Manchester favourites James will play nine dates with a difference including two shows each in Liverpool and their home city.

Accompanying the band at prestigious venues around the country will be the 22-piece Orchestra of the Swan — the ‘house band’ of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Swan Theatre — and the 16-piece Manchester Consort Choir.

Even though the band has played sold-out shows all over the world and had major hits such as Sit Down and Star, bassist Jim Glennie admits that these nine nights will prove to be something special.

“I don’t honestly think we’ve realised what we’re letting ourselves in for,” he joked.

“It’s certainly going to be interesting.

“It’s not just going to be James playing with an orchestra and choir. It’s more fundamental than that.

"We’re working with composer and conductor Joe Dudell and basically giving him free rein to go into our back-catalogue and work with those songs.

“I think we’ll be playing some songs we’ve hardly or even never played live before and they will all be totally different.

"It’s very exciting for us as a band.”

Working with an orchestra can present its own challenges for a rock band.

“We have to be more disciplined,” said Jim. “We can’t just go of on one on stage when there’s a complete orchestra there.

“To attempt something like this you have to be working with people you trust and fortunately we’ve known Joe for years.

"He’s a fellow Mancunian and he has that ‘edge’ which fits in nicely with what we do.

“When we went to our first rehearsal I was so nervous. I was thinking I’d been rumbled as we went into this massive hall filled with proper musicians.

“Surprisingly, I think they were as nervous as we were as we have had to encourage them to break out a bit.”

The autumn tour sees James playing venues more often associated with classical concerts.

“That’s part of the attraction for us,” said Jim.

“But we still want to bring the live aspect of a James show to these venues.

"You can’t stop Tim (lead singer Tim Booth) being a showman so there will still be a lot of interaction with the audience.

“It will be interesting to see how the audience reacts.

“For the diehard fans it will be interesting as they will see songs performed in a totally different way and I think there will be plenty in the shows for those who are more intrigued by the idea of a band, choir and orchestra working together.”

* James play Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on October 28 and 29 and Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall on October 31 and November 1.