James were formed in Manchester in 1982 by Jim Glennie, Tim Booth, Larry Gott and Gavan Whelan. Signing, a year later, to Anthony H. Wilson's Factory label, before being snapped up by the Sire Records Company. Their folksy/indie sound found early cult status, before they became big chart toppers. Well almost, 'Sit Down' reached no. 2 in the UK singles charts, quickly followed by a no. 2 album, 'Seven'. The band split up in 2001, before re-forming some years later.
Peel played the band's debut single in 1983 through the Factory label and would continue supporting their new material until 1991, when they achieved success with a new re-released version of 'Sit Down', which reached number 2 in the UK singles chart. Singer Tim Booth in an interview with The Quietus in 2016 described how John Peel's music was a lifeline during his education:
"Music became my saviour. I had been sent away to a prison-like [boarding] school and I would listen to John Peel on my headphones in bed. I realised that there was a world out there of other people expressing something from their pain. I felt very alone and music was the thing that made me feel not alone. This is why I get emotional talking about some of these albums." [1]
Interestingly the prison like boarding school which Tim Booth described was Shrewsbury School, the same place where Peel studied and boarded when he was a child.
01 July 1989 (BFBS): 'Sit Down (12")' (Rough Trade) (JP: 'Charles Foster, still producer after all these years, says that that sounds like Peter Sarstedt. Now only those of you who are very old will remember Peter Sarstedt. There was a record called... "Where Do You Go To My Lovely?"... It was one of my least favourite records of all time. It's one of those things which, whenever there's an oldie played on the radio, about two times out of every five, it turns out to be that, and it's a terrible, smug, self-satisfied, hideous record. Really have hated it ever since I first heard it.')
