Mic
My Jealous God. Five Thirty, Joe Zawinul. Yo Yo Honey. Charley Pride.
LISTINGS: ROCK & BLUES 36 JAZZ 40 LIGHT 40 FOLK & WORLD 42 CLASSICAL 43
REVIEW
the Jolly Boys and more.
HEE- l l
That ' green-eyed r monster
They‘re My Jealous God and they want everything. . . Fiona Shepherd spoke to lead deity Jim Melly.
‘Have you ever been to Lancaster‘.’ You know the village in An American Werewolf in London? That‘s what Lancaster‘s like. so it‘s a bit strange.‘
It‘s been said before. but Jim Melly. vocalist for MyJealous God. isavery good talker. Ilis , loquacious reputation precedes him. so it‘s not i surprising that even the br'efest ofconversations with him yields a plethora of anecdotes. In the space of five minutes. I learn of Lancaster‘s fetish for Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine. Jim‘s distant relation to Pat Bonner. why he thinks pub tours are the lowest form of rock‘n‘roll dues-paying. why Hacienda DJ Dave Haslam is a good manager (‘he‘s tall. he hasn‘t got very much hair and he‘s dead cheap‘) and how James accidentally came on stage in Paris recently to the infectn ius strains of My Jealous God‘s current single. Pray". ‘We was trying to sort it so The Charlatans came on to us as well. but they were a lot more on the case and had the [)J cut off about five minutes before they came on.‘
Jim is instantly likeable. which is why it‘s easy to forgive him his over-ambitious claims for My Jealous God‘s songs. ‘By the time “Everything About You“ came out it was a year old. and people said it was dead current when it came out. so the way I think is that it was a year ahead of its ‘
time.‘
Said debut single was a very immediate slab of blissed—out pop. The follow-up. ‘Pray‘. is Frazier Chorus with a boot up the rear end. more of a grower. a pulsing popsicle with some potentially classic one-liners. (liven the somewhat prolific use ofthe wah-wah on both releases. the discussion qurckly turns to all things Mancunian. ‘Manchester‘s l‘inished.‘ states Jim emphatically. ‘All ofthat is over. it has been for a year. and the journalists in London can‘t admit that because they‘ve staked their houses on it.‘
If he‘s bitter about the press. it‘s not surprising. My Jealous (iod‘s vinyl output has coincided fortuitously with the inevitable baggy ‘backlash‘. The writers who‘ve always hated the indie/dance marriage finally getting a word in edgeways to produce a multitude of accusatory remarks about opportunism and bandwagon-jumping. This is frustrating at the very least fora band who‘ve been doin‘ their own thing since before the so-called ‘second wave‘ ofcrossover groups was even a ripple.
‘Our first record was recorded in March 1989.
and we sat on that record for eight months because nobody would put it out. At that time. the major record companies didn‘t know what was going on and a lot of indie record companies weren‘t prepared to take the risk. It wasn‘t until a Manchester record label (Dave Has/am '3 Play Hard) picked up the record that people actually started to pay attention. It‘s not our fault ifthe music press aren‘t smart enough.‘
It‘s ridiculous that Jim should have to justify himselfin this way. but uninformed criticism rankles. and once his self-defence mechanism is kick-started. he finds it difficult to switch off. He picks up on anything that will mark his group out from the crowd. ‘Now there‘s a formula for making indie dance records. We‘re the only people who don‘t stick to it. because we‘re writing songs. and integral to their writing is the fact that they‘re dancey. We don‘t need to pay Terry Farley three thousand quid to make it a dance record — we can do it ourselves.‘ Hence no more remixes. Haslam‘s tinkering with ‘Everything About You‘ was the first and last time a My Jealous (iod song will appear in anything other than definitive form.
Their ‘understanding‘ with producer Mike Westerguard appears to be the key to the My Jealous (iod sound. ‘What happens is that I know what I want the record to sound like. so if I go in to Mike and say “I want this record to sound like an orange“ he can do it because he‘ll know what I mean.‘ Or perhaps it isn‘t.
llis voracious desire for total control coupled with his unshakeable confidence in the band‘s brilliance has earned Jim the ‘arrogant frontman‘ image. but he throws that back at his old chums the NME. ‘A lot ofjournalists in the big music press have a tendency to paraphrase. which makes life a bit difficult.‘ lfanyone‘s ajudge of his character. it‘s himself. ‘I‘m not arrogant. I‘m really sweet.‘ And ofcourse. we believe him. don‘t we‘.’
My Jealous God play The Venue. Edinburgh on Thurs l4 and .S‘lralhclyde Uni versin Union on Fri 16.
LISTEN!
I DUEEN HAVE iust signed Everything- specifically. a deal with Hollywood the same lawyer who Records. the Disney emphatically impressed Organisation's label. in upon the Bombers. “This is time tor the release oltheir no Mickey Mouse
17th album. ‘Innuendo'. Did organisation you're dealing they. we wonder. have to with here.'?
deal with the same lawyers I A LISTING FDR Eddie who persuaded Bomb I Baskerville's date at Disneyland to change their Jordanhill College on Wed name to the more 21 arrived too late for our acceptable (to them) Bomb paste-up experts to add to
the listings. but we were the same agency that much impressed to hear issued bogus press thathis ‘lggy Pop and Billy f releases announcing Idol. gelled with the Banger's death last month. showmanship at a young I PERHAPS SPUBBED BY Jagger' routine had blown news of the Sky/BSB
the root ott Pebbles Sunday Rock Show in Troon. It turns
merger, The Big Dish come
out he's none other than the Scottish dates in reincarnation of Eddie mid-Decemberto coincide Garrity of Ed Banger and with their debut EastWest The Nosebleeds and single ‘Miss America'. with Slaughter and The Dogs an album to tollow atthe infamy, and in a sign of end ol February. The next some desperation his album will be suilused with
the influences of Stephen Lindsay's iavourite American painters (Wyeth. Hopper and Bauschenberg) and writers (particularly
agency is still sending out : photocopies of Banger's , ‘altemative‘ chart placings from 1978. No surprise. then. that these were from
bouncing back to play some
feel by placing an almost from 8 Dec-12Jan. bluesy teel to some of the I MUSICIANS, I don't know songs’. 'Conscious' or . . . They should really take “natural”? Make your mind out a classified, but up. Stephen. ; Edinburgh's Rogues are I LIKE CAPTAIN 2 having trouble tinding a
BEEFHEART. Joni Mitchell singerto replace the
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f banged up in a recording ; yourtastes include 60s
studio (Beelheart‘s l garage and The
; tendency towards calling Wonderstuit. give Calum tree surgeons in to lend to E Ross 8 call on 031220
T the surrounding forestry
while his band played do this contacts ad business probany incurred l all the time. It'll be readers' 5 untenable expenses ; WIVES next.
Tom Wolfe). and the Dish have “consciously tried to introduce a more natural
anyway). An exhibition of the singer's work visits the City Art Centre in Edinburgh
0765. But we don't want to
The List 9 — 22 November 109031