London S.S. In 1975, James was a member of an early London
proto-punk rock formation styling itself as
The London S.S., along with Chris Miller (
Rat Scabies) and
Brian James (later of
The Damned) and
Mick Jones and
Terry Chimes (both future members of
The Clash).
Generation X In late 1976, James joined the new band
Chelsea as its bassist, the group included
William Broad (a member of the
Bromley Contingent) on guitar, John Towe on drums and
Gene October as its frontman/lead singer. After a few weeks and a handful of support gigs in London and Manchester, James and Broad parted company with Gene October over a lack of personal chemistry, which October reciprocated the sentiment of, and departed taking John Towe with them to form another new band which they named
Generation X. Broad renamed himself with the performance punk pseudonym "Billy Idol" as he switched from the guitarist's role to be the singer/frontman on the recruitment of
Bob "Derwood" Andrews as its lead guitarist. Generation X played their first gigs in London in December 1976, and swiftly began writing their own material and playing live in venues around London and further afield. After five months Towe was dropped from the group's formation at James's instigation, and was replaced by the drummer
Mark Laff, to complete the line-up that signed to
Chrysalis Records and released the band's first single, "Your Generation" in September 1977, which entered the Top 40 of the
UK Singles Chart. The band went on to release two long-players, the self-titled
Generation X (1978) and
Valley of the Dolls (1979), and several singles, all but one of which charted, and through a hectic touring schedule increasingly gained media recognition as one of the acts with a potentially bright commercial future that had emerged from the
punk-rock scene. However, in early 1979 the band's internal cohesion began to come apart after the relative commercial failure of the
Valley of the Dolls L.P., which had gone no higher than #51 in the U.K. Albums Chart, and disagreements arose within it about its future musical direction in London's post-punk landscape, the writing process and credits for its work, augmented by the appearance of personality clashes. These came to a head in late 1979 during the recording of what was the band's (unfinished) third long-player (retrospectively commercially released 20 years later under the title
Sweet Revenge). Generation X broke up in acrimony at the year's end with Andrews the lead guitarist quitting the act, and Idol and James asking its drummer Mark Laff to leave the band shortly afterwards over another disagreement.
Gen X After abandoning the recording sessions at Olympic Studios, in early 1980 James and Idol re-launched the band in the
New Romantic style, re-titled with the new name Gen X, with the drummer
Terry Chimes.
Sigue Sigue Sputnik In 1981, after writing the single release "Russian Roulette" for the band
The Lords of the New Church, playing on
The London Cowboys' album
Animal Pleasure and producing
Sex Gang Children's album
Song and Legend, James formed the
rockabilly/
cyberpunk act
Sigue Sigue Sputnik, with whom he wrote and performed until 1989.
Subsequent career In 1990, James became the bassist with
The Sisters of Mercy, performing on the album
Vision Thing and on the band's subsequent live tour: however he left the band the following year. On 20 September 1993, during
Billy Idol's
No Religion Tour, James joined Generation X for a one-off reunion performance at the
Astoria Theatre in London's West End. From 2002 to 2013 James worked with
Mick Jones, his erstwhile associate from The London S.S. in the mid-1970s, in an act titled
Carbon/Silicon, with James co-writing songs and playing guitar. James appeared at the 2023 Glastonbury Festival as a member of Generation Sex, featuring James and Billy Idol from Generation X, and Steve Jones and Paul Cook from the Sex Pistols. ==Discography==