Jim Glennie

Who is Jim Glennie?

Jim Glennie is the bassist for and namesake of English rock band, James. Glennie is the band's longest-serving member, having been there from the first line-up, through to the present.

Glennie never really had an interest in music in his youth, but his childhood best friend Paul Gilbertson managed to change his mind after convincing him to buy a bass guitar. Two weeks later they played their first concert at Eccles Royal British Legion club, in which their singer did not show up. Glennie offered himself up to sing instead, and the club manager pulled the plug halfway through their second song, demanding they stopped playing.

Glennie and Gilbertson's ritual, in the very early years, was to get very drunk before they went onstage to calm their nerves – this partly explains why they were almost unlistenable when the band first started – coupled with their own admittance that they could not really play their instruments at the time either.

After Gilbertson's sacking Glennie was quite badly affected initially, having lost a very close friend and musical companion. Glennie stuck it out, however, and remained true to the James cause. He and the band's singer Tim Booth often had many conflicts, due to Glennie feeling Booth was not doing what was best for the band. Saul Davies admitted in the 2006 Q article that Glennie and Booth "didn't always see eye to eye".