Making it BIG

Article Published:
Bullet Magazine
November 2004

Jamie Cullum, for some one so small, he has made himself so big. The 24 year old ex- English literature student went double platinum in early 2004, having sold 1million copies of his album, Twenty- Something in Europe alone. Jamie Cullum is now the biggest selling Jazz artist of all time and the fasting selling Jazz artist in the history of British Jazz records. It has recently been announced that Jamie has been nominated also for the a Mobo award’s in the Best Jazz Act category. With songs about ‘freaking out in your twenties’ and covering songs by the guitar legend ‘Jimi Hendrix’ and post rock band Radiohead, on his ‘Pointless Nostalgia’ album, is it any wonder that Cullum has such a wide student and elder generation following?

Just over a year ago, he was paying out of his student loan to record his first two albums. Signing a deal at the age of 23 with record company ‘Universal’, Cullum has been seen as a very wise choice to invest £1 Million to make albums for the next several years. However much £1 Million may seem to give to a single artist, it is only a small fraction of what pop stars are given today. Admittedly I was sceptical about Jamie’s music, and was wondering whether this was just another ‘Norah Jones’. I went to see Jamie Cullum last December at the Sheffield Leadmill, when on of his Twenty Something tour.

Laid back, relaxed and content seemed Jamie when we settled down near the bar. I ask him firstly how the tour is going; in reply he comes out with many amusing stories. I ask him about New York and about a naked cow boy he had mentioned in his journal. ‘Well apparently this is a normal thing for New Yorkers. There’s this guy who stands in Time Square with his guitar in a pair of pants, and plays songs. He makes about $120,000 a year. He was very village people! With lots of muscle, good looking with lots of hair! With an almighty package’ I gasp at this then into a fit of giggles and he jests ‘I thought you might like that’ The rest of the tour in New York consisted of mainly getting completely wrecked and leaving wreckage (typical student).
‘It was great fun, having to play every night but then we were partying every night. Pretty hard on the old brain’

Partying is Jamie’s life! He parties on stage, and when he parties it is the audience’s duty to party with him. Jamie is a natural showman, with an infectious energy on stage that is filtrated through out the audience leaving them with a warm glow. He uses his instruments like toys and plays with the crowd like new found friends and his personal choir. However that night he had no doubt the audience would come alive. ‘I hear the people of Sheffield like a good party! Should be fun tonight’ I questioned him also on whether he would ever introduce dancers, like the Coco cabaña girls to add a bit of class to his act, if not a bit of humour. At first he shakes his head, then looks up and grins. ‘Yes, actually, that would be good wouldn’t it! I’ll give thought to that one. To be confirmed!’ Good chap.

On writing and putting together Twenty-Something, Jamie describes it as ‘a very natural process’ His main influences were mainly from bands such as the Who, from which he remembers vaguely from his childhood. ‘My brother had it and I loved the cover of it with them pissing down that column’
When he was about 11-12, the two bands he loved were The Housemartins and The Wedding Present’, ‘Their music left me with hairs standing on their ends on my neck’
‘I love all kinds of music, RnB, rock anything that moves me.’ Pharrell Williams is another artist who Jamie has covered music. Last year, when on BBC Radio One, Jo Whiley show Jamie covered N.E.R.D’s ‘Frontin’. Later on N.E.R.D were also on Jo Whiley’s show and she played Jamie’s version of ‘Frontin’. They thought it was fantastic and Jamie and N.E.R.D hooked up and dueted at the Brits. He has also fulfilled his ambition to play at Ronnie Scotts in Soho, recorded a years worth of video for the South Bank Show. He has also written for the West End adaptation of when Harry Met Sally. He performed in honour of the late Jeff Buckely by singing ‘Lover You Should Have Come Over’ which received huge gratitude from his widowed wife.

Above all his brother Ben is a huge influence to Jamie. Ben Cullum introduced Jamie to the world of music and ever since Jamie has grown up in admiration of his brother and his musical talent. ‘Ben is my biggest influence, most definitely.’ Answers Jamie when I ask him who his main influence is. Ben wrote a few songs on Twenty Something including ‘These are the days’.

Having seen Jamie play in a small venue to a few hundred people, then seeing him playing the main stage at the V Festival and at the Glastonbury Festival, there is no doubt that the boy is a born entertainer. Whilst at V Festival he announced how courageous he thought V Festival was for putting a Jazz act on the main stage and how immensely thankful he was. It wasn’t the first time Jamie played to a large crowd, as soon as he signed his contract with Universal he went to play for the Queen on her birthday. However big the crowds are or big the gig I wondered if he would ever go back to playing in small coffee shops like when he first started out.
‘Y’know you always go back and do that kind of thing of you’re a musician who loves playing, you’ll play anywhere. It’s certainly something I’ll continue to do, play in small venues as much as big ones as much as I can’

If you are expecting a typical Jazz album from Jamie then in some ways you won’t be disappointed. Modern jazz, some call it mellow and laid back, but with lyrics such as
‘Don’t make me live for my Friday nights, drinking 8 pints and getting in fights’ from the song Twenty Something? I made sure I sat down and really listened to the album, especially after Jamie told me where he gets inspiration.
‘I get inspiration form anything, great music a great gig a brilliant night out, getting drunk.’ So maybe that explains the lyrics? Also the song shows a relation to modern times, drinking too much beer, confusing love with lust and being broke!

It must be over whelming for a young man, aged only 24. In a year he has broken musical records, not to mention boundries. He sold more copies in 2003 than Kylie, Radiohead, Strokes, Pink, The Coral and Enrique Inglesias and has been described as a musical phenomenon. But really has fame changed him? ‘The stuff you thought was important was in fact a load of bollocks’ After the ‘crazy’ and ‘insane’ year Jamie still claims to be the same little guy from Wiltshire who misses his mum, how sweet.

Is This Band, Britains Best Kept Secret?

David Line, lead singer with indie band ‘Seafood’ remembers little of the sell out gig. Into their second live set Line suddenly collapsed on stage unable to breath. He was rushed to hospital where medics diagnosed a collapsed lung.

One year later Seafood are back on tour and still rock, better than they ever have before. They have come through a rough patch with more edge, drive and passion. With a band member leaving and Line’s lung deciding to deflate itself therefore having to cancel their tour and of top of all that, being dropped from their record label. That would be enough to crush any band, but not this one.

Sitting in the back room of the Birmingham Carling Academy, are a band desperate to be heard over the corporate, dull manufactured bullshit that dominates the music scene today. After all as Dylan said ‘when you aint got nothing, you’ve got nothing to loose’

At this stage the tour is going well so far, but they are still worried about the fact its all going too smoothly. If there was a time for modesty and arrogance to be mixed together it is now. They feel the need for arrogance as it’s the way you get heard, they are brilliant and survivors. They sure know it, yet they seemed grateful and surprised for any support they get.

Seafood are a difficult band to interview, and I’m trying to figure out why. I don’t know whether if they are just bored and uneasy with talking to the press, or if it’s just that they want to go and order pizza.

On the other hand, I find that they think the interview will be a waste of time. They have been Seafood for nearly ten years, and still haven’t hit it big. They seemed very frustrated, especially as they see manufactured ‘rock’ bands such as Busted and McFly becoming very successful. To Seafood it doesn’t seem to make sense.

‘The music scene makes no sense today. I mean we have been doing this for nearly ten years and it feels as though we are just being kicked under the carpet.’ Says Kevin, who for the past thirty minutes of the interview has remained quiet. It makes me wonder why they keep going, and persisting with the music business, as Kevin said

‘We need to be heard’ I ask why ‘Because we are brilliant’

Kevin says that so matter- of –fact, that I believe it. I am a fan of their music and I do agree with him, they are brilliant.

Seafood are from the outskirts of Surrey and lead singer David is from Lincolnshire. The band got together when they answered an ad for a flat in a magazine called ‘Loot’. Caroline and Kevin were looking for somewhere to live whilst David and Charles were looking for a drummer and a bass player, Kevin and Caroline fitted the bill.

‘We gave them an audition and it just all fitted into place. However we are quite contradictory as we argue a lot’ commented David

Seafood’s self defined music is enough to make fans ‘spaz-out’ on stage, brings tears to your eyes and makes you wonder why they are still not dubbed Britain’s best rock band.

However now in Britain it is becoming continuously difficult to become a successful band. Plugging your self for years can be at times disheartening, however Seafood have kept going, feeding on their passion for the band and love for the music. There is something admiring about the way they keep hanging on, they haven’t necessarily gone anywhere, or achieved anything ground breaking. Against all odds, they are just about keeping their heads above the water.

So that is where it all started, for two years they gigged on the indie music circuit. But what now, eight years on and being made label-less because of Mushroom Records being taken over by Warner Brothers it seems far from a success story, but more like a story about survival. There is something about them though and I can’t quite put my finger on it. But it’s endearing and it’s what’s missing from most of the music scene today.

So are Seafood really Britain’s Best Kept Secret, or are they just that band that will float around the music scene forever?

Blocked writing

I haven't been on here for a while. I've been hiding in a hole somewhere waiting for my life to start. Which it hasn't so it's back to the ole online publishing. Oh I love it, seriously. I've been thinking about writing a book and started the writing process tonight. However I have been getting stupidly frustrated with myself. Mainly because I have not got a single good idea in my head. Well that's a lie, I've got many good ideas but not all of them people would be entertained by.

This weekend my Grandad got remarried after thirty odd years at mastering the art of being a bachelor. He did good and has married his sweetheart of seven years. I love and hate weddings. I've been to a few recently and have started to loath a few things about them. Actually it's mainly one thing, and that's people. (I'm only 21, but am considerably grumpy for my years so you must excuse me. )

People confuse me, as does politics. Family also tends to confuse me ( well my one does) so all these thrown together makes it hard work for me to understand anything. A bit of family politics, its great. It's even better when it's all of them in one room with a nice big load of silence between us. I always think it would make a good book, but then there is probably loads out there already. I think they refer to it as chick lit!