|
 |
Spencer P. Jones.
 Spencer
P. Jones may not exactly be a household name; but to those in
the know, he’s a god. He was a founding member of the Beasts
Of Bourbon, guitar-slinging vocalist for cowpunkers The Johnnys,
and axe-for-hire for practically everyone you can think of,
and his new ‘Fait Accompli’ album and his upcoming appearance
at The Regal Tent during the Fringe offer a chance for everyone
to catch up.
"Everybody seems to think that it’s good," he shrugs after I
offer my opinion of ‘Fait Accompli,’ "and that sort of almost
came as a surprise to me but I am happy about that though. I’m
happy that it’s being so well received but I guess anyone would
be, you know? But as Don Walker [Cold Chisel] once said, ‘It’s
the kiss of death if everybody likes the album because that
means that you probably wouldn’t get the airplay or sales,’"
he laughs. "But that also could mean that it has some longevity
and it seeps into the psyche, you know?"
Although Jones will be touring here with his latest band The Escape Committee, on the album there’s no less than three different sets of players credited. "I started the album with Cow Penalty, which had been my band for quite some time but we had a drummer that couldn’t tour so I got another one," he begins. "Then that replacement drummer kind of didn’t work out when we started to record the album and we ended up with about nine tracks that we were happy with so we just kind of left it at that. I had also been to New York and done some shows over there and Brian [Ritchie, Violent Femmes] played bass and he said that he’d get me drummer - which turned out to be Billy Picca from Television, so that’s how The Beeks came to be. We did about four or five shows and it was great. Then a couple of days before I left town, I thought of another friend who owns a studio so we recorded five tracks in the one day and two of those appear on the album. And then Christmas fourteen months ago, I basically kept Helen [Catternach] from Cow Penalty on bass and put another band together: that became The Escape Committee, and they play on two-thirds of the album. That’s how there’s two or three songs with Cow Penalty, two with The Beeks from New York and the rest with the current line up.
"Meanwhile, we’ve pretty much got another album recorded and in the can: I’ve just got to redo some vocals and have it mixed. I think rather than just start from scratch, if there’s good recordings they should come out - and they will - and then there’s also some new stuff that we haven’t recorded yet, so it’s sort of like I’m catching up with myself."
Then there’s the rumours that the Beasts Of Bourbon have a new album ready for release. "There’s a live album recorded at The Tote in Melbourne," he confirms, "but I’m not sure when that’s coming out, though it should be soon as I think they’re just doing some artwork at the moment. But we’re also looking at doing some new material later on this year, so there could be two albums."
You heard it here first.
Steve Jones
 |
Spencer P Jones and the Escape Committee launch ‘Fait Accompli’ at the Regal on Sat 21 Feb.
|
|
|
The latest issue
available now!
|
