Jools Holland to appear at Venue Cymru

Jun 24 2010 by Ian Hughes, North Wales Weekly News

IT was Tony Wilson, or more accurately Steve Coogan playing Tony Wilson in 24 Hour Party People, that said: “Jazz is the last refuge of the untalented. Jazz musicians enjoy themselves more than anyone listening to them does.”

Jools Holland only half balks at that statement.

“I think being self-indulgent is part and parcel of being a musician,” he says. “The reason you do it in the first place is because you enjoy it.”

That’s not to say he believes audiences should be subjected to drum solos and musical tomfoolery. Thinking for a second, he adds: “As long as you don’t bore people.”

“If you’re being self indulgent and the audience is dancing they don’t think ‘oh, when is this going to be over’, they think ‘man, what a talented guy this is’. It’s a thin line you have to tread.”

Impressing people, though, is something he has had to burden himself with less over the years.

As new artists would have to burden themselves with edge and the pressures of marketability, Holland finds himself gratefully free of those shackles.

“I’m at a point where I can give myself a little more freedom,” he says.

“Playing with a lot of different musicians and observing them, you see them enjoying it more as they get older. They tend to relax. That is especially true for Eric Clapton, I know.”

Playing with the great and the good is still something Holland struggles to get used to.

“It can still be very strange,” he muses. “People like Mick Jones, who I’ve played with – they were my generation.

“Joe Strummer, I remember, once kicked my dressing room door down. I was playing some riff, and he said he had some words to go with it – demanding we do something.

“When it comes to playing as a peer with artists you grew up with it’s very strange.”

Different, though not for too long, as he adds: “You’re awestruck but then as you play it becomes easy as you’re part of it – servants to the music. Then when you finish you’re back to being awestruck again. When I played with Jimmy Cliff, you can’t plan that. All the elements were just right.

“It’s best just to think about the music. Music is the key, the emotion.”

It was Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age who said: “I think rock and roll is just the search for a perfect moment.”

“I think I agree,” finishes Holland matter-of-factly.

Jools Holland plays Venue Cymru in Llandudno on July 2. Call 01492 872000.