songs ready and I could work on lyrics.

“Then what happened was we realised we couldn’t go to a producer in England and all work together in lockdown.”

That was when they found Jacknife Lee.

Tim added: “He lives in this beautiful, wild canyon that I also used to live in. Normally he would probably be outside of our budget. He’s worked with U2, Killers and Taylor Swift.

“So he is not an artist we would probably have gravitated towards as producer but because he was down the road from me and I could coordinate the whole thing I went to visit him and it was love at first sight really

“He took one of our demos and we started laughing when we got it back because it sounded so fun, exciting, fresh and accessible.

“It’s a really, big, playful sound – contrasting often with my dour lyrics. We’ve always liked that contrast between something that’s a little bit bleak lyrically with a really uplifting track so we’ve made this incredible record that wouldn’t have happened without Covid. We feel really blessed.”

Neighbourhood Weekender tickets are available at nbhdweekender.com