Before the sleeze,
glam rock fest from Crashdiet and Jettblack begun I caught up with Jon Dow from
Jettblack. Here we spoke about their great accomplishments in 2012, Will’s
lastest appearance in War Of The Worlds and who he would most like to have a
pie and a pint with. Here is the transcript for the interview. To listen to this interview on SoundCloud click here.
Charlotte:
Hi there I’m Charlotte Whittingham representing Voice.FM and
Loud-Stuff.com. I am here at The Joiners my favourite venue in Southampton with
Jon Dow from Jettblack. So Jon welcome back to Southampton, 2012 has been a
great year for you! A new album, a successful album launch and a great headline
tour, would you say you are storming onto the music scene?
Jon: I wouldn’t say storming but we have been
trickling onto the scene for the past ten years. It’s definitely building. It’s
been a good little run for us with decent turnouts, it’s nice to see people
turn up, singing the words and wearing our shirts. So it’s getting there.
Charlotte: Any big plans for 2013? You going to be
bigger than last year?
Jon:
Well I hope so; it’s going to be mainly releases including a mini album
with all the songs from the old album that weren’t released before so there
will be a physical release of those. We also have some covers and a bit of new
material. Then we’re playing a few festivals later this year, then we will be
getting on with a new studio album that we will start working on in September.
Charlotte: So tonight is the last of the tour, where
were the best venues to play at?
Jon: London last night was amazing, easily the
best place to play and one of the
best gigs for a long time. Cardiff is always pumping; we had like three days on
our own before playing with Crashdiet. They’ve all been really good so far but
Cardiff is always really good fun so yeah Cardiff.
Charlotte: I turned 21 last month; I was given a
subscription to Kerrang! Magazine and there was a picture of Jettblack in the
first issue I received.
Jon: Really? What recently?
Charlotte: Yeah very recently. My birthday was last
month so it must have been an April issue.
Jon: That’s alright then. What gig was it for?
Charlotte: I think it was at the start of your tour.
Jon: What October?
Charlotte: No April.
Jon: Must have been the Glasgow show. They did a
review about the gig.
Charlotte: I think you maybe right, I should have bought my copy tonight, but if
you could appear on the cover on any magazine what would it be? It doesn’t have
to be a music one.
Jon: Fishing Global, something like that. I’m not
really bothered, any publicity is great for the band. To be honest the
magazines are good to us like Classic Rock, Kerrang! And Metal Hammer they all
feature us so we aren’t doing too bad. I’m not really a big magazine reader.
Times Magazine is always a good one, Forbes magazine.
Charlotte: Remind me, what is Forbes
magazine?
Jon: It’s financial, I think you have to be
seriously rich and successful to be featured.
Charlotte: Ah OK, so doing a random search on the
Google box and you share a name with an interior design company based in
Mexico.
Jon: That isn’t so strange; there are rappers and
porn stars with the same name as us. He’s a good-looking bloke so whenever we
look on Google news for press and it’s usually pictures of him [Jett Black] in
compromising positions.
Charlotte: The suggestions in the Google box came up
with Jett Black interiors.
Jon: Maybe it’s our company and we don’t know it,
we’re also getting into the jewellery trade soon. Jettblack Jewellers.
Charlotte: If this interior design company came to you
to design your house what would you have done? It can be beyond your wildest
dreams.
Jon: I already live in my perfect dream house;
it’s got nothing in it but a white bench and a lot of fruit ‘n’ fibre.
Charlotte: Will recently starred in War Of Worlds tour.
Jon: Yes, it’s a shame he’s not here to talk
about it so I can just slag him off [laughs]. But yeah it was really good, I
didn’t actually go to the tour but I saw the cinema/DVD presentation of it and
yeah it was really good. He did well, he was only on stage for four and a half
minutes but it was his best performance I have seen.
Charlotte: Would you say there was always a musical
theatre bug inside him?
Jon: A lot of people were saying before he did
[War Of The Worlds]. He’s got a
theatrical take and he does have operatic tones in his voice. He’s got a decent
vibrato so that’s always lends itself to theatre work but yeah he was perfect
for the job.
Charlotte: So if you can star in any musical what would
it be?
Jon: I don’t know just the most paid one, not
bothered. Something with Jason Donovan will be a bonus. I’ll tell you what I
would love to star in Chicago as that has some fit birds I wouldn’t mind
knocking about backstage with.
Charlotte: So have you guys considered a Jettblack
musical?
Jon: We’re kind of in tow for the idea, it goes
along the lines of a Death Frequency night which takes inspiration from the
Raining Rock video with the evil lord killing everyone. So we’re going to have
a themed night for that on a university tour. We haven’t organised anything yet
but we’ll see on costs and see what the logistics are.
Charlotte: Just a few icebreaker questions, which
iconic musician would you have a pie and a pint with?
Jon: Freddie Mercury.
Charlotte: Great choice, great choice.
Jon: It will be a bit fruity, after ten pints
you’ll have a good night.
Charlotte: What’s your biggest pet peeve that makes you
livid?
Jon: Genocide, that really makes me cross. But
nothing really bothers me I’m really laidback and easy going.
Charlotte: Which song means the most to you?
Jon: Relight My Fire by Take That, well the Take
That Cover of Lulu’s Relight My Fire it really gets my blood flowing.
Charlotte: Last but not least what can we expect from
tonight’s show? Why should we be excited?
Jon: I’ve recently been on the tanning beds,
that’s always something to get excited about and Tom is not wearing a bandanna,
he’s going to be wearing some sort of top hat so what’s not to like. Matt’s got
thicker eyeliner for the last night as a treat. We have also got a few songs
that we haven’t played before live so we got Black Gold a bit of an epic one
that should be good. Other than that it’s going to be a standard heavy rock
show.
The night kicked off
with local hard rockers Hollywood Trash, influences from Motley Crue and Guns
‘N’ Roses were very clear through the band’s music. With powerful vocal work, rolling
drums and original guitar solos, this young band definitely have the whole rock
package and have the potential to climb high on the musical ladder with their catchy
songs such as Mr Rock ‘N’ Roll and Diamond In Your Eye. Overall a great
performance from Hollywood Trash and a fantastic way to start a fantastic
evening, if you haven’t seen this band already I highly recommend it. The
positive reactions amongst the crowd from beginning to the end of their set
said it all. 
Last but by
certainly no means least High Wycombe rockers Jettblack take to the stage.
Seeing them previously, they usually tend to bring a stadium like atmosphere to
small venues and Sunday night saw just that. Opening with anthem Two Hot Girls went down so well with the
crowds that the mosh pits started early on. I could tell from that moment that
Jettblack were well underway. Last year they released a new album Raining Rock so it was great to hear
some of the new songs played live including my personal favourites Sunshine and Prison Of Love. I should also mention they filmed the live premier
of Black Gold which bought a calmer
tone to the evening. It was also fantastic to hear the classics such as Get Your Hands Dirty and MotherF*****. Closing with Raining Rock and their explosive cover
of Danger Zone marked the end of an
explosive show.
