Jade's Music Blog

IT MUST BE GREAT GOING BACK TO LIVERPOOL TO PLAY A BIG GIG LIKE THIS?
Yeah, it is. It’s always nice, I love going back to Liverpool, and to play a big gig like this is something special.
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE PART OF THE CELEBRATIONS?
It’s great. All of us interested in Liverpool were part of trying to make it the Capital Of Culture, it was like an Olympic bid. You all get fired up and carried along by the enthusiasm for it. It was great when we did actually get it. There have been a few plans for me to be part of it and I’m doing a couple of other things too.
AS AN EVERTON FAN, WHAT’S IT GOING TO BE LIKE PLAYING AT LIVERPOOL’S GROUND ANFIELD?
Haha. I haven’t been to Anfield before. It’s that thing isn’t it, you’re supposed to be Manchester United or City, Rangers or Celtic, you know, one or the other, but I just gave up on that idea years ago.
I’m officially Everton, my dad was born in Everton, but the Liverpool team came to one of my concerts at Wembley Arena once, led by Kenny Dalglish. He brought the whole team, so that gave me enough of a reason to be able to support them openly.
I love both teams, but if it comes to the crunch I’d have to be on Everton’s side.
WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE OTHER BANDS THAT ARE ON? KAISER CHIEFS AND THE ZUTONS.
I know the Kaisers quite well. Over the last couple of years I’ve done a couple of things they’ve been on. They interviewed me once for the NME, too. They’re good guys, we get on well, they’ve got a good sense of humour.
I don’t know The Zutons personally, but I like their music, they’re one of the good Liverpool bands. They were suggested for it, so I said ’Yeah, they’ll be great’.
THEIR MUSIC IS VERY MUCH IN THE LIVERPOOL TRADITION, VERY MELODIC AND IMMEDIATE. WHAT IS IT ABOUT THE CITY THAT CREATES THAT SOUND?
I think it’s heritage. Years ago, Liverpool was the second city in Britain, it was a mercantile capital. It was very prosperous.
I think the people there became very proud of themselves and their city, and confident, and it’s never gone away, even though the mercantile eminence has gone, or receded, the people still remain very confident.
That finds its way into entertainment, so you get a lot of comedians out of the city - most of the people on the street are comedians, or at least think they are!
So there’s a good sense of humour and atmosphere when you go there, and the music is the other thing that comes out of that confidence, Liverpool people just have that melody in them.
The music the sailors brought back with them in the 50s was an early influence on the place too, that’s certainly what happened with us.
Liverpool sailors were going out to places like New York, New Orleans, the big shipping ports, and bringing back music; blues, country, whatever, and Liverpool became a melting pot of those influences and those kind of songs, because people were aware of them or had the records.
WHAT SORT OF SET ARE YOU PLANNING FOR THE CONCERT?
It’s always a difficult one that, because it’s just my set, it’s just what I’m doing at the moment, but with some new surprises put in especially for Liverpool.
We’re working on that now, I rehearsed last week, and I’m working all this week. We’re working on a few things we don’t normally do, especially for Liverpool. Which are surprises, so don’t ask me about them!
DAVE GROHL IS PLAYING TOO. DO YOU KNOW HIM?
I’ve run into him a couple of times. Foo Fighters did a cover of >fr 1,8<1974 Wings single>fr 3,8< Band On The Run, and someone told me they were down at Abbey Road recording it, so I dropped in and surprised them. Dave was putting the guitar track down, it was great. I just busted in the session, ruined it I suppose, and said ’Hi’ to everyone.
It kind of reminded me of a Wings session, which was good for me because they were doing Band On The Run, but Dave’s wife had their baby there, which reminded me of how me and Linda would be. Often one of the babies would be at the recording session, or would be playing around on the floor.
You don’t see that so much now. There was a chance the band would play, but the scheduling was a bit tight, but Dave said he’d make it on his own so he’ll come and do something with us. It’s nice for me, but it’ll be good for the audience.
GOING BACK TO YOUR CHILDHOOD IN LIVERPOOL, WHAT WAS THAT LIKE? WHAT ARE YOUR MEMORIES FROM BEFORE THE BEATLES FORMED? WAS IT A HARD PLACE?
It was always a little rough. My memories would be getting confronted by a gang bigger than our gang, and thinking ’Oh no’, so there was all that, to fight or not to fight.
I got my watch robbed once down on the shore, Dungeon Lane, so it was hard, not massively, but there was definitely an edge. You had to watch who you were looking at.
There were the Teddy Boys, who were often quite hard. They’d say ’Who you lookin’ at?’ and it was a no-win situation, because if you said ’You’ they’d smack you, and if you said ’Not you’ they’d say ’Why not?’ and smack you.
I kind of grew up on the outskirts and my mum was a midwife, and she got posted to the new area that was getting built at the time, which is now Speke where the airport is. I remember roads that weren’t finished, so there were new bits of Liverpool getting added on, but because it was the edge of the city, we were two minutes away from countryside.
My memories are playing in streams, building dams, going down to the shore, to Dungeon Lane where there was a lighthouse. I used to get away with my Observer’s Book Of Birds, and I’d go walking with that in my pocket and see a bird, get the book out and could say ’There’s a hedge warbler’ or whatever. I was that kind of kid, I loved all that. At the same time, I’d go to school and get the more urban side, so there was a balance.
My family were a big part of it too. When I was growing up a lot of things were to do with the family. You didn’t have guests so much as uncles and aunties and cousins coming to stay. Our family was good like that, we were always getting on buses and going places.
WHEN THINGS REALLY TOOK OFF WITH THE BEATLES, AND YOU WERE IN THAT EYE OF THE STORM, AS IT’S BEEN DESCRIBED, DID GOING BACK TO LIVERPOOL FEEL LIKE A SAFE HAVEN, AWAY FROM LONDON AND THE REST OF THE WORLD?
We always felt like that, it was home. None of us lived in London till a bit later on. After gigs down in London we’d go back up to Liverpool, often in blizzards, stuck in our little Bedford van, and we were going home. There was always that feeling we could go home, regroup, get our feet back on the ground, and then make another expedition into the big world beyond.
It was always nice to go home there, and I’d go and tell my dad and brother what I’d been up to, what I’d been doing. It was lovely, and it’s nice to be going back there now, it’s another homecoming for me.