55 f Real Worldly


She claims to be just the ‘Label Manager’ but Amanda Jones has been at the helm of Real World Records since it was conceived nearly thirty years ago. Elizabeth Kinder has the quiz.


I


t’s difficult to imagine the musical landscape in this country without the lush, unexpected blooms nur- tured by Real World Records. For almost 30 years Real World have


brought us extraordinary and inspiring music from across the planet while also nourishing artists grown closer to home. The label defies genres, creates new ones and simply ignores boundaries. It consis- tently releases music that breaks down barriers in our minds as gracefully as it soars over those constructed by geogra- phy and passport control. It is difficult, also, to imagine Real World Records with- out Amanda Jones.


Admittedly, if we played word associa- tion, you might go “Real World Records?” and I’d say “Peter Gabriel”. Naturally he’d spring to mind. A brilliant and world famous musician, with a massive musical and humanitarian interest in cultural expression wherever it’s from, he puts his money where his mouth is and fundamen- tally, Womad and Real World Records would not exist without him.


But then immediately, I’d go: “No!


Wait! Real World Records – Amanda Jones!” Real World and Amanda Jones: joined at the hip. Not separated at birth.


We meet for a coffee and in the pared-back surroundings of Le Pain Quoti- dien in Notting Hill I say as much. She laughs. “I’ve been there a long time!” “No, what I mean Amanda, is that you and Real World Records, well, same thing!”


She looks aghast. “No! Definitely not! I’m part of a team: a really great team.” She’s warm and friendly but clearly uncomfortable and starts to explain, but I want her to say, “I’m absolutely integral to this company and here’s why.” And all she comes up with is “You might call me the Label Manager, I suppose.” It’s difficult to underplay her role, though she manages to do so very well. At the very least Aman- da Jones’ ears and her passion for the music that reaches them remain absolutely key to the success of this extraordinary record label that she helped to create.


Real World Records has remained at the cool cutting edge of musical culture in this country (and beyond) since it first


released Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and inspired a generation of young musicians to get out of bed and buy a sampler. And of course, though it might not advertise itself as such, Real World Records is a multi-faceted musi- cal dating agency born from the myriad cross-cultural encounters of Womad.


In December 1984, Amanda Jones – a recent graduate from the Bristol University English Department – pitched up at the offices of that city’s Venue Magazine for an interview about a job advertised in its pages for something called Womad. She was met by Thomas Brooman (fR413) and Bob Hooton who’d rented a desk in the magazine’s office, beneath a poster they’d stuck up advertising a Thomas Mapfumo


gig at Trinity, St Pauls. The gig, she noted, was that same day. “I thought then,” she says, “that this will be alright!”


“They were also putting together a series of vinyl compilations called Talking Books. These were gatefold albums with booklets of articles and background infor- mation relating to the music. I could write and edit so they took me on to put the magazine together. The first day I turned up for work was to a tiny office at the top of Park Street, over a gentlemen’s outfit- ter, in the attic. I was there with Bob and Thos and Alan James…” (A decade earlier, our Editor’s fledgling Village Thing folk label had set up in a similar space just a few doors down.)


Amanda Jones and Real World artist Iarla Ó Lionáird


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