Born in Salford, James Litherland's musical journey began in 1968 when he moved to London to join Jon Hiseman's Colosseum as lead singer and guitarist. Extensive touring and two albums followed on which he wrote a substantial proportion of the songs, before he left to form Mogul Thrash, a band which saw James working with John Wetton (King Crimson,Roxy Music, Family and Asia), Malcolm Duncan and Roger Ball (The Average White Band). During this time James and John Wetton regularly played on sessions for Sir George Martin.
James' next project, a band called Million, saw him touring and recording with John Baldry,
Leo Sayer and Dick Heckstall-Smith, as well as working with
Rod Stewart and playing with Jeff Beck, but before long San Francisco beckoned, and James found himself playing in a Bay Area band and working with the likes of Tom Salisbury (Van Morrison), Gaylord Birch (The Pointer Sisters),
Bobby Vega (Sly And The
Family Stone) and Billy Roberts, the writer of Jimi Hendrix's classic 'Hey Joe'.
A return to England saw James forming Bandit with Cliff Williams (AC/DC), touring and recording with Alexis Korner and embarking on session work and teaching to augment his career playing live. During this time he worked on music for film (Dennis Hopper's 'The Piano Player', 'Conspiracy of Silence', 'Lunar Girl' among others) as well as theatre ('A Slice Of Saturday Night'). His work on album sessions included The Fury's And
J*Davey Arthur, Finbar Fury's Love Songs and Steve Marriott's last album '30 Seconds To Midnite'.
A new chapter began in James' personal life when he and his wife had a son,
James Blake Litherland. His role as a hands-on father ran in parallel to his prolific career in music; he recorded two solo albums '4th Estate' and 'Real Men Cry' during this period, as well as enjoying a resurgence of his work with Colosseum when Fat Boy Slim sampled the band's track 'The Kettle' (renamed 'Ya Mama'). The song appeared in the film Charlie's Angels as well as various TV shows.
It's well documented that
James Blake has established a very successful career of his own, though perhaps what is less well known is that his Ivor
Novello Award nominated song 'The Wilhelm Scream' which appears on his eponymous debut is actually a cover version of his father's track 'Where To Turn' from James Litherland's '4th Estate' album.
James Litherland's latest solo album Back 'n Blue is released on June 9th 2017.
Social Links:
https://www.facebook.com/jameslitherlandmusician/
http://www.jameslitherland.com
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