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 Te Stooges and MC5, following on with Te Sex Pistols and Te Clash, and then more recently, Te Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Nick Cave. A big influence for me is also Te Birthday Party.
If
you like dirty, grimy, sexy, your-mother-wouldn’t-like-it rock ‘n’ roll, you probably already know the Jim Jones Revue. Tis 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.
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 Te Ramones. Tey 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 Te Ramones’
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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.
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 Te Forum in London and that’s the biggest headline gig we’ll have ever done. Te 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 Te 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.
Te video of your keyboardist 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?
“Lots of things in Norwichreally
influenced mein a really positive way”
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