Jarod Smith asks
some interesting questions about Jeff's history.
Q.
What got you into music, and if you had not gotten into
music what would you be doing today?
A. My mother was a trained
dancer and played the violin as a child as well as being
steeped in the classics. She passed on her love of music
to me at a very early age. She would often sing around the
house and her and my dad often took my brother and I to
the local park where there would be brass bands playing
every weekend. I was fascinated and had to be literally
dragged away from in front of the bandstand. The sound of
live music being played at such an early age cast a magic
spell on me and started me on the biggest adventure of my
life which thankfully continues today.
Q. What do you like to
do when you are not playing music and how does that influence
your creativity?
A. Continue playing music
as it’s not just a job it’s a lifetime love affair!
I do also enjoy swimming, walking, art, occasional theatre
and foreign movies, good food and wine and generally freedom
to roam, think, especially in steam rooms and the sauna
but ultimately music is my default position for which I’m
eternally thankful.
Q. How long have you been
making music?
A. Since I popped out of
my mother’s womb.
Q. Where are you based
and how did that influence your music?
A. These days I’m
back where I started from, Leeds, in Yorkshire, England
after spells of living in London and then LA. Brass bands
playing in the local parks when I was a toddler enthralled
me then and still do. Hard to say how much that early influence
climbed into bed with all the other temptations, especially
rock’n’roll, blues and soul, etc. but it is in
there and surfaces sometimes unexpectantly.
Q. Tell me about your most
memorable shows?
A. Quite a few, the first
chronologically would be with the Outer
Limits at the Cavern, Liverpool, in ’65.
The second, the Royal Albert Hall, London in 1967 again
with the Outer Limits, on
tour with Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and other big name bands.
The third was the Dag Hammarskjold Stadium Zambia
in ’71 with my band Christie where we had to abandon
the concert because of rain and unsafe conditions
and danger of electrocution as the uncovered stage area
was open to the elements. People began to riot even though
our manager tried to explain the situation and promised
we would return and do another show. We eventually made
it back to the Intercontinental Hotel in Lusaka where we
were staying and started to get death threats almost immediately
after returning there. We had been forced to crash through
the stadium perimeter gates whilst the crowds, who were
mainly from the surrounding townships threw bottles and
other missiles at the coach we were travelling in.
The fourth was at the
International Stadium in Bogota, Columbia in
‘72 where we (Christie) outdrew Santana who had played
there not long before. The arena was sold out and people
without tickets were actually hanging from the rafters in
order to see the show even though security kept trying to
get them down but they just kept climbing back up again.
We also had a couple of nurses at the side of the stage
with giant oxygen cylinders and after every few numbers
we had to take hits of O2 because of the high altitude.
Fifth would be during the Running of the Bulls festival
in Pamplona, Spain where the bulls run amok through the
streets full of people.
Sixth, again late ‘71 would be performing in
Umtali, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) at a huge outdoor drive-in.
Hundreds of cars parked in the darkness inside the perimeter
of the parking lot would honk their horns and flash their
headlights after every number.
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Finally I think playing the Olympic
Stadium in Moscow in 2001 was a landmark gig
as people were coming up to me afterwards saying that they
had waited 30 odd years to see us after seeing our show
from Sopot in Poland on their TV’s which was beamed
live via satellite across the USSR in 1970.
Q. What is your favorite
venue to play at, and do you have any places you want to
play that you have not already?
A. There were many shows
that were memorable for different reasons, a few already
mentioned but none that I would call favourite. A moon gig
could be a contender!
Q. If you could play any
show with any line-up, who would be on the ticket?
A. If you mean to be on
the same bill as other artists I’d say I’ve already
done that with some of the all time greats. If you mean
to be on the same stage together then the list is endless
but I would love to have been on stage with Roy Orbison,
Larry Williams or The Band.
Q. What is some advice
that you would give to someone who is just getting into
making music and some advice that you would give to your
younger self?
A. Follow your dream and
your heart but don’t forget your head. Do it for the
love of it, not for the fame or wealth of it and never forget
where you came from if you ever make it to the top of that
slippery slope. Learn to eat rejection for breakfast and
stay hungry!
Q. Of your songs which
one means the most to you and why?
A. Obviously, I’d
have to say Yellow River as
it’s become a classic, and over the years covered by
many famous artists and still featured in movies and TV
across the world many decades since its birth.
Q. What is your creative
process, and what inspires you to write your music?
A. If I knew that I’d
bottle it and sell it. As for inspiration to write... ‘"As
I walk this land of broken dreams.’’
Q. Do you have messages
that you like to get across in your music? if so please
tell me about them.
A. Not necessarily, although
sometimes I can get a bit preachy with just observing the
absurdities of human behaviour, including my own.
Q. Do you have any new
singles, videos, or albums out that you would like to tell
me and your fans about?
A. I have an album out
at the moment called HERE
AND NOW on the MTS label which has been getting
great revues and the current single Ordinary People has
also hit the iTunes rock chart recently.
Q. What are your plans
for the future, and do you have anything that you want to
spotlight that is coming up?
A. To keep on writing and
recording songs when I’m not writing and recording
songs.
