Big band maestro Jools Holland Mary McCartney

HE'S the former new wave turned Britain's favourite bandleader and the Beeb's biggest music name. As he prepares to play Kenwood this weekend, Jools Holland talks the perfect pie shop, the joys of Eltham and swimming in the Thames.

Hello Jools. Does anyone call you Julian?

Actually, yes. In my last court appearance, haha. No, it’s 50-50. My mates in Squeeze started the Jools thing. It wasn’t a childhood nickname or anything.

Your big band’s playing Kenwood this weekend. How do you decide ‘I’m going to start a big band’?

If you’d said 20 years ago ‘you’ll have a big band’ I’d have said it’s unthinkable, no-one has those any more. It started with me and my [ex Squeeze] mate Gilson on the drums and a bit of a joke where I’d say ‘now welcome on the stage my big band’ and he’d walk out. Then a horn section came along and my brother on the organ and it took on a life of its own. Now I’ve realised I’m going to keep going till I drop dead.

Literally?

I’m not sure about popping it on stage. Maybe heroically saving the world in an act of bravery when I’m 97.

But it’s music till you die?

Oh yes, even if you live to be 1,000, music’s a mystery that keeps unravelling, like a beautiful person’s face.

And there are 20 of you in the band now.

Yes, 30 if you include the crew. You get to the airport and there’s this great big queue and you think, bloody hell, all these people. Then you realise, that’s us!

Are there ever fisticuffs?

Oh no, we all share the same sense of humour. Dave my bass player and I were coming off stage the other day and walking into the bowels of the building where this curry was laid on for us, and in the stairwell were these seats stacked up and two women just sat there. And Dave turns to me and says, ‘I know they said they had restricted view seats but that’s fucking ridiculous.' That’s a rubbish example, but it’s that sort of thing.

Tell me what you sound like.

Er, an eruption of joy and a display of a lot of different musicians. The core is big band with a rock ’ n’ roll rhythm section.

And you’re all ages.

Oh yes, we’ve got people who are 22 and then someone like Rico Rodriquez on trombone, the original Jamaican sound, in his 70s. Actually, we’ve all learnt how to play proper Jamaican dominoes. We’re banging them out in the hotels at night.

You’ve had anyone who’s anyone on Later with Jools Holland. But has anybody slipped through the net?

We haven’t had Bob Dylan on, as far as great legends go - and we haven’t had Rod Stewart. He was supposed to be on the Hootenanny once but he couldn’t. And Aretha Franklin doesn’t travel so she’s unlikely, but she’d be great. Plus lots of dead people - Bessie Smith, T Bone Waller, Handel, Marie Lloyd, the Four Tops. I could go on forever.

What’s hot right now?

I love all these fantastic female singers that have come to the foreground - Adele, Amy Winehouse, Natasha Khan. They are all brilliant and all completely different. They’re touching a nerve and what’s great is they have a sense of the big history of music.

When did you first pick up an instrument?

Well, it was a piano so I couldn’t pick it up but it was when I heard my uncle playing a simple boogie woogie. I heard it and all the chaos of the universe went into order.

There’s a bit of a fad for old bands reforming. No plans to rejoin Squeeze?

No, my memories are very happy. I share Paul Weller’s view on this. We’ve done it, don’t need to do it again. Plus there aren’t enough hours in the day. The older you get the less there are.

You’re a Blackheath lad. Has it changed much?

The little shops have gone, and the pubs, and the corporates have moved in, but the spirit’s the same. Though you can’t move for a sign telling you turn left, or don’t do that, or you shouldn’t be this wide.

Is independent London dead, do you think?

Bethnal Green Road’s good, and Deptford High Street. There are still lots dotted about. Actually Eltham High Street, too. You can park your car and get out and go to the shops. It’s like 1965.

But there aren’t many independent record shops left...

Oh yes that’s very sad, awful. Going online is OK if you know exactly what you want and where to get it but you need to get out down the road and buy your fruit and veg and have a browse. In the old days you’d go in and ask for a jazz record and a man with a black polo neck and a beard and no moustache would come out; or you’d ask for a folk record and a hippy would help you. Someone who really knows their music and loves it. When I was eight I went from Greenwich to Soho and walked through the dodgy streets of prostitutes and drug dealers to this record shop and said to the fella, I’ve got one record voucher and I want some boogie woogie. He gave me a whole pile and I spent all day long playing it and choosing the one I wanted. We’re not going to have that any more.

Of those that are left, what’s your favourite?

I love Ray’s jazz shop which has moved to Foyles. And there’s a great classical place down the end of St Martin’s Lane. There’s a few, but we’ve got to support them.

Not a digital music fan then?

It’s great, very useful but if you want your children and grandchildren to enjoy your records, get vinyl. I’ve got thousands of CDs but we were told when they came out you can spread jam on them and use them as frisbees, but turns out you can’t. I have used records as frisbees and they still play.

What do you make of today’s music TV?

I thought it was very sad when Top of the Pops went. I wish there were more music shows. The more music on telly the better. The Tube did a lot to lower the standards and editorial controls and that opened the floodgates and the rest is history! No, I think people aren’t allowed to push things the way we did any more. They pretend to make it up as they go along but it’s a bit contrived.

Any more telly plans?

I’m talking to the BBC about a show looking at music from different parts of Britain. Actually, you could do it for London - north, east, south, west. It would have to be framed sort of like Alistair Cooke’s America.

And a little quickfire London round - fave London breakfast?

Gambardella’s Cafe in Blackheath, or if I’m in the East End then Pellicci’s. I used to love Frank’s Caff in Greenwich; it did amazing pies, but that’s sadly gone. You can always judge a pie by its caff... I mean a caff by its pies. If it’s a shop pie, forget it. And if I’m being grand it’s The Wolseley.

Perfect London night out?

Nowadays I like a quiet boast in the pub with my friends.

Perfect London lazy Sunday?

I’d probably swim the length of the Thames from Richmond to Tower Bridge, then run up the top of Big Ben to check it’s all working OK and then back for tea.

Jools Holland with his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra, Kenwood House, Saturday, 7.30pm NW3, 0844 412 2706, picnicconcerts.com, £28.50- £39.00