James reflect on Yorkshire roots, reinvention and future ambitions

For more than 40 years, the band James has journeyed from cramped rehearsal rooms and wild gigs to the world's biggest stages, all while staying true to their adventurous spirit and Northern roots.

- by Dennis Morton

With a landmark 58-track retrospective album, Nothing But Love - The Definitive Best Of, and their largest-ever arena tour about to hit Leeds next year, the band - fronted by Tim Booth and grounded by bassist Jim Glennie - are taking a collective look back at the circuitous, creative and at times chaotic ride that has made them local legends and global chart-toppers alike.

"We wanted to make a documentary, and the deal with the record company was if we made a documentary, we had to release another greatest hits," says singer Booth. "That was the initial impulse. Then we were like, 'Well, okay, but only if we can update it and put all the songs in that we've loved, that we've made since we came back in 2006 and deeper cuts."

Glennie, who, along with Booth, has been with James since its earliest days, remembers the challenge of winnowing their catalogue to a career-defining 58 tracks: "The initial concept was basically a singles collection. And we just thought, oh, we can do a bit better than that, because the singles reflect one aspect of James, but there's a whole back catalogue of music.

"The bulk of what we do doesn't fit the remit for a single, and we wanted that to be reflected in all its glory. So the hard part was restricting it to 58 tracks. At the end, it was a painful process of negotiation."