Half a decade since they split, James return - but are they sound?

Five and a half years after they split at their arena-filling apex, James  return, organically reformed without - it seems - much consideration for commercial demands (they turned down an offer of a quarter of a million quid to headline a festival in 2005), and instead being their same somewhat perverse selves.

Aside from a lineup change - the return of original guitarist Larry Gott - it's very much as if the previous half-decade never happened. Everyone looks the same, the songs sound - mostly - the same, and the James ethos is preserved : instead of the expected easy path of reeling out soundalike greatest hits, James take the lesser chosen path : as they always have - and play a set made of obscure older numbers, rearranged versions of some of the hits, and new material.

Tonights show, a far cry from the 12,000 capacity Wembley Arena they graced on their final tour of 2001, is in a small pub called Nambucca on Holloway Road : tickets are a modest £8, capacity is around 250, and to prevent touting there are no physical tickets, just names on the door. In these intimate climes, the band themselves are far less shambolic, and far more cohesive, than you might expect for a public rehearsal after five and a half years away.

The opener is the gorgeous "Seven". As with most of their back catalogue, the band have somehow taken the original template, and reshaped it so the song itself is barely recognisable until the vocals kick in. It's not the best version of the song ever played : the new arrangement sees the song slowed to a mogadon pace and lacking the epic sense of yore, but it's still a wonderful hymn to the power of emotion.

The rest of the set sees some of the band's big hitters - "Say Something", "She's A Star" - rebuilt and rescaled from their previously bombastic shape into smaller, more intimate forms, rising gently from acoustic forms into their full stature. Elsewhere, some of the bands older, and more obscure material is unearthed for the first time in 20 years : a near unrecognisable "Chainmail", "Riders", and "Really Hard" sparkle as the lost classics they undoubtedly are, whilst sitting comfortably alongside the three new songs that indicate that the new-look group are just as capable as they ever were.

In the confines of this intimate show, the band eschew the greatest hits : no sign of "Sit Down" or "Come Home" or "Sound" or "Born of Frustration" or "Laid" or "Destiny Calling".. instead they perform lesser-known album cuts before leading to a crescendo of well-known numbers. As the show enters the final strait the show rises from a sense of semi-awestruck intimacy into a whirlpool of sound : the collossal "Tomorrow" sounds like one of the best songs ever written, and the grand finale of "Sometimes" is a chorus of wonder.

Are James Back? Definitely. It is unknown if they will ever scale the heights of commercial and critical acceptance they once conquered, but it is clear that they still have that mysterious X Factor they once held elusively and unknowingly in their hands. The future is full of promise.

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