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Next week, Universal are reissuing James’ Laid and Wah Wah. It’s a no expense spared rerelease of the 1993 and 1994 LPs, with the big ticket affair being a four-CD super deluxe box set including both of the albums, taking in 20 previously unreleased rehearsals, out-takes, jams, B-sides, radio sessions and live track recordings, alongside a book featuring an essay by Phill Savidge and rare photos, four button badges and four postcards. There’s also a two-CD version of the box set and limited edition releases of the individual albums on vinyl.
The release in fact makes good on the band’s original intention to release the albums together, seeing them as companion pieces both recorded with Brian Eno over six weeks in Peter Gabriel’s Real World studios in 1993. Talking about the records, the band’s frontman Tim Booth calls them "the culmination of playing four or five hours a day four or five days a week in Manchester and the new band adapting to that. It is about the transition of becoming more of a band but with Brian at the helm." One of the songs that made it onto record from what the band estimate to be a 340-strong stockpile they’d amassed was Laid‘s ‘Knuckle Too Far’, and now, ahead of next week’s reissue, we’ve got a play of ‘Bruce Jam 1’, an early version of the track included in the box set release. Give that a play above and pre-order the box set, out on March 23, from James’ website, while John Mullen’s interview with the Booth from last year is here.
