Tickets to see James Grant perform a solo acoustic concert at Frets Acoustic/The Strathaven Hotel on Friday 29th November are selling fast so you better be quick if you want to pick one or two up. This is sure to be another superb FRETS ACOUSTIC evening at the Strathaven Hotel. It’s an intimate atmosphere and a unique opportunity to listen to, and meet, one of the great performers in Scottish music.
To set the scene we’ve put together this blog with some background on James’s music career. To start with, here’s a photo of James from his Friends Again days – teenage Bothwell !!
James Grant’s music career began in 1982 as songwriter and guitarist in Friends Again, alongside Chris Thomson, later of The Bathers. The group had minor hit singles with “State of Art”, “Sunkissed” and “Honey at the Core” before releasing a self-titled EP in 1983 and recording their debut album, Trapped & Unwrapped, in 1984.
On 5 June 2015, as part of the BBC Music Day at the broadcaster’s Pacific Quay HQ in Glasgow, Grant and Thomson reunited to play two Friends Again songs – State Of Art and Honey At The Core – for a live studio audience. Their performance was broadcast live on the Music Through Midnight show presented by Billy Sloan.
Friends Again broke up in 1985, with James going on to form Love and Money along with drummer Stuart Kerr and keyboardist Paul McGeechan. In their nine years together they recorded four albums, All You Need Is, Strange Kind Of Love, Dogs In The Traffic, and littledeath, and had six chart hits.
James recorded his first solo album, Sawdust in My Veins, released on Survival Records in 1998. It featured long term collaborator Donald Shaw, Karen Matheson, harmonica player Fraser Speirs, drummer James MacKintosh and the BT Scottish Ensemble. After changing labels to Vertical, the same lineup was retained for My Thrawn Glory in 2000. I Shot The Albatross, a collection of poetry set to music, was subsequently released in 2002.
Love and Money reformed for a show at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall as part of Celtic Connections 2011. It was intended to be a one-off but was highly successful and the band subsequently decided to tour the UK.
Following this tour, the band released its fifth studio album ‘The Devil’s Debt’ in 2012. A limited edition live album of their Royal Concert Hall show, ‘Strange Kind Of Love’ was also released.
James performed at Sandfest 2018 at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow, a sell-out fundraiser for Down’s Syndrome Scotland (gallery below)
Here’s another blast from the past, a video of a the teenage James Grant announcing himself to the music world on this track by his first group, Friends. The track is entitled State of Art and is well worth a watch.
It’s a great track, with a great guitar solo by James. Friends Again: State of Art (1983)
James has performed in bands, including Love and Money, and also solo. Here’s a link to his performance of ‘Lips like ether’ on Live at Five in 2016
To go to our James Grant page for a link to tickets for the Strathaven Hotel gig on November 29th follow this link
FRETS CREATIVE 