Fan Club...The Brian James Story...Show # 280

After his departure from The Damned in 1977, Brian James made recordings for a solo single featuring Police drummer Stewart Copeland. Titled Ain't That A Shame, the single was backed with the song "I Can Make You Cry (another single from these session was released in 1982 titled Why? Why? Why?). Brian James decided not to continue with a solo career. He instead joined up with the band Chelsea playing lead guitar on the track "No Escape", which would appear as a seven inch single and on a full length ablum the same name in 1980/1981. He joined up with Iggy Pop's solo band. While he played many live shows with Iggy, he was not featured on any studio recordings. He was however on live albums such as Heroin Hates You.

Brain James then teamed up with Dead Boys front man Stiv Bators to form a new band that would be titled Lords of New Church. Consisting of Bators on vocals, James on guitar, Dave Tregunna (of Sham 69) on bass, and Nicky Turner (of The Barracudas) on drums, the band lasted from 1982-1989.  They recorded three full length albums (The Lords of New Church (1982), Is Nothing Sacred? (1983), and The Method of Madness (1984)) and an EP. The music of the band reflects a Glam and Punk nature, but they are sometimes labeled as Goth Rock. In 1982, The Lords of New Church had a top 40 single (#32 on the Canadian singles charts) with the song "Open Your Eyes".

In addition to being in these bands Brian James also formed the short lived band, Tanz Der Youth. James also played guitar in a band called The Dripping Lips, who released an album in 1998 entitled Ready To Crack. He was also in a super group called Mad For the Racket, which featured Stewart Copeland, Wayne Kramer, Clem Burke, and Duff McKagan. They recorded and released an album in 2001 that was titled The Racketeers. Brian James has throughout the 80's/90's reunited with The Damned off and on, there has also been numerous Damned collections released featuring outtakes when Brian was still with the band. He currently plays with a new band titled The Brian James Gang (a self titled album was released in 2006) and he also plays with The Lords of New Church. They reunited in 2003, with a new singer Adam Becvare (Stiv Bators passed away in 1990). An album titled Hang On was released in 2003.

The Play List:

1. The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat
2. The Dishrags - Carry On
3. Hot Nasties - Steppin' Stone
4. The Spys - Best That I Can Get (Demo)
5. The Diodes - That Was The Way It Was
6. Deja Voodoo - Call Link Wray
7. Christian D & The Hangovers - Vampire Rocker
8. The Drums - Let's Go Surfing
9. Harlem - Friendly Ghost
10. The Mink Chicks - I Can't Stop Being Foolish 
11. The Vores - Stress
12. Brian James - Living In Sin
13. Brian James - Another Time, Another Crime
14. The Brian James Gang - VIP
15. Tanz Der Youth - Delay
16. King - Baby Sign Here With Me
17. Carbon/Silicon - Make It Alright 
18. Devo & Neil Young - Hey Hey My My
19. Keith Levene - Cold Turkey
20. The Clash - London Calling (Vanilla Tapes Version) 

To download this weeks program, visit CJAM's schedule page for Revolution Rock and download the file for December 29th. Or subscribe to Revolution Rock as a Podcast.