He’s been there, done that and has ‘skas’ to prove it!
Musical virtuoso Jools Holland and his distinguished Rhythm & Blues Orchestra are returning to the Midlands with special guests Pauline Black and Arthur ‘Gaps’ Hendrickson of legendary Coventry ska band The Selecter. Jools talks to the Telegraph
Being on the road with a band you’ve known for a long time makes it quite a social thing, doesn’t it?
There’s a lot of us, so you’re never alone. We often have a big curry for all of us, that’s quite jolly. Everybody’s got a great sense of humour in the band as well as being good players. So that’s a good part of it.
For people who come to see you often, there is always a new element in your special guests.
This year, we’re having somebody who’s worked with us before, but who bring out this great element in us, and that’s The Selecter. Specifically, it’s Pauline Black, the singer, and ‘Gaps’ Hendrickson, who works with Pauline, and they’re perfect for us because they represent the British take on ska music, the 2 Tone thing. Although I wasn’t part of the 2 Tone thing, I was part of British ska music.
That’s part of my heritage and part of the thing my orchestra have been doing for the past 25 years, so we’ve always been playing that music. So it’s perfect for us and the effect they have on the audience, it’s like everybody jumps up straight away, as soon as they hear them doing Train To Skaville. It’s just such great music, and they do it so fantastically, and with a particular British take on it, which is great. They were the originators of that British take on ska music, just like Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones were the originators of British blues.
How do you go about adapting the guests’ big hits for a big band?
I wouldn’t want to force things into a big band style, so sometimes you have to play things in a different way. Most things you can take back to the piano, because I suppose 70 per cent of songs – I’m making up figures, there, everybody does it these days – were written on the piano, or the keyboard. Or just on a guitar, one instrument, so they’re not written with a big arrangement. So if you strip it back to that and then build it up again, you can normally make something work.
In your case, your nan’s piano was crucial to your musical upbringing, wasn’t it?
Yes, my nan’s piano was really an essential thing because it was in her front room, as people had in the 1930s. It was a gift to her by her mother Britannia in 1937, and I would hear them at Christmas, when I was very small, all singing songs.
Everybody had their own song that they’d sing at the piano, and it was also a pianola, so you would pedal the pedals and you would hear Fats Waller playing Red Sails In The Sunset, so I got to learn those songs early on. But also, it was great because my uncle, who was a teenager when I was small, would play boogie-woogie piano on it, and that really got me going and fired up and made me learn by ear what he was doing.
Did you have records in the house at home?
We couldn’t afford a piano, but we had a record player, and a radio, and my parents liked classical music and jazz music, and so I would hear a lot of that, and I think it opened my mind to a lot of that. The first record player I had was a 78 record player, with a great big wind-up needle, which is the worst thing even to play 78s on. But eventually, my dad got me an Alba record player, and we could have a good listen to whatever records were out at the time. I think I had a Glenn Miller one, which got worn out, but the first proper LP I had was For Once In My Life by Stevie Wonder. I liked that, and I think I had Lady Madonna, the single, by The Beatles, because I tried to learn the piano part on it.
What’s your favourite record you’ve ever played on?
Well, I’ve been lucky, I’ve played on a few different records. I played on one with B.B. King and Van Morrison. They counted in, and the first intro was two leading notes on the piano. Van starts singing and B.B. starts playing and neither of them have played it before, and it was just ‘This is great, wow, it’s really magical’.
Do you ever stop to think about the life you’ve led in music?
I think sometimes it’s time to look in the rear view mirror and take stock, because there are some fantastic moments. I’ve been very lucky, whether it’s recording with George Harrison, writing with Dr John, or having Dionne Warwick cover a song that San Brown and I wrote. I can’t believe it sometimes. Then sometimes when we play on ‘Later’ or on the ‘Hootenanny’ you get some amazing things happening. I remember being in the dressing room with Amy Winehouse and her just singing something at the piano. And you’re thinking ‘Wow, that’s amazing’. ●●Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra play Symphony Hall, Birmingham, on November 29 and 30, with special guests Pauline Black and Arthur ‘Gaps’ Hendrickson.