Jade's Music Blog

Not any more. Now it seems they’ve jumped out from the studios and are happy taking centre stage.
In the last few years, Pharrell Williams, Timbaland and Kanye West have all made the leap from backroom producers to pop celebrities. This year it has been Mark Ronson’s turn.
Having given both Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse's albums his Midas touch, 29-year-old Mark hit number two in the album charts with Version, his star-dusted covers album.
Now he’s heading out on a headline national tour, calling in at Liverpool – the city he thinks of as his second home – next week.
“My mum is from Southport, so I’ve got loads of aunties, uncles and cousins in the area,” explains Mark. I’d expected him to have an American twang, but with his clipped, clear tones show his English roots shine through.
“Sorry don’t I sound American enough?” he laughs. “I hope you’re not disappointed.
“I’ve been in Liverpool quite a lot this year. I was up for Creamfields, and then I came over when I played Preston, and a few other times I think.”
Mark is also a friend of the Liverpool music scene – he collaborated with West Derby singer Candie Payne on her latest single One More Chance and she was due to support him on his tour.
“I’m so annoyed – something happened with the tour schedule and now she can’t do any of the shows,” he says, indeed sounding annoyed.
“She’s one of my favourite singers. She did V Festival with us, we’ve done a few shows together, and I was really looking forward to it.”
The pair met after Mark heard one of her early demos. They are with the same record company (Sony BMG, of which Liverpool label Deltasonic is a part).
“I heard her demo one day and she just blew me away,” he smiles. “It was that song – One More Chance. I thought it was great. The guys said she didn’t like how it sounded and she was still working on it, and asked if I’d like to take a shot at it.
“It’s hard when you really like a song. It was already brilliant.
“But then working with Candie, the whole process was great. When she was in the studio singing it, I’d stop and think ‘I can’t believe I’m working on this’. I felt lucky to be involved.”
Mark has continued his love affair with all things Liverpool in his current single with Amy Winehouse, a cover of The Zutons’ Valerie.
“It’s one of those weird things, because of course Sean (Payne, The Zutons drummer) is Candie’s brother,” explains Mark.
“I’m glad it was a Liverpool song. I think Liverpool has the best musical history of, well, of anywhere in the world.
“But I have to admit I didn’t know the song all that well before we did it. At the time I’d just finished Amy’s album, and I’d almost finished mine and I really wanted her to do a song for me.
“I kept asking her if she knew any new songs. I explained that it was soul covers of guitar records.
“She only listens to things made before 1967, she didn’t know any indie songs,” he laughs.
“Then one day she came up and said ‘I like Valerie by The Zutons’. At the time I couldn’t hear her voice singing it in my head. I wasn’t sure how it would work, but she went into the studio and tried it. I loved it.”
It has since become a favourite track for Miss Winehouse. She regularly covers it, including at Glastonbury, and at this year’s Summer Pops show.
“I feel like she’s cheating on me when I hear her doing it live,” laughs Mark. “But then I can’t talk, I do it live without her.”
The live show promises to be something special.
“We’ve done the festivals now, and this is our first headline tour. We’ve got the full live band, with guest singers. It’s not just me standing there behind a desk.”
Mark grew up surrounded by music – his mother married Mick Jones of the band Foreigner, and as a child Paul and Linda McCartney regularly popped in for tea. Sean Lennon is among his best friends.
“I had a really musical upbringing,” he says. “My mum moved us to New York when I was eight. Before she moved though, her and my dad would throw tea-parties at their house and I – three or four years old at the time – would sit, eating crumpets and playing air-drums next to the stereo speakers. Drums was my first instrument, I have since laid them to rest.
“I started a band in high-school, playing guitar, and I listened to a lot of good music. Then the Brand New Heavies came along and I found the funk as well. I started DJing in 1993 in downtown New York clubs, for whoever had five dollars.”
His first album, Here Comes The Fuzz, was released in 2003 and barely made a dent when it reached number 70 in the UK charts.
But when he released Version this year – mostly guitar tunes reworked with Stax and Motown as an inspiration, mixed it all up with an imagination all of his own – critics and music fans took it to their hearts.
It features The Smiths’ Stop Me performed by Australian singer Daniel Merriweather, Robbie Williams singing The Charlatans’ The Only One I Know, Lily Allen’s take on Kaiser Chiefs’ Oh My God and American rappers Tiggers and ODB performing a version of Britney Spears’ Toxic.
It is unlikely Mark had to twist the arms of any of the stars on the album. Most of them, to put it mildly, owe him one.
“When I started the album, I didn’t have a record deal,” Mark explains. “All of the people on it were people I was working with and I just asked them to be on my record. It is a record I made for my own enjoyment, these are some of my favourite songs.”
But despite all that he has achieved, Mark still thinks he has a long way to go.
“I’m about a quarter of the way on my musical journey, if that, he says. “I’ve got no idea what I’m going to do next, but I’m looking forward to finding out.”
Mark Ronson plays Carling Academy Liverpool on Friday October 12. For more information see www.myspace.com/markronson.