James Lawrence "Larry" Gott (born 24 July 1957,

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

) is an English musician, formerly of the Mancunian band

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

. He is also a designer.

Music

Within the band Gott mainly played guitar and provided backing vocals, but also featured on keyboards and the

flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

on earlier albums. Prior to joining the band, he had been the guitar tutor for founder members

Jim Glennie James Patrick Glennie (born 10 October 1963) is the bassist for and eponym of English rock band, James. He is the band's longest-serving member—having been there from the first line-up through to the present day—and now only remaining origi ...

and

Paul Gilbertson James are an English rock band from Manchester, who were formed in 1982. They had popularity throughout the 1990s, with four top 10s on the UK Singles Chart and nine top 10s on the UK Albums Chart. The band's best-known singles include " Come ...

. He was later invited to join the band after Gilbertson's playing began to decline due to his drug problems, which eventually led to Gilbertson's sacking. Gott was to remain with James throughout the heyday of their career, forming part of what was considered to be the core nucleus of James for a long time, together with singer

Tim Booth Timothy John Booth (born 4 February 1960) is an English singer-songwriter, actor and dancer. He is the lead singer and co-founder of the indie rock band James, and co-wrote several of their hit singles including " Sit Down", " Come Home", and ...

and bassist Glennie. Gott announced his intention to leave the band in 1995, after the '' Laid'' / '' Wah Wah'' albums. According to the band's ''Folklore'' biography by

Stuart Maconie Stuart Maconie (born 13 August 1961) is an English radio DJ and television presenter, writer, journalist, and critic working in the field of pop music and popular culture. He is currently a presenter on BBC Radio 6 Music where, alongside Mark ...

, he was exhausted from the pressures of touring and wanted to spend more time with his family. He stayed in close contact with the other band members during the following year, writing and recording most of the songs on the band's following album ''

Whiplash Whiplash may refer to: * The long flexible part of a whip * Whiplash (medicine), a neck injury ** Whiplash Injury Protection System (WHIPS), in automobiles Film and television * ''Whiplash'' (1948 film), a US film noir about a boxer * ''Whiplas ...

'' effectively as a regular member. He went on to study Art and Design and subsequently pursued a career designing furniture. He also taught music lessons at colleges around Manchester, including Manchester College of Arts and Technology. Gott made two guest appearances on the band's so-called 'farewell tour' in 2001 at the MEN and Wembley Arenas. Following the band's apparent split, he started to work with bassist Glennie in low key, informal

improvisation Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

sessions. During these intervening years, Gott also worked with Manchester maverick Edward Barton on an, as yet, unreleased album. James reformed in January 2007, and Gott was at the centre of the reformation, reprising his duties as lead guitarist. In August 2015 he left the band for unspecified reasons; he was replaced by

Adrian Oxaal Adrian Oxaal (born 20 March 1965) is an American-born English musician and music educator, best known for being the lead guitarist in James 1997–2002 and 2015–present. He has also played with the bands Sharkboy, Oysterband and Goat. Biogr ...

on lead guitar.

Design

Gott studied three-dimensional design at

Manchester Metropolitan University Manchester Metropolitan University is located in the centre of Manchester, England. The university has over 40,000 students and over 4,000 members of staff. It is home to four faculties (Arts and Humanities, Business and Law, Health and Educat ...

graduating in 2000. His work, similar to his guitar playing, followed the

Kiss principle KISS, an acronym for "Keep it simple, stupid!", is a design principle noted by the U.S. Navy in 1960. First seen partly in American English by at least 1938, the KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather tha ...

, and found favour among the established design community. His 'reaction recliner' won many plaudits and awards including the Allemuir Award for Industry and the Blueprint Award for Creativity, presented by the Milanese architect

Mario Bellini Mario Bellini (born February 1, 1935 in Milan) is an Italian architect, critic, and designer. He received a degree in architecture from Milan Polytechnic in 1959 and began working as an architect in the early 1960s. Like many other Italia ...

at the 2001 '100% design' show at London's

Earls Court Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the ...

. An early prototype of this design resides in the permanent collection of the

Manchester City Art Gallery Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupies three c ...

. Another of Gott's award-winning pieces, an outdoor chair and table set made from wire mesh, caught the eye of

Sir Terence Conran Sir Terence Orby Conran (4 October 1931 – 12 September 2020) was an English designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer. He founded the Design Museum in Shad Thames, London in 1989 The British designer Thomas Heatherwick said that Conran ...

and subsequently retailed in the Conran shops worldwide under Gott's brandname 'MeshMan'.

References

1957 births Living people James (band) members English rock guitarists Musicians from Manchester Alumni of Manchester Metropolitan University {{England-musician-stub