The Jim Jones Revue
“Coming off stage after a show you feel like you’ve been zapped by a rock ‘n’ roll lightning bolt.”
Jim Jones Revue
If you like dirty, grimy, sexy, your-mother-wouldn’t-like-it rock ‘n’ roll, you probably already know the Jim Jones Revue. This band has the best ever reputation for near-religious live experiences. Notoriously rock ‘n’ roll in all the most exciting senses of the phrase, they have been very busy chaps indeed. Seven years, three albums and hundreds of bonkers live shows all across the planet later, they have decided to call it a day, and their last ever penultimate gig will be at Open, Norwich. I spoke to guitarist Rupert Orton (brother of Beth) as he got ready for a relaxing pre-tour holiday in France about what the band has meant to him, how Norwich aimed him on the road to musical success and how he nearly got arrested in France.
How did JJR get together?
Jim was in a band called Black Moses, and I ran a club night called Not The Same Old Blues Crap, and I used to promote Jim’s band. Our friendship grew, Black Moses split up, I’d always been a guitar player and we felt that it would be a lot of fun to put together a band that included everything that we loved about rock ‘n’ roll. We got the other guys involved and it all took off really quickly.
How would you describe the music with JJR, and what are your musical influences?
It has been said we’re a cross between Little Richard and MC5; I think that’s quite characteristic of the early sound of the band, but it’s got a bit more twisted since then. If you imagine that, but a bit more psychotic, that’s about where we are now! Our common passion is the original rock ‘n’ roll guys, like Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry as well as the early Blues musicians like Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf and Robert Johnson. We also love the 60’s bands like The Stooges and MC5, following on with The Sex Pistols and The Clash, and then more recently, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Nick Cave. A big influence for me is also The Birthday Party.
Your previous keyboardist Elliott left a while back; you replaced him with the excellent Henri but could it have meant the end of the band at that point?
Quite easily, yes. We finished the tour in 2010 just before Christmas; Elliott was finding it very difficult for several reasons and left at the end of that tour. The next month we had a series of really big tours coming up in Australia, Europe and America. I got on the phone and phoned a million people trying to find a piano player, and in the end I got a pianist in Australia, one in America and Henri in Europe! Henri fitted in so well that we offered him a full time position in the band. We’ve been better than ever after that.
The video of Henri playing the piano impromptu in St Pancras station has now had over 7 million views on Youtube. It’s such strange footage as most people watching it live seem to ignore him, yet it was incredibly popular online. How did you feel about this?
I think it’s a fascinating piece of anthropological footage! It’s a document of how life is these days; Henri playing an organic instrument with his hands, making something out of nothing, and no one can there can hear him as they’re listening to their iPods! We live such disconnected lives now that they’re too embarrassed to react to it, yet when it’s online everyone loved it! When you’re getting music through your laptop or your iPod or mp3 player you are in control of it, but when the music is right there, being played live, it seems to confuse people. It’s fascinating and bewildering. That clip had been on YouTube for about 18 months and had a couple thousand views, but then we played in San Francisco, and someone at the show put the clip up on Reddit and overnight it exploded and now it’s got 7 million views. If you’re seeing the Jim Jones Revue live, you’ll be actively involved in the music and it will hit you right between the eyes; you have to get into it or get out the room!
Norwich will be your penultimate gig; how does that feel? Will there be a lot of your friends and family down there?
It’s a mixture of happiness and sadness really; it’s been my life for the last eight years and fulfilled so many of my expectations and dreams; it’s been quite magical. For me, it’s going to be quite apt to play our penultimate show in Norwich; as a musician it was where I played my first shows, at Norwich Arts Centre, the Jacquard Club, the Gala on St Stephen’s; plus I still have a lot of friends in Norwich. When the band first broke, we played at NAC and it sold out, and what was ironic was that when I was playing there when I was young, there were never more than 20-30 people at my gigs, and when I came to play with JJR it was rammed out, and I knew almost everyone in the audience! It’ll be good to see people I know well in Norwich and it hopefully will turn into a party; an opportunity to raise a toast and celebrate what the Jim Jones Revue has meant to us all.
What is your musical history before you met Jim Jones, and what effect did Norwich have on you growing up?
I moved up to Norwich from London when I was about four, and when I started getting into music, one of my first favourites were The Ramones. They came and played at UEA. It was one of those dream events, when you can’t quite believe you are seeing them live in your hometown. In those days people didn’t regularly play Norwich as they do now, so it was remarkable for me. It had a profound effect on me and made me want to play guitar. It was relatively easy to get a sound that approximated The Ramones’ sound if you couldn’t play guitar too well. Lots of things in Norwich really influenced me in a really positive way, one of the main ones being Norwich Arts Centre; they used to bring over really great authentic American blue artists like Mississippi Slim and I found it amazing that I could be in Norwich, so far away from Mississippi and see these musicians. When I started my club night in London it was very much influenced by coming to see some of those artists. Outside of the JJR I book tours for American bands, and now I book my artists into NAC, so it’s come full circle for me.
I hear your gigs can get pretty wild. What makes a good gig for you?
Everyone’s welcome as long as they want to get into it, we’re not elitists, we don’t mind what you wear or anything. The intense energy we give out when we are performing, when the audience gives it back to you, it becomes a two-way thing that builds and builds. Coming off stage after a show you feel like you’ve been zapped by a rock ‘n’ roll lightning bolt. Some people have likened it to a quasi-religious experience; I don’t know if I’d say that, but there’s a common bond of spirituality between everyone there; you get to a higher state of excitement at the end of it. If you remember the best acid house clubs in the 80’s, where everyone lost all their inhibitions and danced on tables, it’s a bit like that, but with rock ‘n’ roll.
What’s the craziest live experience you’ve had as part of JJR?
We were on tour in France, and were asked by Jack White to support him for a date in London, so we had to drive from France to London and back to do just one date; we didn’t sleep for three nights. When we got to Le Havre, we nearly got into trouble as France has very tight volume levels, much tighter than in the UK, and we were struggling to stay under the limit during our set. Our sound engineer warned us the police were on their way to arrest us for so we had to pick up our instruments and run! We drove right into an extremely foggy night, so that was a few days to remember there. It felt like a more sinister episode of The Monkees!
You tour a lot, and have done over the last 7 years – is that because rock n roll is so much better live, or is it more because that’s how a lot of bands make their money these days, or do you just enjoy it?
I was used to working with American bands, and they think nothing of touring for three months at a time, with one day off a week. I thought that was how all bands toured, so that’s what we did! If you get the opportunity to play I think you should run with it. We toured pretty solidly from 2009 to 2013. We had a week off here and there, but other than that it was full on all the time. We got to the point where we had to swap crew members over as they could only work for a set number of weeks, but we kept going! As a result, we are incredibly tight as a band, like a rock ‘n’ roll bootcamp. I’ve had to put my personal life on hold for the last seven years; thankfully I have a very understanding girlfriend.
Is rock n roll getting bigger at the moment? Who else in the genre is worth checking out?
I’d recommend The Princetons, The Amazing Snakeheads and John J Presley, who are supporting us on this final tour. Also, Jonny Halifax and the Howling Truth, The Fat White Family, and American bands like Daddy Longlegs, who I am trying to bring up to Norwich next year; instead of a pianist they have a completely insane harp player. Left Lane Cruiser from Indiana are great too, like punk blues. So there is a lot out there, you just have to dig deep for it.
Do you think rock n’ roll is becoming more popular as people yearn more for a live and real experience rather than the rather cold, impersonal digital world we live in now?
Malcolm McLaren once said culture is split into two streams at the moment; the majority is ‘karaoke’ which is the stuff that isn’t real, and then the real stuff. We’re human beings made of flesh and blood, not microchips, and we need something we can connect with. I think that authenticity is something people strive after in music, something that hasn’t been pre conceived on a production line.
Why are you splitting up now?
It’ll be coming up to eight years when we do our farewell tour and we’ve done three albums. We’ve exceeded all our expectations and everything we wanted to do when we started the band. It’s been brilliant, but there’s a lot of collective creativity in the band and I think it’s time to start doing some new stuff. We’ll finish this tour playing at The Forum in London and that’s the biggest headline gig we’ll have ever done. The night before at Open will be a big night too. I think it’s good to go out with a bang rather than it all fragmenting and ending up with one original member playing in a pub to 30 of his mates. We’d rather go out at The Forum, playing to 2,500 people. I think there are too many bands reforming; there should be more bands splitting up! We’re hoping this tour’ll be a real celebration of the band.
What are your plans for after October when the JJR are no more?
I’m going to start another music project; I’m not sure in what form yet. Immediately after the band splits I’m going to take off to Mississippi on my own, kick back for a couple weeks with some friends and recover from the whole Jim Jones Revue experience!
Jim Jones Revue play their last ever Norwich gig at Open on 3rd October. Tickets from http://www.ueaticketbookings.co.uk.
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