“For all you guitar geeks out there, expect some surprises…” says Boston rocker ahead of European dates

The last time Mayhem managed to grab a work with Jittery Jack, it was after his Rockabilly Rave debut, five years on we caught up with him once again. He is currently on a European tour and tonight he plays at The Nambucca in London.

“We always enjoy getting back to Europe when we can. An opportunity came up to play with our friends Hillbilly Casino at a festival in Finland, so we figured some dates around it. I am hoping to do a much more complete tour next year, in 2020.”

Back in 2014, Kevin (aka Jittery Jack) was the poster boy for the Rockabilly Rave and I remember the excitement building as the weekender got closer, with lots of people eager to see the wild man in action. The reception he received was fantastic, albums sold well, and he has fond memories of his time at The Rave.

“I was actually born in England and moved to the States when I was a kid, so it’s not all foreign to me. The English crowd are knowledgeable, they really know their music and are a very discerning crowd. At the end of the day they all love a good time and I do too, so I think we’re good company! We are adding new stuff to our set this time too, we are working on a new record, plus I’m pushing Amy to do some more instrumentals, so for all you guitar geeks out there, expect some surprises”.

Jittery Jack has released a few different recordings in his time as an artist. His early stuff with The Raging Teens, a 7 track CD which featured The Hitman and Switch Your Dial, before recording with Wild Records in LA.

‘Gonna Have A Time with…Jittery Jack’ is his latest single release and he has confirmed new recordings and re-releases are coming very soon.

“Yes there is new material coming! Amy and I reunited with our former Raging Teens bandmasters and cut a 45 for Swelltune Records last year. I’ll have copies of those with me on the tour. ‘Gonna Have a Time’ is acutely getting re-released on Rum Bar Records in the USA next month, a really cool label that does a lot of garage stuff. We hope to have a new full length album ready to go by the end of the year with the possibility of an Amy solo record too!”

Before the interview was over I had to ask Kevin about this recordings with English Rockabilly royalty, Darrel Higham. The 12 track Rockabilly killer album was released back in 2016 and I for one, couldn’t stop playing the record when it was first released, especially the bopper ‘Big City Blues’. The Boston rocker explains how the recordings all came about.

“Darrel’s a lovely fella and a great talent. We sort of become friends from playing together, and every time he passed through Boston, we’d connect and go clothes/record shopping. He mentioned that had been thinking about making a record with any other singer and asked if I was interested. Well, I couldn’t say yes fast enough! The record was cut at his studio over a couple of days. We split the songwriting up, and even had a great song written by Pete Pritchard, who plays bass on the album. It was a ton of fun to make, and there has been talk of a follow up, so stay tuned for that”.

Rob hopes the album will open a few new doors for the band as The Broadkasters release their latest recordings

Rob Glazebrook is one of the counties biggest players and the guitarist sat down to discuss his thoughts on the latest going’s on with The Broadkasters with Mayhem’s Scott Barber.

The album entitled ‘Hot Blues and Boogie!’ got its ‘official’ launch at The Railway Hotel in Southend on Sunday 26th May to a packed and appreciative crowd. His latest recordings are certainly impressive and the album sounds as if it was recorded back in the day. Since Mayhem last spoke to Rob there has been a change in line up and the current members all feature on the new record.

“Things are going good with the band at the moment. We have our new line up sorted, the sound sorted and we are trying to find new gigs. It’s difficult at times as we are trying to break into a scene that I have less knowledge of. Booking systems mean it can take years to get a gig, it took 7 years to get Blues on the Farm, so we are hoping the new CD opens a few more doors”.

The new album seems to have gone down extremely well in the early days since released and it’s certainly been played on repeat in Mayhem owner, Scott Barber’s car. The record sounds like it was recorded back in the day, and Rob is extremely happy with the recording set up.

“The new album was recorded at John Hannon’s ‘No Recording Studio’ in Rayleigh. John is so easy to work with and I have done all of recent recordings at his studio. He lets us use our old mics, and gives us full control over our sound. If there is a technical issue he will bring that to our attention. We recorded this album last November”.

The CD is mostly covers of a range of blues numbers from early rarities, fast, slow and an original track too. When asked what his favourite tracks were on the album, Rob had his favourites.

“It’s hard to name personal favourites because I do love them all” confirmed Rob. “We have a couple more coming out soon on a vinyl 45, however back to the album, I think the two slow numbers have a cool atmospheric sound that grabs you, for example ‘Sweet Little Angel’ and my own composition ‘Anna Lee’.

Rob is a well recognised personality on the music scene, both locally and internationally and the singer has aims for the future with the band. He still has two other bands he fronts as well as playing guitar in the Star Lite Trio with Johnny Gunner, but he hopes to continue with all projects.

“We just want to keep playing as much as possible, which is complicated by myself and the others’ commitments, but things are starting to happen for this band slowly but surely”.

“I still front The Playboys, but mostly The Houserockers, which takes up a large portion of available time. However, there is more time becoming available to do the blues stuff. It’s difficult to define what gives you most pleasure, as I feel very much at home with all genres.

However, if push came to shove, I love playing blues and my education in this field has been helped by Little Victor and being able to recently play with him”.

‘Hot Blues & Boogie!’ is now available to purchase from the band.

“I want to think big! What’s the point of being in a band otherwise?” says frontman Danny Dawkins

Last week Scott Barber from Mayhem Rockabilly managed to grab a chat with Danny Dawkins, the frontman from Danny ‘O’ & The Astrotones. The guitarist responded with some interesting answers as they look to take the Rockabilly world by storm in the coming years…

(You can find an exclusive live video shot at Hemsby by Mayhem on Facebook and YouTube of the band)

1) How did The Astrotones form/begin?

The Caezars split in 2017 and I had a big summer off in 2016 between studying to obtain a law degree with the hope of becoming a lawyer. I could feel that The Caezars were coming to a close and had been writing some things by myself for myself for a little while. Still, I hadn’t really found my voice as a songwriter. After studying law, I felt like I became articulate enough to moan about things that I never really wanted to moan about before I guess? Simple frustrations about how bizarre this system we live in is and how contradictory it all is. I won’t get too political but there is definitely an angry young man expressing his displeasure about the way society has decided to organise itself in the 21st century in my lyrics if you want to read into it a little. 

So, in 2016 I demoed my angry young man songs in my glorified back garden shed called Moose Lodge in the hope that one day they might see the light of day. I was so nervous about trying to sing them, though. They felt incredibly personal like they were the sort of thing that only I would want to sing and I wouldn’t want to give them to anyone else. I decided to have a crack at it and thought that I didn’t sound awful so thought about getting some musicians together to see if it could be a project with legs. I knew I wanted my best mate Steve to play bass and had a couple of guitarists in mind but no drummer. I originally thought it would be great to get a guy called Dale in who had played some shows with The Caezars but, he decided to move to Germany with a girl he met at, ironically, a Caezars show in Düsseldorf a few years earlier. I’d even got as far as sending him the demos and then he just left! I still like him, though. Honest…

So, the idea of a band was basically shelved after that until a year later in late 2017 after The Caezars did split I decided get Steve to play bass on the demos just in case we ever bumped into a drummer that we liked and got on with who may be up for joining in with what we had. Then we shelved the idea again for 6 months or so as no one showed up until I saw a clip of The Red Hot Rockets playing online with Curtis Doel on drums. I sent him a message to say I was looking for a drummer depending on what his commitments were and, luckily, it was The Red Hot Rockets last gig. That was around late June 2018 and I messaged Sam French who I knew through Chris Magee and from Sam playing in The Runawayz and The Quantums to see if he wanted to learn what I’d written. He was really up for it and we had our first rehearsal on Sunday July 8th 2018. Unfortunately, my dad went into hospital that evening and then passed away on July 14th 2018 which kind of put a spanner in the works. It did sharpen my focus to some extent and I knew I wanted to keep things going as music keeps me sane (I think…). 

The funeral was on 10th August and we played our first songs together there as it felt like the right thing to do. Basically, I put together a show with the 3 bands I’ve played in, Thee DB3, The Astrotones and The Caezars. Each band played 4 songs and then one of dad’s because I always covered one of his songs in every band I’ve played in. This is because he had a nasty accident when I was 10 leaving him as a quadriplegic and unable to play guitar any more. I wanted to keep his music going and that was one way I could do it, by always making sure I was doing one of his songs when I played live. That and they were usually better than the ones I’d written myself! He came out to see The Caezars loads and was by far our biggest champion and helped us out to no end when we were starting out. Anyways, The Astrotones set at the wake wasn’t a full set, just a few of the songs that we’d got the strongest at which included Machine Gun, which was a track of my dad’s. The Caezars did Heartache Overload and Thee DB3 played an instrumental of dad’s called Kerbcrawlin’.

This mini-set actually sped-up the whole process of the band. A few clips went up of The Astrotones from the wake and they started to garner some interest. If it wasn’t for that, we wouldn’t have even announced the fact we were a band until January 2019! I think that you need to have a goal, purpose or mission as a band. I didn’t want to trundle along playing rock’n’roll clubs for no reason. I had these songs I’d written, found out I could get away with singing them and wanted to do them justice. I wanted to wait until we had a good video, some seriously cool photos and had released at least a single but, preferably an album, before we did any gigs. 

 

2) Obviously you’ve got experience from The Caezars, has that helped you create this band?

 Thanks for spelling the name correctly for a start!

The success in The Caezars definitely taught me a few things about how to promote/manage a band and what steps you should and shouldn’t take. It taught me how to say no to things and gave me an insight into the sort of things you can try to do to make some sort of an impact and gain a following. 

I think I wanted to keep only playing original material and putting on a wild stage show but avoid losing sight of what I personally really enjoyed and made playing in The Caezarsgreat. To me, a big part of that was looking cool on stage and wearing the right clothes and also staying true to what I believe has the best sound or the best way of getting that sound without compromise. Whether that’s by only using a double bass when playing or only recording on tape, I wanted to do something that was 100% my own thing and definitely grounded in the rock’n’roll/rockabilly world. 

People have seriously short attention spans nowadays. If you want people to take you seriously, you have to be born as a finished project. This again was something I learned in the Caezars. The Caezars didn’t start off ropey but we weren’t exactly the tightest band ever and it took ages for our album to actually get pieced together. I feel like we only really got going as a bad after the first 4 years or so, that’s why I wanted the ball to really be rolling with The Astrotones before we even set foot on a stage. Also, the place where you really sell merch is at gigs so, what is the point in playing if you don’t have anything to sell? People will just forget about you if they can’t take home something to remember you by and you’re in a band to build a fanbase, not get people to forget about and ignore you. 

 

3) Introduce the band for us?

Curtis Doel is the drummer. He’s too young for his own good (I’m not giving away ages here) and lives in a tiny place called Alton which is near Guildford in the south of England. 

Curt was in the Red Hot Rockets for a time and has played drums for other artists with his dad’s band, The Doel Brothers. The most notable (from what I can remember) was playing drums for Scotty Baker on the main stage at The Rockabilly Rave which is pretty damn cool for a 5-year old!

Steve Neller is on double bass. He’s married with a kid living in Bognor Regis, which is about as rock’n’roll as it gets! 

Steve has only really been in The Caezars, I can’t think of any other band he’s been in that he would want me sharing with you. There was a dodgy punk band he was in when he was younger that played the local pubs but he doesn’t like me bringing that up!

Sam French is on rhythm guitar and lives way up in Ipswich. It’s a pain in the arse rehearsing with him but, at least it means I don’t question his commitment when he does his 7 hourround trip on a Tuesday evening!

Sam has played with The Runawayz who did really well on the rock’n’roll scene before they split up, as well as The Quantums, who were a rockabilly band fronted by Mr. Bopflix Films, Chris Magee. Thw Quantums played some really cool shows in the UK and Europe, Boppin’ the Blues in London and a mini-tour of Switzerland come to mind. 

I’m (Danny Dawkins) based in Portsmouth and have been for a pretty long time now. So, I guess we’re not really based anywhere as a band as we’re from all over! Still, that was something I was used to in The Caezars as we were all over the place geographically so that didn’t really phase me when putting this line-up together. 

I cut my teeth playing guitar in The Caezars and have also put together a Screaming Lord Sutch Tribute band that played a few shows (and could possibly convinced to do so again) and also played in a surf/punk/garage band down in Portsmouth called Thee DB3 with a couple of guys who used to play in bands with my dad. 

 

4) Which artists have influenced you?

In terms of our sound, I’m still trying to nail that catchy sound-bite that really just rolls of the tongue. My main influences would probably be Chuck Berry, Jack White and Link Wray. I guess that makes it a combination of blues, rock’n’roll and garage rock in equal measure. I think I’d say we’re dragging what’s best of the past but been lost in the midst time and bringing it kicking and screaming into the future. We play our own brand of in-your-face, guitar-driven rock’n’roll with more than just 3 chords. It’s a description that needs work but, I want it to sound something like loud Link Wray riffs played over a pounding rock’n’roll backbeat delivered with electricity of an amphetamine filled Dr. Feelgood show.

I wouldn’t say my music choice is particularly diverse, though. I just love loud guitars and that’s what does it for me. I sorta say I like ‘weirdo music’ and usually gravitate to things that are left field. Whether that’s The Sonics, Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Tom Waits, The White Stripes, Big Bill Broonzy, La Luz, The Hives, Pixies, Sonic Youth, The Cramps, Screaming Lord Sutch, The Strokes, Paul Revere & The Raiders, Yak, Ty Segall, Andre Williams, Oh Sees, Fat White Family, Howlin’ Wolf, Daddy Long Legs, X-Ray Spex or all of the weird rock’n’roll singles that form the bulk of my record collection. Those singles compiled on the Desperate rock’n’roll series, the Greasy rock’n’roll series and That British Sound series. I love British rock’n’roll between 58 and 63, recorded before The Beatles got massive and slightly after that. All of that probably comes through in my music. I want people who are musicians to be surprised by the chord changes and structure of my songs but I also want people who aren’t musicians to enjoy the chorus’s and the melodies of them. I want more than 3 chords but still simple enough for people to gravitate towards. I think it’s a fine balance and only time will tell if people like it or not! 

 

5) How has the album/singles gone down with the crowds?

I think the singles have sold really well. I know Felix is almost out of his copies of Everyday Chains and has had even more orders from dealers for Paint The Town. We’ve sold a lot online and they’re selling consistently well at gigs. I think both singles will probably sell out in the next couple of months or so as we’re getting low on both now. I’d say we’ve probably got under 100 left of each single ourselves so we’ll be out soon and the only ones left will be those already sold to dealers. I’m still not sure if we will repress them or not. Part of me does like the limited edition aspect of the vinyl but, if there’s enough demand then it’s going to be hard to not to. We’re not quite at that stage yet, though. 

The album. ‘Introducing… Danny “O” & The Astrotones” will be released on all formats on Witchraft International on June 7th 2019 and can be ordered at http://www.planetastrotone.com

The live shows are going really well too and that’s people’s only real experience of the album at the moment. We’ve had some really positive feedback, though. Geoff Barker from BBC Radio said that we were one of the most impressive live bands he had seen in a very very long time so we must be doing something right! 

 

6) Did you enjoy Hemsby? What was the reception like?

Hemsby was great! I think Bill, Jimmy and George Guntripdid a fantastic job. They’ve stripped back the weekend to a really simple mix of what makes weekenders great. Great Bands, Great DJs and a focus on entertainment not outstaying it’s welcome. Everything went to time, the DJ sets were fantastic and everyone was drinking and dancing until the early hours. The atmosphere was great and I enjoyed is way more than I thought I would so hats off to the Guntrips!!! I’d like to take this particular opportunity to thank Bill for having the confidence to book us and put us on at 20:00 which is an amazing slot to get when you’ve only been a band for 5 minutes! I think we went down really well and I’m pretty sure there’s a really great video of 3 of our tracks put up by a blog called Mayhem Rockabilly you can find in depths of the internet somewhere! 

 

7) Obviously you have dates for the rest of the year, I bet the phone has been constant with promoters wanting you?

Yeah, we’ve been having to turn down gigs for 2019 since March this year because the calendar was so full! However, I’ve had to put in a lot of hard work to get to that position. For some shows, we were approached by promoters for all the festival gigs but I’ve managed to secure a fair few shows myself because of the Delta Bombers tour. The plan was to get shows booked in all the cities that we’re playing with the Delta Bombers to try and capitalise as best we can on the support slot. We have shows booked in for most cities so that we can promote those gigs at the shows we play with the Delta Bombers, in the hope that we impress people enough that they will want to come and see us again. All of those shows I had to book myself, using contacts I’d built up with The Caezars. A couple of the cooler shows I’ve arranged myself include at the Mondo Water Rats in London with Big Joe Louis doing his one man show supporting us and Little Carl and Mouse DJing on Saturday September 21st (which is also the night after my birthday so it should be a big one!) and a gig we’re doing in Sheffield at the Shakesepare with Howlin’ Ric & the Rockateers supporting us, who are the UK’s answer to JD McPherson and that one is on November 16th. 

It’s amazing that we’ve been received so well this far and I’m looking to really cracking onwards and upwards in 2020, starting at the fantastic Rockin’ Race Jamboree festival in Spain that we have been booked for in Feb 2020. 

 

8. What are your ambitions/realistic aims with the guys?

I want to think big! What’s the point of being in a band otherwise? I think certain dreams are to play VLV, The Rockabilly Rave, High Rockabilly and to play a show or two in Japan. I would absolutely love to somehow end up getting airplay on BBC 6 music as I feel that would really be a huge achievement for a band playing music like ours. I just want to keep working hard, promoting the hell out of what we do and play really really cool shows. I’d love to be able to sell-out small venues in the UK and Europe on weeknights as I think that’s the sign of a proper band, if people are parting with their hard earned cash to come and see you on a Wednesday and then turning up at working feeling hungover because they’ve come to see my band play, that’s quite a big deal for me as I only do it for bands I really love! I think we’d look at putting out album 2 in 2021 perhaps, maybe earlier, not sure. All the songs are written, I just need to get them demoed well enough for the guys to learn. Onwards and upwards over the next few years I hope, building a fan base that digs what we do and allows me to perform in front of people who enjoy our music. Live performance is everything to me and if I ever get to the stage where I see hundreds of people in a crowd singing along to the songs that I’ve written at a big sell-out gig or festival show, then I’d die a happy man.