James: Manchester Apollo
Dave Simpson, The Guardian, April 1998
ONCE UPON a time, when James performed their most famous song 'Sit Down', whole audiences would do just that. Nowadays it's tempting to suggest the band take their own advice, lest their creaking joints make the decision for them and they crumple in a heap. Implausibly, this is the Manchester survivors' 17th year, celebrated by a Best Of album (number one today) and a marketing campaign that proclaims the band's songs have "soundtracked our lives".
Total word count of piece: 497
